The Chinese model of COVID containment cannot be implemented in the US, I'm afraid

[NickB79]

As I've been watching post after post on my Facebook feed scroll by spouting conspiracy theories, anti-government sentiment and even our own President stating pandemic fears are all a "Democrat hoax", it struck me that we can't really look to the actions that the Chinese government took to gain a semblance of control over this outbreak in their cities as a blueprint for our own.

The actions they took, which appear to have at least slowed the spread of the virus, used widespread quarantines on some of the largest cities on the planet, backed by threats of arrest for anyone caught violating such measures. Tens of millions prevented from working for weeks on end, stores shuttered, roads empty. It was draconian, but it helped.

Now imagine such an attempt made on the US populace. How many people would follow such orders? How would such orders be enforced? It would require an act of martial law, complete with armed military personnel in Humvees on the streets, to make it happen. We have no paid sick time laws, and few Americans can afford to lose weeks of pay. We have 400 million guns in this country owned by an increasingly paranoid gun nut fringe; how many would be tempted to start taking potshots at police or military?

Even our own President, so beholden to a strong economy to buoy his hope of a second term, seems willing to sacrifice American lives to not harm the stock market and economy. Entire US cities on quarantine and millions of US workers stuck at home would crater consumer demand and company profits. I have a hard time seeing Trump make the hard call and risk his future like that.

[RockRaven]

1. The Chinese model also didn't contain COVID anyway, so it's not a big difference in the end...

Everyone is going to be exposed. That sucks. But that is what we are facing.

We need to deal with that reality, which means planning and preparing to do so. Not deny it like Trump, or wish it was not so.

[NickB79]

5. I guess by contain, I meant to say slowed it down

You want to spread the infections out over time instead of seeing a massive, overwhelming spike.

[Strelnikov_]

8. Agree. Provide time to develop the infrastructure to deal with the outbreak. n/t

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. Very true. And trump pointing to China and their declining

Virus #s is absurd. They may be controlling the virus but it took like you said - Draconian moves that would never fly in US.

[abqtommy]

3. Really? tRUMP is still here tweeting, ranting and destroying every aspect of our society. If

that's not Draconian I don't know what is...

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Of course. I was referring to the control Chinese leaders

have over their society to unilaterally impose orders to companies and the masses.

[abqtommy]

12. I understand what the op topic is. Do you understand that a word such as Draconian

may apply in more than one instance? That behaviors of national leaders may have similarity? That was my point.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. Yes. I guess I see your point?

[abqtommy]

14. HT2U

I could have been clearer in my original response. tRUMP's statements about his stance compared to the Chinese were the usual lies and deflections. tRUMP would love to be able to openly exercise the same
Draconian grip on our society that the Chinese employ. tRUMP knows that his open adoption of that tactic would be a disaster for him so he keeps on chipping away a little at a time with the same disastrous results for the rest of us.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. Exactly. But I don't even think we know what the magnitude

Is of all those "chips around the edges" added together. His MO of distraction works. If I was advising a campaign, I would dig into those chips and bring them up. Trump's biggest worry is that someone will aggregate his shit.

Said this a million times - there's a gold mine of malfeasance in the regs he's removed. Like his overturning the Obama reg that stopped coal companies from dumping sludge that contains proven cancer causing materials into our waters. And even lowinfos care about clean water.

[abqtommy]

17. +100 Spot on!

[greyl]

4. Church money would dry up too much, so GOP is hopelessly positioned against reasonable measures. nt

[roamer65]

6. At least the churches will get closed by quarantine measures.

I hope they all go bankrupt.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. Americans don't like being told what to do or have our freedoms restrained....

and that could kill a lot of people. We are a highly mobile society with high rates of exposure to crowds. Our small communities have been largely destroyed and now most everything is super-sized: hospitals, corporations, schools and consumer stores for food and home goods.

Many questions arise such as:
What are working parents with infected kids going to do?
How are debt-strapped workers going to survive when a family member contracts the disease or just has to be quarantined?
Will homes, stores and businesses have to be disinfected after exposure?

One thing we will never see reported from China: How many people died just as a result of being quarantined (starvation or lack of normal medical care, etc.)?

KY.

[braddy]

9. Here is a video of an ideal China traffic check point situation in regard to their outbreak.

&feature=emb_logo

[LisaL]

11. And who is going to feed all these people if they are stuck in home?

You still need food delivered, etc. Who is going to pay for it?

[NutmegYankee]

16. Who wants a Chinese style of containment?

I sure as hell wouldn't trust the Trumpzis to manage anything remotely like that. If we let him do that I think we'd find a repeat of the holocaust. They are evil.