I wrote that if we had a lockdown I'd like to read the Bible and, sure enough, we have a lockdown. But I'm afraid I haven't read the Bible. I haven't even got a Bible.
Joe Bennett: We don't know how lucky we are in New Zealand
![Joe Bennett](https://s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/nzme/b62d5395-2d87-4c79-ad8e-c11e3abd70cc.png)
A beagle sniffer dog on the job at Auckland International Airport. If we can eradicate Covid 19 we will have to guard our borders with pitchforks and zeal until a vaccine is developed. Photo / File
Perhaps you'd choose the richest and most powerful country, the one that should be in the best position to defend itself, the United States of America. But then again, perhaps not. The States already has more identified cases of Covid 19 than anywhere else, and it is a copper-bottomed certainty that it has millions more unidentified cases.
At present more than 1000 Americans are dying a day, with about half of them in New York. But in time all American cities will become New York. The virus is too firmly established. It can be slowed but it can't be stopped. It will roll through everywhere. Only a vaccine can stop it. We're unlikely to get a vaccine this year.
And the States have got Trump. Trump is not to blame for the virus but he is entirely to blame for his country's slow response to it. He's trying to shift that blame - on to China, or the media, or the governors, or, as usual, and astonishingly, Obama - but it's entirely his. The States is paying the price for electing a malignant narcissist who is literally incapable of caring about anyone but himself or of accepting responsibility for anything.
So where else? Dear old Europe, perhaps? I suspect not. The virus swept through the continental landmass before they closed the borders. Everywhere's got it. And though they've acted earlier and more wisely than the States and will thus make the epidemic more manageable, by flattening the curve they are also stretching it out. It'll be a while yet in Europe and there will always be the danger of a resurgence.
India then? Oh dear me, no. In the slums of Delhi and Mumbai the poor live 10 to a room. The notion of social distancing is a joke in poor taste. When the virus takes hold in the slums, the hospitals, such as they are, will be instantly overwhelmed and hundreds of thousands will die and swiftly.
At the same time millions will catch the virus and survive. So there will soon be a mass of young and hungry Indians who are immune to the virus and desperate to earn some money, while their richer compatriots will still be taking shelter. It is a recipe for rioting and looting. The army will come in. No, I would not recommend India.
China? Well, that's up to you. Yes, they stamped on the virus by dint of the rigid social control for which authoritarian regimes are renowned. But it seems they may have lied about the numbers who died. And they have taken the opportunity of the disease to increase further still their surveillance of the population. The country bristles with cameras. Pandemic or not - you are being watched.
Where's left? Africa? Good luck with that. Russia? Have you seen its president? Australia? Have you seen its prime minister? Which leaves, well, here.
We're a wealthy democracy with a good public health system. We are small enough to have a sense of unity, of communal will. Our government acted early and decisively, so we have an actual chance, not just of controlling this disease, but of eliminating it.
Of course, if we succeed we will have to guard our borders with pitchforks and zeal until such time as a vaccine is developed, but we have the huge advantage of being far out to sea and we are readily able to feed ourselves. I can think of nowhere else on earth about which all these things are true.
As it may or may not say in the Bible, we don't know how lucky we are.
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
![NeedToKnow3](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/QVZ2LZCTQAGKB7QII6JBCT5QJE.jpg?auth=3947111838770945cd32080ccc21a673e4b0cd2b51cb3047a021d9de5aaf9c0e&width=16&height=17&quality=70&smart=true)