The problem is [this] big surge in New Zealand … it’s terrible. We don’t want that.’
Yes, Mr Trump, it’s unwelcome. And we certainly don’t want it. But the US, on the other hand, might be a lot happier to replace its last 7 days of COVID-19 statistics with New Zealand’s. Here’s the graphs, with the NZ count (at the bottom) scaled-up to what it would be in the US, which has about 66 times New Zealand’s population, to show a bit of context.
I don’t actually like making comparisons like this, partly because every country is managing things differently, and partly because with COVID-19 there are no winners, just losers. No-one has anything to brag about. But this surge has been somewhat exaggerated (by about 50 times by my calculation) and is worth a comment.
On the positive front, the US country-wide cases are on the decline again. We all hope they remain that way.