Quote Originally Posted by az city View Post
Just to clarify (mainly, it appears, for Jimbo's sake).

TWGL1: "... it seems to me that regardless of lockdowns , masks, social distancing and arbitrary rules it makes little or no difference."

Az City: "... that's weapons grade bollocks."

TWGL1 asks for evidence of mitigation strategies making a difference.

Az City: China and its extreme lockdowns suppressing the virus.

Few different posters: Don't believe Chinese statistics.

Az City: Compare NZ with UK.

So, to summarize for the slow ones at the back (Jimbo), the argument is whether mitigation strategies for Covid 19 have made any difference. If you take the cases of NZ (instituted swift and comprehensive lockdown including an almost complete ban on travel) and the UK (did not have such stringent measures), I think it's fairly obvious that measures to mitigate the spread of the virus DO work.

Is it easier for NZ to do what it did compared with the UK because of its physical geography? Probably but that's irrelevant (Jimbo).
I see the sun has risen in Arizona and the lord has awoken..

You miss my point. No one doubts that with hindsight the UK locked down too late initially - that was probably the big covid error that no one really disputes.

My point is that if any country could adopt a 'zero covid' strategy it is New Zealand. It simply wouldn't have worked almost anywhere else given the amount it was already spreading in Europe, given europes open borders given the UKs open borders, given the extent of international travel in the UK. How many Brits had travelled to Italy in early March 2021 compared to how many kiwis?

Even the European countries that perhaps are comparable to NZ demographically such as Norway (who also handled the pandemic very well) still have a detah rate more than ten times greater than NZ.

The point isnt whether NZ's policies reduced deaths and the spread of Covid, because it undoubtedly did, the point is that NZ could adopt those policies whereas most other countries realistically could not, without extraordinary disruptions to supply chains, the economy, etc etc.

Basically it's not a coincidence that the only country to adopt this method is New Zealand.