What was the point of all of New Zealand's draconian lockdowns then? They had all the negative lockdown effects for no reason, and still ended up with just as much of a COVID problem as the rest of the world that didn't have them.
> What was the point of all of New Zealand's draconian lockdowns then?
Keeping deaths down. 84% of the country now has at least one dose, and half have three. Australia took the same approach - strict measures until widespread vaccination.
The alternative interpretation is that New Zealand's lockdowns avoided all the previous waves (which killed hundreds of thousands of people in the US, for example), but did not avoid the Omicron wave. So far, NZ has only reported 65 covid deaths. That number will surely rise with the current wave, but I think it's a wild exaggeration to say that they have had "just as much of a covid problem as the rest of the world".
Actually pretty happy about how our government managed it. We had 2 years of relatively calm times where there was no Covid and long periods where life was pretty normal. By the time Delta came most people managed to get fully vaccinated in time so the outbreak was tiny, then once Omicron hit and cases have started to peak we've got most the population vaccinated and a significant portion boosted, so the illness is quite mild for most people and still life here feels pretty normal. We just had a case in our household where only our son, who had gotten one dose of Pfizer already, got it and was a super mild case and neither my wife or I caught it from him.
Compared to what I've seen on the news over the last 2 years from countries overseas we've had a really easy time.
NZ didn't have draconian lockdowns in the plural, their draconian policy was in the singular and applied to travellers from abroad. Children attended school and team sports as usual, for example.
Also, having a covid wave with 94% of adults fully vaccinated isn't "just as much of a covid problem" as the waves in unvaccinated populations elsewhere last year.
What was the point? Making sure people didn't die until we had viable vaccines, basically.
So yep, we're hitting widespread Omicron now, but a) it appears to have far less severe health impacts compared to strains like Delta and b) 95.2% of Kiwis have had two doses of Pfizer, 72.5% the booster.
It provided valuable data points for a denser mapping of the possibility space!
At the beginning various strategies were proposed. A few looked utterly bizarre: IIRC the UK plan was to "keep the schools open so the kid can catch it".
In retrospect, some start standing out as better - but data is still coming so it's too early to say for sure.
The current strain is much less lethal than its predecessor, so being infected now is the much better option. It is an illusion that many countries could have used these approaches as countries like New Zealand or Australia though.
Well, that's not really what they're saying. They're saying "do get your vaccines if going to NZ", but the same government is also saying "do get your vaccines" without any ifs, so arguably the travel advice is close to a no-op.
[+] [-] josephcsible|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceejayoz|4 years ago|reply
Keeping deaths down. 84% of the country now has at least one dose, and half have three. Australia took the same approach - strict measures until widespread vaccination.
Per https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deat..., they're at 13 deaths per million citizens. The US is at 2,916.
A single nursing home in New Jersey lost more staff and residents to COVID in a few weeks than the entire country of New Zealand did in two years. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/nyregion/coronavirus-nj-a...
[+] [-] thehappypm|4 years ago|reply
They never had a major outbreak with an unvaccinated population.
They never had a major outbreak of Delta or Alpha or any more-deadly strain.
Their first experience with Covid is an outbreak of Omicron, the mildest variant yet, with a highly vaccinated population.
Plus now there are viable treatments.
That was the point.
[+] [-] Imnimo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway6532|4 years ago|reply
Compared to what I've seen on the news over the last 2 years from countries overseas we've had a really easy time.
[+] [-] Arnt|4 years ago|reply
Also, having a covid wave with 94% of adults fully vaccinated isn't "just as much of a covid problem" as the waves in unvaccinated populations elsewhere last year.
[+] [-] EdwardDiego|4 years ago|reply
So yep, we're hitting widespread Omicron now, but a) it appears to have far less severe health impacts compared to strains like Delta and b) 95.2% of Kiwis have had two doses of Pfizer, 72.5% the booster.
https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-...
[+] [-] csdvrx|4 years ago|reply
At the beginning various strategies were proposed. A few looked utterly bizarre: IIRC the UK plan was to "keep the schools open so the kid can catch it".
In retrospect, some start standing out as better - but data is still coming so it's too early to say for sure.
[+] [-] raxxorrax|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] infamouscow|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawaymanbot|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ceejayoz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Arnt|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LittleMoveBig|4 years ago|reply