Koreans have been reacting to news of Americans clearing out stores and hoarding essential items during the worldwide Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Actress Lee Ah Hyun shared pictures on Instagram from her local Target, showing shelves completely cleared of merchandise and daily living goods such as toilet paper and wipes.
The caption reads: "This is the situation in Fullerton, California. Our family went to Target and I am uploading these photos to show how much Americans are buying. Water, tissues, even bread are all sold out and gone. Even the toilet paper inside the bathroom is gone. It seems like Los Angeles is also scared of the virus."
Netizens have been reacting to the situation after the post made headlines, saying:
"I don't understand why toilet paper is more important than masks?"
"Our country is a good country..."
"Wow our country is rich."
"It makes me realize how good we have it."
"Someone said it's because their marts are far away and their internet is slow."
"Unlike Korea where you have marts right outside your door, America has a lot of land and the marts are spread apart. There also isn't instant delivery there."
South Korea has been called the model country in terms of testing for coronavirus. There are drive-thru test facilities and more than 200,000 people have been tested. Although the outbreak has been high in South Korea, there have been few deaths (66 or 0.6% of those infected). By a big contrast, Italy is also suffering from a large outbreak but the death toll has reached over 2,000 (death rate around 6% of those infected).
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I live in the UK, and it's been crazy seeing the response in America. Although I think some of the commenters should think a little harder about the glass house they live in before they throw stones in terms of what a "good" country is, it's very true that the way their marts and shops are set up things definitely run more smoothly for them. They also have to remember the overall size of America, even just the U.S. in comparison to many countries- the U.S. alone is forty times bigger than my country, and nearly one hundred times bigger than South Korea. It's a mess to be certain, I hope that their leadership will be able to come up with a better strategy for their people soon enough. I work in healthcare, and my country is dealing with our own issues during this crisis. I've some strong thoughts on this 'herd immunity' strategy they want to implement but I'll save those reservations for now.
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