In response to the lack of coronavirus news newsworthy enough on which to expound, I did a little searching on the coronavirus situation in Turkmenistan. WHO reports:
In Turkmenistan, from 3 January 2020 to 5:01pm CET, 11 November 2022, there have been 0 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 0 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 4 September 2022, a total of 13,514,000 vaccine doses have been administered.
China should feel no small degree of jealousy in another country's success when it comes to zero COVID. While there have been no confirmed cases, there have been reported ones. The Wikipedia entry on "COVID-19 pandemic in Turkmenistan" has some details on these, and is well worth reading. I particularly liked this paragraph:
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Reporters Without Borders reported that the government of Turkmenistan had banned the word "coronavirus" and that people could be arrested for wearing masks or discussing the pandemic.[39][40] The organization later corrected their report, clarifying that the word itself was not banned, but maintained that it had been removed from informational brochures and that the government was restricting information about the virus and providing "very one-sided information".[41] According to Chronicles of Turkmenistan, state media did not begin reporting on the measures that had been taken until 25 March.[42]
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Things seem so much simpler in an autocracy, right? If you read to the end of the Wikipedia entry, it mentions the nationwide vaccination mandate. Not hard to get one of those through in an autocracy. As much as I think Americans should be savvy enough to get vaccinated, I don't want the right to choose vaccination to go the way of the other major choice recently taken away. Choice. It matters.
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