Godzone should be leader of world pandemic pack
The Government has had praise heaped on it for its handling of Covid19.
I think we should face the facts. We are a very small island at the end of the world, about the size of Japan, with a sparse population of about five million disciplined people.
Japan by the way, had a population as at May 16, 2020, of 126,523,275 or 1.62 per cent of the world population. Clearly it would be easier to manage five million compared to 125 million.
We should be top of the class in the world, however Australia has a better record.
Let us look at some figures around the world, deaths per million population for the following major countries as of May 16.
US 270, Spain 590, UK 508, Italy 525, France 423, China 3, Sweden 364.
These are countries with a relatively large population.
While not a great fan of Trump, it does surprise me that the US has received such savage criticism.
I am not interested in arguing about the pros and cons of economic lockdown as only time will tell us which method is the best.
We know most deaths have been with the infirm and elderly population with pre-existing conditions, many in their 80s and 90s.
These people should and will be protected now and in the future, but is it fair to put their deaths down to the virus if, for example, they suffered from coronary heart disease?
Our Government had justified criticism for late border closing.
China was early and crafty to close down all domestic airlines, preventing domestic travel.
But it kept its overseas flights open, exporting much of the problem (abridged).