We're not even remotely ready for the next pandemic. In 3 years if we had COVID-20 with exactly same level of infectiousness and death I'd expect the USA to still have 300k deaths a year for 1.5 years. That's not "ready". Ready would be if the USA was as effective as Taiwan. That will never happen though because the culture of the west is "me" where as the culture of the east is "us".
We still have a culture of "us", it simply wasn't fully tapped into in 2020.
In September 2001, it felt as if "we" had been attacked. Just as in 2020, people began signing up and volunteering to take on the cause. New Yorkers, in particular, suddenly noticed their neighbors and pulled together as a community. I saw the same from within the mask-donation and mask-manufacturing movement this year. Thousands of people, in an entirely grassroots way, stepped up to find one another and address a grave and essential problem.
What stymied the response to Covid in the United States most seems to have been a lack of engaged, concerned, and coordinated epidemiological response at the federal level. That it failed is ultimately not "the government's" fault, it is ours, as citizens. That public-safety measures designed to protect us, our neighbors, and our most-vulnerable became political footballs is our fault. We need to find ways to grow our national sense of responsibility toward others -- it is a challenge that each of us can take on.
2020 has been a championship opportunity for all of us. 2021 will be, too.
I suspect that it has more to do with the people in power than a general statement of selfishness vs. selflessness. To give you an example of what I mean: I live in a Canadian province where the infection rate is about 1/10th that national average, and nationally Canada has about 1/4th the infection rate of the US. While there are some cultural differences, it seems like a bit of a stretch to attribute the much more positive outcome to the sense of "me" vs. "us".
To be blunt about it: politicians in other jurisdictions were not up to the task. I was shocked to hear that many provinces did not impose self-isolation requirements upon entry. I was shocked to hear how few public health restrictions were imposed upon their businesses, even when things started spiralling out of control. When you have a virus to contain, you need someone who will make tough decisions and deliver clear messaging so things can recover in four weeks instead of dragging on for four months (and counting). While local attitudes may have helped to improve compliance with public health measures, it can only play a role when there is something to comply with.
I don't get why people keep repeating that being an island is a big deal in a modern pandemic. Infected people came into the US by plane, and general incompetence caused it to explode from within. It wasn't caused by some rush of infected Mexicans slipping through the southern border.
Taiwan didn’t weld anyone’s doors shut, though, or even have lockdowns. The “us” culture here is just that people don’t come up with insane, I’m-smarter-than-the-experts conspiracy beliefs. The government says wear masks in public and people do it, because the simplest interpretation is that the government is trying to prevent an epidemic. The guy who recently caused the only local transmission in over 250 days is probably the most hated man in Taiwan right now because he selfishly disregarded the health of others in order to enjoy himself. In the US, he’d just be behaving like the average person.
I also believe that most of the Taiwan model’s success is thanks to smart policies and responsible governance, but there is something to be said for the cultural aspect, and it’s not a totalitarian hellhole sacrificing a few by welding them in their homes to save the many.
Agreed, they certainly have some people in charge with their heads screwed on right. From October's NPR interview [1] with "digital minister" Audrey Tang (of myriad Perl fame):
> There was a case when a worker in an intimate drinking bar was diagnosed with COVID. She did not initially review the contact because of, you know, professional requirements. But, of course, that will hurt the reliable information requirement for contact tracing. And we did not, however, do any top-down, shutdown, takedown, lockdown of those places.
> But rather, the people in the CECC, because they already had extensive prior experience working with HIV-positive communities - so they designed what we call a real contact system. So as long as people can be effective contacted and also social distancing requirements are met, no data is sent to the central government. And so they develop creative approaches such as leaving codenames, single-use email, pre-paid mobile phone numbers, hats with the plastic chuting to maintain physical distancing. And then they reopened."
