5 ms·

Not every country is a small island nation with the population of single large city.

• hanniabu 6y ago
  Sure, but that definitely helps, but a big part of it was their leadership and organized action to fight it.
  • fastball 6y ago
    How do you know?
  • mikedilger 6y ago
    As an American living in New Zealand I can attest to the fact that the Labour government led by Jacinda Ardern made mostly good moves by treating COVID seriously and thus winning re-election in a landslide. I cannot say if her decisions helped to squash COVID, but her words and facial expressions were very good politically. I was in favor of one hard lockdown and strict border controls, and that is mostly what happened. I was not in favor of shutting down butchers, bakers, and green grocers because that just crowded everybody into supermarkets making social distancing difficult and creating long lines at supermarkets. It also crushed several businesses into bankruptcy unnecessarily, caused lots of food to go to waste, and propped up the already-too-powerful supermarket conglomerates. NZ had extreme advantages: an island nation with easy to control borders, a large lead time to prepare, a low population density, a unified jurisdiction, no constitutional restrictions on the government's power, first world medical infrastructure, a timid compliant population that overwhelmingly just does as they are told and doesn't makes a fuss, high social cohesion, double helpings of common sense. Cowardly risk-averse and boring people that will never amount to much more than a hill of beans by American standards, but happy nonetheless [this sentence was meant as tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating humor, sorry if anyone was offended or took it seriously]. The US does not have the options NZ had. The federal government does not have jurisdiction to enforce a national lockdown, and even local lockdowns are being ruled as unconstitutional. And if you can't do one coordinated severe lockdown to squash it completely and then strictly close your borders requiring two week quarantines for anyone coming in... then I say don't bother with lockdowns at all. Oh, and stop blaming everything on your president.
    • lostlogin 6y ago
      > Cowardly How do you figure this? Is the US approach courageous? > NZ had extreme advantages: an island nation with easy to control borders, a large lead time to prepare, a low population density NZ discovered cases just days after the US. The US is also not heavily populated. It depends on the source but NZ is about 15 people per km/2 and the US is about 36 per km/2. A comparison could be made between Hawaii and NZ, and the contrast in how things have gone is quite something.
      • n4r9 6y ago
        The paragraph where GP labels New Zealanders as "cowardly" is a case study in US exceptionalism.
        • lostlogin 6y ago
          It’s particularly odd to be so down on NZ whilst presumably living in NZ restriction free. Yes, international travel is more restricted than previously - I wish it were more restricted.
          • mikedilger 6y ago
            I'm not at all down on New Zealand. I love it here and always have. I think you've misunderstood my humor. I consider myself a New Zealander. It was self-deprecating.
            • n4r9 6y ago
              Can only apologise. As a Brit, I'm ashamed not to have caught the sarcasm.
      • mikedilger 6y ago
        > How do you figure this? Is the US approach courageous? Cowardly is too strong for what I meant to say and I take it back. I meant it in an 'avoiding fighting' sort of way, choosing to not stand up and fight for one's rights, or choosing to give in so as to avoid confrontation, and in direct contrast to Americans seeming to fight over everything to the bitter end, with laywers, wars, refusals to comply, etc. Now that I read the definition, it was far too negatively connotated.