[conspire] (forw) Re: Known unknowns, unknown unknowns (was: Correction)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Elise Scher (elise.scher01 at gmail.com):

> Can we learn anything from South Korea? I read that they did a lot more
> Covid-19 testing there, and that the government asked the private sector
> there to develop and manufacture a lot more test kits. Also they supposedly
> targeted who they put in isolation.

Not _exactly_ an answer to the question you asked, but I wrote a summary
a couple of weeks ago about the South Korean response on the
social-media service 'NextDoor', in response to some numbskull who 
was trying to suggest that South Korea's reported success (at least in
early days) is what the USA should do in mid-March.  (This was a person
who obviously detested the shelter-in-place order.)  

I cannot re-find that posting, because NextDoor's indexing/searching is
teh sux0rz, and also its hyperactive moderators often disappear entire
threads for no compelling reason.  But, in brief:

1.  South Korea _immediately_ placed a top national priority on
developing a good, fast, cheap test and managed this feat in amazingly
short time -- following South Korea's first confirmed case on Jan. 20th,
coincidentally the same day the USA found its first confirmed case.

2.  The government used downright ruthless and invasive means do contact
tracing, again, making this a national priority.

3.  The society and culture was well informed and throughly behind these
measures.

4.  By coincidence, the country happened to hold a full-scale drill in
December 2019 of how to respond to a novel virus epidemic outbreak.


I advised numbskull that it might be possible to replicate South Korea's 
countermeasures, and the first thing he'd need is a working time
machine, to take him/us back to around January 31st.  But then that the 
_difficult_ part would begin, of convincing US officials to not screw up
steps #1-3, above.

Anyway, if you search news articles, you can find any number of 'think
pieces' suggesting lessons we allegedly could learn from the South
Korean experience.  I won't do that search for you; it's not difficult.
But there are reasons (completely aside from the need for a borrowed
TARDIS) why the comparison is problematic in some ways, e.g.:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lessons-america-how-south-korean-authorities-used-la
w-fight-coronavirus

-- 
Cheers,                            "Rand Paul being patient zero for a Senate 
Rick Moen                          viral outbreak is a sign of a writers' room 
rick at linuxmafia.com                dropping too much acid, late in the season."
McQ! (4x80)                                        -- @owillis (Oliver Willis)