I wish I could share with you the entirety of this infographic-filled article at the Wall Street Journal explaining how COVID-19 has spread, presumably from Wuhan, China to all of China and from there to all the rest of the world. I found it extremely interesting. One barchart, a bar for every country reporting cases of COVID-19 and ordered by the date on which the country first reported a case, stretches for most of two pages. Here’s the first few inches:
I wish the heat map aspect of it was regulated based on cases per million population rather than by total number of cases. I suspect that would tell a very different story.
The case of Japan is particularly interesting. Japan has substantial contact with China and a large population but the outbreak there has been relatively mild. Why? Same with Taiwan. IMO there’s more going on there than just testing.
The Guardian had an article suggesting that (aside from China where it first broke) countries that had extensive experience with SARS were better prepared to enact travel bans, quarantines, and shutdowns.
Apparently, places like Hong Kong routinely shut down their schools for seasonal flu outbreaks now.
My visits to Japan left me with the impression it is one of the most hygienic societies in the world.
Japan is also (essentially) a homogeneous country with an extremely high degree of social cohesion and a population predisposed to conform. Or, in other words, different from the U. S. in practically every way.
There are other interesting patterns.
Why has the “Latin” block (Italy, France, Spain) been hit so hard (based on deaths) while the German block (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) has an incredible number of cases but very few deaths.
I’ve already provided my explanation for that: proxemics, although cleanliness in daily life may be a factor as well. I’d say we’re somewhere in between.