I understand Jonesy. It was a slight exaggeration on my part too. I think there is a lot of sense in taking the situation seriously, and I'm aware that a lot of people are assholes who won't take enough precautions unless they are forced to do so, but societies also have to maintain function or a lot more people will die and have their lives ruined as a consequence. And unlike in Sweden or Germany, this is not a massive concern for a country like China, where people normally are left to fend for themselves and die as they please.
Indeed, the biggest hesitation on my part to praise China overtly for their response to this pandemic - after they de facto contributed to the spread by initially trying to quiet it down - is that there is little concern from the state about the lives of average citizens in general and how they live and die in poverty. The air in Beijing is clearer right now than it has been in decades, which brings to mind a nasty statistic I saw in a public health report when I was getting ready to visit Shanghai: 1.6 million Chinese die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems caused by polluted air. About 3300 have officially died of corona so far. The extreme measures have little to do with the well-being of the people, who only seem to matter when the world is watching. A lot of other societies have a lot more commitments and responsibilities to the health of their citizens in general, and those go beyond just this pandemic.
