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Vietnam’s Coronavirus Death Toll Is Zero. The Cost? Total Surveillance.
The nation’s response to the pandemic reveals a resourceful — and often troubling — use of technology
The rooftop of an apartment block in central Hanoi seems like an odd space to host a marathon. But when Vietnam imposed aggressive restrictions on outdoor movement in response to the coronavirus, athlete Nguyên Tiên Dat was forced to adjust his track to the strict bounds of state-sanctioned exercise. Last month, Dat became Vietnam’s first runner to complete a marathon by looping the 25-meter length of his rooftop terrace. Logging the 860 laps on Strava, a mobile app for tracking runs, Dat’s message to his Strava followers was to stay active — and stay at home.
Millions of Vietnamese citizens like Dat have made preventing the spread of Covid-19 a priority. It’s the result of a sweeping public education campaign that relied heavily on social media and state-controlled news to instill a sense of civic duty in combating the coronavirus. Vietnam’s response has been an underreported success: The communist country has logged 326 cases of Covid-19 and zero deaths, and experts say there is no evidence to suggest a systematic cover-up.
Other countries in the region have deployed high-tech interventions. Taiwan…
