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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.workers.org/2020/08/50904/">https://www.workers.org/2020/08/50904/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">On socialist Vietnam’s response to COVID-19</h1>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">August 27, 2020<br></div>
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<div><p>By Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan and Merle Ratner</p>
<p><i>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 <a href="http://youtu.be/Owcdxs_7dWw">youtu.be/Owcdxs_7dWw</a>.</i></p>
<p><img src="https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/AFD-Ho-Chi-Minh-City-Vietnam-1-678x303.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="202"></p>
<p>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].</p>
<p>The Ministry of Health gives instant reporting at <a href="http://ncov.moh.gov.vn">ncov.moh.gov.vn</a>
where data is submitted directly from local hospitals across the
country.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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..</p>
<p>How did Vietnam, a developing country still dealing with the impact
of United States chemical warfare, manage to achieve such impressive
results?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>Socialist values against the pandemic</b></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>Science, cultural work, centralized planning applied</b></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>People’s power democracy</b></p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.” (<a href="http://ourworldindata.org/COVID-19-exemplar-vietnam">ourworldindata.org/COVID-19-exemplar-vietnam</a>)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><b>Socialist analysis</b></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><i>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.</i></p>
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