Zero Covid

I thought it was to buy time to vaccinate, so they could avoid the cases and fatalities of a 'naive' population being exposed to the virus.

They only have 40% fully vaccinated though probably that's health care workers and the most vulnerable.

So I can see for NZ as a measure to buy time, rather than an end goal, that there was some merit in it.
 
I'll stand corrected here, but weren't AZ meant to build or fit out a plant in Australia to produce for itself and New Zealand?
I can't go into detail but there were other options open to Australia for supply from outside and it was coming from a state of the art plant that was idle at the time but Australia rejected it.

The idea that they would "ride it out" was silly, and now they are going into summer with under 50% vaccinated, one only has to look at the US to see what 50% vaccinated does during summer months.

They've put themselves behind an 8 ball now and they still seem unsure of what to do next.
 
Remember the cacophony of people calling for this last january, lots of politicians , and health "experts", but it wasn't just a constructive debate there was a hysterical overtone to the whole thing. A year ago the Australian expert responsible for pursuing the zero covid strategy when asked said that Ireland should not do it because it was very difficult to achieve and that Australia would have a big problem opening up due to its zero exposure to the virus, how prescient this advice turned out to be.
 
To be fair to both Australia and New Zealand, in the beginning nobody really knew what to do for the best and no strategy was fully successful.

Australia with a population of almost 26m and New Zealand with a little over 5m have reported fatalities of only 1,346 and 27 respectively.

Neither economy suffered seriously – Australia also had to contend with the bushfires.

The fact that they have changed their strategies consequent to the Delta variant is to their credit.
 
Sophrosyne said:
To be fair to both Australia and New Zealand, in the beginning nobody really knew what to do for the best and no strategy was fully successful.

Australia with a population of almost 26m and New Zealand with a little over 5m have reported fatalities of only 1,346 and 27 respectively.

Neither economy suffered seriously – Australia also had to contend with the bushfires.

The fact that they have changed their strategies consequent to the Delta variant is to their credit.
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I agree nobody knew at the start of this however many did question the decisions of zero covid, Australia essentially abandoned 40,000 of its citizens that lived overseas but allowed Katie Hopkins into the country for some reality show.

The PM of Australia said after the EU stopped shipments from Italy, that it didn't matter as they were controlling the disease and would be producing its own vaccine.

NZ aren't doing what they're doing because of science its because Auckland is locked down and protests are getting bigger and more serious, as they are in Melbourne and Sydney.

This is a fundamental failure in leadership by 2 countries that could have had its entire population vaccinated by now they maybe opening up Airports from next month but that's really closing the stable door, the horse is long gone. A lifetime friend lives in Melbourne and says it's like Ireland in the 80s.

They pride themselves as being different and they are, they control borders vigorously and somehow they thought it would be as easy to do so against a virus, its naivety and arrogance mixed together and now the "emperor's have no clothes ".
 
All that may be true but it is difficult to view their case and fatality numbers as an unmitigated failure.
 
Sophrosyne said:
All that may be true but it is difficult to view their case and fatality numbers as an unmitigated failure.
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I'm not they did a good job in that but this strategy in a global pandemic was wrong in my view.
If they were even more successful there was a threat, being western style democracies, that the virus could have travelled from other countries, for example via freight, undetected and found a place to harbour and evolve into a new strain, and again put the world at risk.

My arguments might seem very subjective but we knew nothing at the start of all this but once the vaccines were identified as been the way to get some control on the virus globally they should have embraced that strategy not continue with single country strategies.

I know I'm idealistic but this type of nationalism has been seen to be the main cause of probably all the ills the planet and its citizens have suffered and endured for the last 200 years since Thomas Malthus proposed his theory, and its time to change it .
 
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Paul O Mahoney said:
I'm not they did a good job in that but this strategy in a global pandemic was wrong in my view.
If they were even more successful there was a threat, being western style democracies, that the virus could have travelled from other countries, for example via freight, undetected and found a place to harbour and evolve into a new strain, and again put the world at risk.

My arguments might seem very subjective but we knew nothing at the start of all this but once the vaccines were identified as been the way to get some control on the virus globally they should have embraced that strategy not continue with single country strategies.

I know I'm idealistic but this type of nationalism has been seen to be the main cause of probably all the ills the planet and its citizens have suffered and endured for the last 200 years since Thomas Malthus proposed his theory, and its time to change it .
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Excellent post Paul.
 
Leo said:
The tens of thousands of their own citizens stranded abroad would have a very different view
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And in all probability most of these were vaccinated.
It was and still is until November needless and I think that's the frustration that is being seen now by way of protests.

The ashes series is going ahead in December and England might be without some of their better players as the bubble they will have to stay in could be 5 months long, meanwhile the world is practically open to all sporting events.
 
I see the Chinese now having big problems with their zero covid policy. Apparently people looking at the world Cup on TV could see that everyone was mingling and not wearing masks etc so they saw that the CCP was lying about what the rest of the world was doing.
The Chinese Sinovac vaccine is basically useless against these new strains like omicron and the Chinese authorities are too proud to admit that and use the western vaccines like Pfizer and moderna
 
joe sod said:
I see the Chinese now having big problems with their zero covid policy. Apparently people looking at the world Cup on TV could see that everyone was mingling and not wearing masks etc so they saw that the CCP was lying about what the rest of the world was doing.
The Chinese Sinovac vaccine is basically useless against these new strains like omicron and the Chinese authorities are too proud to admit that and use the western vaccines like Pfizer and moderna
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It was a stupid policy 2 years ago and the more we learned the more stupid it got.
 
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