If nobody you know has died of Covid-19, be thankful. Social distancing is working.

I have this little ritual juggling golf balls to keep away alien space invaders from taking over Earth.
Guess that's working, too.

That's sarcasm, by the way. Because libtards cannot detect sarcasm.

Didn't even get a chance to reply this time, darn

Remarkable! How did they do it? Read all about it.

https://www.asiatechdaily.com/how-is-south-korea-winning-the-covid-19-battle-without-any-lockdowns/

And some other countries who were more successful with initial containment of the virus are getting ready to restart:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/australian-dollar-new-zealand-dollar-korean-won-after-containing-coronavirus.html

Perhaps we should learn from what other countries are doing to successfully contain the virus -- and, you know, actually do them. Hey: this is exactly what liberals have been saying all along!

I talked more about this in a comment over here. imgflip.com/i/3y3jzr

Do we have all the tests, PPE, and contact-tracers that we need? Are we ready to go?

LOL...do you know what Hemispheres are, and how the seasons in the southern hemisphere are opposite to those in the northern hemisphere?

New Zealand / Australia are just now heading into Fall, meaning exiting Summer. Flu season and other respiratory outbreaks do not occur in summer. They occur in colder seasons. Their flu season, meaning Australia, is usually June thru September and it peaks in August.

So you're comparing the US in the northern hemisphere which is exiting flu season (already seen it's peak) and Australia/New Zealand who is in the southern hemisphere and hasn't even entered flu season yet.

Brilliant work, KylieF*g.

Secondly, Sweden didn't shutdown their economy, and they didn't have the same testing as South Korea. In fact they have less testing per million than we do. So what does that say? Clearly it calls into question your claims around the efficacy of testing as it relates to stopping the spread of the disease. The United States as a country has far less testing than South Korea on a population adjusted basis, that is for sure. But outside of New York and New Jersey the rest of the country is not facing a major medical crisis. In fact, New York, the hardest hit state, has excess capacity of respirators and hospital beds. So what benefits can we expect to see from testing if a majority of the country is doing fine?

So if liberals are saying "let's learn from other countries", then you better make sure you are controlling for factors such as geography and its impact on timing of flu season and whether or not testing is really going to stop anything.

We don't yet have a good grasp of how seasonality affects Covid-19 transmission. Some think the Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere thing is overblown.

--Dr. Mauricio Santillana, also at Harvard, told Healthline.com: “As of now, we haven’t seen evidence that higher temperatures (and higher humidity), such as those being experienced in the Southern Hemisphere, will lead to decreases in Covid-19 transmission,” he told Healthline.

--“This is in contrast to what one would expect for seasonal influenza … we expect that the Southern Hemisphere will be as vulnerable to the Covid-19 outbreak as the Northern Hemisphere is,” Santillana said.

https://buffalonews.com/2020/04/04/an-update-on-covid-19-seasonality-and-warmer-weather/

And yeah, South Korea and other places like Japan and Taiwan that have managed a better response are all in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway.

As for testing, it is an essential part of the system of "contact-tracing" which is what South Korea did aggressively. This article goes more into it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-south-korea-spread-daily-case-count-decreases-over-time-2020-3

"South Korea also implemented a well-organized contact-tracing program: After tests reveal a positive case, officials use interviews, GPS phone tracking, credit-card records, and video surveillance to trace that person's travel history, according to The Washington Post."

"We don't yet have a good grasp of how seasonality affects Covid-19 transmission"

It's a respiratory disease. And we do know the Covid-19 virus dies faster in sunlight and warmer weather. Now, I know this leaves a lot of room for deductive reasoning, so let me help you because you have problems with this. In the summer, it's warmer and there is more light, as the sun is visible longer. Both bad for the virus.

So comparing Northern and Southern hemisphere countries AT THE SAME TIME is nonsensical. This is why examining countries such as Sweden controls for more factors, and there takes more variables out of the equation.

Next, you are now taking about "contact tracing" and saying that testing is critical to that effort which is actually responsible for limiting the disease spread. That's better, but still you are missing something. Can I ask you another question? Do you know anything about the laws of the country you live in? There is no way, because someone tests positive for a disease that the government could access your phone records, GPS records and credit card data. We have health privacy laws and the 4th Amendment, which thank God is not overridden by "police power" granted to states.

This renders all of your comparisons to South Korea as moot, because the governing Dynamics of country and it's laws preclude such invasive Government surveillance.

HIPAA and other health-privacy laws do pose an obstacle to the same kinds of contact-tracing practiced by other countries. Should we leave those laws be, or amend them in order to facilitate the disclosure of information to health agencies and authorities in order to fight pandemics?

How much are we willing to pay as a country to zealously guard the concept of health privacy?

What's better: contact-tracing or potentially longer lockdowns?

Tough questions.

"HIPAA and other health-privacy laws do pose an obstacle to the same kinds of contact-tracing practiced by other countries"

Yes, they do. And thank God.

Then you do not favor a solution that's been demonstrated to work in other countries, and which spared them from resorting to lockdowns.

It's probably safe to say the authors of HIPAA didn't anticipate a situation of this magnitude (no one did), and laws can and should be amended if they no longer fit our needs.

I don't have a solution to tell you that contact tracing as implemented in South Korea is not and viable here for Constitutional reasons.

We have 1million+ confirmed cases and NO CONTACT TRACING like we see in South Korea? Why? We know they are infected. Could it be because it wouldn't pass for "probable cause" to subpoena the records of 1 million+ Americans? Hmmm....

The reality is, outside of New York and New Jersey, there really isn't a crisis that warrants shutting down the country.

And you forgot the 4th amendment argument.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Just because I have the sniffles doesn't mean the Government can have probable cause to search my personal records.