{"id":677676,"date":"2020-04-04T00:14:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/?p=677676"},"modified":"2020-04-04T00:14:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:14:54","slug":"lessons-from-taiwan-canada-south-korea-georgia-and-iceland-show-that-the-coronavirus-can-be-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2020\/04\/04\/lessons-from-taiwan-canada-south-korea-georgia-and-iceland-show-that-the-coronavirus-can-be-stopped\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from Taiwan, Canada, South Korea, Georgia, and Iceland show that the coronavirus can be stopped."},"content":{"rendered":"
The Countries That Are Succeeding at Flattening the Curve<\/span><\/div>\n
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Lessons from Taiwan, Canada, South Korea, Georgia, and Iceland show that the coronavirus can be stopped.<\/h2>\n
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By<\/span> Audrey Wilson<\/address>\n

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Jon Benedict for Foreign Policy\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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The United States is now an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with epidemiological models publicized on Tuesday suggesting the disease could infect millions of Americans in the coming months, killing between 100,000 and 240,000. Hospitals in the state of New York, where there are more than 75,000 confirmed cases, are already overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of critical medical equipment such as ventilators and protective gear. The grim projections indicate that the virus has not reached its peak and that the situation will get worse.<\/p>\n

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Amid the pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders have faced criticism for their slow and ineffective response since it became clear that the coronavirus would not be contained to China, where it originated. Other countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea have been heralded as relative success stories for flattening the curve before infection rates soared exponentially. As countries brace for a monthslong crisis, we\u2019ve collected our top reads and interviews from recent weeks on how governments and citizens around the world have responded to the threat of COVID-19 so far.<\/p>\n

Taiwan recorded its first case of the coronavirus on Jan. 21, but it has managed to keep its number of confirmed cases to just 329 with five deaths as of April 1. The country is effectively locked out of the World Health Organization (WHO), since membership is usually only accorded to countries that are members of the United Nations, which does not recognize Taiwan. But as Hilton Yip wrote on March 16, the government sprang into action as soon as news broke about a mysterious illness in Wuhan. Taiwan, which sits just 100 miles from mainland China, began inspecting travelers coming from the city on Dec. 31, set up a system to track those in self-quarantine, and ramped up production of medical equipment in January. (Taiwan has not yet resumed exports of the supplies, including surgical face masks.)<\/p>\n

Yip attributed Taiwan\u2019s early and effective response to past experience. \u201cGiven that Taiwan has faced everything from its giant neighbor\u2014the spreading of fake news, military threats, the withholding of vital medical information during the SARS outbreak in 2003\u2014the country knows it must be on its fullest guard whenever any major problem emerges in China,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

[<\/em>Mapping the Coronavirus Outbreak:<\/em> Get daily updates on the pandemic and learn how it\u2019s affecting countries around the world.]<\/em><\/p>\n

South Korea, which had one of the largest initial outbreaks outside China, also managed to slow the spread of new coronavirus cases without instituting any lockdowns. Devi Sridhar argued on March 23 that the country\u2019s exemplary model for mass diagnostic testing was the only way to contain the outbreak\u2014and that other countries should look to East Asia for lessons. South Korea, which has a population of 51 million, tests more than 20,000 people daily at designated testing sites and uses isolation and widespread contact tracing to break chains of transmission\u2014as recommended by WHO. \u201cSouth Korea is showing how this model ultimately pays off in reducing spread, taking pressure off health services, and keeping its death rate one of the lowest in the world,\u201d Sridhar wrote.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In the West, Canada managed to roll out more expansive testing than the neighboring United States, as Justin Ling wrote on March 13. In January and February, Canada began setting up the infrastructure to conduct tests and contact tracing. The early response in part came from the country\u2019s experience during the SARS outbreak in 2003. (Then, Canada was the only country outside Asia to report deaths from the virus.) Canada has a well-funded public health care system, and its criteria for who can be tested for COVID-19 is not as limited as in the United States. \u201cCanada has spent the past two decades preparing for this moment,\u201d Ling wrote. \u201cBy catching cases early, and investigating their origins, Canada has blunted the impact of the virus thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Coronavirus in the Corridors of Power<\/h3>\n
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Which politicians and senior officials have the coronavirus?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Darcy Palder,<\/span> Amy Mackinnon<\/address>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Authoritarianism in the Time of the Coronavirus<\/h3>\n
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The pandemic offers dictators\u2014and democracies alike\u2014an opportunity for abuse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Florian Bieber<\/address>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some success stories are unexpected. On the Don\u2019t Touch Your Face<\/em> podcast, Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Amy Mackinnon singled out the early response of the country of Georgia. Despite its small size and struggling economy, the country began taking serious measures at the end of February, including closing schools and conducting widespread diagnostic tests. Georgia has so far confirmed 117 cases and no deaths from COVID-19. \u201cI think the fact that the government took it seriously from the very start has helped,\u201d the Georgian journalist Natalia Antelava told Mackinnon. So has Georgia\u2019s mindset. \u201cThis is a country that is used to crisis, and it is a country that has lived through civil wars and the Russian invasion in 2008 and a very dark period through the \u201990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union,\u201d Antelava said.<\/p>\n

Mackinnon also interviewed Jelena Ciric, a journalist in Iceland, which has one of the highest per capita rates of confirmed coronavirus cases. That\u2019s because it has also tested more people per capita than anywhere else in the world\u2014an effort led by a private medical research company based in Reykjavik. The research will be used to inform the global response to the pandemic. \u201cWhat that gives us in Iceland is somewhat of a clearer picture of how the virus is spreading through the general population,\u201d Ciric said. \u201cOur growth has not actually become exponential due to these early measures of quarantining people who have likely been exposed to the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Keep your eye on the ball.<\/h4>\n
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Sign up for Foreign Policy<\/i>\u2019s latest pop-up newsletter, While You Weren\u2019t Looking, for a weekly update on the world beyond the coronavirus pandemic. Delivered Friday<\/p>\n

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\nThroughout Europe, many countries are under lockdown\u2014but not Sweden, which has remained stoic amid its high-risk outbreak. The country has reported 4,947 cases, but its government is betting that its distinctive high trust culture means that individuals will act responsibly without being ordered to do so, wrote Nathalie Rothschild on March 24, reporting from Stockholm. \u201c[T]here is an expectation that citizens will conform, that they will take personal responsibility and avoid crowds, work from home, keep a distance on public transport, and so on, without being strong-armed into doing so,\u201d she wrote. The next two weeks could reveal whether that is a precarious calculation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Elsewhere, citizens are not so trusting of their governments\u2019 expertise. In Russia, daily life continued as normal until mid-March, when medical experts began questioning official statistics showing a low rate of COVID-19 infection. The government moved quickly to close the borders and announce a large economic stimulus plan, wrote Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Reid Standish, reporting from Moscow. \u201cShould the true scope of the virus prove to be higher than shown in official statistics, it would mean that the Russian government has missed its chance to slow the pandemic,\u201d he wrote. Two weeks later, it appears that the coronavirus could present a serious political challenge for President Vladimir Putin, as Standish reported on March 30.<\/p>\n

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I Knew Coronavirus Denier Landon Spradlin. His Death\u2026<\/h2>\n

The evangelical musician died of COVID-19 after calling it fake news. But he was a victim of forces much larger than\u2026<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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