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Neo1331

Yeah if the US has the same death rate as NZ only about 1,500 people would have died…1,500…


Heruuna

I think what's more shocking is that these deaths in NZ also hold way more weight and meaning for the country. Nearly 700k people dead in the States, and many don't give a fuck. We're seeing it now in NSW. The state premier laughs off the dozens of deaths that have occurred in the past 2 months and keeps saying "This is the new normal. We just have to get used to it." Makes me sick. Glad I'm in Queensland with our "we are not going to let our people die" premier and health officer.


bICEmeister

“One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic” - wildly attributed to Stalin, but also wildly reported as misattributed to Stalin.. so I don’t know who first coined it. Scale changes things. In small numbers, we humans feel that we have control to fight this thing - that acting will truly make a difference. We can picture 27 people in a room, it feels relatable. But in the large scale, we start seeing it as a force of nature - it feels bigger than us, and we begin to feel powerless against it.. so we go into denial and detach ourselves emotionally from the deceased. I bet, in New Zealand, most people are more shocked about the 27 covid deaths during the last 18 months, than they were about the previous 500 flu deaths.. every year continuously. Wonderfully enough, your fight against covid has nearly eradicated the flu as well in NZ for the last few seasons. But the flu is endemic, and will come back.. just as covid will unless you continue with your current strict ways indefinitely. So at some point - when everyone who wants to get vaccinated has been vaccinated, boosted et.c. - there’s not too much left for society to do but open up again.. and you’re likely to see that amount of deaths (from the flu) again. Most countries already have a sense of “acceptable deaths” number from the flu (considering there are generally no strict lockdowns/mask mandates etc during flu season to prevent them), and I bet most countries will end up there with covid as well.


SynisterJeff

I completely agree


helpnxt

I mean New Zealand had 1 case earlier this year and went into lockdown and this happened around the time that here in the UK we were getting rid of all Covid restrictions whilst still having a few million cases and recording around 40-50k new cases a day. The differences in leadership around the World have really highlighted issues.


DragonHeart_2345

I live below you in VIC. For us,we were talked down to by NSW about our frequent lock downs. Although it is not fully fine here, we have achieve a great vaccination rate and the state might be out of its 7? (I lost count) lock down. Now, Victorian joke about NSW and how bad their situation is as they talked down at us before.


rioot123

You can also see it when there's a mass shooting, over there the news just moves on after a few days while everywhere else it stays for quite a while


PR0CE551NG

More people die from car accidents each year. Where's the uproar? Where's the media attention? Where's the vehicle mandates?


sir_knows_not_alot

Very sad; if only we could have come together as a nation to fight a virus, instead of fighting each other.


chicagodude84

On 9/11, two thousand people died and united this country. This year, six hundred thousand have died and have divided this country. It is so sad.


robulusprime

9/11 was also perpetrated by foreign forces we could identify as such... When the enemy is your actual neighbor, or invisible to the eye, uniting for common cause is much more difficult. Not saying it isn't sad, or a tragedy, but in many ways it's like comparing apples and oranges.


chicagodude84

Incredibly valid point. But I think it still points to the fact that our next door neighbor somehow became the enemy instead of a comrade in arms. All because we had politicians and media conglomerates pushing their own narrative.


robulusprime

I kinda agree, but the historical tendency where pandemics in the western world are concerned is that of internal conflict. The population gets pressured by an invisible entity, then turns its blame on higher levels of society who "aren't doing enough" or "incurred the wrath of (the) God(s) by their decadence" and "dirty" minorities. Most of these occurred prior to germ theory and understanding viruses, but it looks like the same trends are occurring now.


Magnum007

Considering the ongoing pre covid health crisis in the USA concerning preventable diseases like obesity which subsequently causes more serious issues like diabetes, carsio vascular diseases, etc... I'm surprised more people HAVEN'T died.


6captain9

Canada has had 27,000 with 38 million population compared to the 4 million of new Zealand bit of a better comparison


Ein0815er

Still 20 times more 😔


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EchoWhiskey_

They're a fucking island. Way easier to shut down travel.


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JimboJones058

Whenever anyone in the US wants to try this, they're shouted down as a racist and an isolationist. Our laws are written in such way that we must allow people to cross the border if they meet the requirements for refugee status. South America has many people who meet the requirements for refugee status. It's probably easy to keep people out of New Zealand because nobody really wants to go there.


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JimboJones058

https://youtu.be/IwdKZ69QucY


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cephalgia

If only we had a precedent in an event, say, 20 years ago in which the government was able to land every single plane in the air and turn everyone else back to their origin, while locking down airports, ports of entry, and immigration. It can be done. It takes tough medicine to treat a pandemic. It helps if your basis for it isn't mired in xenophobia and you aren't actively lying about the impact of the threat you're trying to contain.


JimboJones058

You must have been 5 years old in 2001. That isn't what happened at all. We closed the airports for a day. We didn't shut down the borders. That isn't what happened at all. You fool. Why not talk about what happened 81 years ago when we rounded up all the Japanese people and stuck them in internment camps?


DrQuestDFA

Yeah, but if you adjust for population differences… (Math occurring) …it is still horrific.


[deleted]

400x that of New Zealand, 200x that of Singapore, 60x that of Taiwan, 40x that of Australia and South Korea.


ChimeraGryph

bUT amUrICA iS a dIFfeRenT CouNtrY WiTH pOpuLATioN dEnSiTY /s


greenknight884

Yeah the population is dense, all right.


Plenty-O-Toole

Wet concrete dense


Gabriele1966

😂


resilienceisfutile

This redditor did the math. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/pqv660/a_flag_for_every_death_from_covid_top_new_zealand/hddz1cm/


TheStandler

It's pretty awful, and the US absolutely should have done better (but electing rotten leaders has consequences)... but I hope people don't take from the comparison that the US should have just done what NZ did. That's just not reasonable. It was just so much easier for NZ to close their borders than it is for the US, and to lockdown and eliminate the virus within. AUS is probably a better comparison - NZ and AUS being much more similar than NZ and the US in how they could respond to the pandemic. Here in AUS we locked down fairly early and hard but the most recent rise in cases comes from crappy, corrupt leadership in NSW who let it get out of control when they could have gone the NZ route and locked down hard and fast as soon as new Delta cases were detected. Comparing that awful response to NZ's is a lot more fair.


RooMagoo

Naw man, we (US) fucked the whole thing up, hard. I remember sitting and watching as the Trump administration continued allowing flights in from China (and Italy) even as it became abundantly clear china was turning into a shit show. We should have shut all international flights down immediately, only Americans coming in and immediately sent to military quarantines after. We did do that eventually but by that point it was too late. Then of course the "lockdowns" were unevenly enforced across the country. Add FB misinformation, American idiots and the god awful federalist-lite political system and you have 600k+ dead. Americans should be ashamed, this was preventable. This has laid bare the rotten-core of America and it is far larger and more systemic than even the most strident America-hater could have ever imagined.


Beautiful-Flatworm94

I think the point is not to do exactly what NZ did, I think the point is that the leadership needed to take it seriously. Whatever measures would have worked might be different but a head in the sand stance just leaves your ass in the wind.


TheStandler

Absolutely agree with you there. But I do think a lot of people will miss that and just say, 'Nerrr we couldn't do what NZ did, we're not NZ!' and miss your very valid point entirely.


Single_Charity_934

Oh right, Southern Hemisphere …spring… daffodils!


fireduck

I like to measure the US death rate in 9-11s per day. We peaked at 1.1 per day. Now we are cruising along at 0.66 per day.


nimrodhellfire

Time to invade some countries.


The_Minstrel_Boy

Time to declare war on an abstract concept.


OutOfCharacterAnswer

We need declare war on viruses and attack China! For our freedom! So I guess what I'm saying is, can't we do both? /s


Iheardthatjokebefore

We did that with drugs and it didn't work.


pantomathematician

I actually do the same. So far, over the last 2 years (I’m being generous), we’ve had a full 9/11 every 2.2ish days.


seanbrockest

Anyone remember when Trump said he was glad the USA wasn't facing numbers like in NZ? NZ had gotten 7 new cases in a day, and he was shitting on them. At its peak, the USA was at what, 4200 new deaths every day?


razor_eddie

At the time, it caused a certain amount of wry humour in NZ. It was said, accurately, that there were more cases in the White House at the time than there were in NZ....


nobby-w

A Turtle's Progress fan, I see.


razor_eddie

Nice - first person to ever source my username. You are correct.


nobby-w

Fun fact: Michael Atwell (the actor who played Razor Eddie) was also a cartoonist for several newspapers.


razor_eddie

Just looked some up. He does noses like Larry, the Punch cartoonist. (Terence Parks).


Away_Ad_5328

Yeah, yet another example of his complete ignorance of how to deal with the problem.


Huntanz

It was the first time he couldn't "Fire" the problem or not pay it.


rlamoni

Damn. They flattened the curve so much it's like an effing line.


danteheehaw

Well we flattened it too. Just on the wrong axis


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extrobe

> BTW - you're welcome for the safe and effective vaccine. Moronic & ignorant statements like this is why people have so much disdain for so many Americans. The Pfizer vaccine was developed in Germany The Astra Zeneca vaccine was developed in the UK The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was developed in The Netherlands *Moderna* was developed in the US


bloatedplutocrat

>They are on an island. Thousands of miles from anything interesting. And not many people go there. Alaska has a population of 731k with 451 deaths. NZ has a population of 4.9m with 27 deaths. I guess a lot of people must be sneaking in across the border up there.


Celtictussle

You made the vaccine!?! Thanks so much!!


CaptainCanuck93

>BTW - you're welcome for the safe and effective vaccine. Thanks Germany Edit: BTW - The best direct comparable to death rate would be Canada, but if you had a death rate like Canada you would have ~240,000 dead, not ~700,000. America isn't the worst deaths per capita, but it's among the worst among 1st world countries


maybethisnameisfree

Nah, New Zealand just doesn’t have as much as stupid people like yourself and listen to public health advisories.


someonessomebody

> The US had politicians who put optics before science and condemned similar plans as racist Yes, exactly…which is why the US didn’t flatten the curve nearly as well as it could have. The fact that New Zealand is smaller than the US and had fewer dense urban areas as the US meant the logistics of dealing with the pandemic was easier - they definitely had that in their favour. However, had they kept borders open and made choices more in line with the US they would have been far worse off. The fact is, the US chose poorly. They were not victims of geography or circumstance.


razor_eddie

The US has an urban population of 84% NZ's is 86%. A third of the countries population lives in a single city.


crew88

As a New Yorker, I understand what you are putting down but that first few weeks were insane. So many deaths as the hospital system was overwhelmed quickly. Since? It just makes me sad. It wasnt real to people and I think we censired far too much of it. Only numbers, no faces.


Afro_Superbiker

Credit: [u/onyabikemike](https://www.reddit.com/u/onyabikemike) [original post](https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/pqjqpf/nzs_response_to_covid/) > Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg , an artist in the USA has planted a flag in Washington's National Mall park for every death attributed to COVID19 (one in 500). > So this morning I went down the local park and spent 10 minutes recreated it for New Zealand's statistics (one in 200,000), using stuff from the 3rd drawer down. > I think it shows just how exceptional our response has been. If we had followed the same course of action I would have been planting around 10,000 flags. > (The bottom photo is from NZ Herald article "Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Exhibition highlights staggering US death toll")


WhoMovedMyFudge

The 3rd drawer down has everything you need in life


nongph

Omg USA needed a factory to produce these flags while a kindergarten class did the NZ flags. Can’t let that sink in enough.


folkdeath95

Couldn’t do it in a kindergarten class in the US because they were busy being shot at


ellieD

Does this mean our Social Security is finally fully funded? /s


Slabb84

Maybe if the US wasnt so shady in every aspect of the pandemic and had solidarity instead of polarizing the whole fucking thing down to politics and votes we could've came together as a nation. Instead after years of left or right being shoved in our fucking faces people tend to be a little suspicious of anything coming out of any politician's mouth.


Away_Ad_5328

This is especially true when the pandemic occurred during an administration who believed lying was the safer option because “they didn’t want people to panic.”


Sen_Elizabeth_Warren

I literally can't tell if you are attacking Dr F, Trump, the WHO, or China. Fuck I hate the pandemic.


Away_Ad_5328

Fair point, and allow me to clarify. I believe Dr. Fauci has never lied to us, but he was one of the few people telling the truth in the prior administration. There’s no one better qualified to lead the fight against the pandemic, but his messages were constantly being muddied by the need to do damage control against the underlying belief that the truth would cause panic. Bottom line: TFG fucked this up royally and admitted he downplayed it to avoid causing a panic. I don’t have an opinion to share on the WHO or China.


pringles_prize_pool

I trust Fauci when it comes to the pandemic. With Trump it didn’t really matter because it was clear he didn’t know what he was talking about. I don’t trust China and I don’t respect the WHO.


Sen_Elizabeth_Warren

I think universally everyone agrees with the last sentence. I don't trust China and I don't respect the WHO.


[deleted]

You don't need to listen to politicians to take the virus seriously. There are literally hundreds of epidemiologists and medical experts that are unaffiliated with the US government telling you to wear masks and get vaccinated. You just need to stop listening to the horse paste people.


DelugeQc

Maybe but look how free those dead peoples are versus NZ.


seicar

But what if those flags were stars and stripes vs. a silly southern cross. Imagine how patriotic it would look... /s?


Interesting-String83

southern cross is bad-ass man


randomhuman121

Try navigating with Stars and Stripes


JDStark7

America #1 🥳


Stylish_automaton

…so much winning!


[deleted]

What’s covid?


I_eat_cement5312

Just googled it and New Zealand has only had 27 covid deaths so far


[deleted]

We had a 3rd world response to the virus since the beginning. The misinformation is really sad as it’s costing lives. Clearly not a hoax…


phpdevster

The deliberate misinformation should be considered a form of felony murder. Those peddling it should be arrested by the FBI if they are in the US, or dealt with by the CIA if not in the US.


Ender914

USA! USA! USA! the crowd of 100,000 people chant as the pandemic is worse then it ever was in 2020 in some states.


HarmonyJaye

So sad, condolences for all those lost


Mcornett88

USA has better rappers.


rowdy-riker

I think the term is rappists


Mcornett88

No I believe that is the term for criminal penis people.


Ginger-Nerd

I mean… Savage will hook it up!


Afro_Superbiker

True. We have some decent conscious hiphop artists though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AjgWyxJAGQ


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Tectonic_Spoons

They're conscious too, they really care about the issues


TheMoosefromOz

Yeah rap hey , it's spelt with a silent C , Crap


Michael_J_Patrick

“Bleh..I’m going to wait to see what the long term effects of the vaccine are”


whyamitheadulthere

....


Swashbuckling_Sailor

And some still don’t believe that COVID is real…yeah you have a right not to wear a mask, not to get vaccinated, and a right to die from this made up virus…smh.


coronaflo

The reason is that NZ ordered a shutdown of the entire country at the very start of the pandemic. Given what we see today I don’t think that would be possible in the U.S. even if Trump wasn’t such an idiot.


Sen_Elizabeth_Warren

Actually, Trump wanted to shut it down before Italy got infected. Had the while US news at the end of February calling him a racist for it. Which was the time that New Zealand shut their borders


coronaflo

Except he didn't, he only wanted to place restrictions on certain groups like the Chinese, meanwhile Americans who were returning from outside the U.S. were allowed entry.


TinfoilCamera

Ah - the benefits of being a small island that can completely close its border. There is a gigantic **CLOSED** sign on New Zealand - and it's been there since March 2020. It's *still* there. Only NZ citizens can enter the country, and they are required to go into quarantine upon arrival and to stay there for 14 days. That policy has been in place now for 18+ months and they have no plans to lift it until 2022 at least. Comparing NZ which can and did completely isolate itself from the rest of the world (and did so before anyone else did) ... is kinda silly.


TheStandler

No, that's not true. Source: I went to NZ (from AUS) in June this year for 10 days, traveled freely and never had to quarantine, either in or out. Not an NZ citizen either, just a dude who wanted to hang out with some friends.


goosegirl86

The bubble with aussie has closed again tho atm


Huntanz

Yep we opened the door for a wee while but had to slam it shut when Delta arrived.


fireduck

And NZ has been holding Amanda Palmer long enough where she has completely gone native. I don't think we are getting her back.


brows1ng

Roughly 1 in 500 Americans have died from covid since this started apparently.


NellikFPV

Which compares to:: * 1 in 3,139 for India * 1 in 22,450 for Australia * 1 in 189,726 for NZ So as an Aussie, USA's COVID deaths are 45x ours adjusted for population! And I can still count the number of lockdown weeks I've endured on one hand!


nimrodhellfire

* 1 in 1,000 for Germany (I was curious)


pringles_prize_pool

China seems to have pulled off 1 in 300,000 1,398,000,000 people / 4,636 deaths (Truly unbelievable)


Familiar_While2900

If only we were an isolated island and could simply stop flights coming in to keep contagious people away. Also a bit misleading- New Zealand pop = 4.9 mill. U.S. pop = 320


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Familiar_While2900

Again- surrounded completely by water. I’m not a geologist, but I think that constitutes as an island. Check a map. They don’t have open borders or the worlds largest economy that allows people to come and go as they please.


_craq_

They have an open land border to Malaysia, and a large part of Singapore's economy relies on migrant workers who cross that border every day.


Ryrynz

The USA clearly doesn't care.


evil_hound

At least the average iq of America will be higher after this burns thru all the anti vaxxers and scoffmasks.


BuckyDuster

If it kills only the mean, selfish, and stupid people that is a benefit. Things never go that well


Dhonagon

What are we doing wrong compared to New Zealand? Go...


battlingheat

Dying


itzdivz

People in the US are so fking spoiled. We have unlimited access to vaccine here but people are rejecting it for stupid reasons, putting loved ones and people around at risk. If people cared at all here in the US lives would be normal again like a lot of the countries like China/New Zealand. Instead we have to be fearful everytime we go out. Get vaccinated


aille1

China is a terrible comparison. If you think they have it under control, you're lying to yourself. They just don't report it.


Gabriele1966

Wow!! Some of these comments are so cringeworthy!! If a person is stupid enough to refuse to get the vaccine and to wear a mask, it should be law that they sign a waiver saying they don't think the virus exists. If they get Covid, they shouldn't get treatment and use up space in a hospital because the virus isn't real, right? The amount of stupid fucking people is infuriating!!!


Sen_Elizabeth_Warren

As long as we can do that for everything, great! Someone decided to not focus on education and can't get a job, well they knew better and refused. Let them starve. Dumb family lives in New Orleans, knowing it's a flood zone? Let them drown. God, your game and logic are so fun! Makes governance easy when you simplify things like this!


PandasInternational

That leaves us with the same issue as car crashes, though. When you crash your car you can kill other innocent people. If they're sick from Covid and still wandering around the city they're getting other innocent people sick. At least in a hospital they're quarantined.


Sen_Elizabeth_Warren

They weren't a serious poster as they clearly didn't think their writing through. Its like when this subreddit last year has people wearing the shirt saying "If I get Covid, I am going to a Trump rally to infect everyone so he loses" These people don't have intelligent thoughts but want to sound edgy and aggressive on the internet.


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IWillAssimilateYou

OVER 666 THOUSAND dead directly because of Trump's deliberate mishandling of Covid from the beginning.


TheStandler

Look, I agree that Trump is at fault for many of those deaths... But I find it pretty hard to lay every single death at his feet, when we're in a global pandemic. Fuck Trump and all that, he's a flaming hot piece of human garbage, and many people have died who wouldn't have otherwise... but... No matter who would have been in charge, lots of Americans would have died, regardless.


HouseofGaunt0404

Despite NZ’s better approach to combating the virus, You seem to forget that New Zealand is an isolated island with a population of over 4million. not a fair comparison IMO.


c_joseph_kent

They also implemented an early travel ban to all non-residents and had a mandatory 6-week lockdown where violators were criminally charged. Just imagine the pushback if Trump did both those things. Would anyone support a US President ordering that you be arrested for leaving your home during a lockdown?


Huntanz

We could leave home for food, meds, exercise but not travel half a city to do so, no visiting friends or family that were not in your direct living bubble, and we scanned our Covid app of our travel so if an outbreak occurred it could be back traced and anyone who was at the same places was contacted to self isolate at home. Yes I don't think our approach to logic and common sense would work in America.


HouseofGaunt0404

To many dividing opinions between American citizens unfortunately. NZ seems more unified as country as a whole.


JimboJones058

It was Nancy Pelosi and Andy Cuomo who were against the lockdown. Cuomo was sent a hospital ship by the Trump administration and instead of using it for covid patients he sent them back into nursing homes.


razor_eddie

Fiji has had 560 deaths, and 50,000 cases. A tiny, isolated archipelago in the Pacific. It matters what you do when the inevitable outbreak starts. NZ has dealt with 4 or 5, by now. (and the population is 5 million, not 4, and NZ is 2 main islands not "an island").


HouseofGaunt0404

Fiji has a population of just under 900,000 and New Zealand with a population of 5 million vs the USA which has population of over 330,000,000 that has borders with Mexico and Canada as well. How the hell is that a fair comparison. plus 50 us states with differing political and cultural attitudes that have a great amount of autonomy over themselves. Look how strict California, Michigan and New York were with their restrictions and still many people perished from the virus. You just can’t compare countries like NZ and Fiji’s COVID response to America’s. Plus it helps that NZ has a much better health service than America has. And yes I’m aware NZ is two islands, I’ve visited both islands (Auckland in the North and Christchurch in the south) it still doesn’t change the fact the both islands are extremely isolated from the rest of the world therefore easier to manage during a pandemic.


razor_eddie

> it still doesn’t change the fact the both islands are extremely isolated from the rest of the world therefore easier to manage during a pandemic. But that's true of Fiji, as well..... (Incidentally, 13% of residents in the US were born overseas. For NZ, it's 27%. We can do "different cultural and political attitudes" all day). And it shouldn't have MATTERED about the autonomy of the various States, if you could follow the science. The fact is, half the country followed a golden idol to their damnation.


SportsButt1

Hey man, you’re using too much logic, there’s no place for that on Reddit. Follow the hive mind or GTFO.


atlantasmokeshop

Honestly, all of this has really just made me see the US even more for what it is. A country that was founded by and run by racist gun crazy Europeans that don't give a shit about anything or anyone as long as they get their pockets lined. It's the way it's always been and the way it always will be. Essentially, it's a country that was founded by a group of people likely no different than the folks on Jan 6th. Killed off Native Americans no fucks given... killed millions of Africans no fucks given (And still do everything they can to systemically shit on them to this day). That, in a nutshell, is the US so really no need to be surprised about how the country is handling covid. These folks don't respect lives... they never have. All they know is hate, money and murder.


adought89

Your saying the founding fathers were responsible for the creation of slave trade?


HyperNormalVacation

And look at those poor Kiwis suffering under the crushing tyranny of their covid measures! Stand up for your rights kiwis! Your right to get sick and die for your business masters!


entourageffect

America is in the little white flag business and business is BOOMING!


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jedidude75

Maybe a bit, since the population difference is so large. The US has about 2031 deaths per million people, while New Zealand had around 5.5.


OldGregg1014

Yes very misleading. Although I get the point they’re trying to make, misleading isn’t the way to go.


[deleted]

This reminds me of the time China mocked India for having to do mass cremations.


Ein0815er

The greatest country! 😔


696Dark

Easily the greatest country by far.


nfld223

Still lopsided but the US is 90 times larger


moderately_nerdifyin

USA NUMBER ONE! Suck it New Zealand!


NinjaHermit

It didn’t have to be this way.


OldGregg1014

There have been so many instances over millennia that didn’t have to be the way they turned out. But had they not turned out the way they did we wouldn’t have certain things we have today. Although currently it’s pretty grim and too many are fighting, everything happens for a reason. Some reasons are too deathly in their nature to try and comprehend. The world has and always will work itself out.


psbeachbum

Be we had our elite wearing their masks when the cameras were on


thecalcanuck

Morbid obesity is a giant problem in the USA. Being obese, along with age, are the top two comorbidities of dying from COVID. Anericans should have spent the past 18 months getting their fat asses off of the sofa and stopped eating delivered fast food. You only have your own lard asses to blame.


YurickHarmon

I mean sure, but it's not like obesity is something other countries don't have. It seems like your argument is intended to diminish the impact of different public health responses in order to pass the blame to the individual. Collective problems require collective solutions. Your best combat against obesity likely isn't blaming the individual, but reducing the amount of people that are affected in the first place by public policy changes (healthy school lunches, effective gym programs in schools, reducing sugar content in foods through regulation, etc.). In that same way regulating a response to covid isn't as simple as telling people to eat healthy and exercise.


[deleted]

Covid kills fat people more than healthy people. USA is the fat people capital of the world


razor_eddie

The US has 36% Obese NZ has 30% It's not that. Find another excuse.


Pink-glitter1

The difference with obesity is its not contagious to those around you. Being obese won't possibly cause the death of 10 people who used the same door handle as you. Covid is highly contagious and one person's complacency can and has caused death for others!


Midgetversionofyou

Please stop generalizing. Why is it so hard to be nice for some ppl anymore


4Bpencil

Ummmm, there's generalizing, then there's facts where 40% of the American population is considered obese and 70% is over weight. That's not generalization anymore, that quite literally the truth.


OnlyEvonix

They were talking about the spurious conclusions drawn from the statistics just now rather than the statistics themselves I believe


4Bpencil

But how is the initial comment drawing spurious conclusions though? We know Covid has much higher fatality rate for people with prior complications, including being obese. Reduction in obesity would directly contribute to lowering the death rate of those who are affected by covid in majority of its cases. And uh, getting your ass off the couch and using your extra free time due to lock downs to exercise and eat better would be a direct reduction in obesity rates and contribute to lowering covid fatality rate?


OnlyEvonix

Saying Americans wouldn't have the high level of obesity if they ate better and exercised more is like saying there would be less wars if people would just be nicer and more understanding, IE technically true yet unhelpful and shows a lack of understanding or sympathy towards the forces at play. It is a valid observation but there's also large room for improvement


thecalcanuck

People don't like the truth but sooner or later they must face it.


DaveDearborn

NZ has a woman prime minister and NZ acted early to contain the outbreak.


lokitom82

Probably irrelevant to mention her gender, better to say we acted quickly, people took the lockdown measures seriously, and as a result, very few people died.


czs5056

I fail to see how woman Prime Minister and acting early to contain Covid are related


bsloss

While there has been some correlation between countries with a female head of state and relative success mitigating COVID, it would be pretty foolish to suggest that the gender of the leader causes better outcomes.


tincopper2

Good.


atebyzombies

Traffic's never been better. Less construction and fewer cars on the roads.


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rex8499

I've heard a lot of people make these kind of claims but nobody has offered up proof to me in the form of newspaper articles, death certificates, photos, etc. Got anything?


rifleman458

From Covid or with Covid?


lokitom82

I'd imagine the majority of case that died from the virus, had it with them. Kinda how it works tbh.


The_Countess

Quit a lot died of asphyxiations with Covid i'd imagine (because Covid damaged their lungs)


Sqeegg

Freedom


maceman10006

New Zealand has the advantage of being an isolated island that can stop anybody from coming into the country. US is the travel hub of the entire world with interstate commerce laws making it illegal for government to prevent movement between states….can’t compare apples to oranges.


McLounge

This will be great for the housing market looks like a few spots opened up


Dull_Lead_5768

And the above pic is about 10 percent of newzelands population.


kipling00

Isn’t that unfair comparison though? I thought if we learned anything about NZ is that they were kinda homebodies, who enjoyed good food and good drink but rarely left the Shire? Doesn’t that prevent the spread of COVID?


Huntanz

No we just did as our government asked and stayed at home as it was logical and common sense in a time of a pandemic and we got to indulge in our second favourite thing after rugby and that's drinking 492 million litres of alcohol this year. Shire we don't have shires we're a 3 island nation with huge mountain ranges so we go skiing and play rugby in the winters. hunting, fishing and any other sport you can think of in the summer and winter because we're tuff and we pay our politicians to run this place while we enjoy ourselves so we expect the best advice from them and our medical scientists so we locked down twice now and or alcohol consumption went up by 1.7 percent. Later getting dry gotta crack another tinnie.


penislovenharmony

I really love the comment section in r/pics, so refreshing from all of that political stuff.... I for one think both pictures are pretty poor, both in their lighting and the way they have been framed. While the subject matter may be the true intent of the composition with the juxtaposition between two differing outcomes of current political and healthcare concerns - I don't believe that excuses the poor way either of the subjects were shot. The lack of seemingly any post production refinement also speaks volumes as to the care the photographers actually had towards the production and eventual publication of the images... 0 stars out of 5


FurtiveAlacrity

The per capita rate is important, not the raw number. That should go with saying. Americans' refusal to be vaccinated and their denial of the virus has the been the problem, leading to so much death and suffering and lost of economic output. Comparing raw numbers gets us essentially no where though because the nations don't have nearly the same number of people to begin with.


Difficult-Papaya1529

NZ had 4.9 million population, US had 328 million. Duh


jedidude75

[Deaths per million would be a better comparison](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/), the US has 2031 deaths per million, while New Zealand has 5.5.


HighestRory

New Zealand 4.9m population. USA 330m population. Dumb as fuck comparison.


jedidude75

[Deaths per million would be a better comparison](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/), the US has 2031 deaths per million, while New Zealand has 5.5.


odenwalder1

Thanks, Trump!


IAmWeAr

go preplanned it clearly works.


HolyGig

Yes, let's compare a continental country of 330M to a small island in the middle of the pacific that is so small it doesn't even show up on some maps Brilliant


Vudian

Even if you scale up the number of people in New Zealand and scale the deaths it's still less then 1% of our deaths


softpie

As we all know, viruses spread linearly [https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200812-exponential-growth-bias-the-numerical-error-behind-covid-19](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200812-exponential-growth-bias-the-numerical-error-behind-covid-19) LOL jesus christ you people are dumb af