
New Zealand Declares State of Emergency [video] - partingshots
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-03-25/new-zealand-declares-state-of-emergency-video
======
nobbis
As a Kiwi living in NYC, I'm impressed by the "go hard, go early" approach the
NZ government has taken, compared with the delayed response here.

NZ also has easily enforceable border control (surrounded by the Pacific
ocean) which is already strict (their economy is so reliant on agriculture
exports.)

They should come out of this better than most.

~~~
_the_inflator
My kiwi friend, a doc, thinks that this is a late approach. While Germany etc.
was already in lockdown, NZ still was hesitant. So, he calls this a delayed
approach as well.

~~~
negative_zero
I agree this is a delayed approach. We squandered our greatest resource to
fight this: our border.

We could not have rolled better starting stats to have:

1) A giant moat around us.

2) Only really four international airports (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch
and Queenstown).

3) All these are destination airports (as opposed to transit hubs where
Singapore or Heathrow are classic examples).

I flew through Asia when SARS was in full swing and just now in February-March
(just my luck) and have gone through borders where this was taken seriously
earlier. NZs earlier "additional border controls" were pathetic. When I
returned in mid March there was:

1) No thermal screening of passengers.

2) No health form to fill in.

3) Australian, Singapore and US!? passports were allowed to use the e-gates.

4) No additional cleaning of high risk surfaces.

5) No protective measures for the customs and border staff.

6) The _only_ extra measure was a tiny pamphlet being handed out which
essentially said: "If you feel sick, please ring healthline or a GP and tell
them you have travelled."

Instead when I landed on 13th March:

1) I got a pamphlet handed to me which most passengers ignored and threw away

2) Had to touch the e-gates (which had no evidence of cleaning) that were
touched by hundreds of other travellers

3) Could not wash my hands properly because soap ran out in a couple of the
bathrooms

4) For extra points I could have jumped on a airport to city centre bus full
of tourists from Europe (I got picked up instead).

and then they announced with a 48 hour warning that the border was shutting
and then planes were packed coming in as people tried to "beat the compulsary
quarantine".

The border should have been shut _before_ the first case was detected here.

edit - additional new lines and a sentence

~~~
2019-nCoV
Being remote leads to an apathetic population.

There would have been limited community support for closing the border prior
to the first case. It was a distant problem while running rampant across Asia,
even more-so as it decimated Europe.

~~~
negative_zero
Sadly, I think you are absolutely correct.

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boznz
we also did this for the big earthquakes, just gives government power to shut
down travel and requisition resources if required. NZ is at level 4 lock down
for 4weeks minimum and from the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the
people approve of the government action.

~~~
radiorental
> the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the people approve of the
> government action.

It helps that you have a leader that articulates the scale of the problem and
is clear about what measures are being put in place to deal with the situation
both tactically and strategically.

I don't want to politicize the conversation, HN is not the place for that, but
it's striking how the different management styles in say NZ & IRL differ from
the UK & US and how that is helping people deal with the crisis.

In the US for example, individual Governors (aka Team Leads) are taking up the
slack where the CEO is not equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. But
fundamentally in a pandemic (aka extrinsic force) what counts is trust in
leadership, what Ms Arden is demonstrating. Good luck, stay safe.

~~~
jandrewrogers
In the US, the State Governors are explicitly in charge of this, not the
Federal government which has minimal authority in such matters. It is
misleading to describe this as "taking up the slack", given that the US
government is specifically structured such that it is _supposed_ to work this
way.

~~~
radiorental
You are not wrong with respect to healthcare but leadership comes from the
top, more so when this is not a State specific problem. Just listen to the
Governor of NY plead for help. State's can chose to ignore the president but
if the want help from the Feds (FEMA etc) then your point is moot.

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tathougies
The feds have explicitly stated they are willing to help, and are sending
resources to the states?

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radiorental
The leadership, the 'feds' (FEMA) and the states are three separate entities.

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tathougies
Sorry, I'll rephrase. Trump has explicitly stated he is willing to give money
to the states to deal with the problem. And has sent resources (like the navy
ships, dod medical stockpiles, and emergency hospitals)

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dhosek
No, he says that he's done things but many of these things (like the navy
ships) are far from being launched. Much of what Trump says is not true and a
disturbing amount of that is actively harmful.

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tathougies
Money to states: [https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2020/03/06/8129648...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2020/03/06/812964894/where-that-8-3-billion-in-u-s-coronavirus-funding-
will-and-wont-go)

Dod medical stockpiles:
[https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2115200...](https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2115200/dod-
poised-to-provide-masks-ventilators-labs-for-coronavirus-fight/)

emergency hospitals:
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144037/National-
Gu...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144037/National-Guard-
arrives-Javits-Center-Manhattan-build-FOUR-emergency-hospitals.html)

Navy ships: [https://thehill.com/policy/defense/489020-navy-hospital-
ship...](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/489020-navy-hospital-ship-
deploying-monday-to-los-angeles)

You are just spreading lies. Monday is not today, but it is quite close, and
the ships were undergoing repairs, as trump said.

~~~
true_religion
Monday was two days ago. If you can understand that this is a fast moving
situation, maybe it would be best to give people the benefit of the doubt when
they give out information you believe to be outdated?

~~~
tathougies
The article I posted says this coming Monday? Trump said the ship would be
deployed but that it was undergoing repairs. It's being deployed monday. How
is it a lie to say the ship is being deployed?

Will you give me the benefit of the doubt and read the article? What lie did
Trump tell? At no point did he claim the ships were already present at their
destinations.

~~~
true_religion
Oh... I misread you then. I thought you were saying that this was new
information _since_ Monday.

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nzgrover
What's happening in NZ explained here:
[https://covid19.govt.nz/](https://covid19.govt.nz/)

And what the "State of National Emergency" means:
[https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-
of...](https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-of-national-
emergency-explained)

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lynnetye
I live in SF but was in New Zealand just 9 days ago. At the time, there were 6
confirmed cases and NZ had already put in place a 14-day self-isolation policy
for travelers. Seeing how things _could_ be handled (and watching the U.S.
from afar) made it extremely difficult to "go back home." I felt so much safer
there. W/ all of that said, I'm actually surprised Arden didn't lock things
down sooner.

~~~
robocat
I think the government has failed to prepare everyone, almost misleading us
with lack of worry or urgency over the last many weeks. We obviously could
have begun some actions months ago (I started acting on the 10th February,
Taiwan started acting strongly on 31st Dec). Many people and businesses have
been caught out badly in NZ.

However, I have some trust that our government has been actively measuring the
signals needed to know when to shutdown, and I am now really happy to see
action.

I have seen many people I would expect to be smarter downplay this (Ioannidis,
Musk, etc), and the failure of most western countries to act, so I don’t have
too many hard feelings about what we could have done better...

NZ has a lot to learn from Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and other
countries that prepared properly and haven’t had to shut down their economies.

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NathanTinker
As a Chinese living in Auckland, I thought I would be safe here. After the
first case detected in the North Shore City about one month ago, people here
divided over the virus a lot. Some people were taking it seriously, the other
people were not. When I read news and posts from Chinese media, I was so
terrified. However when I read news from NZ media like stuff, I felt its not a
big deal. I was quite split also. The eventually lockdown is a relief to me. I
saw a video, police man already check if people are going out for essential
services on street. Also it's grateful we have lots of natural place to go in
neighborhood. I do think quarantine here will be much easier than in China.

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PopeDotNinja
Good luck in NZ. I'm on Day 12 in Spain. I'm passing the time by learning to
cook.

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mdrachuk
Where will the billionaires flight to next?

([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278))

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slowhand09
[https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-
th...](https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-
be9337092b56)

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_bxg1
Needs a [video] tag

~~~
dang
Added. Thanks!

