Thoughts from lockdown

Hello! How is everyone? Shane here. I figure it's time for my every-other-year blog post. Are you staying healthy and safe? I hope so. Our family has been doing its best to get through these crazy times. I found a few minutes recently to jot down some thoughts about our experience in NZ and how it seems to compare to what we've seen happening back home. I thought I'd share here. And if you don't want to read it, at least do me a favor and check out that epic push-broom mustache I've grown since I haven't been going into the office.

On 26 March, New Zealand entered Level 4 lock down for Covid 19. That meant that everything retail (including restaurants, gyms, and even non-essential online shopping) was closed down. The only exceptions were grocery stores and dairies (convenience stores), doctors' offices and pharmacies. If you could work from home or if you worked in food manufacturing or another essential industry you could still "go to work" everyday.

For those who didn't have this opportunity, the government offered help. Employers can apply for a 12-week wage subsidy to cover their employees' wages and avoid layoffs. Rents are frozen for six months and home owners can apply for a 6-month mortgage holiday. Anyone on benefit (welfare) got a permanent weekly increase in payment and the winter heating (remember, we're in full-autumn here) assistance payments were doubled. Not only that, the government made a massive push to help people with their mental health during this time, making free counseling services and apps available.

In addition to the changes to work life, the government shut down schools and put limits on how people could interact. Every New Zealander is now quite familiar with the term "bubble," which essentially means the people in your household. Only people within the same bubble can have contact closer than 2 metres (which is roughly 6 and a half feet). We hear messages on the TV and radio throughout the day reminding us to stay in our bubble to protect ourselves and save lives. And if we strayed from our bubble or did something risky, we could face fines or even arrest.

As in America, New Zealanders tuned in to daily briefings from our health experts and politicians. The 1 pm press conference had spectacular ratings, I've been told. Just tremendous. But unlike in America, the ministry of health provided clear and factual information that wasn't immediately undermined or contradicted by our Prime Minister. Instead our PM Jacinda Ardern offered us calm, clear guidance around how we can all do our part to protect each other, leading to 92% of Kiwis following the rules.

And for those Kiwis that didn't, the community didn't let them get away with it. Another word I've become familiar with during this time is "dob"as in "dob in" or report someone breaking the rules. New Zealanders got a bit dob happy in Level 4, making 2,000 calls to police about possible violations in just the first few days. I even dobbed someone in for having a party. I'm not staying locked down for any extra time just because someone didn't want to go a few weeks without getting munted with his bros!

The country remained at Level 4 until April 27. That's 33 days -- or roughly two cycles of possible incubation for the virus -- where the only people I saw in the flesh were my wife and kids and the occasional grocery store employee. It may have seemed crazy, but it worked. Our numbers of new Covid cases came down dramatically. From 27 April until probably next week sometime, we'll be at Level 3. This means that take-out food is available if it can be picked up without contact, and online shopping has opened back up. More people who couldn't work from home could go back to work, provided they kept 2 metres away from each other. We were allowed to expand our bubbles slightly, with a max of something like 10 people.

Has all of this been annoying at times? Sure! Did it infringe on my "right" to not be slightly inconvenienced? Absolutely. Is it, temporarily, bad for "the economy"? Of course! Did it mean I had to place the safety of my family in the hands of expert scientists and the politicians that run our country, trusting they would do what was best to keep us alive? Yes! BUT -- Since the 19th of April, NZ has had no days in which new cases of COVID were in the double digits. Since we've entered Level 3, there is an average of 2.5 new cases per day IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY. Over the past 5 days, there has been an average of 1 case per day, with two days of zero cases. There is now no evidence of community transmission. And our extensive contact tracing efforts mean we know exactly where the virus is and how nearly every patient got infected.

Do you know what this means? It means that, with the exception of international tourism, things may be returning to near-normal here very soon. It means that our current number of deaths -- 21...not 21,000... just 21 -- is not likely to grow by massive amounts. It means that, at no point, was our health system overwhelmed. It means that politicians aren't looking for scapegoats to avoid getting blamed for their own incompetence. China is rarely even mentioned here, which is good because we have a large population of Chinese immigrants that I'd hate to see targeted with misdirected ire. Especially since none of them were actually responsible for anything that happened in Wuhan, regardless of what it was.

It also means that when we go out, we don't have to be scared that some wingnut with a gun and a confederate flag will be protesting that they have a right to cough on the elderly at Costco (we don't have Costco, but you get the idea).

Ultimately, it means that NZ's per-capita death rate from Covid (that is, adjusted for the difference in population) is 56 times lower than the US. FIFTY SIX! If our death rates matched the US, I can't imagine Kiwis being in any way OK with such substantial loss of life. The leaders express empathy and sadness over every one of the deaths we've had -- and the Kiwi people feel it too. So, there has to be a lesson in here somewhere, right? Let's set the table. If the USA had been as successful as NZ has been so far, there would be fewer than 1,400 TOTAL deaths from Covid in the whole country. As of today, there are roughly 75,000 reported deaths in America -- and the trend is not particularly promising, especially given the push to "reopen." 75,000 people gone, their families struggling with the loss and not a hint of empathy from the top. It's just terrible to think about.

I'll be the first to admit that NZ is not the USA. There are many differences. NZ has the built-in advantage of geography -- it's an island nation, the last significant habitable piece of land on earth to have people on it -- and it has a low-ish population density, similar to Colorado. In fact, NZ is a lot like Colorado in that people live in like 4 places and the rest is empty. It also has a fully centralised government, which means we don't have some governors opening up their states while their neighbours stay locked down, ensuring failure for everyone. Centralised government has its disadvantages (that's maybe a post for another time). Just not in the case of managing infectious disease outbreaks. It seems that doing the the right thing, even if it's kind of inconvenient in the short-term, turns out to be better than doing nothing. And doing the right thing is especially better than following the medical advice that your friend's cousin who didn't finish high school read on 4chan and passed along. Honestly, I think the most important thing I've learned is that managing a crisis, especially a public health crisis, requires stable leadership, someone more interested in doing good than in being right, a leader that can get everyone on the same page. Good leadership also takes guts -- and that goes for the people in charge, as well as those in the minority. NZ's opposition party has been committed to every step Jacinda's party has taken. They've been mildly critical here and there, mostly with good reason, but have basically agreed that we all need to do our part to save New Zealanders. And that, even though the economy might suffer short-term, it's the right thing to do. THAT took guts from the leadership of the pro-business party to say that people's lives were more important than Q2 profits. And that's an example we can all learn from. This is getting to be a long post. But I think I needed to get off my chest what you've probably been reading between the lines -- how disappointed I am in America right now. I love America. It's my home, and no matter where or what I do in the world, I'm American. I want America to be great. But the response we've seen to this crisis is shameful. Politicians appear to be more concerned with winning -- like real life is a sport and people's lives the pawns -- than in doing what needs to be done. US versus THEM doesn't work when you have to work together to achieve what should be a common goal -- saving lives, protecting people, getting the country back to normal. That people are willing to flout rules (and ultimately cause others to die) rather than do something that basically every expert in the world says needs to be done -- well, that's not brave, or "owning the libs", or exercising your rights. It is, however, shameful. So that's depressing. But I will leave you with the words of Jacinda Ardern. She isn't perfect, but she's doing a damn good job. And thanks to her and all of New Zealand's leaders, our family has been able to get through these weeks with far less fear and uncertainty than seems to be the case in other parts of the world: "We will get through this together, but only if we stick together. So, please be strong and be kind."