> Australia and New Zealand are not necessarily CV success stories.
That's an utterly wacky assertion. In what possible metric are they not a success? New Zealand has beaten the virus and is now completely reopened domestically. Australia has mostly beaten the virus and is mostly back to normal for most people. If NZ and Australia aren't success stories, I'm curious, what would a success story look like?
> NZ seems to have locked down so hard and early that now it can't re-open
That's just factually false. NZ is completely open in absolutely every respect other than international travel. Australia is mostly open as well, other than for long distance travel. Are you saying that NZ and Australia aren't success stories because they're still closed to international travel?
Perhaps your argument is that we've been TOO successful relative to the rest of the world? Perhaps we should have let the disease run rampant bit longer.
Yes, by "open" I obviously mean "people can enter and exit it". A country with indefinitely closed borders is not "open", it's North Korea.
Perhaps your argument is that we've been TOO successful relative to the rest of the world? Perhaps we should have let the disease run rampant bit longer.
There's no success in merely delaying the inevitable. It's an infectious disease, it can't be kept out forever. The NZ strategy is effectively to seal itself off from the world and hope some cure or vaccine is developed before it re-opens, which is a terrible decision given that these sorts of viruses often never have vaccines.
Until the NZ population gets over its fear, there will continue to be events like this one:
NZ will eventually re-open and let the disease go, because it's not actually any worse than many other viruses. Not because it's some sort of genius success story.
> by "open" I obviously mean "people can enter and exit it".
Most countries have their borders partially or fully closed to international travel. The only difference between New Zealand and most other countries is that New Zealand isn't also dealing with a rampant pandemic.
> A country with indefinitely closed borders is not "open", it's North Korea.
Comparing New Zealand to North Korea is absurd and demonstrates that you're not being serious. Something like 90—95% of all people on this planet will never travel across a passport control border during their entire lifetime. A short term, medically rational restriction on international travel only restricts the "freedom" of the most affluent few percent.
> Until the NZ population gets over its fear
What fear? I'm starting to wonder if you think that the only thing worth doing in New Zealand involves international travel. I suppose we're all in a big North Korea called Earth because we can't hop onto a rocket into outer space.
That's an utterly wacky assertion. In what possible metric are they not a success? New Zealand has beaten the virus and is now completely reopened domestically. Australia has mostly beaten the virus and is mostly back to normal for most people. If NZ and Australia aren't success stories, I'm curious, what would a success story look like?
> NZ seems to have locked down so hard and early that now it can't re-open
That's just factually false. NZ is completely open in absolutely every respect other than international travel. Australia is mostly open as well, other than for long distance travel. Are you saying that NZ and Australia aren't success stories because they're still closed to international travel?
Perhaps your argument is that we've been TOO successful relative to the rest of the world? Perhaps we should have let the disease run rampant bit longer.