New Zealand

[Johnny Best]

Remember a week or so ago when that Kiwi was giving the United States grief that we were a bunch of fools and did not know how to battle Covid like New Zealand did.
Welllll they are going on lockdown again because of an uptick of Covid cases. He probably will blame that on us for some reason.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Can't blame us, they shut their airport down.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

No where is safe from the virus.

 

[Baz]

At least New Zealand is acting right away and treating it as a medical emergency.The US is treating this virus as an economical emergency and has turned it political.
And all of last week you were averaging over 50 thousand new cases per day and over one thousand deaths a day.
The White House is leaving you out to dry and all you do is laugh at others.

 

[iPrintStuff]

Yeah. They get an “uptick” and shut down. Saving lives. They’re doing it the right way if you care about your populace.

Also, who is the “he” you’re referring to when you say “he probably will blame that on us...”

 

[Bly]

Remember a week or so ago when that Kiwi was giving the United States grief that we were a bunch of fools and did not know how to battle Covid like New Zealand did.
Welllll they are going on lockdown again because of an uptick of Covid cases. He probably will blame that on us for some reason.

So you're not a bunch of fools who don't know how to battle covid?

Right.

 

[Jburns]

Viruses be Virusin'

 

[Gino]

Ya know, there's enough BS going around, we don't need to upright a sign forum about this stuff. A simple statement was made about some earlier comments, which many found unfounded. Is this thread gonna go the same route ??

Seems while y'all are jumping on American's backs about how lousy we handle things..... none of you can take the slightest bit of criticism about your own countries. It's a 2 way street, ya know. Calling the kettle black seems to run rampant, lately. In these times, we need to stick together and stop isolating each other...... unless you like unrest. Which in that case, I invite you to visit one of our peaceful protesting cities. Then, you'll get to witness unrest at it's fullest and this sh!t here at s101 will make you laugh.​

 

[Baz]

I agree we should keep it to signs related issues.

As far as jumping on American's backs. That's not how i view it.
From my perspective. That thread with the videos. It was dead for about a week.
Then the member who posted those videos copies it and posts it again in the same thread. I had nothing new to say so i stayed quiet.
Until a member quoted me and poked me a little .... Well i bit back. I wasn't jumping on "Americans". I was jumping on the guy who wanted to continue arguing.
Than the thread about Cohen's new book. I though "oh no" what on earth do you think this discussion will end up being. I knew it was a mistake and i stayed out of it.

Now this thread ... What kind of discussion were you expecting Johnny? It's going the same way as the others.

Some of you know me ... I have nothing but love for you. But like religion ... Politics is a sensitive subject and it stokes the fires burning in our hearts.
Commenting in a forum removes allot of the subtleties of what a person wishes to express. More often than not it ends up being seen as taking a solid stand on something.

We should be considerate of others and know that each one of us is in our own personal battle every day.

Peace to you all. Lets keep this forum on track.

 

[Bobby H]

Remember a week or so ago when that Kiwi was giving the United States grief that we were a bunch of fools and did not know how to battle Covid like New Zealand did.
Welllll they are going on lockdown again because of an uptick of Covid cases. He probably will blame that on us for some reason.

First, Trump is throwing out plenty of stupid insults towards the Kiwis at the "terrible surge" of new cases in New Zealand. The criticism going on is not happening in a one way matter. I don't think anyone in the US has any place whatsoever to spout criticism at the Kiwis over their response to SARS-CoV-2. So far the Kiwis have been doing an extremely far better job at containing SARS-CoV-2 than the US.

Let's also look at the specifics of this new surge in New Zealand.

New Zealand has a population of 4.88 million people. As of August 18 they've had a total of 1643 confirmed cases and 22 deaths. Their single biggest day of increases was April 5 where 89 new cases were reported. Since early May they've had no more than 2 or 3 new cases per day, with a good number of days with zero new cases reported. That's fairly impressive for a country with nearly 5 million people.

On August 12 New Zealand reported a sudden surge of 19 new cases after a long string of zero, one and two new cases per day. On Aug 13 they reported 13 new cases, 7 on Aug 14, 13 on Aug 15, 9 on Aug 16 and 12 new cases yesterday. In basic percentage terms that is a pretty big uptick. But in the bigger picture view that uptick is LAUGHABLY INSIGNIFICANT compared to what's happening here in the United States.

Example: Oklahoma has 3.9 million residents, almost 1 million less than New Zealand. But us Sooners have way the f### more Covid cases happening here. And Oklahoma is not doing anywhere near as bad as some other American states. As of Aug 18 Oklahoma had 49326 total cases and 682 deaths. Over 33000 of those cases occurred since the July 4 holiday.

Here in Comanche County, OK we've reported 892 positive cases with 11 deaths. And we feel like we've been relatively untouched by the pandemic. We have 120,000 people in the county. Yet we literally have half the number of total cases and deaths as New Zealand, a country with over 400 times the population of our county. Despite a city ordinance requiring mask use in public places Lawton has plenty of mask-less yahoos running around. We had a major PRCA rodeo a week ago. No masks, no social distancing. It's a miracle the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD was happening the same weekend. Otherwise that rodeo might have been all over national news.

The only thing us Americans need to be doing is wishing the Kiwis some luck and doing a whole lot of shutting up otherwise. If anything we ought to be asking them for some freaking tips at fighting this virus.

 

[Gino]

The dumb thing this time and the dumb thing in that other thread is simple. Comparing new zealand to United States, is like comparing a moth to this jet. There's no way to justify anything statistically. Yep, they both fly and are from this earth. I wish new zealand luck, as well as the rest of the world. However, let's keep the name calling to a low simmer.

 

[Bobby H]

Comparing new zealand to United States, is like comparing a moth to this jet.

That ridiculous example does nothing to get away from the per capita facts of the matter. Cases per 100,000 people is a 100% relevant metric. And in that regard New Zealand is blowing us away. The US is the pathetic, puny moth flying into the turbines of a cargo jet.

 

[Johnny Best]

Like this one I mounted.

’

 

[Gino]

That ridiculous example does nothing to get away from the per capita facts of the matter. Cases per 100,000 people is a 100% relevant metric. And in that regard New Zealand is blowing us away. The US is the pathetic, puny moth flying into the turbines of a cargo jet.

I'm referring to size..... overall. We have almost double that whole island's population in New York, alone. Then, add all the other large cities. They have nothing, nothing at all to compare. Add on top all the protesting, riots and other stuff going on in this country and it's not a fair comparison. I don't know why these numbers bother you ?? They're only gonna get worse and that's gonna happen regardless of what is done to prevent it or not. It's the way a pandemic works.

 

[Reveal1]

Dutch Elm disease
Africanized Honey Bee
Asian citrus psyllid
Asian Carp
Asian Giant hornet
Burmese python
Feral hogs
Emerald Ash Borer
Illegal immigration
Sars
Covid 19
Anti US trolls on S101

All gifts from the world as a result of U.S. being the economic and geographic crossroads of the world.

 

[Bobby H]

I'm referring to size..... overall. We have almost double that whole island's population in New York, alone. Then, add all the other large cities. They have nothing, nothing at all to compare. Add on top all the protesting, riots and other stuff going on in this country and it's not a fair comparison.

SARS-CoV-2 is prevalent in far more American places than just big cities with "blue" governments and black lives matter protesters. We don't have any protesting going on here in Comanche County, OK. Yet this county of only 120,000 people has 50% the number of total covid cases and deaths as New Zealand, a nation with 4.8 million people. There is a bunch of counties across the US much worse per capita rates of covid infection than our county.

 

[ikarasu]

Density is something big to consider. New Zealand has less people per square mile than even the smallish country cities do.

That said...nz locks down early. They didn't say "oh it's only 15 cases... It'll go away on its own" and keep things business as usual. They're in a lockdown to get back to zero... Then they open up fully.

They went 100+ days with no cases. Lockdown quick and early and then reopen and go back to mostly normal..... Then you're not shutting down and killing the economy.

It's a strategy a bit harder for usa / Canada / other countries to do... But saying they're doing bad or calling a few cases an outbreak is kind if insane. They're handling it differenty.


What you.guys should be talking about is how they can go 100 says with no cases... International travel is blocked... Then all of a sudden. It's back in the country. They still don't know how it got back in - was it someone sneaking into the country? Did it get in elsewhere? Are previously "cured" people getting reinfected / spreading it?


The big news isn't that they're getting cases
... It's that even with a full country lockdown and zero cases for so long it still managed to get in somehow and jump up so quickly.

Covid a nasty bug. And it's not looking good when they say a vaccine will likely be 50% effective, and that you can likely (not 100%) get reinfected... It seems like it's going nowhere soon.

 

[signage]

It will go away on its own just like it got here on its own, unless some F-up country made it and deployed it!

 

[Bobby H]

Density is something big to consider. New Zealand has less people per square mile than even the smallish country cities do.

New Zealand has some spectacular scenery, but it's not a huge country. With 104,483 square miles it ranks 75th in land mass. Japan has 40,000 more square miles of land. New Zealand is far more sparsely populated than Japan, but it has has a few reasonably large cities. Auckland has 1.6 million people in its metro area. It's a pretty densely packed, European looking city too. Wellington has 420,000 in its metro. Christchurch has close to 400,000.

By the way, Japan and South Korea both have far greater population density than the US. And both nations have had far fewer cases and covid-19 deaths than the US.

They went 100+ days with no cases. Lockdown quick and early and then reopen and go back to mostly normal..... Then you're not shutting down and killing the economy.

It's a strategy a bit harder for usa / Canada / other countries to do... But saying they're doing bad or calling a few cases an outbreak is kind of insane. They're handling it differenty.

The key difference between the United States and most other developed countries: they had far more of a fast unified response. There was a far greater level of cooperation between government, businesses and citizens at fighting the disease. Here in the US it has been a whole lot of every man for himself. Combine that with a LOT of people thinking the whole thing is just a hoax.

New Zealand goes on a string of a few days where a dozen cases are reported per day. They're not messing around with their response. They're locking down where need be and trying as best as they can at contact tracing.

Here in the US we can have a dozen cases break out in one school district in a single day. Then we have intense debate whether to keep in-person classes going. So many parents depend on schools functioning as baby sitters for them so they can avoid ultra-costly day care. Contact tracing? Forget about that. Too many cases, too many contacts and too many people not wanting the gub'ment knowing any details about where they've been or who they've seen. We have people outraged at just having to wear a mask.

 

[ikarasu]

Don't get me wrong, I think Trump has done a shitty job with covid. Probably one of the worst when it comes to dealing with it. I don't think he's up to the task to deal with it at all.


But it's like managing a company. Dealing with 100,000 people and getting them unified and on board with a shutdown is much, much harder than getting a million people to do it.

While usa is one country... Remember it's "United States" as in many many different states. If you went from California to say Mississippi it's like a whole other country in certain aspects. People have different priorities.... Different beliefs. It's impossible to unite everyone in such a large, diverse country against a particular cause on a normal, perfect day. Let alone with so much going on right now.

I don't like how trump handled it... But if I'm being honest, it doesn't matter who was in the seat, the end result would have been the same. It's not really trumps fault,it's not America's fault. The bigger you are, the easier it is to fail when it comes to a virus with these traits.


The only way for America to eradicate it for 100 days like nz did... Is to pull a China and lock people into their houses, weld the doors of infected people shut and go full authoritarian on them. And that's not what America stands for, so it won't happen.