Originally Posted by Rjk
I think a lot of this issue comes from the arrogance of the Western nations, who have a long history of thinking themselves superior.
There hasnt been a serious outbreak like this in Western Europe for 100 years, so we were ill prepared.
In places in the far east, they have had SARS, Bird FLu and MERS to contend with all in living memory, so there is a much higher awareness in the general population.
They learned some hard lessons during those other outbreaks and were better placed or it.
We had the chance to learn their lessons without the pain, but at the start of the pandemic there was a kind of arrogance that people assumed we would somehow not be affected.
Even when the outbreak started in Italy, one of my colleagues was sure that it was because the Italians go around kissing each other on the cheeks everywhere they go, and the stiff upper lip brits would probably be ok.
As per the link i posted on the other thread, in Hong Kong they have had no deaths in care homes. They were aware of the risk and immediately took action.
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