The course of the Coronavirus outbreak is changing, at least here in Mainland China. After nearly six weeks of aggressive and sometimes harsh quarantine and containment measures, enforced by the Chinese government, we are now seeing clear decreases in daily confirmed cases.
Indeed, a new report by the World Health Organization also confirms that the measures being undertaken by China to halt the spread of the virus have been successful. This flies in the face of continued criticisms of China by Western politicians and the media, focusing on both the country’s response as well as its political system.
But now, the world appears to have been caught flat-footed. Many countries outside China, including the USA, have apparently been so focused on blaming China for its real and perceived failures that when confronted with significant growth of Coronavirus cases at home, many countries have failed to cope, to an alarming degree.
In my latest video on the Coronavirus from Shenzhen, China, I discuss my concerns about the Coronavirus’ spread overseas and how I consider it of paramount importance that other countries be willing to learn from China’s example, not simply areas where China could have performed better, but the specific aggressive measures that have led to success.
Please take a look at the below video, and let me know your thoughts and questions on the Coronavirus outbreak in the comments section.
I will close by imploring all of you to remember that while the Coronavirus, also known a COVID-19, is certainly dangerous and presents a clear risk to our health and safety, it is not the only danger we are facing.
As we have seen thus far from the outbreak, pandemics and other similar disasters have a tendency to bring out the worst in us all. So far, the outbreak has led to fear, panic, xenophobia, hoarding, and perhaps worst of all – complacency, the belief that it could never have come to us here in the “civilized world”.
But in the face of all this darkness, it is of the utmost importance to remember that we all have a choice in how we react. We can decide to view any Asians as a threat, or we can treat them warmly and politely as the fellow members of our community that they are. We can choose to hoard as many supplies as we can, or we can put our communities first and only take enough for several weeks.
There will be many more such choices and challenges to face in the coming weeks – please make the one that helps us all move forward.
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