It's funny how many people underestimate this virus in terms of its ability to mutate and spread.
And it's laughable that people think this can be contained with 'contact tracing' and 'monitoring' the movements of private citizens. It is a force of nature.
Contact tracing simply gives the illusion of control while giving governments and excuse to spy.
How easily free citizens give up basic fundamental rights in the name of Fear.
South Korea is 4 times smaller than California. And its population many times more homogeneous than any of the 50 states.
New Zealand is an island nation with half the population of New Jersey
Thailand has had several recent outbreaks and hotspots.
Also that you believe Chinas/Vietnam/Thailands reporting is making a lot of assumptions. Governments in SE Asia have a very strong hold on what gets reported. You absolutely cannot trust the numbers they are reporting. To do so is irresponsible at best.
Weird how you compare apples to oranges and expect it to be a fair comparison.
Fear is a great motivator for giving up individual freedoms. That much is clear. How easily we give up our fundamental rights in the name of security and fear.
The only reason it's apples-to-oranges is this continued belief that America is somehow special. This has caused all countermeasures to be ineffectual, half-assed, and incomplete.
We are a melting pot of thousands of different cultures coming in and out all the time. There are not many other countries like America. Certainly not on our scale if they are similar.
Of course we were going to get a bad case of Covid.
Could the response have been better? Of course.
But we are uniquely special in this way. Our diversity is usually an asset. In this case it was a detriment.