| Those lockdowns are not actual lockdowns, and were doomed to fail. Moreover lockdown restrictions were removed when numbers of new cases simply lowered, as opposed to all known cases being removed from community and quarantined, and confidence there was zero community transmission. Meanwhile borders are porous, with new cases arriving constantly. The combination of all this is heartbreakingly difficult to observe. Honestly this stuff is easy. A lockdown means only essential workers who actually keep the lights on and provide food go to work, and they do with ridiculous protection. It means no fast food delivery, no public transport or Ubers, no leaving your residence except for exercise (maybe - some places you had to stay inside) and 1/week shop at the supermarket (or delivery) with one person/household. It means closing the borders firmly, and government-provided and provisioned (not outsourced) quarantining every arrival for at least 14 days. And it means providing plenty of funding and kindness to businesses and people to allow them to get through without fear. Including putting homeless into homes (e.g. empty hotel rooms). And it needs to last long enough to know and isolate every case, which is say 6-8 weeks if done properly. The US and UK failed on every one of these tests, and hundreds of thousands of people are dead. Meanwhile in New Zealand we did the above almost a year ago, and are enjoying our summer break essentially normally. |
Good luck doing that in a country of 320mil with no internal border infrastructure or legal framework whatsoever, and a huge land-based border.
That said, even if it were possible, I'd take liberty over safety (from a vastly overblown hazard by all estimates) in this case; really grateful to an American for this crisis.