COVID-19 Pandemic: What Can the West Learn From the East?

Document Type : Perspective

Authors

1 Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

2 HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

3 Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

4 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada

5 Department of Family Medicine, Western University, London, ON, Canada

6 Department of Population Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Strassen, Luxembourg

Abstract

Differences in public health approaches to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic could largely explain substantial variations in epidemiological indicators (such as incidence and mortality) between the West and the East. COVID-19 revealed vulnerabilities of most western countries’ healthcare systems in their response to the ongoing public health crisis. Hence, western countries can possibly learn from practices from several East Asian countries regarding infrastructures, epidemiological surveillance and control strategies to mitigate the public health impact of the pandemic. In this paper, we discuss that the lack of rapid and timely community-centered approaches, and most importantly weak public health infrastructures, might have resulted in a high number of infected cases and fatalities in many western countries.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. World Health Organization (WHO). Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports (Report 120; May 19, 2020). https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports. Accessed May 20, 2020.
  2. Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. A world at risk: annual report on global preparedness for health emergencies. Geneva: WHO; 2019.
  3. Normile D. Coronavirus cases have dropped sharply in South Korea. What’s the secret to its success? Science 2020. doi:10.1126/science.abb7566
  4. Park S, Choi GJ, Ko H. Information technology-based tracing strategy in response to COVID-19 in South Korea-privacy controversies. JAMA. 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.6602
  5. Dinh L, Dinh P, Nguyen PDM, Nguyen DHN, Hoang T. Vietnam's response to COVID-19: prompt and proactive actions. J Travel Med. 2020;27(3). doi:10.1093/jtm/taaa047
  6. Trevisan M, Le LC, Le AV. The COVID-19 Pandemic: A View From Vietnam. Am J Public Health. 2020. doi:10.2105/ajph.2020.305751
  7. Wang CJ, Ng CY, Brook RH. Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big data analytics, new technology, and proactive testing. JAMA. 2020;323(14):1341-1342. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.3151
  8. Steinbrook R. Contact tracing, testing, and control of COVID-19-learning from Taiwan. JAMA Intern Med. 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.2072
  9. Cowling BJ, Ali ST, Ng TWY, et al. Impact assessment of non-pharmaceutical interventions against coronavirus disease 2019 and influenza in Hong Kong: an observational study. Lancet Public Health. 2020 May;5(5):e279-e288. doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(20)30090-6
  10. Wong SYS, Kin On K, Chan FKL. What can countries learn from Hong Kong's response to the COVID-19 pandemic? CMAJ. 2020;192(19):E511-E515. doi:10.1503/cmaj.200563
  11. Pasquariello P, Stranges S. Excess mortality from COVID-19: a commentary on the Italian experience. Int J Public Health. 2020. doi:10.1007/s00038-020-01399-y
  12. Stafford N. Covid-19: Why Germany's case fatality rate seems so low. BMJ. 2020;369:m1395. doi:10.1136/bmj.m1395
  13. Remuzzi A, Remuzzi G. COVID-19 and Italy: what next? Lancet. 2020;395(10231):1225-1228. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30627-9
  14. Moatti J-P. The French response to COVID-19: intrinsic difficulties at the interface of science, public health, and policy. Lancet.Public Health. 2020;5(5):e255-e255. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30087-6
  15. Gandhi M, Yokoe DS, Havlir DV. Asymptomatic Transmission, the Achilles' Heel of Current Strategies to Control Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(22):2158-2160. doi:10.1056/NEJMe2009758