The image below shows the COVID-19 stats for Thailand. This is what it means to have a responsible public, Thailand is a country with 70 million people. Only 58 deaths, and nearly all others have recovered.

The results for South Africa are in stark contrast, with 7067 deaths and two orders of magnitude more infections for a smaller population. It is all to do with masks, nothing else. People in Thailand wear masks, people in South Africa only just started doing a half-assed job of wearing masks, and many don’t.

It has fuck all to do with government, it has to do with people’s irresponsible attitudes. Government should make free masks available to all people, it would be the single biggest contribution they could make. The second biggest would be to flog people not wearing masks within an inch of their lives. This would be over a lot faster if people just took responsibility for their own health and their own actions.

From a friend in Thailand

Before the pandemic started, there was a rumor that we have first case, a Chinese woman. The same day, masks quickly sold out everywhere. People already started to protect themselves, and soon started to make fabric masks, following doctors’ advice. Very soon, if you did not were mask in a public place you would have a very negative reaction from the people around you. If you made just small sneeze without mask, somone might take a photo of you and put it on social media to shame you. You might be hunted down the next day!

We have this narrative going around that we are helpless. We are not helpless. We are just useless.

And then there is the USA, where politics is creating mass murder on an almost unprecedented scale. Over 151 thousand dead, almost 4.5 million infected. For. Political. Reasons. And because Trump has made idiocy mainstream.

In the USA it has a lot to do with government, and with crappy attitudes and irresponsible behaviour. The irresponsible behaviour is the main factor, because responsible people would behave responsibly even if their politicians are complete idiots like Trump and some of the state Governors.

The world could be emerging from this COVID-19 nonsense by now. We are not helpless, we are just useless.