It's not my first day on the internet and I realize that most, if not all open forums are filled with misinformation and trolls but this particular article's comments section really stood out to me because I am actually living in the area in question and moved here during the time period a lot of these comments are referring to.
The article was entitled "Vietnam says next 10-15 days 'decisive' in country's virus fight" and was just a snippet explaining what we all believe now (whether or not it is true, who knows) about the 2 week period being important for some reason.
source
The article itself just details how many cases there are in Vietnam and how the Prime Minister (who I would say has done a wonderful job as far as containment is concerned while still allowing a great deal of freedom) has managed to keep the total infection below 150 cases despite being so near the epicenter of the virus.
Then the comments section hit me and I encountered a ton of uninformed, completely wrong information in there and I suspect every single forum on this and really every other topic is filled with around the same.
There isn't one iota of truth in either one of these statements. There is no suffering other than economic ones in the tourism industry. I live in one of the most popular tourist areas and ok, there are plenty of people who are out of work because the borders were all but cut off quite some time ago.
You may recall that when I moved here in late February that there were very few available options to get in. Also, the border to China was closed to travelers already by the time I arrived and all flights had been discontinued from China. Profiling and additional checks were put on anyone with Chinese citizenship or even if they had a stamp from China, Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea over a month ago.
If you think this is something I am making up I challenge you to find a flight from China or really anywhere else from anywhere outside of Vietnam to anywhere inside of it.
There is no money being made on tourism right now and anyone who does manage to find a flight in has to go through a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
First off, anyone who chooses "Truck Fump" as a username probably has a very one-track mind about everything and spouts off nonsense any chance they get. I think this is true for anyone who comes up with stupid-ass names for any political figure they don't care for.
The out-of-control virus might be out-of-control where you live "Truck" or maybe you have been duped into believing that it is.... but I can assure you that is not the case here. A friend of mine (who also lives here in Vietnam) needed to go to the hospital a week ago for a routine physical, and there was almost nobody there other than a plethora of very helpful staff. No panic, no absence of beds, no chaos at all.
This person, who probably comes from the other side of the political aisle than our pal "Truck," has been taught to HATE anything related to communism. I'm not advocating for a political ideology, but I live in this "lying, communist country" and actually feel a great deal more free to do what I want than most of the other places I have ever lived.
"The VN Communists are sending the poor vietnamese innocents around the world for slave works..." WTAF are you talking about?
Also again, no, Chinese are not allowed to freely enter Vietnam. You would have to have a very very special situation to be allowed in at all if you are coming from China, even in a roundabout way and then you would have to be quarantined.
The Chinese normally constitute a vast majority of the tourist mix here in Da Nang and the near complete absence of anyone Chinese is the reason why most tourism-related businesses are completely shut down at the moment.
Overall, I think that while it is not unusual for a comments section to be filled with a bunch of garbage this one was particularly special because looking at all 50 comments, I don't think there was a single one made by anyone who has even the slightest idea about what they are talking about.
If there is anything good that could come out of this mentality, perhaps it will keep those who are like-minded to these goons from ever coming here. I would personally really like that.
That's some crazy talk but just like you said, the internet is a nasty place. These people have no clue as to what is really going on over here.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That is very nice of you to address the misconceptions being spread out, I guess such things are somehow like this virus only, bring one misconceptional and not thoughtful comment on internet, it will spread like the virus. So that is why we should be well aware of the reality and people like you are helping on this ground and moreover we should be at home only as covid-19 is spreading like fire. Even my country's P.M. Modi ji have declared complete lockdown of India for next 21 days. You too stay safe :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It is so easy to blame politicians for everything. I live in Hungary, and here they have a Prime minister who is doing most things wrong... and somehow, the people like it, even though he is leading the country back into some sort of a dictatorship again. But, when I meet people who hate him so much, that they are unable to say one nice thing about him, then I know that something is wrong again! It is the typical phenomena of "always, never" and so on. That is seldom true, and when you use those expressions (in marriage, in politics, or anywhere), it means that you are not watching clearly. And I guess that is also happening when it comes to the coronavirus. People use it for their own political propaganda...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
nothing fuels fake news better than ignorance and fear
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I will say after living in DN for 6 months during the beginning of the virus, I do believe the number of cases to be underreported. I will not make any unsubstantiated claims about the government because I am not knowledgable enough to speak on the issue (though that doesn't stop anyone else nowadays, does it ;-)) but I will say that I think people with mild cases probably just went about their normal lives and never went to the hospital.
This is completely anecdotal but my neighbor was dry coughing his lungs out for weeks loud enough to be heard through the wall and this was when there were supposedly no cases in DN. Of course, it could have been something besides COVID-19 but I think the Vietnamese mentality is just sort of to deal with it at home and not necessarily rush to the emergency room and get tested.
Coming back to America from VN (not because of the virus, this trip home was already planned), I can't see that all of the panicking is really helping us out much. Maybe Vietnam had it right to begin with :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit