Vaccination rollout for them came later than for us, with less than 30% of population fully vaccinated at this time. Delta is incredibly contagious, and "only 1 confirmed case" can spread like wild fire if not taken seriously. A lockdown for a few days to a week to minimize chance of disaster is a reasonable policy. It has to be assumed that there are many carriers that haven't yet been confirmed. Less than 30 deaths in New Zealand versus, what, 600K+ deaths in the US? And New Zealand has enjoyed basically normal life for over a year. Whatever they're doing is working a hell of a lot better than what we've done.
I bet there is an entire nation of India wishing they were 'dystopian' about it . With no universal access to vaccine, to deal with delta, it should be social distancing(mitigation) on 'steroids'. US is blessed at least to have a faster access to vaccine. Other parts of world don't have that luxury
I would love it if the US has as much freedom over the last 18M as they have (that was made possible because their leaders and their people are serious adults about Covid vs folks over here being crybabies over masks).
They are doing quite well for themselves, so yeah it works. People here rather kill a small percentage of the population, deal with long term COVID effects of they survive exposure, and exhaust our healthcare professionals in order to have their freedom. COVID sucks, it's a shame that we can't get it fully under control.
New Zealand learned: Covid cases are like cocka-roaches (my sister's pronunciation, even now as an adult); you see one, you know there's a ton you don't. I remember my coworker a year ago, early March, scoffing about the 'rona: "What's there like, sixty cases in the entire country? Come on, man." BOOM!
Fauci himself said they're useless. Funny how this clip was actually harder to find than it should have been.
