Public Health Strategies Contain and Mitigate COVID-19: A Tale of Two Democracies

On January 19th, 2020, the first cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) were introduced by travelers from Wuhan, China, the initial epicenter, into both South Korea and the United States (US).1 In this Commentary, we compare the responses of both democratic republics and demonstrate that the immediate and nationally coordinated public health strategies employed by South Korea effectively contained and mitigated their epidemic.2 In contrast, the US government mounted a delayed and fragmented response, becoming and remaining the worldwide epicenter of the pandemic.