These Countries Did Well With Covid. So Why Are They Slow on Vaccines?
Japan, South Korea and Australia have inoculated tiny percentages of their populations. The delays risk unwinding their relative successes.
Older people receiving Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine this week in Gwangju, South Korea.Credit...Yonhap/EPA, via Shutterstock
April 17, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
All through last year, as first Europe and then the United States suffered catastrophically high coronavirus infections and deaths, Pacific Rim countries staved off disaster through an array of methods. South Korea tested widely. Australia and New Zealand locked down. In Japan, people donned masks and heeded calls to isolate.