It is unfortunate that this is getting downvoted, but I feel that it is true to at least have an open mind on the number. So, I'd like to give a bit of my own personal context here. I moved to Saigon 4 years ago and I follow the VN news very closely. I've traveled 15k+ km through the whole country (along with Laos and Cambodia), by motorbike. I have been in the largest cities and explored some of the most remote areas.
The thing you need you realize here is that this is the first time the govt, north to south, has really truly cared for its citizens. It sounds harsh, but think about it. No expense spared. 60,000+ people put up in quarantine. Borders locked. Full public reporting of the contact tracing. Locking down entire towns (some I've even been to myself in the not too distant past). The response has been swift and very very nationalizing.
Unlike watching US people split down the middle and fighting about everything, Vietnamese people are quite proud of their country. There is a lot of 'saving or displaying face' type news and actions. At one point, the country went two weeks without a new case... daily proud updates in all the news about this... until some girl flew in from out of town with it and super spread it to a whole bunch more people. After that, things got even more serious.
The point is... the govt is very proud of their track record of zero deaths. Reuters went in and tried to get the govt. to talk about their claims and nobody would speak [0]. If you are so proud of your number, why not tell the world all about how you got there?
This is a govt that hasn't been exactly known for being the most umm, how do I say it nicely ... clean? By the way, one of the heads of their cdc got caught profiteering off test kits.
So, while I'd love to believe that all the sudden the vn govt cares about its citizens more than anything else and that their numbers are magically amazing because of so much hard work. I just find it really hard to believe that a country that borders China and has a litany of social issues, could be so perfect.
I mean, how many millions of pigs did they cull from swine flu? It wasn't like they were able to do nearly as well controlling that one and it wasn't even human!
Oh and one more thing... this won't last. Social distancing is easing in the country. People are going out in masses over the weekend because it is Liberation day. The timing couldn't have been worse. Just look at some of the images in this FB group [1]. Da Lat is a very small mountain town, that is tens of thousands of people. Mostly kids... which means they will go home to their parents... =( This is Vietnam's Florida beaches event...
The thing you need you realize here is that this is the first time the govt, north to south, has really truly cared for its citizens. It sounds harsh, but think about it. No expense spared. 60,000+ people put up in quarantine. Borders locked. Full public reporting of the contact tracing. Locking down entire towns (some I've even been to myself in the not too distant past). The response has been swift and very very nationalizing.
Unlike watching US people split down the middle and fighting about everything, Vietnamese people are quite proud of their country. There is a lot of 'saving or displaying face' type news and actions. At one point, the country went two weeks without a new case... daily proud updates in all the news about this... until some girl flew in from out of town with it and super spread it to a whole bunch more people. After that, things got even more serious.
The point is... the govt is very proud of their track record of zero deaths. Reuters went in and tried to get the govt. to talk about their claims and nobody would speak [0]. If you are so proud of your number, why not tell the world all about how you got there?
This is a govt that hasn't been exactly known for being the most umm, how do I say it nicely ... clean? By the way, one of the heads of their cdc got caught profiteering off test kits.
So, while I'd love to believe that all the sudden the vn govt cares about its citizens more than anything else and that their numbers are magically amazing because of so much hard work. I just find it really hard to believe that a country that borders China and has a litany of social issues, could be so perfect.
I mean, how many millions of pigs did they cull from swine flu? It wasn't like they were able to do nearly as well controlling that one and it wasn't even human!
Oh and one more thing... this won't last. Social distancing is easing in the country. People are going out in masses over the weekend because it is Liberation day. The timing couldn't have been worse. Just look at some of the images in this FB group [1]. Da Lat is a very small mountain town, that is tens of thousands of people. Mostly kids... which means they will go home to their parents... =( This is Vietnam's Florida beaches event...
[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vietna...
[1] https://www.facebook.com/groups/ghiendalat