I will say after living in DN for 6 months during the beginning of the virus, I do believe the number of cases to be underreported. I will not make any unsubstantiated claims about the government because I am not knowledgable enough to speak on the issue (though that doesn't stop anyone else nowadays, does it ;-)) but I will say that I think people with mild cases probably just went about their normal lives and never went to the hospital.

This is completely anecdotal but my neighbor was dry coughing his lungs out for weeks loud enough to be heard through the wall and this was when there were supposedly no cases in DN. Of course, it could have been something besides COVID-19 but I think the Vietnamese mentality is just sort of to deal with it at home and not necessarily rush to the emergency room and get tested.

Coming back to America from VN (not because of the virus, this trip home was already planned), I can't see that all of the panicking is really helping us out much. Maybe Vietnam had it right to begin with :)