Is it possible that they are all effectively islands? For example, it appears that Vietnam has miles of jungle between its major cities and neighboring countries. The same cannot be said for the US and Europe.
There's not a whole lot of evidence that illegal border crossings from Canada are a major driver of the spread in the US.
And of course, the same can be said for Mexico (because the main driver of the spread in the US is people not taking simple steps to prevent it).
Travel to Canada has been restricted for much of the year (I live in Michigan; there's a warning 4 hours from the border that travel is restricted). But that's because Canada isn't letting their fool neighbors in.
> There's not a whole lot of evidence that illegal border crossings from Canada are a major driver of the spread in the US.
Ironically it's the other way around, too. Our borders are shut to tourists, but they keep showing up in Canmore and Banff anyway. And now Alberta has a serious problem with Covid spread, and a friend of my sister's just died a couple days ago from it. They have 1/3 the population of Ontario, yet close to the same numbers of daily cases and hospitalizations, which suggests triple the velocity.
There are compounding reasons as well, but everyone I know that lives there is complaining about all the Americans constantly showing up.
Don't blame the Americans for what that fool of a premier J Kennedy has done. Alberta could have clamped down the 3rd wave like BC has. Instead JK followed the right ringers wish and let everyone continue to gather.
Oh, we commiserate, with such shite provincial leadership right now.
In this case, I was putting the blame both ways. The thread started by blaming Canadians. Jason Kenney (not Kennedy, that's some other bloke) made the border so weak there that Alberta is inundated with US-bred Covid hotspots. Of course it's going in the other direction, too. There are hotspots trading germs by deciding they should visit each other, mingle, go home, repeat.
Canada isn't taking so many cases to the US. Unless you look at Alberta. Kenney there has screwed that up in both directions by somehow not noticing the tourists going through either way. He's turned it into a slow cooker of viral stew.
If I sound pissy about it, it's because both sides of the border should be shutting that down and not allowing it, even through the loopholes they are both entertaining at this particular stretch. My sister's best friend died of Covid that she caught in Banff 4 days ago. She lived and worked there, and complained about the number of Americans showing up. What a surprise.
It's both ways. There are conservatives that enjoy Trump's ideals - pretty much defining Alberta. They're gonna kill us all eventually.
Ontario is stricter about it, and everyone (again on both sides of the border) bitch about it. The problem in Ontario is the sticker-monger wants to let you celebrate and then lock down so you die out of sight of the public.
We'll never get ahead of this when everyone thinks they are somehow not the ones transporting this virus around, yet won't stop travelling and "breathing moistly."
Those miles of jungle are crisscrossed by roads, trains and ferries, just like US and Europe. Vietnam is a country of nearly 100M people with strong trade and transport links to the world, and over in Thailand, Bangkok is the most popular tourist destination in the world.
There is very little tourism right now, ever since this started.
But before that, Vietnam (population 97M) had close to 20M international arrivals last year, Germany (population 83M) had 39M, Thailand (population 70M) had 40M.
Vietnam has essentially one train line across the county that only splits up in the very north into two train lines into China. Vietnam has 2,600km of train lines, Germany for comparison has more than 41,000km, for a comparable area size. Vietnam has about 12M train passenger rides a year (pre-Corona of course), Germany has more than 2000M (does not include intra-city light rail rides). Thailand, with an area about 1.5x of either Vietnam or Germany, has 4,400km of train lines and 38M passenger rides.
Vietnam has about 250,000km of roads (50% paved), Germany has 600,000km (mostly paved). Vietnam has about 3M motorized vehicles (31 per 1000 population, but there is probably a significant number of unaccounted motor scooters), Germany has 56M motorized vehicles (701 per 1000), Thailand has 40M motorized vehicles (half being motor scooters/bikes, probably a significant number of unaccounted motor scooters) (571 per 1000).
You said "just like the US or EU", but I disagree given these numbers. The mobility, especially medium and long distance mobility, seem quite different.
Public life - as dictated by climate conditions and of course economic constraints - differs as well. Average temperature in Vietnam is 24°C, Thailand 26°C and Germany 9°C (and Spain/Greece/Italy aka the South of Europe it's 13°C). A lot more public life, incl paid and unpaid work, happens outside in Vietnam and Thailand, compared to Europe. When it was summer in Europe, we had a lot fewer cases and deaths than when it was cold and is now cold again. Colder weather and indoor living/working seems to heavily correlate with Corona, at least in Europe.
This doesn't mean we cannot learn from nations such as Vietnam and Thailand, but it's also not as straight forward as trying to outright mimic what they did and do in response to the pandemic.
And of course, the same can be said for Mexico (because the main driver of the spread in the US is people not taking simple steps to prevent it).
Travel to Canada has been restricted for much of the year (I live in Michigan; there's a warning 4 hours from the border that travel is restricted). But that's because Canada isn't letting their fool neighbors in.