New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern: Her ‘Easter Bunny’ comment may have attracted derision but she has far more reason to smile than Boris Johnson.
It seems the Kiwis are conquering coronavirus.
New Zealand has imposed a much stricter lockdown than western countries like the UK, and it seems to be working.
All non-essential activities have been banned and people have been told not to do anything that might divert the resources of the emergency services.
Any exercise is taken strictly within a person’s own neighbourhood and, like us, people have been told to stay two metres apart when queuing at the shops. Unlike us, it’s possible that people in New Zealand are actually following that rule.
Basically, everyone was ordered to stay at home for four weeks unless they worked in an essential job such as health care, or were going to the supermarket or exercising near their home.
And 10 days after that lockdown was imposed, the number of new cases was said to have fallen for two days in a row.
The number who have recovered – 65 – exceeded the number of infections – 54.
Despite calls to ease the lockdown for Easter, PM Jacinda Ardern is adamant that the nation will complete 28 days of lockdown (two 14-day incubation cycles) before doing so.
The attitude of the nation’s leaders has been so different from that of Boris Johnson and his rabble that it should not go unexamined.
New Zealand shut its borders to foreigners on March 19. Two days later, Ms Ardern made a televised address to the nation announcing a four-stage coronavirus response plan, with stage four being full lockdown.
On the advice of influential national leaders, she moved to stage four just four days later.
“We currently have 102 cases,” she said. “But so did Italy once.”
What was Boris Johnson saying, when the UK had the same number of cases?
Well, that was March 5, and he was saying this:
I can’t forgive this man for saying this. Herd Immunity would have killed hundreds of thousands, including those of us who have vulnerable family members. There needs to be an inquiry after this regarding the gov’s flippancy. @campbellclaret @piersmorgan pic.twitter.com/OOSD5DAoU4
— Rose (@thelittleleftie) April 2, 2020
Over here, Ms Ardern is the focus of media derision because she said the Easter Bunny was an “essential worker”. But consider this:
People in New Zealand were told: “Act as if you have Covid-19. It will save lives.”
People in the UK were (pretty much) told: “Act as if you’re not going to get it. It will save the economy.”
It hasn’t saved the economy. In fact, it seems, the economy is in deep trouble because of the snake oil Boris Johnson and his government tried to sell us.
In the UK, our lockdown is set to continue, lasting a lot longer than just four weeks.
I hear that large businesses will not be able to cope. Our media giants are in danger of collapse because they don’t have the savings necessary to weather a long period without advertisers.
While New Zealand prepares to re-open for business, we could be facing a worse recession than the financial crisis of 2008.
Because Boris Johnson is an imbecile.
Source: New Zealand isn’t just flattening the curve. It’s squashing it.
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