How New Zealand relied on science, empathy and health before the economy to defeat Coronavirus

[Elwood P Dowd]

In other words, they did the exact opposite of Donnie Trump and his gang of crooks and clowns.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52344299

<snip>

And while there has been some criticism over how the government has reacted, others say New Zealand has offered a model response of empathy, clarity and trust in science.

New Zealand is of course a small nation - its population is smaller than New York City's - and it is remote with easily sealable borders, which all played in its favour when the virus broke out.

But its relative success - it has among the lowest cases per capita in the world - has mainly been attributed to the clarity of the message coming from the government.

Unlike the countries that declared "war on Covid-19", the government's message was that of a country coming together. It urged people to "Unite Against Covid-19". Ms Ardern has repeatedly called the country "our team of five million".
"Jacinda [Ardern] is a brilliant communicator and an empathetic leader," says Prof Michael Baker from Otago University's Public Health Department, who helped advise the government on its response. "But what she's said also made sense and I think people really trusted that. There's been a high level of compliance."

[Mike 03]

1. It's hard not to regard Jacinda Ardern and certain other leaders with envy.

Germany and other European nations, Canada, certain Asian nations have done so much better. We really scraped the bottom of the barrel here, and I also feel terribly sorry for the citizens of Brazil, because Bolsonaro might even be a more dangerous and worthless pile of crap than Trump.

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. What's so disgusting about our country is that 40% of the population say Trump is doing a good

job with the Coronavirus when in reality he ranks as one of the worst in the world. We're approaching 40% of the cases with only 4% of the population.