[News] On socialist Vietnam’s response to COVID-19

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.workers.org/2020/08/50904/ On socialist Vietnam’s response to
COVID-19
August 27, 2020
------------------------------

By Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan and Merle Ratner

*This slightly edited co-written article was presented as a talk by Dr. Ngo
Thanh Nhan on Aug. 20 to a Workers World Party webinar on “COVID can be
defeated: Cuba, China, Venezuela & Vietnam lead the way.” The presentation
began with a lively pop music video, part of Vietnam’s national public
health campaign, “Vietnam, dare to win, dare to beat the coronavirus!”
viewable at youtu.be/Owcdxs_7dWw <http://youtu.be/Owcdxs_7dWw>.*

Tonight, I’d like to talk about Vietnam’s experience in combating COVID-19.
The first case in Vietnam was on Jan. 23. Between then and early July there
were about 200 cases of infection – and no deaths. The second wave of the
new strain of COVID-19 started on July 1. Even with this second wave, as of
today, Aug. 20, Vietnam has recorded only 1,034 cases with 29 deaths.  Many
of those who died had terminal illness and some cases were related to
long-term illness from Agent Orange toxins [from the 1955-1975 U.S. war on
the country].

The Ministry of Health gives instant reporting at ncov.moh.gov.vn where
data is submitted directly from local hospitals across the country.

Vietnam is a country of more than 97 million people, so 29 deaths is 0.299
per million of the population. The United States is a country of 331
million people where there have been more than 183,650 deaths, which is
554.83 per million–or 1,855.82 times proportionally bigger.

The second wave of COVID-19 is centered in Da Nang, the third-largest city
in Vietnam, and a major tourist destination and transit city for foreign
workers. Da Nang is also the second-largest hot spot for Agent
Orange/dioxin in the land and water..

How did Vietnam, a developing country still dealing with the impact of
United States chemical warfare, manage to achieve such impressive results?

First and foremost is the dedication to defeat COVID-19 with a priority on
saving lives. Early on the Prime Minister of Vietnam declared that the
entire country would focus all of its human potential and economic and
technological capacity on ending the pandemic.

It was designated a campaign like the campaigns Vietnam fought to win
national liberation. The slogan was “Vietnam, dare to win, dare to beat the
corona virus.”  Preserving human life and health was the highest focus
rather than Vietnam’s economic growth!  Reopening the economy was only done
when it was deemed safe for workers and their communities.

*Socialist values against the pandemic*

Vietnam is a socialist-oriented market economy. To deal with COVID-19, the
Communist Party in Vietnam applied socialist values and strategy to
overcome the weaknesses of the market economy.

The Party and the government did a materialist analysis of COVID-19 — of
where and to whom it was being transmitted and how it could be fought. They
took into account the real conditions in Vietnam.

As a mid-level developing socialist country, Vietnam could not rely on an
abundant supply of high-tech medical equipment but could rely on a public
health system that had been built up for many years to serve the people.
While Vietnam’s hospital system varies in quality, its preventive health
and public health planning and response is impressive, with a serious
investment in public health infrastructure such as emergency operations
centers. Vietnam had also learned from its experience in earlier SARS and
avian influenza pandemics.

Vietnam decided to focus on stopping the outbreak before it spread widely,
using contact and community tracing, testing where available, and a massive
public education and outreach program.

In the areas where COVID-19 had spread, Vietnam shut down non-essential
businesses and schools. In neighborhoods with a high incidence, residents
were placed under strict quarantines. People were asked to stay in their
homes to avoid further transmission and were provided with food, medicine
and medical care. People coming from overseas underwent a mandatory
two-week quarantine in hotels or other centers where they were provided
with free food, lodging and medical treatment.

Everyone had access to treatment whatever their financial status. Masks and
PPE were widely available to medical people, to essential workers and to
ordinary people.

*Science, cultural work, centralized planning applied*

Vietnam utilized the latest science to study the strains of COVID-19 from
the first to the second wave. Early on they developed a comprehensive
system of contact tracing using a community model that extended down to the
grassroots level, the urban neighborhoods and rural hamlets. Leaders told
the truth to the people, early and often, about the science of COVID-19 and
what people could do to prevent exposure.

Vietnam was very quickly able to get factories to pivot to producing
everything from PPE to medical equipment. Science and technology experts
played a role by inventing phone applications that allowed people to see if
people were infected with COVID-19 within a certain radius. Signing up for
these apps was voluntary and popular.

Information and cultural workers were mobilized to educate, update, inspire
and mobilize the people to fight COVID-19. Colorful banners on the streets,
announcements on TV, and daily briefings by the prime minister and city
leaders conveyed a clear, practical, consistent and compassionate message.

The government through its ministries, particularly the Ministry of Health,
mobilized broader networks to disseminate instantaneous information through
central online platforms. Together with health workers, young artists
produced a popular song showing people how to wash their hands properly,
which was widely circulated on Vietnamese media and internationally. This
consistent information and cultural work prevented the spreading of
misinformation and rumors.

*People’s power democracy*

Everything we’ve just described has been covered by the international
press. What has not been a focus, and what is, in fact, most crucial to
Vietnam’s success, is people’s power and socialist democracy in Vietnam!

This is the human protagonist in socialism, and it is what made all the
difference in Vietnam’s ability to do so well in fighting COVID-19.
Exemplars in Global Health described this approach as “a strong
whole-of-society approach [that] engages multi-sectoral stakeholders in
decision-making process and activate[s] cohesive participation of
appropriate measures.” (ourworldindata.org/COVID-19-exemplar-vietnam)

The campaign against COVID-19 was carried out by the Communist Party, the
mass organizations and the whole people. With the Party playing the leading
role in setting the policy and strategy, it mobilized Party members from
the grassroots to the provinces to the national level to develop, explain
and implement the COVID-19 strategy.

Mass organizations involved are the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vietnam
Women’s Union, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Vietnam Farmers
Union, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, and the Vietnam
Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin. Many other mass
organizations, including the army, leapt in to action to organize their
members in the public health campaign.

The neighborhood block associations played a complementary role to that of
the party and the mass organizations. These block organizations constitute
the smallest unit of community organization and exist in many streets in
cities and the countryside across Vietnam.

Neighbors helped their neighbors to identify symptoms of COVID-19 and to
access medical care. They helped enforce mask wearing and other quarantine
rules by exerting social pressure in their collectively oriented
communities, curbing any self-centered or selfish behavior. There were no
armed protests against the quarantine in Vietnam as there were here in the
U.S.

*Socialist analysis*

One of the hallmarks of a socialist society is the ability to do analysis
of time, place and condition, and develop strategy and tactics to meet the
needs of the people at that time. This goes together with regular
assessments of what was successful and what was not, drawing lessons for
improvement.

Criticism/self-criticism is practiced to strengthen people’s work, using
their strength to overcome their weaknesses.  This allowed Vietnam to
identify complacency after the first wave of the virus as a problem and to
take corrective measures to stem the second wave with popular mobilization.

Vietnam’s response to COVID-19 has an internationalist focus as well. Cuba
and Vietnam have a particularly strong cooperation. Cuba sent Vietnam a
team of medical experts and thousands of vials of an antiviral drug,
Interferon alfa-2b, to fight against COVID-19. Vietnam recently donated
three tons of medical equipment to Cuba, including rapid test kits, masks
and protective suits along with 5,000 tons of rice.  Vietnam also helped
other countries suffering from the pandemic, even sending donations of PPE
to Europe and the U.S.

You can see how differently socialist Vietnam manages the COVID-19 crisis
than the United States. In Vietnam, people’s level of confidence in the
Communist Party and the government has been strengthened by the
achievements of the campaign to defeat COVID-19. People feel a strong sense
of pride, as the country has come together to support everyone, and to do
what few other countries have been able to do.

*Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan is with the Viêt Solidarity & Action Network, Vietnam
Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign, and also Việt Solidarity
and Action Network for Black Lives Matter, Mekong-NYC. They ask readers to
note that the views expressed here are their personal opinions.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20200831/f64013e5/attachment.htm>