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Comment by tootahe45 | Hacker News Reader

I'm a kiwi and i've never understood why the world keeps announcing NZ as victorious when covid is a marathon. Ask whether we were successful in 5 years time.

It could become problematic if other countries like Australia start opening up and we see an exodus of young professionals including healthcare workers, the latter we're seeing severe shortages of even with no covid cases. In contrast to NZ, Australia is better resourced to live with Covid and their citizens are quite rebellious against lock-downs, so it wouldn't surprise me if they open up well before NZ which could make things very awkward if we're still fumbling around with an elimination strategy.

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> i've never understood why the world keeps announcing NZ as victorious when covid is a marathon

We've been watching you have packed public spaces for 18 months now, while we've been unable to gather in groups of more than 4. I think most people saw NZ as successful enough to keep the lid on until you get everyone vaccinated.

Frankly, it seems like with sufficient border testing and vaccinations for people traveling abroad (at least), you should be able to maintain zero-community transmission.

> if they open up well before NZ which could make things very awkward if we're still fumbling around with an elimination strategy.

Is NZ not open now? I hear about a couple random 3 week lockdowns, but other than that it seems pretty normal.

> healthcare workers, the latter we're seeing severe shortages of even with no covid cases.

That's not unique in NZ. The US and UK, in spite of having very different COVID strategies from NZ, also have shortages of healthcare workers.

> That's not unique in NZ. The US and UK

Which is why it's a problem. My guess is these countries will all be able to offer much more $ in a battle for these workers.

The US and UK are pretty against bringing in medical personnel from outside the country. It was one of the reasons for Brexit and the US seems to refuse to recognize many non-US credentials. So I think in these two particular cases, it doesn't matter.

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