Coronavirus US: a society that puts the individual before public health lacks common sense

In China, the sense of community is strong, with people working collectively to fight an indiscriminate threat. But, in America, religious and personal freedoms loom large

A society that is losing 3,000 lives a day to Covid-19 lacks the intelligence grounded in the reality of life

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People are surrounded by a sea of white flags planted in memory of coronavirus victims in an art installation titled “In America how could this happen...” in Washington on December 1. Photo: AFP

Frank S. Hong

Frank Hong is a corporate lawyer and the founder of the Shanghai-based Cook Ding Institute.

Published: 1:30am, 12 Dec 2020Updated: 4:06am, 12 Dec 2020

Serious news organisations in the United States have been avoiding the obvious question: is there anything that America can learn from China – as far as saving lives is concerned?

The consensus behind this dodging is as subtle as it is deep-seated. One is an authoritarian nation, while the other is a leader of the free world. There is no moral equivalency, as the saying goes. Sporadic reporting on China’s experience in battling Covid-19 is cast as exotic tales from a remote land.

When Americans occasionally look for comparison in Asia, they choose South Korea and Taiwan as they are democracies. To borrow a phrase from US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who knew effective public health measures would so perfectly align with democracy?

I was at Columbia University doing research on comparative governance when New York City became the epicentre of the pandemic in the US during the first wave in the spring. Last month, when several local infection cases surfaced in Pudong, Shanghai for the first time since the initial outbreak, it also hit home as I am a resident in one of the neighbourhoods of concern.