he seems to advocate individual hygiene and avoiding the public when sick, which also btw seems to be the response that countries like Japan, Taiwan and Singapore have taken, where complete lockdowns or closures have largely been avoided. Together with tracing they seem to have handled the situation just fine.
This is key — these countries were able to avoid lockdown by testing and tracing early, before the case load became unmanageable. In the US, we’ve missed that opportunity
But US still needs to develop that capacity as quickly as it can, because once quarantine brings the virus under approximate control, testing and contact-tracing are what can eliminate it.
South Korea, with one-sixth the population of the US, peaked at 10,000 cases. We haven't passed that per capita case load - and even if we do, lower population density should make it easier to get the virus under control in the US (except in NYC).
On Friday, March 20, The Atlantic said over 100,000 people in the US have been tested.[1] More recently, Mike Pence said 250,000 people have been tested.
We're a few days away from Korea's testing capability, if we haven't already matched it.
I think southeast Asia in general handles pandemics better. The people know how to respond and do so more quickly than Americans. Wearing masks, not going on spring break, etc.
Those are old numbers. Roche alone is sending out 400k test kits per week (over 1000 per million people).[1]
According to [2], more than 290,000 Americans have been tested for the coronavirus (close to 1000 per million people) and in Washington and New York, over 3000 people per million have been tested.
What is South Korea's testing capability (tests per week)? They've had several weeks to get a lead in absolute number of tests performed, but if they've only done 6000 per million people in all that time, we've probably matched them in testing capability.
Taiwan is doing more than public service announcements. Singapore too. Japan closed all schools in Feb. Tracing won’t work without first getting the number manageable.
