If you look at Australia right now, their infection rates are rising at a rapid clip. So they may have a lot more people infected soon, and the difference betw

If you look at Australia right now, their infection rates are rising at a rapid clip. So they may have a lot more people infected soon, and the difference between them and Europe and N. America may not be that great. China probably had a lot more people infected than we (or they) know, because they were first, and there was no testing capacity at the time. Even if they were honestly forthcoming with everything they knew about, they probably had way more infections than they knew, because of going first. Now, in the case of New Zealand, you may be correct, they might be in for a hard time. Having almost nobody infected before, and then finally getting the latest, fastest-spreading variant when they do get it, might be a bad thing. But, hopefully, this is countered by the fact that people who are vaccinated first have much milder symptoms.