Before any catastrophe occurs and comes in full swing, we believe ourselves prepared to handle it, we think and wholeheartedly believe that we can handle the carnage it will bring, however we thought wrong for this pandemic. 

Coronavirus is gone in some countries, disappeared and erased from the memories of those who live there.  However, here in the United States, the country with 3,800 nuclear warheads, the nation that spends 718.69 billion dollars on the military but still makes many of its citizens pay out of pocket for cancer treatment, still deals with the virus daily.

Yes, this is a critique. It’s important to call out the nation you live in, and with that, the United States handled the pandemic horribly.

From states removing the mandatory mask law, to even the Turlock natives here rushing to go back to school for absolutely no reason, this pandemic could have been over, or at least handled better before the arrival of the vaccines.

Enough of the pessimistic nihilism though. It’s common knowledge that in some countries coronavirus is practically gone and people move on with their lives normally, one such case is in South Korea. In 2015 with the devastation the MERS outbreak brought to Asia, the South Korean government decided to pass 48 reforms to bolster public safety and public health response and preparedness in the case of another deadly virus (learning from tragedy is something this country can do as well). Of course, this paid off, because when the coronavirus hit the Korean peninsula, they were very ready. The line was flattened very quickly without the need to close businesses and thus, the economy did not suffer as much as every other country.

New Zealand also handled Covid-19 very, very well. Early on they closed the border and in March of 2020 they introduced a strict lockdown which technically went on for 7 weeks, this allowed them to become Covid-19 free, all it took were strict measures being put in place almost immediately. It’s almost as if you’re ripping off a bandaid, a very painful one to say the least.

These two nations should be looked at and quite frankly, looked up at because there’s something we can learn. It’s important to admit when someone does something better than you, and in the future we can hopefully be more prepared to deal with something as destructive as a pandemic.