It IS happening in Italy, and it definitely happened in China. The difference is that Japan, South Korea and Singapore have much more powerful nationwide governments. This allowed them to put infection controls in place much earlier than we have in the USA. It remains to be seen where we top out, numbers-wise, vs. hospital capacity.
Here in Washington Governor Inslee declared a State of Emergency, which gives him the power to, among other things, mobilize the National Guard and State militias to establish field hospitals. This is essentially the same reaction China had with regard to building temporary hospitals, but at the state level instead of the federal level. We don't need federal powers, just competent state leadership.
My Bellevue daycare told me today that they probably won’t close unless a worker, kid, or family member gets the virus or...the state shuts them down. Fun times.
I’m ok with their precautions. Not only are they keeping things super clean, but they are giving my kid more hygiene education and training then I could possibly do on my own. For example, washing hands at home is a bit of a struggle because the sink is so high, it is much easier to drill in the habit at daycare, not to mention the peer pressure they apply by making a game out of it for all the kids at once. Child psychology is working for us in this case as long as it remains safe.
The Japanese response has actually been pretty lackluster and haphazard. I'm rather surprised rates there have not been exploding the way they did in Korea, Iran and Italy.
A colleague and myself were pondering this today. He mentioned the 'bow', and general cultural aversion to physical contact. I found that interesting and plausible to consider.
The Japanese response was not so bad when viewed in hindsight.
In comparison, Korea's response was disastrously wrong. Their "Let's test everyone" policy sent lots of people into medical limbo ("We can’t let you go because you're COVID-19 positive ... but meanwhile we have particularly nothing to do for you because you're not that ill") and got their hospitals flooded with mild cases.
Singapore did a top job containing it but it's a small country, one airport..., countries like the US or Italy on the other hand will have a different outcome.
