Zack, Jenn, and Alex are joined by special guest Julia Belluz, Vox's senior health correspondent, to talk about how Vietnam has managed to keep its total coronavirus deaths to just 35 — yes, you read that right, 35 — in part by completely sealing its borders with one of the world’s strictest travel bans. The gang discusses what led Vietnam to take such drastic measures, why they seem to have worked so well, and whether replicating that approach in other countries currently experiencing outbreaks is feasible now that the virus is so widespread. Then they zoom out to look at whether we can take lessons from Vietnam’s experience when thinking about how to deal with the next pandemic.

References:

Here’s Julia’s excellent piece for Vox on how Vietnam handled Covid-19.

Vietnam has long been a Covid-19 success story. Vox wrote about it here and here.

Check out Vox’s “Pandemic Playbook” series, featuring work from friend-of-the-show Jen Kirby on Senegal.

The Hindustan Times notes that the farmers’ protest didn’t lead to India’s second wave.

Here’s Kirby’s piece for Vox on India and its second wave.

The Atlantic published a piece in 2020 about why the pandemic meant the post-9/11 era was over.

Hosts:
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox
Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox
Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox), White House reporter, Vox

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The surprising success of Covid-19 travel bans

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