That New Zealand's strategy has failed

[JudesBiggestFan]

And they will have to start the long and painful process of learning to live with Covid? I spoke to my friend in NZ earlier and he was in shock at being back in lockdown. He said they really felt they'd defeated the virus and this has just come out of nowhere. I feel for him but an airborne virus...it can't be stopped. And the cost of trying is too high. Or do they still have a chance of beating the virus?

i predicted from the very beginning that New Zealand would end up here.

Can you elaborate? Even in lockdown NZ is in much better shape than the UK with regard to numbers dead (actual human life) and economically.

If by 'failed' you mean that they have been living almost completely normally for the past 18 months, yes I guess NZ's strategy has been a monumental failure.

Perhaps wait until they have the death rates of the UK before you feel sorry for them.

There is no comparison to be made in terms of the death rate.

Everyone here lives in close proximity to one another. NZ is a hugely spread out country, people are practically social distancing by default so it’s much much easier never to come into contact with people.

Added to which, NZ has a population of just under 5 million, in a space almost as big as the uK which has a population of 60 million.

i predicted from the very beginning that New Zealand would end up here.

Cool - would be great to know your qualifications and sources for this prediction. If not, then there are 1000s of other unqualified scientists who "predicted" that New Zealand was following best path...

To repeat: we have had low deaths, no Covid in our community, our economy is thriving and while our vaccine rate has been slow (in part because we can't produce it ourselves but need to import it and supply has been slow), we are accelerating vaccinations immensely.

And God defend New Zealand if David Seymour ever becomes our PM

@AlternativePerspective

There is no comparison to be made in terms of the death rate.

Everyone here lives in close proximity to one another. NZ is a hugely spread out country, people are practically social distancing by default so it’s much much easier never to come into contact with people.

Added to which, NZ has a population of just under 5 million, in a space almost as big as the uK which has a population of 60 million.

I assure you, I live just as close to my neighbours as you do... This is always trotted out. Yes, on average we have less people per square km. But our cities aren't spread out like farmland?

Everyone here lives in close proximity to one another. NZ is a hugely spread out country, people are practically social distancing by default so it’s much much easier never to come into contact with people.

This old chestnut.... Our biggest city has 1.5m people crammed onto a narrow isthmus. I'm right in the middle of it and there are people everywhere I turn. It's not London, granted, but we are far from all being rural. Large swathes of our land mass is uninhabited....

@AlternativePerspective

There is no comparison to be made in terms of the death rate.

Everyone here lives in close proximity to one another. NZ is a hugely spread out country, people are practically social distancing by default so it’s much much easier never to come into contact with people.

Added to which, NZ has a population of just under 5 million, in a space almost as big as the uK which has a population of 60 million.

So how do we compare? You seem to be suggesting that it is only on terms that show UK as a shining example of management when of course we all know it has been chaotic and with tragic outcomes.

Also you are wrong. Most NZrs live in cities and in close proximity with each other.

You really are showing awful ignorance here.

Our daughter and partner were in NZ travelling and on the South Island. They were given 24 hours notice to get off the campsite with their camper van. They think Jacinda has done a marvellous job. They went to Airbnb and then allowed to move they went to an Organic small holding where they were on Workaway. When allowed to move later they went fruit picking.
They are now in Wellington. Both have temporary jobs and are living in a youth hostel. They are coping well and are waiting to either come home or move to Australia where there is family that will help them. Though numbers have risen and they are all in lockdown.

It has been strict but also people are obeying the requests. Movement has been limited not like here where we have an MP driving from south to north on some ridiculous pretence. Although we miss them we feeling they are in one of the safest areas in the world.

We are thankful to the people in NZ.

Something like 1% of our population was vaccinated yesterday, and in my town (pop c50,000), 2,000 people are being vaccinated today. I don't think you can say we have complacency about vaccines - not at a micro level anyway.

Whether we "fail" or not remains to be seen, but there is a lot of ignorance on this thread from armchair experts who are clearly not here and don't see the nuance of the situation, or understand our geography or culture.

It honestly smacks of a really petulant need to feel a bit of schadenfruede out of jealousy because they managed better than us.

This in bucket loads.

In fact the majority of posts about NZ and Aust. in the many threads about how they are managing covid fit this bill.

I don't know if its due to Brexit but the posts on MN have become very insular.

And God defend New Zealand if David Seymour ever becomes our PM 😂 😂

It'll never happen, mostly because not everyone lives in Epsom. Nor aspires to. Thankfully! But did you see the Tom Sainsbury take on Judith Collins yesterday referencing Seymour's "pert tush" 😂

"people are practically social distancing by default"

Like I said... no understanding of what it actually looks like here in NZ!

The idea that we all live in hobbit holes spaced at a regulation distance (minimum 6 oliphaunt lengths apart) is one of my favourite myths about NZ.

@popebenedictsp45

There is an almost wilful ignorance on these threads!

Anyway, I'm off for my run then to think about brunch and what movie to watch tonight. Kids on distance learning for pockets of the day. Life is good ☺

I think we’re seeing a new definition of ‘population density’

Everyone here lives in close proximity to one another. NZ is a hugely spread out country, people are practically social distancing by default so it’s much much easier never to come into contact with people.

I often wonder if some people have ever travelled. Surely people know that in countries with low populations there are concentrations of people. These are called 'towns' and 'cities'.

Even Mongolia, with one of the lowest population densities in the world, has a city.

@AlternativePerspective cool story bro.

And God defend New Zealand if David Seymour ever becomes our PM

I came on here to say the exact same thing!

@trancepants and @50ShadesOfCatholic - thanks for your sensible and thoughtful posts.

Honestly, the level of ignorance on this thread is startling.

You guys still really don't understand NZ or Australia do you, or our indigenous population.

Never mind. I'll enjoy my view of the shire while in lockdown.

bananice Kia ora ki a koe e hoa - kei te pai tatau

I don’t understand this visceral need by so many on mn for the NZ approach to be generally agreed to be a failure. This is the third such thread I’ve seen this week.

If you’re right, it’s kicking people while they’re down, which is unkind.

If you’re wrong, you look like a fool.

Either way doesn’t reflect well on you.

Besides - none of us know how this will end. The UK can’t get smug until another winter has been and gone and NZ cannot be smug until this wave has run it’s course. None of us know how the vaccine will hold up against future variants or how much vaccination is needed to achieve genuine herd immunity.

As we say in NZ - He waka eke noa. This is a global problem. Not a nationalistic one.

With all due respect OP i.e. zero

Wtf are you on about?

@54321nought

back at the arse end of the planet

,

or the other way of looking at it is that they are front and centre, and we are back at the arse end of the planet

This is a shockingly egocentric and blinkered statement, and even more so as you seem so blithely unaware

If I were you, I would get this comment removed ASAP. Can't you see what it says about you?

Well said.

The response to the initial event was OK, but since then the government has really dropped the ball. Most of the rest of the world was vaccinated while New Zealand, for some reason, had no supplies. Then there was an almighty mess setting up the vaccination programme.

I doubt they'll get the population to go back into a full lockdown again, so let's hope vaccinations are done quickly.

I have just listened to Jacinda Ardern's briefing and don't know what to think. She answered some questions, but she is so incredibly patronising ("wear your mask", "cough into your elbow") and the ghastly "be kind" shite makes me snarl.

We spent the past year living as normal, seeing friends and family, traveling domestically, with no restrictions beyond tracking where you've been and wearing masks in public transport.

It didn't fail, we have been thriving. We've lost less than 30 lives while the rest of the world struggles.

Yes we're going back into lockdown a year later, but not because we failed. Another lockdown was always likely, the cycle begins again we quash it and go back to our lives again.

From where I'm sitting we're still doing pretty well. How many half arsed lockdowns have you lot experienced in the past year while still people die en masse?