Is total lockdown the most effective way to stop COVID19?
I'm sure most economists will argue the cure was worse than the disease!
But in hindsight i'm sure there will be much debate about what was the best approach and how much damage was done by Western Governments not able to think outside the square.
One also has to question the wisdom of Global Health bodies such as the WHO when they are advising people not to use face masks to prevent the spread of COVID19, when in fact many Asian countries are proving the effectiveness of using facemarks to minimise infection rates.
Well South Korea and Taiwan and Japan and Sweden have taken a different approach that appears to be working without locking down their Countries and destroying their economies.
This is South Korea's approach.
"A nation of 51 million, South Korea has tested about 250,000 people since its outbreak began on Jan. 20, with a daily capacity of 15,000. It has conducted 3,600 tests per million people compared to five per million in the U.S.
South Korea's aggressive testing may make it unnecessary to impose the sort of lockdowns to which China and Italy have resorted, although health officials insist that all options remain on the table in dealing with the epidemic."
It's much better to test and then quarantine a specific person than to do a citywide or provincewide lockdown, which in certain ways prevents the virus from leaving the province but actually doesn't make the province any less likely to have high infection rates," says Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C., and an epidemiologist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health."
What about wearing face masks to reduce the spread of infection of COVID19.
"What does the latest research say?
The advisory group to the WHO is weighing up a new US study that suggests droplets from coughs and sneezes could be projected further than originally thought.Respiratory droplets — which are considered to be the main way coronavirus spreads — are generally thought to travel short distances before falling onto surfaces near to the person who released them.It's why the WHO recommends people maintain a distance of at least 1 metre from anyone coughing or sneezing. The Australian Government advises individuals to stay 1.5 metres away from others.But researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that, in laboratory conditions, coughs can project liquid up to six metres away and sneezes can reach up to eight metres away.Professor Heymann told BBC News that if the evidence is supported, then
"it might be that wearing a mask is equally as effective or more effective than distancing".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-04-03/who-assess-face-mask-use-general-public-coronavirus/12118042
As coronavirus hot spots grow, Taiwan beating the odds against COVID-19
"Surprisingly, one of these hot spots is not Taiwan, which ranked 30th on the list of infected areas, including the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with 45 cases, 29 still active
and one death, as of Monday."
"And as the seriousness of the outbreak became clear, the legislature passed a special bill allocating 60 billion New Taiwan dollars ($2 billion) to fund containment and control efforts, including border control, paid leave for caregivers and the sick, the manufacture of essential equipment like face masks, forming protocols for tracing sources of infection and reducing the risk of transmission in settings such as schools, hospitals and transportation systems.Indeed,
Tsai herself has been astounded with the island’s ability to produce millions of masks while other countries struggle with shortages.“The power of Taiwan’s SMEs never ceases to amaze me,” Tsai wrote on Twitter, referring to small and medium-sized enterprises. “I’m proud to announce that as of this week,
Taiwan’s Face Mask Team now has the capacity to produce an average of 9.2 million masks per day, & 10 million masks per day on weekdays. Yes, 10,000,000!”
"To date,
15 people who contracted the virus have recovered, while one patient died of the illness, an elderly man with multiple pre-existing conditions.In addition to a high recovery rate, hospitals have managed to reduce internal transmissions between patients and medical staff, a primary cause of infection from SARS in 2003.Oddly enough,
China’s longtime insistence that Taiwan be excluded from the World Health Organization may also have aided its disease prevention efforts."
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/03/11/asia-pacific/science-health-asia-pacific/taiwan-coronavirus-covid-19/#.Xog6lS1L17M
