Grant Newsham: Asian countries are taking a different approach to coronavirus than the US

Grant Newsham, Senior Research Fellow at Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, joins Secure Freedom Radio to describe how East Asian countries are coping with and managing the coronavirus crisis.

“The approach here is certainly different from what I hear about in the US. I will start with Japan- If a visitor arrived here today they would really have no idea anything unusual was going on here, except for if they went to a sumo match or baseball game and there would no one in the stands. So, pretty much day to day life is occurring as it always does, trains maybe aren’t quite as crowded as they usually were but stores and restaurants are open and you can go about your daily life. There is really none of the panic and lockdown that you seem to have in the US. Obviously, flights are not as frequent as they used to be but there is a very different approach to this virus here than in the US. Taiwan obviously has gotten very good coverage for its extremely efficient and comprehensive approach to the Wuhan virus from the beginning, and it really stands in stark contrast to how mainland China has approached it. Korea as well is taking a slightly different approach with a lot more testing, etc. Society hasn’t decided it is necessary to bring human activity to a halt to deal with the virus here.”

Listen to the full interview here