New Zealand Has Gone Completely Nuts

CLAY: The other country outside of China that is attempting to still implement a Zero Covid policy is New Zealand — and, Buck, we’ve talked about how Australia always had this reputation as this sunny, crocodile-infested, “Let’s have a beer, put another shrimp on the barbie” kind of vibe.

BUCK: Britain with a tan, you know? It was like Britain where you could get some sun and hang out and good things. Now it is East Germany with koalas.

CLAY: It’s well said (chuckles) and they’ve at least abandoned their Zero Covid strategy, notwithstanding what happened with Novak Djokovic and not allowing him into the country for the Aussie Open. But this is crazy what’s going on in New Zealand. They have decided even in the face of Omicron to basically lock down the entire country yet anew. Listen to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she breaks them down.

ARDERN: The whole of New Zealand will move into the resetting of the traffic light system at 11:59 p.m. tonight, Sunday 23 January.

BUCK: The whole country, Clay — full on, the red light system — full on lockdown again for Omicron, which you have had, I have had. Remember, I’ve had both forms of covid; I know you’ve had both forms of covid. The first one sucked. I’m not gonna lie. The first one was rough. It’s like getting a bad flu. It was not something you wanted to get. I got it, I’m fine, whatever.

Omicron, I’ve been calling it wimpycron. I also want to understand, as a separate matter, if it’s 10 to 20 to 30 times less dangerous than Delta, Clay, who — and 95%, 99% of everything in the U.S. is Omicron now, who’s in the hospital and who’s dying of what? Are they dying from Omicron? ‘Cause I want to know how the numbers add up. But New Zealand is crazy to bring it back here. New Zealand is completely insane. They’re never gonna be able to do this.

CLAY: Without federalism, we would have been Australia and we would have been Canada and we would have been locked down, I think, still in a ridiculous manner. And, by the way, I don’t think anyone would have changed. Look at the numbers in Texas and California as it pertains to Omicron. Texas actually has done better. It’s crazy. None of these policies work.