I'm all for hating on authoritarians but this is nonsense. If anything, authoritarianism allowed China to build facilities and implement ridiculous quarantine measures in record time.
if (as the article points out) the regime would have listened to its own physicians, who already identified isolated cases as far back as december, the Mao era crackdown would not have been necessary because the disease could have likely been contained from the beginning.
It's precisely the authoritarian blindness and dysfunction that the article talks about that necessitates its own brutality. So no, the draconian measures that the system is able to enact are not a sign of success, they're the opposite.
It's an absolutely perverse idea. It's as if someone would point at Xinjiang concentration camps and take it as a sign for how great Chinese construction companies work.
It really depends how much you care about your parents/grandparents. If the projections out of Harvard today are correct and 40-70% of the world population ultimately contracts the virus, and if the mortality rates of those over 60 are correct - then there's a very real chance that many of the people on this thread will be attending the funerals of family members within the next 18-24 months.
The internet is full of people in the younger demographic, so it's not surprising they are not overly concerned.
I think the main argument was that the virus had spread very far because people were afraid to speak up and were being silenced rather than the (late) (efficient) response.
You're arguing that China's response to Covid19 has been effective? I don't think so.
"Ridiculous quarantine measures" may look like impressive action, but it's been ineffective at stopping the spread of the virus. It's also been massively inefficient, causing a huge economic impact.
Honest question: what would the correct response have been? What would it look like had this originated in the U.S., for instance, and what steps would have been taken.
I keep wondering about the mass quarantines, their effectiveness, whether they’re more show than efficacy, etc.
