Why do people use the phrase 100% lockdown? No country has done a ‘complete lockdown’.
Hospitals, police, military, fire, mantle caregivers, pharmacy, farmers, food processing, utilities, oil and gas, gas stations, internet, banks, insurance, emergency response, trucks, delivery, etc. Etc., ensfh. Are not locked or locked. Only non-essential and risky areas are affected. (sports, entertainment, dine-in restaurants, some retail, etc.). And many people transitioned from commuting to work, to working from home. No country went to 100% unemployment.
That being said, the countries that have been successful in controlling the pandemic have all followed the same basic plan:
A national strategy, with strong leadership from the top, complemented by strong leadership by regional and local leaders: all deliver the same consistent message together.
The message is the same as what you hear in the US. We are going to shut down the most risky parts of our economy until it is safe to reopen them. We go at social distance. We will often wash and clean and sanitize our hands to the best of our ability. We will test and trace the sh * t from this virus. Later, they were all advised to wear masks, which soon became a key to reopening parts of the economy.
None of this would have worked if not for the high levels of compliance of the citizens of these successful countries. The leaders have not stopped sending the message and the citizens are seeing the success of compliance as these economies reopen. It’s a team effort.
The message today is still the same. And they talk about the need to maintain this strategy for another two years, because it will take so long for everyone to be vaccinated with an effective vaccine, as well as to develop better treatments.
Keep in mind that none of these countries are perfect. And no one can get 100% compliance from their entire population. All these countries know that second and third waves will happen if they continue to open things up. The hope is that by first getting their case numbers to very low levels, they will then be able to effectively deal with the inevitable hotspots where cases reappear.
In comparison: what is the national strategy of the US? I think it says Donald Trump; “Eventually it will just disappear.”
