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Comment by pikelet | Hacker News Reader

Cross the line? As a kiwi who got stuck in Peru for over 6 months due to the border closure and lack of flights, and had to go through MIQ when I was finally able to return, I'm extremely grateful for the MIQ system. Do I think it could have been handled better? Yes, especially recently as the answer to a lack of MIQ spaces shouldn't have been to make a lottery system it should have been to make more spaces; but overall I feel that NZ's response has been one of the few sane responses in the world and despite what I personally had to go through I'm very proud of that.

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This makes no sense at all. Your life would have been strictly easier if MIQ didn't exist, so why are you grateful for it?

Perhaps because over the course of the pandemic only 50 people have died in NZ from Covid. Going through MIQ and the systems built around it has enabled seeding events to be limited to only several incursions supporting elimination and then suppression strategies.

It’s interesting, NZ is a very egalitarian society and it has been one of the strengths through the pandemic to date. People were/are willing to adhere to strict lockdowns (proper ones) or quarantine at the border because it was for the greater good of the entire society rather than ‘what was best’ for a handful of individuals.

Interestingly Singapore had no MIQ lottery or restriction and had about the same experience with Covid infections.

The difference was, was that they didn’t fuck over their citizens when they tried to return - they did their best to accommodate them.

But amazingly NZers are willing to give the government a pass on not altruism, but incompetence and violation of a right even Singaporeans enjoy.

> This makes no sense at all. Your life would have been strictly easier if MIQ didn't exist, so why are you grateful for it?

Some people have empathy for others and aren't purely selfish

No creature more brainwashed exists than a kiwi in their natural habitat.

there would be lots of covid all over new zealand and therefore his everyday normal life would be worse than it might be now with minimal covid spread?

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