I agree with the last point and I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm against lockdowns period. I'm not against vaccines, not against masks, but I don't want this

I agree with the last point and I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm against lockdowns period. I'm not against vaccines, not against masks, but I don't want this administration, the last administration, or any other to have the power to put us on indefinite house arrest. This IS a hill I wont budge from. With China, we don't have enough information to make the claim that they under-reported deaths. If you CTRL-F China in the OP data on them is absent. I'm a bit surprised that the author could extrapolate a gap between reporting and actual deaths for every other country except that one. As for comparing EU and the UK to Australia and New Zealand, that's more easily explained by the much higher air traffic volume between these countries and covid hotspots early on. In short, the combination of being "islands" with limited ports of entry and smaller passenger volume meant that early border closures could be much more feasible and effective. Korea for all intents and purposes is an "island" in this comparison as well, in that on 3 sides it's surrounded by water and its northern border has no ports of entry. A short, early response with entry closures and contact tracing does seem to be key, but I don't agree with the notion that we need to emulate their lockdowns. I'd rather wear a mask forever than be like them. The UK got the worst of both worlds since they got stricter lockdowns than the US without getting it under control. The decision to go for zero and stop all social life in order to get down to zero deaths from all covid is commendable but not our obligation. Our duty was to stop from overwhelming our medical system only, not to go for zero by giving up all social life and the economy.