Vietnam came out right at the start with a significant fine for not wearing a mask in public.

Really? I've been in Da Nang, Vietnam for over 5 months now, and the fine for not wearing a mask only came during the short quarantine period (@3 weeks) at the start of April.

When I arrived at the end of January (during the Chinese New Year) there were thousands of Chinese tourists mobbing the convenience stores buying up all the masks they could find. At the time I wasn't really aware of what was happening, but clearly they were a step ahead of the game, likely based on past history with SARS and news coming from friends and family back home.

It's pretty amazing how low the case count has been in Vietnam; some locals say, "don't believe the government", but you'd expect any outbreaks/deaths related to COVID-19 to have gotten out by now if the government were in fact trying to hide something.

"significant" is relative. "Up to $13"

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/...

That is significant when the average monthly pay is ~$200.

What if next year a more virulent strand of Covid comes along that kills almost everyone in the world who didn't get exposed to Covid-19. Will you still consider their measures as ALL WORKING? We have no idea how the future is going to unfold. Everyone is faking it while demanding that everyone do as they say.

What if next year aliens arrive and eat us all?

There's no plausible argument from counterfactuals here.

But let's pretend anyway - do you not think that even if a more virulent strain of Covid did arrive, country with proven measures in place has a better chance of dealing with the problem than a country whose current response is a chaotic shambles?

What i'm saying is there is a problem with monocultures. They are more susceptible to being wiped out in a single stroke. I'd say that following a scientific approach, we might want to consider not advocating for everyone to take the exact same course of action. Also, that we have to be careful to not judge success or failure too soon, that assessments can change after a bit more time has passed.

If the course of action has the effect of saving lives, what is wrong with that?

The measure of success is all past and current. If Vietnam loses control over covid, then we can definitely blame them for that. Why? Because they effectively controlled it in the first place.

If they continue their direction, they will be one of the only countries on the planet, not totally infected. Pretty amazing really. If they start experimenting and doing things differently, at least they've setup the protocols for managing things correctly.

Here in the US, we go through these bullshit 'phases' where we go from phase 2 to phase 3 and then back to phase 2. Well, anyone with half a brain could have figured out that wasn't going to work. At least Vietnam is taking this seriously.

They shut their borders entirely... we (the US), can't even do that.

I cannot predict the future, I can only consider the past and think about the present, with an eye to the future.

Faking what? Demanding what?

Then will grab the original Covid-19 and get everyone sick with it before the deadly muted Covid-21 arrives.

What a strange argument to make. What if next year we discover anyone that is infected with the current covid all drops dead after a year of infection? We have no idea how the future is going to unfold so let’s all do random things?