Vietnam has the best Covid response in the world, but does it matter?

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I am in the midst of it. Vietnam has some seriously low numbers especially considering they are next door to the source and normally employ a rather large number of Chinese nationals and also are a very popular vacation destination with Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. They managed to keep their overall infection numbers extremely low and have zero Covid-19 related deaths.

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I don't have any idea how this is possible but it is a combination of reacting really early and I think the fact that they are very aware of the fact that their medical care definitely is NOT world-class. A massive breakout here would simply mean tons of deaths unless some other country came to the rescue and I don't think any country actually has the resources spare at the moment to pull something like that off.

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This is a stupid chart because of they odd and not uniform scale they decided to use. If they were to scale a bit better the large number of infections that exists in other countries compared to the less than 300 that exist here would make Vietnam barely register on the chart at all.

I don't claim to know why this has worked out for Vietnam, nor do I care to speculate / argue with anyone about it.

However, I do know that up until March 28th, the bars and restaurants were open, as were most public places. But this was just in Da Nang where i live. The more populated cities of Saigon (HCMC) and Hanoi had many more restrictions than here. The past 2 weeks we have had most places of business closed down including for take out and delivery which is upsetting to me because I don't particularly care for cooking for myself and for the most part I am not good at it.

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We were meant to be getting released from this "lockdown of sorts" tomorrow but we are yet to get the official word on this. A friend of mine that runs a restaurant told me that it looks like they are going to keep it like this for another week, which is really starting to piss me off but I have no choice but to comply.

But here is the thing that I am worried about if they do open things back up in a week from now. What then? If Vietnam has truly been successful in preventing ANY infection doesn't that simply mean that we are going to have to wait even longer before we can interact with the outside world? What now? Do we just never let anyone in or out until Bill Gates comes by with his free vaccines?

I think that there are likely considerably more infections than Vietnam is reporting simply because of the fact that they are only testing people who are admitted to the hospital with Covid-like symptoms.

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The city I am in only had 6 cases overall and all of them have recovered and were released. Think about that for a second and tell me if you believe that could possible be true. There are 1.1 million people here and it is heavily traveled by Chinese people, some of which are still here, yet we only have 6 cases in the entire city? I hate to be a nay sayer, but I don't buy it.

Of course there is also the possibility that Vietnam is one of the only countries in the world that isn't interested in pumping their numbers up for some sort of political reason as well.

Maybe the Vietnamese are just immune to it for the most part. How fantastic would that be?

I just can't imagine what the next step could be. If any of what we are hearing in the media can be considered true, i think a nation of 90 million people having not even been exposed to it is not necessarily a good thing... because it will make its way over here evertually.

I just want my bars and restaurants to reopen for craps' sake.



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27 comments
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Some say the virus doesn't fare well in warmer climates. It's still cold here, and in the US.. could be a factor?

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NOPE. I live in Nigeria with similar climate to Vietnam and I assure you it isn't

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hmm, i guess it could be... are there any hot countries with bad outbreaks.. This is worth looking into

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I've been saying this since and I'll keep saying it that smaller countries will just ignore the virus until it has "killed to its filling" then do a cover up and move on with their lives. In Nigeria, we've had a bunch of illnesses killing us for years and COVID is just going to join the list. It is a sad state but it is the most likely scenario

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Cover it up and business as usual. Thought you would have been a decent cook with the amount you had eaten out and learnt. I suppose if the food is cheap then what is the point.

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Well i am good at cooking stuff with a proper kitchen like in the restaurants that I owned and operated in the past. With just a small kitchen, I can't really do very much. :(

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Vietnam has done an amazing job and Thailand has too, to a lesser degree. The thing is BOTH countries rely soooo heavily on people flying in that I can only imagine that although lockdown itself may end in cities, that opening airports and borders may need to wait until people can easily test and produce that result before flying.

We're expecting some softening of the lockdown by April 30th. And we're currently under a 10 day complete alcohol ban (in case you hadn;t heard our wails from afar LOL).

Widely tipped to be a gradual local softening in May, with inter-provincial travel reopening (but with lots of testing) in 2nd half of May. Mid June NEEDS to have internatinal flights happening cos most of the schools opening 1st July RELY on Chinese and Korean enrollments to keep them financially afloat.

Interesting times to be sure!! Keep safe and well!!

You might want to join our @naturalmedicine challenge: https://peakd.com/hive-120078/@naturalmedicine/after-the-virus-what-can-you-do-to-improve-your-chances-when-the-cage-door-opens Methinks you might have some great insights.

Songkran dry and hot inside? With only iced water on the side? A first for everything.

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yes Thailand is very reliant on international visitors and other countries like to pretend that they are not, but international commerce is pretty essential to all countries well being or barring that, some level of affluence i guess.

I have heard about the alcohol ban, the Hash House Guys were really whining about it... haha. I am sure they all stocked up!

Who knows what the future holds, the present is so nuts that I can only hope that it is better :)

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It's like a movable feast everyday, with a bit of quicksand thrown in for good measure. I hear so many conflicting views that in the end I just have to turn it off....

Stay safe and well. 🙂

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yep, that is 100% true. I see so many of my friends get really worked up on this issue, spending hours a day arguing with strangers online about it and I think that since our opinions don't really change the situation very much that it might be best to do anything else other than try to get to the bottom of this. If there is a conspiracy, we are never gonna find out about it :)

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I think these numbers are in correct are as most since if they tested everyone, I think there would be a lot more. I just hope it is over soon. We have take out only,I don't care about the food, but I would like to get my hair done. Lol
Hang in there.

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lol, yeah. I need a haircut badly as well :)

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I suspect it's due to the way the disease is reported. I did some number-crunching a couple of weeks ago, using Worldometers.info, and it showed that Europe and the US have MASSIVELY more incidences of coronavirus and deaths from it than any of the Asian countries (including China now). Japan has suspiciously low numbers, despite having the world's largest proportion of elderly people. This is suspected by some to be due to its former hopes of hosting the 2020 Olympics.

Israel has substantially more cases of and deaths from coronavirus than its neighbour Palestine.

The BBC has recently been reporting that people have been dying "with coronavirus" rather than "from" it. A few days ago, they said that 10,000 people in the UK have died "with coronavirus". That sounds to me as if someone is fudging the figures.

It's very difficult to get an accurate picture of the spread of this disease.

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i keep hearing that hospitals in the USA receive 13,000 dollars if they report a covid case. That would explain a lot, i wonder if that is true. Any ideas?

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I hear you, I want to be able to go out and do things if I want to. This being cooped up in the house is getting old. It's not even the fact that my wife and I go out that often. It is just the fact that we could if we wanted to. We actually left the house today. I am going to write a post about it. I think you will find it very interesting.

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(Edited)

there is also the possibility that Vietnam is one of the only countries in the world that isn't interested in pumping their numbers up for some sort of political reason as well.

I'm more inclined to suspect what you wondered about, above, is closer to the reason :>)

Here, I have heard of some medical professionals, or 'related' individuals, adding patients to the 'death statistics' as Clovid-19 deaths upon dying from an auto accident, having had lung exray results "similar" to Corona virus patients :>0

Hope you're at your favorite eateries again, soon,

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I think globally there are a lot more positive cases than are being revealed. I don't obsess over this issue because I have a garden :P, but from what i have seen most people dont react to it and this suggests that it is much more widespread than anyone is revealing. 6 cases in a city of over a million in a country next door to China? Yeah, I don't buy that for a second - but they may be hiding the deaths or attributing them to other causes. Who knows? It's the government so they are almost certainly lying to you.

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i don't even know what to think these days but since i am a stranger in a strange land i just take it as it comes. It's not like my opinion would matter over here anyway.

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"I just want my bars and restaurants to reopen for craps' sake." lol..well if the numbers are low there then you won't have long to wait. But the numbers are astonishing, even if they are even a third accurate.

That would be amazing if the Vietnamese were largely immune!

This post was 4 days ago, any word on opening things back up? Today Texas announced restaurants can reopen next week but only for take out and drive-thru windows..and probably delivery.

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they reopened take out and delivery, which was great. I had some NY pizza 2 nights ago and last night had Indian take-away. This was a great change from my usual hot dogs and instant noodle cups.

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lol..hot dogs and instant noodles! Man, you'll be living high now! That's great news indeed.

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You alright buddy? Haven't seen you for a while.

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yeah, i'm fine. Just don't really feel like posting about corona every day because it's kinda been done a lot and other than video games I don't know what else to write about :P

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Haha, yeah man I know the feeling. I feel bad for doing a few reposts, but my life has been really dull lately. I could write about my livingroom I guess.

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well your reposts haven't been willy nilly, i think you chose some really good ones that were definitely worth revisiting. No need to feel bad about that and you are very forthcoming about it being the case as well.

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6 cases lol not sure about that. Good time for you to spend time with a doggy and learn to enjoy cooking perhaps :D

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