Why are Italy and New York so bad when Japan and South Korea seem to not be spiking like crazy?

Asians are uber.....

No smokers and no obese.

Assist feel wrote:

Asians are uber.....

No smokers and no obese.

Japanese men smoke a lot, but eat lots of meat, fish and eggs, are hygenic and are not obese. Also restricted entry of Chinese during the Wuhan phase I would guess.

Less "It's just the flu" bros and presidents.

Japan and South Korea prepared strict measures from their experience with SARS. In contrast, the U.S. abandoned most of its preparations for a pandemic under Trump, because he wanted to get rid of anything that Obama-Biden had done. The amazing thing is that even under Trump, they held a pandemic simulation last year that showed results very similar to what we are now facing, and yet he did nothing to prepare for the situation, even dismissing any concerns in public.

Koreans are obsessed with cleanliness.

While Japanese...extremely obsessed with cleanliness.

Im from the UK, and and expecting that we will roughly be in the same boat as Italy, New York, Spain etc

Those Asian countries took it way more serious and reacted quickly - probably because their experiences with other viruses and I hear from my cousins in Hong Kong that citizens all cooperate well.

Overhear we have mayhem. They announced pubs in London were going to close and MANY people casually went out to have a last night out in their local pub... ridiculous. I hear from parents that other kids have came to their door wanting to play with their children. People are chilling at beaches. I went out to collect some necessary medicines and people were not even TRYING to keep there distance. It blows my mind and makes me feel a bit sick. My sister even tried to come home and visit my elderly parents who have underlying conditions, came in and hugged them etc - even though she had been going to work, eating in restaurants etc. They are literally killing people.

South Korea would actually have way less cases if it was not for one super spreader that infected so many people. Aka Patient 31:

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-SOUTHKOREA-CLUSTERS/0100B5G33SB/index.html

She ignored recommendations to be tested multiple times...

Some reading:

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

South Korea tested like crazy.

Here we don't even have tests.

We in NY C have no discipline. Many people are not practicing social distancing. The young kids are playing football, basketball etc...in the park while the older men are playing cards, dominoes, smoking away. I doubt this would happen in South Korea or Japan if they were told not to. Some areas around NY state limit the amount of people in a supermarket. In my neighborhood they're packed with people fighting for what is left.

Only 36 deaths thus far:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-19/a-coronavirus-explosion-was-expected-in-japan-where-is-it

"Japan was one of the first countries outside of China hit by the coronavirus and now it’s one of the least-affected among developed nations. That’s puzzling health experts."

"Unlike China’s draconian isolation measures, the mass quarantine in much of Europe and big U.S. cities ordering people to shelter in place, Japan has imposed no lockdown. While there have been disruptions caused by school closures, life continues as normal for much of the population. Tokyo rush hour trains are still packed and restaurants remain open."

If Olympics aren't cancelled, bet Japan becomes Italy in 3 weeks after the closing ceremony.

my gf is from south korea and told me that at the first sign the outbreak they literally tested everyone and once they found one they would follow their timeline for the last few weeks and test everyone they came into contact with etc. they were beyond thorough and also did something like 10,000 tests a day.

NYC has an enormous Italian presence.

More on Japan:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/03/21/commentary/japan-commentary/japan-still-coronavirus-outlier/#.Xnb5-jNMHEB

"Look around Tokyo now, and you’ll see no such scene has unfolded. Despite the cancellation of sports events, the closure of schools, and the shutting down of some, but not all, larger entertainment venues, much of Japan continues as normal. There is no quarantine and no enforced closures of bars or restaurants. Even clubs (easy places to get sick at the best of times) remain open."

"If you want to eat ramen at 4 a.m., fine. If you get on the subway, you’ll see it slightly emptier, but still heaving. If you want to rent a car and drive from one end of the country and back again, do it — there’s nothing stopping you. Which means there’s very little stopping the spread of the disease either."

None of this makes any sense at all:

Italy - nothing but chaos with unbelievable number of deaths.

Japan - a blimp on the radar with a few dozen deaths.

Btw, Japan has one of the oldest populations - 25% is over age 65.

Some points about Japan/Korea that are getting missed.

) Japanese do not social distance. They're not necessarily so clean either. If they really beat this so easily, it was by social cohesion: the authorities said to wash their hands, and they all did. ALL of them! Each of them would be deeply ashamed to be caught not doing it. Enforcing behavior is part of their culture.

) By recorded "death rate," the Japanese are doing worse: they ended up at 3.5%. The US is now at 1.27% and dropping fast as it launches massive industrial everybody-testing. The Koreans were below 1% for a while but now 1.14%. US isn't doing bad at all by that metric.

BW, I know people have tried to explain the basics of this to you over and over, and you may be just a troll, or a brainless trumpkin, but just in case there is any brain activity, here's yet another explanation:

It's not the death rate or total that worries medical professionals. People die, and their bodies leave the health care system.

It's the health care saturation and over-saturation that everyone is concerned about.

Even if a country has good preparedness and planning and leadership and flexibility in response, a pandemic with geometric or worse spread can really tax health care facilities.

For the US, which lacks planning, lacks leadership, and has a poor health care system mostly driven by for-profit corner-cutting concerns, with minimal investment in public health, the problem is, of course, worse.

Throw in several years of an administration actively trying to sabotage any public health planning or funding, and actively denying the problem even as it engulfs the country, and the uncertainty amongst the population gets worse.

GET HELP. You gain nothing by your obsession with me. I lose nothing. You're arguing with yourself, with dissonant thoughts in your own head that got scrambled up by something I wrote, and you think you can fix that by lashing out at me, as if it were me and not your own thoughts bothering you.

Same thing in the UK.

USA and UK are two countries were at least two generations have been brought up to :

1 - have a total disregard for authority.

2 - an absolute hatred for older people

This is completely the opposite in East Asian countries. In fact it's the opposite of any civilization in the history of the world we know of that survived long enough to leave any traces of its existence.

In the UK you read the comments under coronavirus articles at news sites like the Daily Mail and you weep for humanity, with younger people openly rejoicing at 'the ultimate boomer remover'.

One British YouTube runner posted a video the other day complaining about Parkruns being cancelled just to protect the elderly and suggested they were animals anyway for voting Brexit.

NYC has performed more tests than anywhere else in the US. Therefore, NYC will have more cases than anywhere else in the US.

Who knows WTF is wrong with Italy. I'd imagine having "Hug a Chinese" day in Florence in February was, in hindsight, not a good idea.

Some Americans and NYers still have this 9/11 mindset that if we stop living our lives then we have let the enemy win.