Russell Bell (Opinion, September 29) suggests that "the rest of the world is starting to see us as" a hermit nation. I simply haven't seen any such portrayal of New Zealand in any part of the world. All that I have seen or read insists that we have been extraordinary in handling Covid.
The one exception has been the Bloomberg Resilience Covid Ranking, a global ranking of nations dealing with Delta. New Zealand has fallen to No. 38. But they, too, are missing the point. Their top contender for this week, Ireland, has had 5249 deaths from Covid as opposed to our 27. Ireland, with a similar population to ours, now has an average of 1300 cases per day. That is success?
Additionally, I have recently talked to people from several nations about Covid. I have only heard praise on the way New Zealand has handled the epidemic. Last week, I explained to my American cousin the sense of anxiety on the long tail of Covid here in NZ. We had 12 cases that day. He replied that he was green with envy. They had over 150,000 daily cases of Covid.
Covid is a movable feast, ever-changing and unpredictable. I am unclear why we have a relentless drumbeat of media criticism for the Government being "unprepared". Indeed, none of the critics have a plan to attack this strikingly unpredictable moving target. Bell used FDR's New Deal as an example of a "plan". But that took over a decade to flesh out. We are just over 18 months into the pandemic. Empirically, we continue to have among the best in the world in Covid outcomes. Something is working.
BRIT BUNKLEY
Whanganui