Guest Post by Alex Berenson
Until this summer, Vietnam was a Covid success story.
Many Americans still think of Vietnam as a poor country of rice farmers. In fact, Vietnam’s economy has surged since 2000 as it picks up manufacturing priced out of China, its historic foe to the north. Fewer than 10 percent of Vietnam’s 100 million people now fall below the global poverty line.
Like China, Vietnam has a nominally Communist government better described as pro-growth and authoritarian. And like China, Vietnam moved aggressively to contain the coronavirus last year with apparent success.
In 2020, Vietnam reported fewer than 1,500 Covid cases and 35 deaths. In a March 2021 article, a group of academics – inevitably supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – bragged that Vietnam’s early lockdowns and aggressive contact tracing program deserved the credit.
Just how aggressive? Vietnam detained 4.3 million people in centralized quarantine centers in 2020, and quarantined another 6 million at home.
Continue reading “Insanity in Vietnam”
