New Zealand

And to think, around a year ago people were furiously masturbating about how NZ was a shining example of how to deal with Covid.

England is basically back to normal. I reckon NZ, Aus and a few of the EU countries have years of this nonsense to go.

Strange I was assured the other day on here NZ is not pursuing zero covid and it is stupid to say they've done anything other than handle this pandemic perfectly

Seems bizarre. I probably owe Spurius an apology about this, I told him just the other day NZ would probably be back to normal by the spring.

Just another thing you’ve been wrong about chimp

There’s a first time for everything.

And you should apologize to everyone

I apologise to you for making you feel bad in comparison to me.

I think Australia and New Zealand both did a reasonably sensible thing in their circumstances of being able to keep COVID out until enough people got vaccinated. What I think NZ can learn from Australia is that the long tail of late-to-the-party vaccinations can be dramatically shortened by a good outbreak. That's what happened in NSW and Victoria, and is now happening in Queensland.

i disagree with the substance of the approach st jacinda has taken

but at least she’s leading, making decisions and owning her choices. and following her own rules

How is NZ's death rate looking?

"I see they are back to mega restrictions"

Their "red traffic light" sounds more dramatic than it is. Have you actually read what it entails ?

https://covid19.govt.nz/traffic-lights/life-at-red/

Nothing like lockdown. No restrictions on leaving home or having people in your home. No restrictions on domestic travel. If you are vaxed, basically no restrictions on visiting cafes, restaurants, shops etc. Certainly not "mega restrictions".

"NZ must win the award for most barking mad Covid policies 2020-2022."

They are in the running for 2022, but will struggle to beat China I think ! They definitely have a psychological issue with opening up and moving to an endemic stage. But 2020-21 ?

Err 24 day isolation….

Yeah, Risky, that is way over the top at this stage I think. Was more thinking of the restrictions on the population as a whole rather than individuals.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/red-alert-new-zealand-prepares-for-thousands-of-omicron-cases-a-day-with-community-spread

No Chimp, I think you were actually right. I read this as: we're going to let it rip, because it's time, but we're going to pretend we're trying to slow the spread and I'm going to cancel my wedding because some grannies are going to die and I want to still be prime minister.

I think it might be consistent with opening up by late spring. We'll see.

Fair enough, I acknowledge that I didn’t make any effort at all to find out the actual situation beyond reading the OP

"What I think NZ can learn from Australia is that the long tail of late-to-the-party vaccinations can be dramatically shortened by a good outbreak."

Maybe, but they're already at 92% double-vaxxed, which is astonishingly high particularly given initial Maori/Pasifika reluctance and is basically the same as the UK's "wall of immunity" built from a combination of vaxxing and prior infection.

Should they still be trying so hard to damp down Omicron while they push boosters ? I think that's something intelligent reasonable people can disagree about.

"I think it might be consistent with opening up by late spring. We'll see."

Yeah, they are saying very cryptic stuff about significant changes to the border within H1 2022. I think the key people in gov't recognise it's time to move on but, like you say, they need to carry public opinion with them/ not seem callous.

The way you guys use this topic to have a pop at each other is fcking pathetic. Completely stifles any intelligent debate.

24 day isolation is proper mental. That’s about eight times the incubation period of omicron.

Yeah not sure WTF they are thinking with 24 days of isolation.

24 days seems excessive even to me

presumably the idea is if they only have c100 cases they can nip it in the bud completely if they keep them away from other people for an extended period?

still almost a month seems a lot for that

Own it chill.

It's 14 days for the infectee, 10 days on top of that for rest of the household iirc. They seem to be in a flap about someone who tested negative throughout miq and then tested positive, and they are worried this indicates a potentially very long incubation period in some cases. To which my answer at this point would be "So what ?"

I think as case numbers take off they are going to have a big problem with people not getting tested and not disclosing symptoms, for fear of loss of income etc.