[choward]

I agree completely. The only reason they used for shutting everything down at first was so hospitals don't get overrun. That's clearly not happening right now in most places. Also, it's not uncommon for the flu to cause hospitals to exceed capacity and we don't shut down for that.

[smileysteve]

> was so hospitals don't get overrun. That's clearly not happening right now in most places

Citation needed.

Up to 3 weeks ago, California, the Southeast were in field hospital territory.

Anecdotally, Alabama hospitals have been in overflow since July.

Georgia re-established a field hospital in January at their conference center [1] hospitalizations only stopped dropping beginning at the end of January

[1]https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/geor...

[choward]

That's why I said "in most places".

And that article is from December.

https://www.covid-georgia.com/today-in-georgia/hospitalizati...

[runako]

The link you sent doesn't have these numbers, but many metro Atlanta hospital systems are still diverting patients from their emergency rooms (because they are full). There is currently an operational field hospital being run at the convention center. The field hospital was still operational as low the weekend.

You can see ER status by hospital here: https://georgiarcc.org . Flip through the counties where most people live and you'll see a lot of full ERs.

You should choose another region to support your argument, it's not going so well here in Georgia right now.

[smileysteve]

In order for "most places" find a state that is close to their ordinary vacancy rates of 30%.

[choward]

Why? How is that relevant?

[smileysteve]

From December 22nd, for a hospital to be ready in 7 days.

[Solvitieg]

This is what I found bizarre about NZ's approach. Their goals was 0 _cases_ in the entire country. It's a great accomplishment but perhaps unnecessary.

[tialaramex]

Because zero is magic. If you know your number of cases doubles every week when you aren't locked down, it seems as though it hardly matters what you do right? Five cases, six cases, ten cases, it's going to get out of control no matter.

But if your base is zero then double that is still zero. That's why they've pursued elimination and why it has worked.

[statstutor]

On an island nation with an 80%+ urban population, your choice is either to aim for 0 cases, or to expect unbounded cases and new more virulent mutations (for the whole world to deal with the consequences).

This was predictable in advance, and with hindsight I still would prefer 0 cases.

[_ph_]

At 0 cases you can fully return back to "normal" life. If you have a small amount of cases, this will always grow exponentially without countermeasures.

[laurencerowe]

The big advantage of getting to zero is that after the initial severe lockdown life gets mostly back to normal.

[ghaff]

Almost zero.

And normal only in the sense that many people don't care that much if very few people are allowed to enter the country.

[choward]

Not really. They still have outbreaks and do lockdowns. I wouldn't call that "mostly back to normal". https://apnews.com/article/new-zealand-coronavirus-pandemic-...

[tialaramex]

That's true. They do have outbreaks, about half a dozen people this time, perhaps related to a job at a laundry working with quarantine facilities.

For several days Auckland residents couldn't go to the pub.

Normally of course they can go to the pub. Or a night club. Or a packed stadium to watch sports.

But it's true that for several days last week in Auckland they weren't allowed to do that. And the same back in... September maybe? And according to you that isn't "mostly back to normal" so we can assume you believe it isn't "mostly back to normal" anywhere and never will be. That's just not a very useful benchmark.

[orra]

It's pretty contagious, to be fair.

Still, I think you're right when you say perhaps unnecessary: some countries have successfully suppressed COVID without eliminating it. That said, it's some but not many countries.

I'm a bit ambivalent. Regardless, it certainly wasn't necessary for NZ to close their border to asylum seekers.

[peterburkimsher]

Edit: [removed]

[orra]

> Media are reporting that wealthy migrants are still being welcomed

Ouch, that article links to one from May 2020. It said the Avatar film crews were allowed to fly in, whilst families were separated.