Having been a medical student in NZ attached to an infectious diseases team, the idea that NZ research (or even our ideas of best practice) are not heavily depe

Having been a medical student in NZ attached to an infectious diseases team, the idea that NZ research (or even our ideas of best practice) are not heavily dependent on R&D and standards institutes from the USA isn't plausible. I find it likely that Australia is in a similar position. We are lucky in that NZ and Australia have sufficient political will to create and maintain socialized healthcare systems independent of the approach the US has taken. The shortfall in global leadership during this pandemic is, in part, from philosophical differences over whether -and, to what extent- it is a duty of "the state" to respond to phenomena like pandemics that tend to kill a large amount of people without a state-level response.