As of Sept. 25, there were 207,538 deaths due to COVID-19 in the US. Many people have criticized US President Donald Trump because the US has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, saying that Trump has failed terribly at handling the pandemic. Let us compare the death rates in the US with those in the UK and France.
The US has a population of 331 million, so the death rate was 0.0627 percent. In the UK, the number of deaths was 41,902 among a population of 67.9 million, so the death rate was 0.0617 percent.
It is surprising to find that the death rates of those two countries are very close. In France, the number of deaths was 31,511 among a population of 67 million, so the death rate was 0.0470 percent, which is not too far from that of the US and the UK. How can people blame Trump for mismanaging the disease?
Those three countries are very advanced in their economy, medical services and technology. Why do they all have relatively high death rates?
Many Americans are descendants of immigrants from the UK and France, so they all have a similar cultural background, which emphasizes individual freedom. They are not so scared by the number of deaths from diseases, and many vigorously resist mandatory mask wearing.
In March, at the beginning of the pandemic, the UK was even considering not doing any preventive measures to control the spread of COVID-19 and let people contract the disease to reach herd immunity. This attitude shows that countries like the UK will not likely take drastic measures to fight the pandemic.
Most of the US cases are of a more potent variety of COVID-19 that came from Europe and causes more deaths. Some medical research suggests that the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine routinely given to children in Asia and developing countries around the world might play a significant role in mitigating COVID-19 mortality rates. This might explain why the US, the UK and France fare worse in this pandemic.
Taiwan is the best-performing country in the world for COVID-19 control. So far, there have been only seven COVID-19 deaths in Taiwan, among a population of 23.8 million, and there have been no local cases for the past six months. Taiwanese enjoy outdoor concerts with more than 10,000 attendees, ball games, crowded night markets, restaurants, local travel, etc. It is not easy to reach such an achievement.
As requested by the Taiwanese government, almost all people wear masks on buses, trains, indoor public places, etc. If someone is tested positive with COVID-19, even having no symptoms, he or she has to remain isolated in a hospital room until two consecutive tests return negative, to prevent spreading the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control conducts a very tedious investigation to identify the people who have come close to an infected person, for example in the same office or classroom, or at the same location and the same time through cellphone data. Those people are required to quarantine for 14 days at home or in quarantine hotels.
If you are quarantined, government workers will contact you daily to make sure that you do not leave your location and have no symptoms. If you and your cellphone leave the location, police will come after you immediately and the penalty ranges from US$1,000 to more than US$10,000.
There are about 3,000 people arriving from other countries per day, and they are subject to the same strict quarantine.
This author asked some fellow Americans if they would agree to such strong measures to control the pandemic.
Most will say: “No way.” Taiwanese make small sacrifices in exchange for controlling the disease and saving some lives. However, Western cultures do not want government intrusions and respect individual freedom.
The US is a union of many states that administer their own health policies, so most of the liabilities of controlling the pandemic fall with the states. The federal officials have limited control of health assets and cannot effectively direct local health organizations. The US should seriously study how to change its handling of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. Of course, mistakes were made by the federal agencies and the Trump administration, and they must share some of the blame.
Although the US has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths, its death rate is comparable to those of the UK and France. The COVID-19 problems might be caused more by culture, individual freedom, attitude toward masks, a more potent virus strain, immunization practices, no central command, etc.
The Trump administration did not do as badly as it is being accused of by its opponents.
Kenneth Wang is a founder of the Institute of Taiwanese Studies and former president of the Taiwanese American Community Center in San Diego.
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