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COVID-19 Has Blown Away the Myth About 'First' and 'Third' World Competence:
One of the planet's – and Africa's – deepest prejudices is being demolished by the way countries handle COVID-19.
For as long as any of us remember, everyone "knew" that "First World" countries – in effect, Western Europe and North America – were much better at providing their citizens with a good life than the poor and incapable states of the "Third World". "First World" has become shorthand for competence, sophistication and the highest political and economic standards.
[...] So we should have expected the state-of-the-art health systems of the "First World", spurred on by their aware and empowered citizens, to handle COVID-19 with relative ease, leaving the rest of the planet to endure the horror of buckling health systems and mass graves.
We have seen precisely the opposite.
[...] [Britain and the US] have ignored the threat. When they were forced to act, they sent mixed signals to citizens which encouraged many to act in ways which spread the infection. Neither did anything like the testing needed to control the virus. Both failed to equip their hospitals and health workers with the equipment they needed, triggering many avoidable deaths.
The failure was political. The US is the only rich country with no national health system. An attempt by former president Barack Obama to extend affordable care was watered down by right-wing resistance, then further gutted by the current president and his party. Britain's much-loved National Health Service has been weakened by spending cuts. Both governments failed to fight the virus in time because they had other priorities.
And yet, in Britain, the government's popularity ratings are sky high and it is expected to win the next election comfortably. The US president is behind in the polls but the contest is close enough to make his re-election a real possibility. Can there be anything more typically "Third World" than citizens supporting a government whose actions cost thousands of lives?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2020, @05:35PM (1 child)
Well Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan have lots of old people above 65 too with a high population density. South Korea's weather isn't that warm either...
Sure they're still younger than the UK but their death rates per million are magnitudes lower. At least 100 times. Can that be explained merely by the difference in population age?
Definitely doing better the USA or most of Western Europe.
While I still think it's a high chance that the virus came from China, given the level of the virus and incompetence in Europe and the USA it does make me wonder whether it came from somewhere in those places instead and just nobody noticed for more months than China did. China probably took months to notice too, but maybe 2-3 months (assuming the "true" first human case was in Oct 2019, instead of Dec 2019). There were early cases in the USA and Europe that were not detected, and only detected in "hindsight"... Does that mean the USA and Europe are so dependent on China to detect such diseases first?
FWIW I think India is likely to have a higher death rate, same for Bangladesh. Their curves are just ramping up. With the amount of poor people there, many are going to die of hunger and/or violence. Imagine if you only earn 1-2 dollars day and spend most of it merely to eat to survive. How long can you survive a lockdown? They have the excuse though of being poor. When your GDP/capita is only a few times more than a covid-19 test, and similar to the cost of ventilator your options are lot worse.
But what's the excuse for the rich countries? Blame China and the WHO? You think Taiwan is doing better because they got better info etc from China or the WHO?
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday May 18 2020, @06:35PM
Totally agree. To take South Korea as an example, from Wikipedia 13.5 % of population is 65 years and over (much more comparable to e.g. UK 18 %). South Korea GDP per capita is similar to UK as well. Clearly, South Korea managed the pandemic better.
However, the premise of TFA was "third world countries are handling covid better". TFA highlighted India and Senegal as examples. I point out that India and Senegal have a totally different demographic, and so the comparison is not a fair one and the logic is flawed.