South Korea has a young and thin population. I believe they are the 2nd or 3rd least obese country in the world (after Japan and Vietnam) and their average age is 41. In South Korea do the politicians march in anti-police rallies while they keep schools, restaurants and parks closed? Probably not.

Using fatality rates from the US based on age and obesity, it's certainly possible South Koreans could be massively exposed to COVID and the outcome wouldn't be too different. In addition, there has been no massive outbreak in any Asian country, past exposure to other coronaviruses may play a roll in immunity.

Good leadership is something lacking in the United States, without a doubt. The political response to COVID-19 has been an economic and social disaster, however without taking into account overall health, demographics, and an entire list of other metrics I'm not sure how useful comparing one nation to another is regarding COVID-19 outcomes. Even the way countries count a positive viral diagnosis or COVID death varies significantly.

In the US the probability of death goes from almost zero for the age group under 30 to almost 5% for the age group above 75. Seniors are literally THOUSANDS of times more likely to die from COVID than the youth.

Regarding the drama, the overwhelming majority of Americans aren't significantly effected by COVID. The risks are well documented at this point. The disease is much less lethal than it was just a few months ago for reasons that don't seem to be understood or even acknowledged yet. I disagree the US response was "middle of the road", there has been immense damage done for a virus that isn't particularly harmful except to specific groups. Locking down people that are very unlikely to be significantly impacted, especially children, and the unemployment rate increasing significantly is a crime, in my opinion.

Taiwan has done great with COVID. But, it's an island with a young and healthy population probably exposed to more coronaviruses than the West has.

Why the elderly and obese in America aren't more protected and more cautious I have no idea. Why the rest of us were locked down and suffered I have no idea. Perhaps it goes to the need for "equality" in our culture and our psychological need to "be safe" when life is inherently filled with risk. But, we are so removed from our natural state our ability to assess risk is perverted, viruses don't effect people equally no matter what our politics are...unfortunately science and medicine can't be practiced well when they are directed by political motivations. The CDC is a political organization, I personally would view their recommendations with great skepticism for any health related issues. For example, the science of masks hasn't changed. Politics has and psychology has, but the science has not. Good science doesn't change in 2 months. Even in The Lancet the most recent (and best) mask study recommends masks but indicated the confidence was "low" that they are particularly effective.

There is a reason Asian Tiger Moms aren't featured in PrEP commercials to prevent HIV, but looking at the CDC webpages on the subject it would be impossible to figure out why.

I'm surprised people trust the government so much regarding medical advice when their track record has been horrible and they are clearly biased politically to the point of irrelevance.