Some thoughts about New Zealand's leadership in keeping corona deaths down and what we can learn from that response.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. John 10

This morning I was contrasting the response of our countries response to the corona virus with the country of New Zealand.  Jacinda Ardern is described by many as a woman good with handling crisis moments from her response to the Christ Church mass shootings to the way she dealt with the invasion of the potentially deadly corona virus. Like President Trump, she immediately closed its borders and required all of it's citizens to stay in their homes for 4 weeks. The citizens of New Zealand obeyed because they trusted their government that what they were doing was good for the long term health of it's citizenry. Consequently, few deaths resulted from the corona virus. When asked what contributed to the successful reduction of the corona virus, this is what one person said:

Siouxsie Wiles, associate professor and head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland, said one of the country's key successes has been the way in which COVID-19 was framed to the general population.
“In other countries, people have been talking about war and battle, which puts people in a negative and fearful frame of mind”, she said. “The official response here has been guided by the principle that you do not stigmatise and that we unite against COVID-19.”

Ardern has regularly appeared on social media, smiling and sharing parts of her personal life under lockdown but without underplaying the seriousness of the situation, which has helped to build public trust.
Baker agreed that language was a crucial part of the response. He said that how the country communicates the concept of elimination will be important going forwards.
Wiles agreed. “We don't want the public to feel like they are being lied to. Elimination to everyone means that it is gone. But in epidemiological terms, it means bringing cases down to zero or near zero in a geographical location. We will still see cases…but only cases in people who have arrived from overseas.” Travelers from abroad will be quarantined as part of efforts to prevent transmission in New Zealand.

As New Zealand now eases its restrictions and its economy slowly reopens, there are discussions about how it can open up its borders while ensuring that everyone is protected, particularly susceptible populations.

Australia, which is having similar success to New Zealand but is not publicly floating the idea of elimination, has been in discussion with its neighbor about reopening travel between the two countries. Baker envisions that, in time, a small number of countries in the region will reach an agreement to enable travel with specific control measures in place.

I think the united states can learn some lessons from New Zealand in our own corona virus world. First, we have to learn to trust our public officials and at the same time our public officials needs to do a better job with communicating with the general public without stigmatizing groups of people. 

Secondly, we need to view our quarantine with a broader picture of how this is going to help our country in the long run.  Citizens need to see that on the short term, profit and margins may suffer, but in the long run a healthy citizenry will mean business will come back stronger than ever.  When I look at our own state of Minnesota's shelter in place,and President Trump's decision to end for a short time international travel, I believe millions of lives were saved. 

As I learned more about the Prime minister of New Zealand it has given me a new look regarding how I view our own local and national leaders- Good leaders are good with making those crisis decisions the rest of us find hard to make. Yes, we are in this together and together we will successfully get through this nasty chapter of our lives so the good times will ring again!