
U.S. government issues travel warning for New Zealand due to '23 active cases' - pseudolus
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2020/08/united-states-government-issues-travel-warning-for-new-zealand-due-to-23-active-cases.html
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oldprogrammer2
This looks like a standard Department of State advisory message. A fairly
moderate one to “exercise caution”. The purpose of these advisories is to make
sure travelers are aware of any situation. The article on France, for example,
has messages about Covid-19, terrorism, and civil unrest, along with advice.

Don’t read too much into it.

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zamadatix
Yeah, I went through the CDC site and most places are 3 or 4 with the same
message (the NZ message is currently a 1). It may seem silly to just put that
warning for basically any country at first but really when you think about it
yes, you shouldn't be traveling during a pandemic. I.e. "warning on traveling
to <x>" does not mean "because traveling inside the US is a good idea" it
means "exercise caution when traveling during a pandemic".

It's unfortunate both the article and comments instead only talk about the
most polarizing interpretations rather than look into the story.

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xupybd
NZ media has a negative opinion of the current US administration and tends to
write everything about them in a negative way.

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olliej
That’s not just the NZ media, and it’s not just NZ. More or less every country
other than the US looks at America as a train wreck now.

It’s an embarrassment

~~~
unishark
And in turn most Americans don't know or care about the rest of the world.

It's been this way my entire (relatively long) life. The only new thing that
is the last couple decades brought the internet where many of us can learn
about what's going on out there.

~~~
totalZero
Dare I say, that's a little unfair to America.

About a quarter of the population of the USA is either first-generation or
second-generation American.

Very few other countries have as much of a connection with the rest of the
world.

~~~
unishark
True I'm not really familiar with what gets covered on Telemundo and such. But
I'd still bet Trump/Obama/Bush have gotten far more coverage in other
countries than, say, Xi or Abe get in the US.

~~~
totalZero
I could see that being true. I think there are reasons for it.

I would argue that in many cases, American foreign (incl trade) and domestic
(incl fiscal) policy have a greater impact on other countries' economies than
do their own respective heads of state/government. Whether you like it or not,
the strength of the relationship with the US is a major factor for the
prosperity of many nations.

I think this is a big part of why people like Bolsonaro and Netanyahu use
Trump's imagery when they campaign. Externally, it signals receptiveness to US
interests. Domestically, it signals prosperity and security.

Also, the USA exports its culture to the rest of the world via TV, film,
music, and the internet. Politics is a natural offshoot of that.

Some countries circulate US currency. Others peg their currency to the dollar.
Petrostates do business in the dollar because that's the base currency for
crude oil trading.

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Nginx487
I would say, during this pandemic half-measures do not work. As an expat in
Vietnam, I witnessed successful handling of the first wave. 3 months we were
living like there's no virus, economy was reopen. Now the second wave, after
the first case more than 10 thousand people were quarantined and intensive
testing started over the country. My colleague was complaining, just several
cases, why that overreacting. Next morning it was 35 cases, and after one more
day there were 216 - and no more. Looks like second wave also contained. As
practice showed, there are no "too tough" measures, if you want to stay safe
during world pandemic.

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loktarogar
The NZ border is, for all intents and purposes, completely closed. They're
largely only letting in NZ citizens (a bit of nuance there, but that's more or
less the case).

Those 23 cases are in managed isolation or quarantine, and New Zealand is
otherwise back to normal.

I'm trying to get to my partner in NZ. She's having meals in restaurants with
friends, working a non-essential retail job, going to pub usergroup meetups.

~~~
xupybd
Yeah we have zero internal restrictions. Shaking hands is even making a come
back.

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pcdoodle
Laughable. Everyone has lost my trust through this. I now base my opinions on
what I experience in real life.

~~~
justSayin000001
Sounds like the same method as the US president. It hasn’t worked out for him.

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foobarbazetc
They don’t let Americans in anyway.

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dredds
We're letting in film crews, so this could be seen as a brain drain of
Hollywood. James Cameron moved his family here from LA before Covid so that's
more to do with Weta Digital and lifestyle etc.

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PopeDotNinja
While the USA racks up 2500 cases per hour.

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pmdulaney
Wow. New Zealand is one of our most stalwart allies. Why would we do this?

~~~
dqpb
Trump has been attacking US states, US federal agencies, US allies, and many
subsets of American citizens since he took office. By most accounts he is not
working in the interest of the US. Who is he working for? That's an open
question.

~~~
lopmotr
This Russia-Trump conspiracy theory is one of the left's intellectual
failures. You might as well believe Obama is a Muslim spy or the Illuminati
controls the world or whatever. You've just been worked up into a frenzy by
the media and don't realize it.

~~~
totalZero
I wouldn't equate Trump-Russia collusion with birtherism and other anti-Obama
smears, for many reasons. Here are five.

* Russia systematically influenced internet forums, Twitter, etc, to help Trump in the 2016 election. This influence campaign is documented in the Mueller report, and several individuals and companies have been indicted. American intelligence says that Russia currently continues this activity.

* Mueller stated in his report that a lack of candor from several people interviewed as part of his investigation impeded the collection of evidence about coordination between Trump and Russia. Failure to bring charges against a person does not exonerate that person.

* Mueller did not set out to address the question of whether Trump "colluded" with Russia, and even if he addressed that topic in his report, there's no way for the public to know that, because the report is still heavily redacted.

* Manafort, Donald Jr., and Kushner met with representatives of the Russian government in Trump Tower. They did not disclose this to officials until Kushner was forced to revise his SF-86 because he failed to include information about his relationships with several key foreigners.

* Trump has sought election assistance from other foreign governments, including using missile defense as leverage over the Ukrainian president, as well as (according to Bolton) using a meeting with Xi Jinpeng to ask repeatedly for help with his re-election campaign.

~~~
lopmotr
You realize all that is the same level of evidence that conspiracy theorists
use, right? It's like saying 9/11 was a false flag operation because the US
did one before in Cuba and would benefit from an excuse to invade Iraq and the
CIA had warned the president in advance and there's some classified
information that the public isn't allowed to know. There's a reason this stuff
isn't accepted in court and shouldn't be accepted by people trying to
understand things.

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dzonga
take me outta america, please. this joke been running for way too long

~~~
maneesh
Just go. I’m off to Tulum Mexico, where hundreds/thousands of American digital
nomads are spending covid time

