I wish I wasn’t writing this post, but I am. In a matter of about 2 months Vietnam has gone from the icon of pandemic control in the world to the last on the list. Literally, dead last. In yesterday’s new Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index, Vietnam fell sharply to tie for last place with Thailand. Vietnam was one of the few nations to show economic growth in 2020. With the World Bank showing a 2.9 percent growth in GDP. Though 2021 will no doubt show a different story. The current wave that reached the shores of Vietnam has been proven to be the Delta Variant. And everything that Vietnam did right before April of this year, is proving no match for the deadly variant.
We have been on heavy social distancing orders since early May, three months now. Tomorrow we go on what I like to refer to as a Wuhan style lockdown. We haven’t been able to leave our neighborhood for months. On Sunday at the stroke of midnight going outside at all will be forbidden. The good news is that we were given 48 hours notice, but that hasn’t exactly helped the situation. Stores are allowing only a few customers in at a time, and you have ten minutes. Though supplies are plenty. It has taken us most of the two days to procure everything we needed.
Rolling the dice
Though supplies are plenty, lines are long, and waits are lengthy. And just because supplies are there, doesn’t mean they are at every location. One location I went to had no flour, another no meat. It’s a crap shoot, and each stop comes with a wait, and the unknown answer of, is what I need inside. In the end it was, and I was able to procure plenty for us to wait out the shut in. Seven days is the number we have been given, but that could change. Things change so quickly one can’t be sure. But what I do know is I have a freezer that has a duck in it, chicken, shrimp, ground meats, pork, and a refrigerator filled with vegetables, fruit, drinks, and enough flour and eggs to make all the fresh pasta or bread I may need.
Grocery time
We have several Kilos of fresh rice still left from the An Lao harvest, plenty of work to do, plenty of food to cook, and plenty of apps to stream. We should be okay. I think the most difficult part will be just the isolation. But I’ve sat in an isolated state for six months before. And I didn’t have a beautiful woman who adored me, loving children and dog, or a kitchen to prepare whatever I wanted. That is something I must remind myself. Regardless of how difficult this may become, God has blessed me with all the bounty of the earth.
Why has it gotten so bad
The answer to that question is a complicated one. Lack of vaccines, less than a million people are fully vaccinated in Vietnam, in a country around 100 million. The variants. It’s Delta that’s really kicking our ass. I’ve spoken in previous posts that Vietnam has an incredibly modern and affordable healthcare system, it’s just young and not nearly as robust as western nations. What many don’t know is that though the war for unification ended in 1975, it was immediately followed by wars with both China and Cambodia. Vietnam didn’t see peacetime until 1991.
In that regard it’s technological infrastructure is in many ways much more modern than the west. Mainly due to it mostly being post 90’s. No ancient copper wire and old companies controlling the infrastructure. Fiber is everywhere, and in that vein the healthcare system is just as modern and affordable. Something I was surprised to find out when I first began spending a lot of time here. There just isn’t as much of it. There is a joke among expats that it is cheaper to get a round trip ticket to Vietnam and get a CT scan than it is to pay for one in the US.
A small rant
I saw a picture of downtown Havana on Facebook the other day. Dilapidated buildings, old cars, and it was captioned with “this is what socialism looks like”. Truth is it should say this is what 50 years of US trade embargoes and sanctions look like. Socialism isn’t the enemy, nor is it the boogeyman it’s made to be in the states. Vietnam is a Socialist country, and additionally Communist. But like Democracies, no two are the same. Vietnam would probably look the same as Cuba, but Vietnam decided to play ball.
For 50 years the best cigars in the world, best hand stitched baseballs ever made, among countless other things weren’t allowed on the global market. And auto manufactures haven’t been allowed to import into Cuba for fear of US fiscal punishments. The state of the nation has nothing to do with Socialism, it has everything to do with economic bullying. And even after a lengthy and costly war with the US, Vietnam reached out their hand and called the US a friend. Today Vietnam is the US’ 7th largest importer of goods.
Government
As far as living in a communist, socialist nation, it’s no different than democracies, in that no two are the same. Vietnam stands out in great contrast to it’s communist counterparts. I know I’ve said it before, so I hope this doesn’t sound like a broken record. But the government doesn’t look much different than the US, or a parliamentary system. It’s not perfect, none are. But elections are held every five years, both the President and Prime Minister have term limits, and the popular vote does not determine the President. But it doesn’t in the US either.
And yes there is a bit of a good ol’ boys system here, but isn’t there in the US also? You know what we don’t have in Vietnam? Petty crime laws. No jaywalking, no public drinking laws. No petty crimes of the state, no citizen’s murdered by police officers, no police patrolling the streets pulling people over for the dumbest of things like tail light violations. I’ve never even seen a police patrol in the three years I’ve lived here. You know what I do see? Police officers helping people, pointing people in the right direction when they’re lost, being reasonable, being trusting. In fact, they will often come to your house and warn you discreetly. Maybe even twice if you’re doing something relatively wrong. They don’t want to put people in jail here.
Some stats
Among this lack of visible police presence one would think that crime rates would be out of control. But just the opposite. A person is 55 times more likely to be the victim of a violent crime in the US than in Vietnam. 3 times more likely to be a victim of premeditated murder in the US. In the US for every one million people 42.01 people will be the victim of a murder. In Vietnam that number is 15.81. Addiction rates for opioides are almost 90 percent higher in the US than Vietnam.
And if you want to talk about freedom, I think incarceration rates are a great place to start. For every 100,000 people in the US 715 will be incarcerated in some manner. In Vietnam that number is 71. About the only thing Vietnam ranks higher in are fears of. People in Vietnam have a higher fear of their car being stolen, or being mugged. But they are not, they just have a higher expectation of societal responsibilities. I have never felt as safe and secure driving around a country as I do in Vietnam. All I’m saying is freedom is perspective, and the US needs to look in the mirror.
Click Here for those stats
Rant over
Now, yes the lockdowns are hard. But one thing that has been very evident from the beginning is that public health will always come before profit. The government has worked tirelessly to provide free testing, quarantine, and anything else they can do to mitigate this threat to the population. One of the main reasons vaccine rollouts have been slow is that Vietnam is a couple of months away from completing its own vaccine. The Nanovax. A subunit protein vaccine more in line with standard vaccines like hepatitis and HPV. Believed to be more effective than the mRNA experimental vaccines rolled out in the west.
Types of Vaccines
And I’m no anti-vaccer, but it is true that the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are experimental types of vaccines. They work similar to the CRISPER model by introducing a small piece of new genetic code to an individual’s DNA. Which in turn causes the body to produce a protein that hopefully causes the body to detect the protein and recognize it as a COVID-19 virus thus creating antibodies. The efficacy drops as time goes on because of mutations, and there is no guarantee that the messenger RNA will cause the proper protein to be produced. This type of vaccine can be produced more rapidly than standard vaccines.
The Vietnamese Nanovax is a standard subunit protein vaccine, which introduces the actual protein of the virus in a disabled state. Thus causing the same antibody response. The only difference is there is no need to manipulate DNA, and there is no questioning that the protein the antibody is being built for resembles the COVID-19 virus, because it is protein from the actual virus. We are hoping for a roll out in the next couple of months. Production facilities are currenty being converted and the vaccine is in it’s fourth human trial stage. And it is showing great effectiveness against the Delta variant. Keep your fingers crossed.
But today is now
The aggressiveness of Vietnam’s approach to curbing this pandemic has been as sharp as the sickle on the party flag. But unfortunately the hammer that crosses it has finally fallen. Tomorrow we begin the last thing we can do to stop the spread. We go into complete isolation. No food delivery, no walking the dog, no grocery shopping, tomorrow the needs and wants of the many will be laid aside for the good of us all. And I for one am happy, no, that’s not accurate, I’m proud to do what I can to help my wife and her nation. A nation that has embraced me as an adopted son.
I am proud to be an American. I have just seen many things in my short life. Some good, and some not so good. But I believe America is in crisis. And not because of this pandemic. But because we have all forgotten what it means to be free, to be American. To respect your neighbor, support our community, show compassion towards one another. Every American that goes hungry, then we are all hungry. If an American’s freedoms are infringed upon, it is an infringement on us all. Every American that suffers, then we are all suffering. We’ve lost our way. May we find it again one day, and may God have mercy on us all. In God we trust, whatever that God may look like to you.
Extras
Click Here for a detailed article of how the Delta Variant has brought Vietnam to its knees.
Click Here for the CDC’s page on mRNA vaccines
Nikkei Covid-19 Recovery Index article
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