Covid-19; we dodged a bullet

[Vitto]

I think it also shows how technology is useless without the social institutions to back it up.

Can't deny that in a pandemic a totalitarian regime like the CCP can work wonders: everyone at home until the virus die off, masks almost glued to the face and draconian punishment for those that don't respect the restrictions.
Even those less worried of the single's rights and more oriented towards the common good, like South Korea, are doing much better than the western block

Anyway the amount of stupidity I see around, in the so called Information Age, is worringly

South Korea doesn't have any better technology than Italy, France, the UK, or the US

 
I fear is people with a better sense of duty, sigh...
Here in Italy I heard much more complain for the privacy invasion of tracking apps than their correct working, FFS!

The prospect of a vaccine is years off, not months. (Genome sequencing and so on were nowhere near as good.)

I won't vouch on sequencing itself as viruses have a very small genome and you would had very soon the whole planet sequencing capabilities on it. For sure the "next gen" sequencing are much better than the Sanger's in the 90'.
The key on the vaccine in less than a year in this case, I guess, is due to a complete pubblic support on the matter and a shitloat of billions invested. Plus, maybe, the new mRNA strategy to manufacture them.
I wouldn't expect mass antibodies tests rolled out asap in the 90's.

There's also the worrying problem that our increased communication technology and infrastructure has massively increased the ability of misinformation to spread, as well as allowing for the mass collection of data that makes creating targeted misinformation easier. I have a hard time imagining that in the 90s so many people would have thought that the virus was a hoax, and anti-vaxx groups were nowhere near as large.

Probably at the time people would know in person someone who had permanent damage from preventable diseases.
And may Andrew Wakefield burn in hell get in the lovely care of the Queen of Pain for that fraud of a papaer!

The widespread track and trace system in SK worked because they were prepared for this sort of event and the government was quick to enforce participation as a social responsibility, I'd hardly call that authoritarianism.

South East asian country have a shorter history of democracy and rights of the individual compared to the western block, much more in dictatorial governs. And much more familiarity with disease like the Covid, which is a SARS like virus, so they were more prepared and with a population more willingly to follow orders.

Won't comment on ethnicity, I think that is a scapegoat in 99,99% of the cases, at least.

I don't see this thread going anywhere positive - at least if it's going to include the areas of politics and race.

Aww... I was just jumping in bringing the human stupidity!

Also in the US (not sure if there is any equivalent in the UK/Europe) we have the 'anti-vax' movement, which seems to largely be made up of white people. So the 'culture' argument would not seem to apply there.

Got those here as well

PPE wasn't so single-use 30 years ago. The shortage of such equipment would have taken longer to feel as hospitals kept steam-laundering their existing equipment.

Cold war's gas masks for everyone!