A most difficult choice

"Bottom line is this. The United States could have 'let er rip' and ignored the virus totally, or shut down totally, and watched our economy evaporate. We did neither, and still ended up the world's most infected country."

One of the news items which has not received much buzz (as it relates to COVID - 19), is the story of New Zealand. This tiny country of about five million, got infected early this year like most other countries did. But New Zealand made a very difficult choice. After getting 100 cases early on, the country decided to close all borders, and hunker and bunker to the max. Not just for a few days, but over a month. Everything shut down. The result? COVID - 19 is now gone from New Zealand. For 100 days now, there has not been one new case.

What is life like now, in the land of down under? In New Zealand, the pubs are open, and the rugby stadiums are packed. Zero social distancing. How did they do it? How could they stay shut down that long and have their economy survive? Even though New Zealand considers it self to be a "free trader", they are in reality a socialist country. I have met folks from New Zealand when I was in Australia. They have lots of freebies. Lots and lots of freebies. So when they shut down, the freebies kept coming. 

The United States on the other hand, remains the COVID capital of the world. We have over 5 million confirmed cases, with some experts thinking that is only 10% of what is real. If that is the case, we would have 50 million cases, or about 1/7th of our population infected. And the infection is still raging on. Why can't we be more like New Zealand? Because we are not set up that way. Even with the brief shutdown we had, our economy almost tanked. Our supply chains frayed. It was a mess. For parts of our country, it is still a mess.

Look at our baseball season compared to New Zealand's rugby season. The picture above was taken a few days ago at a rugby game. Fans sitting close to each other, no masks, cheering to their heart's content. Our baseball teams, travel from city to city, playing in front of cardboard cutouts, and piped in noise. Big whoop. Even with that, some teams still have had new infections, and needed to stand down for a few games. 

Bottom line is this. The United States could have "let er rip" and ignored the virus totally, or shut down totally, and watched our economy evaporate. We did neither, and still ended up the world's most infected country. New York City was the world's hot spot for weeks. New York has had 32,000 deaths - compare that to Japan and South Korea combined, who have had less than 1,500. That being said, New York's spread has come to a crawl, so much so, New York is opening schools for 100% face to face learning. Minnesota on the other hand, will have either distance learning or a hybrid.

Hindsight is always 20/20. What should we have done differently in March, when this all started? Beats me. Maybe shutting all our borders and prohibiting international air travel. Would that have helped? Maybe. As one of my docs told me last month, "It is here now, and there is no stopping it." Meanwhile, life needs to go on. Life in this wacky world of COVID - 19. Thanks Wuhan - we owe you one.