If containment has been successful in places like Singapore, why is the government here not looking to replicate it?
The Telegraph
Date: 14 March 2020
By: Paul Nuki, GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY EDITOR, LONDON
People in Asia are no more subservient than we are fickle. They are behaving differently because they have been here before CREDIT: AP
The charts below show dramatic differences in the way places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan have responded to the coronavirus epidemic compared to others in Europe.
While the picture here is of exponential growth, the lines showing the spread of the virus in parts of Asia are flatter, suggesting the response there has been more effective. Even China, which was caught on the hop in Wuhan, has managed to dramatically subdue the spread of the disease.
If such containment has been successful in places like Singapore, why is the government here not looking to replicate it? Boris Johnson says he too wants to flatten the curve of the epidemic but his ambition is more modest.
Rather than spread it out over six months or more as they are aiming to do in parts of Asia, he wants to push it back a month or so into the summer and then let things rip. Most people will catch it and “many more families are going to lose loved ones”, but Britain will have acquired “herd immunity” and we will have got it over with, says his scientific advisers. It all feels a bit biff, bang, bosh. [FULL STORY]
