Isn't it relative to western countries? S.Korea is like Israel, a large part of the population with civil service experience who can follow instructions, but also some religious fanatics / cults who don't give a fuck. The government has more accessible, non-emergency options to crackdown, last I heard Korean officials is trying to contain the cults via lawsuit and criminal charges. Can you imagine US suing a church, arresting a pastor for holding congregation? In Canada we have been trying to recall our citizens abroad and it wasn't until things got bad that 1million+ snow birds decided to return. Prior to that kids were going on spring break. No one took things seriously until last week after a month escalating warnings. And this is in a city with SARS experience. Down south is even more of a shit show. As for techno-authoritarian surveillance - health officials cross referencing CCTV footage, location data and cred card reports - that would not fly here as a "public" option which is why it's rarely mentioned in any of these TEST OFTEN and contact trace articles. The uninformed would attribute those techniques to China. The informed would immediately understand that wouldn't work in many western countries without massive legislative overhaul.