COVID-19 Pandemic Management Strategies and Outcomes in East Asia and the Western World: The Scientific State, Democratic Ideology, and Social Behavior.

Abstract

In December 2019, a new strain of Coronavirus, later identified as SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) or COVID-19, began to surface in Wuhan, China. By February 2020, COVID-19 had become a pandemic which required emergency measures across the globe. However, regions in East Asia and Europe adopted different pandemic strategies which led to different outcomes. This article approaches different public health strategies, from both natural science and social science perspectives through the lens of East Asia and the Western world in three ways. First, using peer-reviewed scientific literature from the fields of infectious disease, medicine and public health, it examines how Hong Kong and its medical community dealt with the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This is important because Hong Kong has been acknowledged by the scientific community for having the most effective COVID-19 strategy (Gibney, 2020). Second, using scientific literature as a point of departure, it argues that Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea (known as the Four Asian Tigers or East Asian Miracle) excel in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects that provide citizens with the skills to understand the science behind dealing with COVID-19. This article introduces the concept of the “scientific state” to capture such observation which goes beyond the popular belief that East Asian societies are better at obeying pandemic strategies set out by authorities in comparison to the West. Third, and building on the last point, it explores how social norms play an important role in dealing with the pandemic. The article concludes by arguing that an attitude of Anglo-European exceptionalism meant that successful strategies in the East were overlooked and led to undesired outcomes from Western management of the pandemic. Nonetheless, regions in East Asia did extremely well in containing COVID-19 not because of citizens were obedient to undemocratic pandemic management rules, but competent medically trained government ministers set out rules which citizen with high STEM proficiency understood and respected.