Most of Trump’s claims have been very misleading: The spikes in countries he has called up in recent weeks, such as Germany, Japan and Australia, have been small compared to the ongoing US crisis.
Trump’s latest speech, about New Zealand, is the most misleading of all.
“New Zealand, by the way, had a major outbreak,” he said at a White House news conference on Wednesday. “And other countries that were kept trying to make us not as good as we should look – because we did an incredible job – but they broke out a lot …”
Similarly, Trump said in a campaign speech in Minnesota on Monday that people are now saying “whoops” for keeping other countries as good examples. He said that although the news had been at the forefront that New Zealand had “defeated” the virus, “the problem is, big current in New Zealand.”
Facts first: New Zealand has no “great excitement” or “great eruption.” While the country is experiencing a case of uptick, it is a small uptick out of almost no cases at all. New Zealand reported nine new cases on Monday, 13 on Tuesday, six on Wednesday en five on Thursday. The U.S., on the other hand, reported 35,112 new cases on Monday, 44,091 on Tuesday and 47,408 on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. (Full details of Thursday for the US are not yet available, but there were more than 20,000 new cases reported as of 2:30 p.m.)
As an island nation, New Zealand has some inherent advantages over the US in keeping viruses that originate abroad. Either way if you cut the numbers, though, New Zealand has done and is doing it much better than the US. New Zealand has 22 total reported coronavirus deaths from the severe pandemic. The US has reported more than 173,000 total deaths. It reported 445 new deaths on Monday alone, 1,324 on Tuesday and 1,356 on Wednesday.
New Zealand had 1,654 total confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus by Thursday, the US more than 5.5 million cases by Wednesday. In other words, the US has more confirmed cases than New Zealand has people.
Even if you adapt to population – New Zealand has about five million people, the US about 330 million – the situation of New Zealand is not even remotely close to as bad as the situation of the US. The US has 1,696 cases per 100,000 people, New Zealand 34 cases per 100,000 people.
That is not to dismiss the uptick of New Zealand as non-issue. As Americans know, small spikes can quickly turn into large spikes. New Zealand has imposed strict restrictions on its most populous city, Auckland, in an attempt to remove the new outbreak, which followed a 102-day streak without any local transmission of the virus.
However, it is ridiculous to suggest New Zealand in any way that the US looks any better, as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated on Tuesday. She called Trump’s remarks “patent wrong.”
“Obviously, I think there is no comparison between the current cluster of New Zealand and the tens of thousands of cases that are seen every day in the United States,” she said.
“Look, I think for anyone who follows Covid in the worldwide transmission it will be pretty easy to see that nine cases of New Zealand in one day does not compare to the United States tens of thousands – in fact it does not compare with most countries in the real world. I’m not worried about people misinterpreting our status. “
.
