[rhino369]

The science doesn't back any of that up.

Covid spread out of Wuhun very early. Once it did, all the masking and quarantining post-infection wouldn't stop it.

The few countries that did keep it under control closed their borders to keep it out and tested/traced the few infections they had to preemptively track it down. But countries that already had a nigh number of cases tried those tactics and it failed. The only country with large number of infections who got back down to Covid Zero was china, and they absolutely used authoritarian tactics.

The third world was never going to accomplish that even with authoritarian tactics.

There is no scenario where COVID doesn't become an a global pandemic once it escapes Wuhan. It's just too contagious.