New Zealand is an island that could ban overseas flights and stop the virus before it ever entered. Taiwan was able to do the same, same as South Korea. These are small countries that were able to shutdown foreign travel quickly.
As for Sweden, they should have stuck with what they were doing. The fact that their government panicked doesn't mean it was a bad strategy.
New Zealand did it with many actions, and could totally eliminate flights.
Sweden's prime minister admits the country got its coronavirus strategy wrong
Sweden's prime minister has admitted that the country misjudged its response to the second coronavirus surge, as intensive-care units in the capital Stockholm become overwhelmed with patients.
Sweden recorded 8,088 deaths from all causes last month, the country's statistics agency announced on Monday. That was the country's second-highest number of monthly deaths on record, surpassed only by the country's worst month of the 1918 influenza pandemic......
"It is proof that it is a virus that we did not know about before and that behaves in a way many would not have thought."
Lofven acknowledged the government had made mistakes.
As to Taiwan, it may be an island but has a lot of people on it. They controlled the border, but still had to have outside flights
How Taiwan’s COVID response became the world’s envy
What did this island of 23 million people do right? It has had 553 confirmed cases, with only seven deaths. Experts say closing borders early and tightly regulating travel have gone a long way toward fighting the virus. Other factors include rigorous contact tracing, technology-enforced quarantine and widespread mask wearing. Further, Taiwan’s deadly experience with SARS has scared people into compliance.....
“Taiwan is the only major country that has so far been able to keep community transmission of Covid eliminated,” said Peter Collignon, an infectious disease physician and professor at the Australian National University Medical School. Taiwan “probably had the best result around the world,” he said, and it’s “even more impressive” for an economy with a population about the same size as Australia’s, with many people living close to one another in apartments....
“Taiwan’s continual success is due to strict enforcement of border control,” says
Jason Wang, director of Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention. That includes symptom-based surveillance before travelers board flights and digital fence tracking via cellular signals to ensure their compliance with a 14-day quarantine, he said.
"symptom-based surveillance before travelers board flights and digital fence tracking via cellular signals to ensure their compliance with a 14-day quarantine," - that was key, along with masks and other mitgation.
The US could have done more.
The US is getting tonthe point where the CDC is estimating as many as half of us have had the virus. They have long said 8-10x the number of people who have tested positive have actually had it. We're at 18 million positive cases, meaning 144-180 million Americans have had it. (Antibody tests are closer to 15% but those are notoriously bad tests and antibodies are unlikely to be the only evidence that someone has had the virus). All if this mitigation and were at neary half, in large measure because the majority of us are asymptomatic or have such mild symptoms we didn't bother getting tested. I had it and the only reason I got tested was because my employer wanted everyone to because someone was positive at the office. Otherwise, I and my family would have been one of the legion who had it but was so mild a case it wasn't worth the production to get tested.
This virus is not a serious one for those under 60. 90% of deaths are people over 60, 50% are over 80. Nearly everyone who dies has 2 or more comorbidities. It's more dangerous to live at a nursing home, where nearly half of deaths originate than it is to be anywhere else in society. People should be free to live their lives, grandma is an adult snd more than capable of making her own decisions about how to protect herself.
hmm....I disagree.
