The "right way"
Because of the pandemic I had not seen my family in a while, and these have been trying times for us because many of our relatives have died during this period. This is why my mom and I decided to visit them in the U.S for a few weeks, this was a difficult choice to make since we know that staying at home is the most conscious decision, but we also take into account the fact that nobody knows how long this is going to last and we as a society have to find the way to return to usual economic activities in the safest way. It was interesting to see how the pandemic is lived and managed in both countries, and even how within the U.S the regulations vary from State to State. Here in Colombia, we have experienced a bit of a mixed response to the pandemic, we started with a full lockdown, restaurants, bars, stores and clubs closed, almost everyone was confined at home, this, taken from the example of other countries that had started facing the crisis months earlier. However, the economic weight of these actions for a country like Colombia is rough, and so businesses started to reopen, people went back to work and public opinion on the matter was divided. On one hand we have the reality many Colombian families face, in which they live on what they can make day to day, so what people were going to eat for that day or week was at stake now more than ever, many companies had to do cutdowns to deal with their own problems and so many people were laid off their positions and their income was lost. On the other we have public safety, the virus is a reality, and it has been affecting our wellbeing, hospitals have been at full capacity and people are dying. With 2,342,278 total cases and 62,148 total deaths, we are the 28th country in relation of deaths as a percentage of population which is not surprising considering the on and off restrictions and the voids in our healthcare system.
In the U.S we find the response to be different, no official lockdowns or closure of sectors were part of the international agenda and their policies, specially during the beginning of the pandemic, could be described as laissez-faire, for example, to this day the use of a mask is not mandatory, however companies and stores have implemented this policy in response to public opinion. These actions focus on protecting the economy, however, this does not address the health crisis going on in the country, and former president trump faced criticism because of this from the population and the international community. To this day, the U.S holds the first place in total cases and 8th in terms of cases as a percentage of the population.
Comparing these two different countries that have faced criticism from different fronts, against one praised for their accurate response could be interesting. For example, Taiwan to this day has not had a nationwide lockdown, instead they chose to immediately close their borders and ban exports of surgical masks, the government used contact tracing and mobile Sim-tracking to identify and ensure quarantine was being abide by the affected population, and businesses used aggressive precautionary measures to stay open. The success of countries like Taiwan or Vietnam is attributed to their experience in dealing with previous viruses like SARS in 2003, this makes so the government has a set of actions and the population is more aware of what is at risk.
So, what is the correct response? should countries shut down completely or should they continue with normal activities and protect their economy? From what we have seen from the “success stories” one does not have to exclude the other, a prompt and firm response to the virus is key in order to have a functioning economic and social apparatus. It has been said that pandemics is a challenge we will continue to face in the future, hopefully we will learn to take the correct set of actions when the next one comes.
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