Quote (Black XistenZ @ Jan 23 2021 01:55pm)
One aspect we should keep in mind when comparing China with other countries' approach to dealing with covid is that China is HUUUUUUUGE country and only had to impose their ultra-strict lockdown in one province accounting for less than 7% of China's population or GDP. The rest of the country provided them additional cops and troops to maintain the strict curfew, it provided food and pharmaceutical equipment, they sent additional nurses and doctors and so on. Had the virus already spread significantly throughout the entire country, the "Wuhan-style" approach would not have been feasible, not even in an authoritarian police state like China.
By the time most Western countries realized that the virus was inside their own borders and getting out of control, it was already too late to pull off this kind of eradication strategy because it had already spread throughout half the country. This whole talk about "we should have handled it like China" or "even now, it would be the best approach to emulate China" is nonsense.
This shows the strength of authoritarians. They can move swiftly without worrying about public backlash.
The down side is they can also do genocides with similar efficiency