Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Slovakia

Not a nation about which I often blog.  12/4/20 New York Magazine interviews Harvard epidemiologist about how Slovakia cut their infection rate in half by retesting everyone in the country over four weekends and focusing on those who were infected. 

We could probably do that here,  bur so many people either think it is a hoax, or behave American (they want me to do it? I do not care even if I benefit).
 
This CDC report suggests failure. 

12/7/20 Guardian says it worked:

Mass testing for Covid brought down the infection rate in Slovakia by about 60% in one week, say UK researchers – but in combination with tough quarantine rules and other measures that are not being implemented in Liverpool or elsewhere in the UK.

Slovakia guaranteed high take-up of the rapid tests by requiring employers not to allow people to work without a certificate to prove they had tested negative. Anybody who got a positive result had to go into quarantine with their family, but their full salary was paid for the 10 days of isolation.

6 comments:

  1. What does this mean?
    "Slovakia curr their infection rate in half by reading everyone in the country over four weekends[.]"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It means that I should not blog from my phone. Fixed.

      Delete
  2. Homogeneous, high-IQ countries can do things that diverse countries can't.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your link is broken. I get a 404 error.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We could do lots of stuff, if our people allowed it. South Korea has done well with massive contact tracing. But our privacy obsessed culture wouldn't allow it. Australia has done well by harsh lockdowns - because they target them and only employ them when needed. China has used the same tactic successfully - but of course, a totalitarian society can do this easily, if brutally.

    ReplyDelete