Why Asia, the outbreak’s champ, is miles from finish
All across the Asia-Pacific region, the countries that led the world in containing the coronavirus are now languishing in the race to put it behind them.
While the United States, which has suffered far more grievous outbreaks, is now filling stadiums with vaccinated fans and cramming airplanes with summer vacationers, the pandemic champions of the East are still stuck in a cycle of uncertainty, restrictions and isolation.
In southern China, the spread of the Delta variant led to a sudden lockdown last week in Guangzhou, a major industrial capital. Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia have also clamped down after recent outbreaks, while Japan is dealing with its own weariness from a fourth round of infections, spiked with fears of viral disaster from the Olympics.
Where they can, people are getting on with their lives, with masks and social distancing and outings kept close to home. Economically, the region has weathered the pandemic relatively well because of how successfully most countries handled its first phase.
But with hundreds of millions of people still unvaccinated from China to New Zealand and with anxious leaders keeping international borders shut for the foreseeable future the tolerance for constrained lives is thinning, even as the new variants intensify the threat.
In simple terms, people are fed up, asking: Why are we behind, and when, for the love of all things good and great, will the pandemic routine finally come to an end?
While the languishing varies from country to country, it generally stems from a shortfall in vaccines.
In some places, like Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand, vaccination campaigns are barely underway. Others, like China, Japan, South Korea and Australia, have seen a sharp rise in inoculations.
But nearly everywhere in the region, the trend lines point to a reversal of fortune. While Americans celebrate what feels like a new dawn, for many of Asia’s 4.6 billion people, the rest of this year will look a lot like the last, with extreme suffering for some and others left in a limbo of subdued normalcy.
Or there could be more volatility. Worldwide, businesses are watching whether the new outbreak in southern China will affect busy port terminals there. Across Asia, faltering vaccine rollouts could also open the door to spiraling variant-fueled lockdowns that inflict new damage on economies, push out political leaders and alter power dynamics between nations.
The risks are rooted in decisions made months ago, before the pandemic had inflicted the worst of its carnage.
Starting in the spring of last year, the United States and several countries in Europe bet big on vaccines, fast-tracking approval and spending billions to secure the first batches. The need was urgent.
But in places like Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, infection rates and deaths were kept relatively low with border restrictions, public compliance with antivirus measures, and widespread testing and contact tracing.
With the virus situation largely under control, and with limited ability to develop vaccines domestically, there was less urgency to place huge orders, or believe in then-unproven solutions.
“The perceived threat for the public was low,” said Dr. C. Jason Wang, an associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine who has studied COVID-19 policies. “And governments responded to the public’s perception of the threat.”
As a virus-quashing strategy, border controls a preferred method throughout Asia go only so far, Wang added:
“To end the pandemic, you need both defensive and offensive strategies. The offensive strategy is vaccines.”