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China is back to normal — the US and Europe are not. Here’s how it succeeded.
China stamped out COVID-19 within months and has responded to small outbreaks by testing entire cities in days.
By Bill Bostock
China, where the novel coronavirus was first discovered, is now by most measures in the clear, with much of life returning to normal.
It is a startling reversal from January and February, where China appeared to be in chaos as the rest of the world looked on.
China’s recovery was particularly evident over Golden Week, one of China’s largest holidays, which ran from October 1 to October 7.
Some 637 million people — or 46% of the entire country’s population — traveled around China that week, spending between them $69 billion on holidays, shopping trips, weddings, and visits to relatives, state media said.
Meanwhile, the US and a number of European nations are struggling to quash their outbreaks and reignite their economies following widespread job losses and recessions.
The US Thanksgiving holiday weekend is a little more than a month away. On Wednesday, the top US infectious-disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said Americans must “sacrifice” it if they hope to prevent another surge of cases.
