Prevention:You can only connect the dots looking backwards

Point to Ponder: What did Taiwanese, New Zealanders, Thais and others knew that some did not. “An ounce of Prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

Story Line: “Perfect Containment until Proven Prevention.”

Covid-19: Source: Worldometers.  Date: July 9, 2020

No	Country	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths	New Deaths
1	USA	3,215,549	56,617	135,683	821
2	BRAZIL	1,755,779	39,583	69,184	1129
3	UK	287,621	642	44,602	8
99	THAILAND	3202	5	58	0
131	NEW ZEALAND	1540	3	22	0
163	TAIWAN	449	0	7	0

Observations of containment and semi-prevention (of virus spreading) from three visits to Taiwan in January, February and March and One to Chiang Mai.

1. January 28: 75% of the passengers and 100% of crew members in the plane from SFO-TPE were wearing Facemasks. Restrooms were sanitized more often than normal. From TPE to ChingMai 100% of people in plane had facemasks.
2. Upon arrival at Taipei Airport almost all (found only 6 exceptions amongst several hundreds) people were wearing facemasks. So we surrendered and put on masks.
3. On the Second visit to Taiwan in February, there was a body temperature check and individual interview before proceeding to Immigration. Hotel pickup van and reception desks also did temperature checks. 100% of people including foreigners were wearing facemasks.
4. On the third visit in March, same as #3 plus temperature check before entering high speed railway platform. The train was completely full with passengers for 3 hours journey. Everyone was wearing facemask. In the crowded bus from train station to Hotel, on the town streets and in small Alishan forest railways, people were wearing facemasks. Public places were frequently cleaned and sanitized.
5. In January, in early stages of virus spread, Taiwan and Thailand had put ban on travelers from Coronavirus origins places, taking huge losses in tourist revenues. Estimates are over a million tourists were scheduled to visit those countries for the New Year vacation time.
6. One very notable thing was that people were mingling close to one another, walking shoulder to shoulder in crowded markets or in buses and sitting close to others in diffrent places. No social distancing of several feet, but they had facemasks on.

Reflection: Taiwan and some other countries have done a superb job of preventing spread of the virus by Proactive early engagement actions. For some countries it was knowledge and learning from past episodes and having prevention systems in place, for others like New Zealand it was aggressive actions based on the knowledge of what countries like Taiwan had already done. (wise learn from others' experiences).

Full prevention of virus will be achieved only when the source of the virus is eliminated and vaccine is developed. But until then for some of the countries where virus is widely spreading fast: Without pointing fingers at anyone* let us work together to combat this terrible human tragedy. To wear the mask or not to and whether to follow other containment actions, that is not the question. To act for own safety and that of our families and our fellow human being is individual responsibility. United we stand, divided we will fall.

*A few months ago, even respected medical experts in USA were not advocating use of facemasks, not even simple cloth covering face, while medical grade masks were in short supply. But everyone is learning along the way; hard way in this case. A lot of new discoveries are coming up in the process of finding solutions so at times some of the previous information is not valid or may seem contradictory. Medical professionals are working long hours both for containment and finding Prevention solutions. Let us trust that they would do the right things.

Some people are starting to doubt prevention methodologies and also starting to wonder if all this is a Hoax. I would just point to the data and observations from the places presented above. (Following the best known practices vs drifting and not following them).

While thinking about investing in Prevention and/or New Discoveries I remember the words of Steve Jobs: Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Comments

[Prevention Focused fr East]

Before talking about prevention, one must acknowledge the risk ... it is very sad that some "head" of the country eg US and Brazil ... they are simply making their wish list over ride the facts and data ... so they are now top the number casualty of this crisis

[Turn, Turn, Turn]

In many cases, a dozen people in a room cannot agree on anything, so how could the "entire world" get together to create this "Hoax"? What would the benefit be of a "hoax" on this scale? Willful ignorance of fact / science is far worse than any disease that might come along. However, as a friend is fond of saying: "You can't fix stupid".

[Thomas]

"Science is the process of becoming less and less wrong as time goes along."

[Disappointed]

Great points raised.
Unfortunately things spin downwards when leadership either refuses to see the dots, refuses to connect the dots, or have their own Alt-dots

[Humble Warrior]

Great global persepctive... lets learn from what works and stop what doesn't

[American Desi]

Good one. But people who believe in hoaxes don't even care about this data. A close relative in india still bites this is a big hoax, but to what purpose nobody can say.

[Dennis Ferraz]

Can any medical professional eliminate the flu?! The answer is NO. The flu vaccine is barely 50% effective.
This will also be the fate of the Corvid-19 virus. People recover from the flu. But more people recover from the corona-19 virus compared with the flu. Data from numerous countries show that those who died from the corona-19 had very low levels of vitamin D of less than 20ng/ml . Many countries from Europe to Asia are pleading for people to boost their vitamin D levels to 60ng/ml as means of preventing and also for recovering in event of getting this virus. Closing schools, prolonging shutdowns will only cause much more deaths than the corona virus. Death rates are only 0.04% Many of these deaths were made by bad decisions to house infected old people in rest and old homes, causing these deaths. We need to protect the vulnerable. Is this a hoax or a political game to instill fear and promote an election agenda? Yes we should wear masks at all times and look into the science to minimize death rates by improving one’s immune system. The evidence is already out about the benefits of raising one’s vitamin D within a month to reduce the death rates. Schools should be opened at least on a part time basis to keep our kids motivated and also for allowing the population to go back to work. The death rate will be much higher compared to the corridor-19 virus if shut downs are prolonged due to suicide, drug use, depression and house abuse.