I see a lot of libertarian types retweeting this around, as if Japan just sat back and did nothing at all.

But what *did* Japan do? Travel bans, near universal masking, aggressive contact tracing, etc.

I.e. all things libertarians would caterwaul about if we'd done them here https://twitter.com/princesseffel/status/1264100304267538437
In an extended sense, libertarians are responsible for the lockdowns: because they opposed early measures like travel bans because muh free commerce, they helped create the conditions that made lockdowns seem necessary.
Lockdowns are really a last resort - competent countries shouldn't *need* them because they don't let a situation get to the point where it's that out of control.

But when you only care about muh economy, you're going to dawdle on doing useful things until it's out of your hands
I fully agree that the model response to COVID-19 is Japan's.

Not China's. China had an incompetent response (only a dupe believes China's official death stats, btw). Sure, they got control of it, but if you'll recall, they were welding people into their flats at one point
I just find it darkly amusing that the same people who are now screeching about the lockdowns are many of the same ones who screeched about the proposals that might have made those lockdowns unnecessary back in February
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