”But this raises a question that will, I think, baffle future historians. Why did western nations largely follow one another when there were vastly better role models?”

”Taiwan has endured few deaths from Covid, and its economy has barely been affected, growing this year by more than 2.5%. By controlling the virus with precision techniques such as tech-enabled contract tracing, it didn’t need to resort to crude lockdowns...”

”And it didn’t have to turn cancer and other patients away from hospitals, because there was always spare capacity to deal with them.”

”doesn’t this example show that the “trade-offs” that have dominated debate in the West are largely imaginary? With competent governance, there is no trade-off between lives and livelihoods any more than there is between Covid and non-Covid deaths.”