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Comment by bbarn | Hacker News Reader

I'm so sick of seeing New Zealand get praise for it's response. Just like Iceland, it's a tiny ass island, and yes - if you close your borders, don't produce or import anything globally, of course you'll knock it out. Then you open up again (just like we did here in Iceland) and boom, covid skyrockets again. It's not magic, it's just hiding in a cave.

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You're projecting Iceland onto NZ just because they're relatively remote island nations. Iceland is very European in its skeptical and resentful response to the low-tech response to covid: masking, washing hands, social distancing. That's why when people have brought covid over it has spread through society like it has. People in NZ by the sounds of it are acting much more like ppl in SE/E Asia, adopting the low tech WHO strategy. That's why things are as they are in NZ, and why Iceland keeps suffering from outbreaks. And it's why your analogy of Iceland and NZ is a false one.

FYI, NZ is multiple islands the size of the UK with a population 15x that of Iceland.

And I just noticed that their population density is between those of Sweden and Argentina.

> if you close your borders, don't produce or import anything globally.

We're producing and exporting and importing just fine thank you.

Borders are closed to casual visitors, not goods.

Yup, that can (and just has) create opportunities for the virus to enter.

But that is a risk that can and is being managed.

> Then you open up again (just like we did here in Iceland)

That was the stupid part, and predictable.

> It's not magic, it's just hiding in a cave.

Exactly! Great strategy, so simple to implement and saves the most lives.

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