What does Wuhan lockdown mean to solve the problem? Divide and conquer. If you don't have the capacity like Wuhan did to isolate all COVID cases into designated hospitals/makeshift hospitals/stadium hospitals/isolation hotels, track them - let them report symptoms every day, construct them to go to ER when feeling worse, etc. You don't need to release the location of confirmed cases to public for the sake of privacy though it was a very powerful way to warn people, report to public health authorities and policy makers, if a certain area gets worse, make new measures for that area. If you cannot send healthcare workers to the epicenter like China did, make telemedicine available, please try to make it available on chat apps not phone call only! It is 2020 and let new technology lead.
Does Wuhan lockdown really mean regular people cannot get out of the house and once out, no return? Take grocery shopping as an example. Did Wuhan people go to grocery's stores at all? I guess many people say NO because Wuhan got lockdown! The answer is not that absolute. For a quite a period of time, Wuhan's measure was not as quick and stringent as other provinces outside Hubei (I will compare with my hometown later). Grocery stores in Wuhan during lockdown were less crowded, but still OPEN, for several reasons. (1) mindset. People were afraid to go and most people were cautious and responsible - dare not to risk their own lives and their loved ones' (2) shopping permits which allow people to go out (3) suspension of public transportation (4) online shopping and delivery (5) resident community shopping and delivery. That's nothing hard for US to adapt accordingly: online grocery shopping, online order and self-pickup at grocer stores, people avoid doing frequent shopping and keep social distancing at the stores, etc. What I don't see is (1) and I think there is nothing to do with "freedom". The right to life is the most basic human rights.
Give you a more personal story of how my parents were affected by COVID crisis. They live in a big city with <200 COVID cases in total by now. What did COVID affect them most? (1) Chinese New Year celebration (2) my mother's elective surgery which was scheduled right after Chinese New Year holiday. Western people may never understand the importance of Chinese New Year. When many Chinese people didn't celebrate Chinese New Year to combat COVID, they were really serious. My parents visited my grandmother who lives by herself on Chinese New Year Eve (Jan 24) and other get-together dinners with relatives/friends, either in restaurant or at home during the holiday were all canceled. The silver lining was that my parents and grandmother had plenty of food as they were prepared for the holiday. Wuhan announced that all residents communities had to be tightly controlled (you can call it community lockdown, but residents can get permits to get in/out) on Feb 11. My hometown made a similar announcement on Feb 6. My parents usually visit my grandmother twice a week and they decided to visit her once a week during the crisis. They didn't need to apply for any permit from where they live, they got temperature check in their car at the gate (1 out of 3 remained open) when leaving, left their phone number for emergency purpose, got temperature check again when returning. For grocery shopping, believe it or not, my parents in their 60s have been using online grocery shopping (mobile apps) for years. They don't go to a supermarket 5-min drive away often because (1) if they buy a lot, they have to drive and the parking is a headache. (2) if they don't buy a lot, the online grocery order can be delivered to the door within 2 hours. During the crisis, they just ate what they had stocked up and did all new grocery shopping online, the only difference being no delivery to the door - they had to pick up at the gate because non-residents were not allowed to enter. My grandmother usually walks to a nearby wet market every day to buy fresh food and we all told her to stay home during the crisis. Of course when my parents visited her, they brought fresh food they ordered online. Their community lockdown was lifted in March and delivery to the door was allowed.
I knew the situation in my hometown was really under control when my mother was finally admitted to hospital for surgery in the first week of Mar. In early Feb, the surgeon told my mother the surgery had to be postponed. We were quite concerned because we didn't know how long we would wait and we had no other choice like changing to another hospital (the one she went to is the best in that field in town; other hospitals also postponed elective surgeries). We understood hospital could be a hot spot for community spreading. Also, we heard that the hospital sent their best anesthetists, ICU doctors to Wuhan along with PPE from the surgery rooms. In early Mar, besides all standard examination before surgery, my mother got CT scan to exclude that she had pneumonia! All people got temperature check before entering the hospital and were given masks. Only one companion was allowed to stay with the patient during hospitalization. I had planned to visit my parents but I gave it up because the chance was not low that I could catch the virus on my way from US to China (so ironic) and I definitely did not want to infect them. Nevertheless, the surgery was successful and my mother is doing rehab now.
