Fox News goes totally insane over Covid-19

[Arcade22]

You really do know nothing!

Have you applied for a job at the WHO? You should consider it, since you are yet another New Zealander who apparently knows everything about epidemiology and how to fix it all. They are no doubt in high demand...

 

[smartcooky]

Then how come every time an epidemiologist has talked about New Zealand they have made sure to mention that it's an isolated island nation and thus it's far easier to control the spread of contagious diseases? Are they wrong?

Far easier doesn't mean its the only reason its worked here.

It might be far harder for the rest of the world to do what we did, but that doesn't mean its impossible

Nah, I'm guessing it's Dunning-Kruger again. It seems contagious.

You're guessing wrong

 

[p0lka]

No. Plenty of places are island countries. For example, Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia. And yet their outcome has been significantly different to NZ and to each other.

Also the UK, the absolute height of mismanagement considering the lack of land it's connected to.

 

[smartcooky]

Have you applied for a job at the WHO? You should consider it, since you are yet another New Zealander who apparently knows everything about epidemiology and how to fix it all. They are no doubt in high demand...

I'm intelligent, and I can read and understand what I read. How about you?

If you have something useful to offer, then offer it. If you don't, when maybe it would be better for you to just shut up!

 

[Arcade22]

Far easier doesn't mean its the only reason its worked here.

It might be far harder for the rest of the world to do what we did, but that doesn't mean its impossible

Well if Europe, The Americas and so forth are any indication it's about as close to impossible as it can get. No expert is saying "do what New Zealand did and it will all be over". No expert is saying anything remotely like that.

By all means, go ahead and enjoy your splendid isolation at the end of the world. Just don't act like the rest of the world can achieve the same result as you without actually knowing what you are talking about. What happens on New Zealand might just happen on the ******* moon as far as the rest of Earth is concerned.

 

[CaptainHowdy]

Fox News talking idiot, Laura Ingraham, has really upset Kiwis after claiming that we are setting up Quarantine Camps and imprisoning anyone that refuses to have a Covid-19 test and that Biden and the Left want to do the same in the US, forcing Americans to give up their freedoms.

The reality is that she is mixing up present day life in New Zealand with Managed Isolation that only for those that are travelling to New Zealand from overseas, or those very few people who have tested positive or are close contacts with those that have. The "Facilities" that Jacinda Arden speaks about are not camps, but rather Government paid for 4-Star Hotels where those in Quarantine are getting treated like any hotel guest would, except for the ability to leave the Hotel until they have completed their 14 days.

We haven't given up any freedoms, other than the freedom to be a jerk and potential spread the disease about the country, and it is this sort of measure that is the exact reason that we do only have 25 deaths.

Once again Fox's talking heads prove how much idiotic and woefully ill-informed they are, and then spread those lies and garbage on to their gullible viewers.

Fearing people coming into your country because they might be diseased sounds rather xenophobic and racist.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Also the UK, the absolute height of mismanagement considering the lack of land it's connected to.

I was hoping that I wouldn't have to mention that to a Swede.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Well if Europe, The Americas and so forth are any indication it's about as close to impossible as it can get. No expert is saying "do what New Zealand did and it will all be over". No expert is saying anything remotely like that.

By all means, go ahead and enjoy your splendid isolation at the end of the world. Just don't act like the rest of the world can achieve the same result as you without actually knowing what you are talking about. What happens on New Zealand might just happen on the ******* moon as far as the rest of Earth is concerned.

If I could just direct you attention the the island nation of China, the source of this contagion. A billion-plus people in crowded cities, surrounded by water! Oh wait...not so much. Tens of thousands of kilometers of land border with some of the equally most populous nations on Earth. But let's not quibble over that, because it isn't Sweden or New Zealand, and it's thousands of kilometers away from both.

So...

While suffering the opprobrium of the world, this populous, crowded, non-island nation does seem to have gotten a handle on controlling it there too. So how did they do it? Certainly not be pretending that fresh air and herd immunity would suffice.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext

 

[smartcooky]

How so?

It has the highest GPD per capita of the 50 states.
It's well above average for high school graduation rates, student aptitude, quality of life, healthcare outcomes.

I suspect you just mean, they collect a lot in taxes.

Or too many librulz!!

I would alternately say that the most backward states are the ones with the lowest graduation rates, the lowest standard of living, the lowest median incomes, the highest ratio of federal spending to federal taxes paid. You know who they are.

Oooh, Let me guess... Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia... you know, states where you will find hicktowns with young white men called Cletus and Bubba and Billy Bob, who have shotguns under the seats of their pickup trucks.

How did I do?

 

[PhantomWolf]

Well if Europe, The Americas and so forth are any indication it's about as close to impossible as it can get.

Europe and the US are only as bad as they are because they have no political will to do what is needed, and many in their populations refuse to actually follow basic isolation practices. Europe and the US aren't examples that prove it can't be done, they are examples of what happens when you refuse to deal with it. Saying it is impossible either means that you don't have a Government willing to do what is needed, or your population is unwilling to isolate in order to save other people's lives. Either way reflects pretty badly.

No expert is saying "do what New Zealand did and it will all be over". No expert is saying anything remotely like that.

Except that this is exactly what scientists have been saying since at least April. They might not be pointing a finger over here and saying "follow them", but they have been saying "Use lockdowns to get it under control and then when it is, vigorously test, trace, and isolate." They have pointed out many countries as examples of having done this such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, South Korea, Australia, us, Vietnam, and others. Even Germany managed to nearly get it under control initially using lockdowns and testing, but instead of holding on, they opened up again because of pressure to do so while they were still getting hundreds of cases a day, and surprise, surprise their cases are now spiking just like the rest of Europe.

In fact, Germany is a brilliant example. From April through to May they were under heavy lockdown rules and saw their numbers plummet from over 6,000 cases a day to down to 200-300 cases a day. By the end of April, the Government came under sustained pressure and protests, and instead of holding out and eliminating the virus in Germany, they allowed the re-opening of shops in early May and then the borders in mid-June. Since July their numbers have been increasing, but again under pressure they then re-opened schools in August. Since then numbers have spiked, and they have gone from 400 cases a day at the start of August, to nearly 20,000 cases a day at the end of last month.

By all means, go ahead and enjoy your splendid isolation at the end of the world. Just don't act like the rest of the world can achieve the same result as you without actually knowing what you are talking about. What happens on New Zealand might just happen on the ******* moon as far as the rest of Earth is concerned.

New Zealand's isolation has zero to do with anything. You can scream Dunning-Kruger all you like, but no Entomologist on the planet is going to tell you that a virus can continue to spread if you eliminate its transmission vector, and that is exactly what a lockdown does. If you back them up with vigorous testing, tracing, and isolation then the virus can't spread because it has no method of transmission outside of the isolated groups of potential hosts. This isn't rocket science or rocket surgery. How viruses spread is pretty well known at this stage of the game.

We know that social distancing, wearing masks, isolation, testing and tracing, and locking down populations to prevent spread and burn it out all work, we have seen this demonstrated in numerous countries time and again. The only reason that it can't work in Europe and the US is that the people there are unwilling to sacrifice their lives for 4-6 weeks to actually beat and eradicate the damn thing. Your issue isn't the virus, it's selfishness and a bunch of political BS that puts money before people's lives.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Fearing people coming into your country because they might be diseased sounds rather xenophobic and racist.

You do realise that aside from a few approved cases for work, travellers coming to New Zealand are pretty much exclusively New Zealanders who have been travelling or living overseas and are now returning here. A lot of them because the countries they were in are lousy with Covid-19 and we aren't. Kind of hard to be xenophobic and racist against fellow countrymen and women.

Oh, and considering that we have caught at least 275 cases in managed isolation, which is nearly 14% of all of our reported cases, I'd say that treating people like they might be carrying this disease when they come into the country is a pretty good idea.

 

[lionking]

Yeah but they should realize that their geographic isolation means that they are highly exceptional in terms of their ability to reduce the introduction of infectious diseases.



It's not about population. It's about geography. To demonstrate this lets not forget that there's a Nordic country that is similar to Sweden but has come out of this pandemic very lightly: It's called Iceland and guess what? It's an irrelevant island in the middle of nowhere too.

The distance from Stockholm to Rome is shorter than the distance Auckland is from Sydney. Oh people people actually live in between.

Oh, Iceland is comparable to NZ. Okay 300,000 population is a proportion of NZ, and is an island. So I guess that, like NZ they would have completely eradicated the virus, correct?

Of course it’s not. 1000 active cases and daily infections.

Fail. Try again.

 

[smartcooky]

You do realise that aside from a few approved cases for work, travellers coming to New Zealand are pretty much exclusively New Zealanders who have been travelling or living overseas and are now returning here. A lot of them because the countries they were in are lousy with Covid-19 and we aren't. Kind of hard to be xenophobic and racist against fellow countrymen and women.

Over 96% in fact.

The Wallaby rugby team that was here for the two test matches a couple of weeks back pushed the number of non-New Zealanders to arrive in this country since the end of lockdown up by almost 25%!!

Meanwhile, as some of you might know, I own a photo lab, and one of the services we offer is passport and ID photos, both printed and digital. While the number of Kiwis applying for passports has fallen dramatically, that has been more than made up by the number of foreign tourists applying for Visa extensions, and work permits because they cannot go home. The demand is so high that I have to take on an extra staff member to deal with the demand. The NZ Government is allowing people who are here on visitor visas to apply for work permits so that they can find work to continue to pay for accommodation and food. With harvest coming up soon, there will be plenty of seasonal work, mostly work that Kiwis don't want to do.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Over 96% in fact.

The Wallaby rugby team that was here for the two test matches a couple of weeks back pushed the number of non-New Zealanders to arrive in this country since the end of lockdown up by almost 25%!!

Yeah, lot of bloody good it did them too. All Blacks whomped us again.

Meanwhile, as some of you might know, I own a photo lab, and one of the services we offer is passport and ID photos, both printed and digital. While the number of Kiwis applying for passports has fallen dramatically, that has been more than made up by the number of foreign tourists applying for Visa extensions, and work permits because they cannot go home. The demand is so high that I have to take on an extra staff member to deal with the demand. The NZ Government is allowing people who are here on visitor visas to apply for work permits so that they can find work to continue to pay for accommodation and food. With harvest coming up soon, there will be plenty of seasonal work, mostly work that Kiwis don't want to do.

Harvesting what? Marijuana?

 

[smartcooky]

Yeah, lot of bloody good it did them too. All Blacks whomped us again.

Harvesting what? Marijuana?

The Nelson/Marlborough Area has seasonal work such as fruit picking (apples, pears, nashis, kiwifruit), work in fruit packing sheds, mussel harvesting, vineyard work, berry picking, hop picking & training & farm hand on dairy/beef and the occasional sheep farm.

Weed isn't usually harvested until February, they don't advertise for workers, you don't need a work permit, and while you will get paid, its unlikely to be in money

 

[catsmate]

Ireland too.

But see if you can spot the differences between NZ and others countries' lockdowns.

Ireland Goes Into Total Lockdown in Desperate Bid to Save Christmas


'World's toughest national lockdown'. Yeah right.

If the UK's previous lockdowns are anything to go by, their latest one won't be much better. Then people like Arcade22 will point to their failure as proof that lockdowns don't work.

Ah with most of TDB's stories it's rather inaccurate. The new lockdown here, Tier 5, is somewhat less stringent than the one earlier in the year.

 

[catsmate]

How about you get an education instead of thinking you are entitled to educated the rest of the world of how we should just do whatever you say, just because New Zealand happened to have a far lower initial case load that most of Europe? You are literally acting like the worst kind of self-righteous arm-chair expert.

Fearing people coming into your country because they might be diseased sounds rather xenophobic and racist.

U.S. Quarantine Stations

 

[The Don]

Fearing people coming into your country because they might be diseased sounds rather xenophobic and racist.

I guess it depends on whether that fear is rational and whether the measures are applied equally and/or commensurate with risk.

A xenophobic way of implementing such measures would be to restrict access from some counties whose racial makeup you don't approve of but to allow unfettered access from countries with a higher risk but where you approve of that make up. Alternatively it would be xenophobic to restrict access from one group arriving from a specific country (say, citizens of that country) but not for another (your own citizens.).

 

[Mader Levap]

Sorry guys, but being island nation, especially small one, makes fighting with COVID-19 significantly easier, all other things being equal.

Feel free to fervently pretend otherwise.

 

[Dave Rogers]

Sorry guys, but being island nation, with a competent government, especially small one, makes fighting with COVID-19 significantly easier, all other things being equal.

FTFY.

Dave