Wuhan Killer Sneeze (thanks Tea)

[Mr. Tea]

I'm asking about NZ specifically because the pandemic has hardly affected them at all. So has this come about as the result of an especially draconian lockdown? Or do they just have a government that isn't maliciously incompetent like ours is?

New Zealand's Covid-19 response the best in the world, say global business leaders

Survey ranks Jacinda Ardern’s government highest for stability, economic management, virus control and resilience

www.theguardian.com

New Zealand’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been the best in the world and is the country that gives business leaders the most confidence for future investment, according to a Bloomberg Media survey.

New Zealand ranked strongly for political stability, the economic recovery, virus control and social resilience in Bloomberg’s market crisis management index, published on Thursday.

Doesn't really sound like a deliberately engineered economic catastrophe, tbh.

 

[Mr. Tea]

It just sounds like a developed country run by intelligent adults.

 

[luka]

But is there an explanation for why They want to do this, beyond recreational puppy-kicking evil?

the obvious ansewr would be that they dont think the current model is sustainable

 

[Mr. Tea]

If this hypothetical They gave half a toss about "sustainability", the world's major economies would have started making serious efforts to wean themselves off fossil fuel dependency 60 years ago.

 

[luka]

maybe theyve started panicking

 

[luka]

Darren of Plymouth knows whats up

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don't live in New Zealand but from what I can gather from the outside, it looks like a case study in how to suppress a pandemic while causing the minimum of economic misery. In the UK we've had exactly the opposite - massive levels of infection, and almost a whole year of shitty rules everyone hates, and businesses going to the wall, workers laid off LR&C etc.

TBH it sounds like your cousin smokes a lot of skunk and watches InfoWars.

 

[luka]

you drink a little bit of real ale and watch Peep Show. thats that got to do with anything

 

[yyaldrin]

new zealand i

It just sounds like a developed country run by intelligent adults.

no it just sounds like a small island.

 

[Mr. Tea]

new zealand i

no it just sounds like a small island.

Bit like Britain, then?

 

[luka]

Bit like Britain, then?

population size is different by about 50 million. New Zealand has slightly more land mass.

 

[yyaldrin]

nah more like antarctica. completely isolated, low density other side of the planet little island that nobody goes to.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

We were never in a position to attempt NZ's gamble: by the time the WHO had told us it was dangerous, the virus was all over the UK.

 

[Mr. Tea]

population size is different by about 50 million. New Zealand has slightly more land mass.

Yes it has a smaller population, but even if you scale up the infections and deaths by that ratio, it's still a world of difference.

I'm saying the biggest difference is our fucking awful Tory government. You and yyaldrin, the great lefties, seem to be doing a @mixed_biscuits and bending over backwards to make excuses for them.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I mean, I expect just this sort of flim-flammery and obfuscation from friend biscuit:

We were never in a position to attempt NZ's gamble: by the time the WHO had told us it was dangerous, the virus was all over the UK.

Jan. 30 — With reports of 9,692 COVID-19 cases in China and 213 deaths, and only 82 cases outside of China, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

“We don’t know what sort of damage this virus could do if it were to spread in a country with a weaker health system. We must act now to help countries prepare for that possibility,” he said.

Feb. 10 — While much of WHO guidance around preventing the spread of COVID-19 was focused on travel history to China at the time, Tedros warned that instances of onward transmission from people with no travel history to China were concerning, and that “the detection of this small number of cases could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire,” calling on countries to “prevent a bigger fire.”

Feb. 11 — Tedros called the outbreak a “very grave threat for the rest of the world.”

“We have a window of opportunity now for the rest of the world. We see what's happening in China in terms of the number of cases and fatalities, so if we don't use the window of opportunity we have now, if we don't operate with a sense of urgency, there could be a serious consequence,” he said. “I will continue to remind until the world really takes this seriously, does it with a sense of urgency and believes from the heart that time is of the essence now.”

Early warnings from WHO on the dangers of COVID-19

Devex has pulled together a timeline documenting WHO's warnings of the coronavirus' severity in the initial months of the crisis.

www.devex.com

...followed by restrictions gradually being introduced in the UK in dribs and drabs from late March.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

People claim to have had it in December/January here, so Feb would be too late.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

You do realise that NZ have effectively banned their expats from reentering the country during this period?

It's not easy aiming at zero Covid.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

No other European countries have tried zero Covid - it's impracticable.

 

[IdleRich]

You do realise that NZ have effectively banned their expats from reentering the country during this period?

My friend (an expat) went there the other day.

 

[Mr. Tea]

People claim to have had it in December/January here, so Feb would be too late.

Nonsense. The earlier serious measures had been introduced to stop the spread, the smaller the population of infected at that time and the fewer people get it overall.

In any case, your claim was that we were hamstrung by the tardy WHO, which I've just shown to be bollocks.