Time will tell, Delta is a new beast compared to what we dealt with during the first lockdown. But cases are so far following expected trajectory after initiati

Time will tell, Delta is a new beast compared to what we dealt with during the first lockdown. But cases are so far following expected trajectory after initiation of level 4 lock down. They go up initially as you are uncovering more cases through testing and tracing contacts. But new spread is only occurring within bubbles, so this hits a peak and begins to decline as the virus burns through it’s reachable population. Outside of Auckland it’s just one new case today so most of the country will be out of lockdown in a week. Auckland will be in lockdown probably for four weeks is my guess based on the last time this happened. https://twitter.com/thoughtfulnz/status/1428840922536570881?s=21 https://twitter.com/thoughtfulnz/status/1428840922536570881?... I can’t speak well to what’s happening in Australia as I am not there, except what I do hear from folks is that NSW let the side down. Going back to the start of the pandemic Australia initially had a US style throw your hands in the air approach at the federal level, but it quickly became apparent NZs ZeroCOVID approach was better, and so the individual states adopted the same approach while the federal government did nothing. An initial pretty hard lockdown last year had to be put into effect because so much spread had been going on, after which they ran pretty good. And if you look outside of NSW they’re still doing pretty good. But NSW were slow to act with a newly confirmed case of Delta and allowed it to spread too far. You really need to go hard and fast for it to work or it just doesn’t. The proof is really in the pudding. 26 deaths since the pandemic started. And most of the time under completely free conditions less strict that the US or UK or just about anywhere: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&country=GBR~USA~NZL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?ta... So emphatically yes life has been completely 100% normal here outside of the lockdowns. Where are you getting any idea different? What are you imagining is going on here? Why don’t you go browse the New Zealand subreddit to get an idea of life in NZ? Why not go watch one of the daily 1pm briefings on YouTube to get a feel for how a lockdown is managed? I spent the first year of the pandemic stuck in the US, it was a shit show, a disaster situation in which people should have come together, but were pushed apart over made up crap by sociopathic self serving politicians and media. You mention only 20% are fully vaccinated, it’s a bit better than that we are doing about 1% of the populations a day at the moment. I’m not sure why this has any bearing on the discussion though except your grabbing for things to criticize. The time will come to allow the virus to run its course here, hopefully once everyone has been vaccinated so the hospitals don’t get overwhelmed and we don’t have to deal with stories of people dying because hospitals are full as they are in parts of the US right now. It’s expected to have full vaccination by December, the question will be whether to wait for under 12s to be vaccinated and/or a 3rd booster to be given.