In the pursuit of values and freedoms, American society dooms itself to disaster.
Tony Perman, a music teacher at Grinnell College, who returned to the United States after spending six weeks in quarantine in Shanghai, where he lived with his family, told NBC about this for NBC.
According to him, a week was enough to realize that in China he felt safe even despite the epidemic. An alarm overtook him at the Chicago airport, when it became clear that Americans saw a threat in the citizens who arrived from China. When it turned out that Perman and his family arrived from China, a young man from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention urged them to isolate themselves for 2 weeks. At the same time, no one bothered to clarify exactly where the arrivals were going.
“In China, it was clear that everyone themselves understood the need for self-isolation. Society immediately changed its habitual way of life, says Perman. “I can’t say for sure, but it seems that authoritarian methods have worked in China.”
In the USA, as the American says, the situation is complicated by the notorious democracy. Personal freedom is far more important than responsibility to society. At the same time, the authorities withdrew from solving the problem, instead of taking leadership and taking the situation into their own hands.
Even though the Chinese actively surrendered neighbors to the authorities, suspecting them of concealing the disease, there was no feeling of alienation in the PRC. Perman appreciated the solidarity of millions of people in Shanghai and criticized the situation in the United States.
“Here it seems to me that I have been branded as a potential carrier of infection,” he emphasizes. “I am healthy, but they see a threat in me.” There is a specific distinction between infected and “innocent.” The latter do not even consider that they need to change their lifestyle, because the freedom of their personality is more important. ”
Perman admitted that he was leaving Shanghai when the city began to come to life after quarantine. The situation was optimistic, because cases of the disease were reduced.
“In the US, panic awaited us. Instructions are rewritten every day and every instance. Disease tests and competent medical facilities are extremely few. Obviously, the authorities cannot stop the epidemic. It’s impossible to simply hope that people from the “risk zone” will somehow not infect others,” the American stated.