Originally Posted by MontyB

The main benefit in locking down the country early was that it didn't overwhelm the hospital system.

As for the Chinese they still suffer from the same issue Russia, North Korea and all those other dodgy dictatorships have is that they refuse to be open about these things even after the world discovers the problem.

I doubt any of those countries have told the truth about the number of infections or deaths.

Yes, that's the main reason for going into a lock down early and to get time to investigate the pathogen and how it mutate. Always prepare for the worst case and hoping for the best. Never ever take any chances. It might be too late if we wait for empirical evidence. Other events require to be based on scientific evidence, but disease control requires a different approach, more based upon the knowledge of other outbreaks.

The Chinese and the others have a system in which they are more afraid of the bosses than anything else. China did this during the SARS as well. But when they couldn't hide it anymore they closed Wuhan pretty good, but were quite brutal.

Originally Posted by I3BrigPvSk

Yes, that's the main reason for going into a lock down early and to get time to investigate the pathogen and how it mutate. Always prepare for the worst case and hoping for the best. Never ever take any chances. It might be too late if we wait for empirical evidence. Other events require to be based on scientific evidence, but disease control requires a different approach, more based upon the knowledge of other outbreaks.

The Chinese and the others have a system in which they are more afraid of the bosses than anything else. China did this during the SARS as well. But when they couldn't hide it anymore they closed Wuhan pretty good, but were quite brutal.

By all accounts we were close to seeing our health care system fail...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...h-system-crash

Originally Posted by MontyB

By all accounts we were close to seeing our health care system fail...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...h-system-crash

We were and still are close to a health care system collapse. Our health care was in a bad shape even before the COVID-19. We had a bit more than 2 intensive care units/100 000. Two field hospitals, in the late 1980s we had about 20 and a lot of more ventilators. Sweden deactivated its armed forces and its civil defense after the end of the cold war. Now we are paying the price for it.

Well we are more or less back to square one thanks to pen pushing morons not doing their job.

Geniuses at a quarantine facility let two people from the UK out early (without testing) to drive from Auckland to Wellington (630km) to a funeral and they have now tested positive, now we have a two week wait to see how many they interacted with on the way but they have contacted 320 close contacts so far.

Quite frankly the clowns managing that facility should be put in the car with the infected for the drive back to Auckland.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...-covid19-cases

Originally Posted by MontyB

Well we are more or less back to square one thanks to pen pushing morons not doing their job.

Geniuses at a quarantine facility let two people from the UK out early (without testing) to drive from Auckland to Wellington (630km) to a funeral and they have now tested positive, now we have a two week wait to see how many they interacted with on the way but they have contacted 320 close contacts so far.

Quite frankly the clowns managing that facility should be put in the car with the infected for the drive back to Auckland.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...-covid19-cases

Sorry to hear that, but human stupidity doesn't surprise me. We have lifted our travel restriction domestically, while Gothenburg and that part of Sweden has an increase of cases. So what happened after easing up the restriction? An increase of cases in the northern part of Sweden.