During the Covid-19 pandemic, do as the Vietnamese do

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Staff spray disinfectant at a dormitory in Ho Chi Minh City for the city to use it as centralized facility to quarantine those coming to Vietnam from areas hit by Covid-19, March 18, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.

Here’s my latest essay for VNExpress International. Below are a couple of introductory paragraphs to whet your appetite for more (or not). Follow this link or click on the above image to read the essay in its entirety. I talk about a possible “silver lining” towards the end.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnam is doing all of the right things, placing the health and well-being of its people and foreign visitors, i.e., all people, above all else. The result so far is relatively few confirmed cases of the coronavirus. 

Vietnam has received global praise, including from the World Health Organization (WHO), for the steps it’s taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus, including quarantine for individuals who meet certain criteria. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam noted: “If fighting Covid-19 has been a war, then we have won the first round, but not the entire war because the situation can be very unpredictable.”

NOTE: A slightly edited version of this article appeared in the 25 March 2020 issue of CounterPunch.

Shalom (שלום), MAA