I was referring to plagues which decimate populations regardless of their ideologies.
In preCovid NZ the death toll from influenza averaged about 600 per year. This dropped to zero as a consequence of Covid lockdown, isolation, sanitation, and mask strategies.
Maybe. I haven't seen any scientific studies to support that conclusion. We know that isolation of the sick keeps the pathogen from spreading, which is why we quarantine the sick. Isolation of the healthy, however, is not a public health decision; it's a political decision. Technically we call this imprisonment, and legally, we can only imprison those who have committed a crime.
Sanitation helps, especially when a disease spreads by contact. Those who wash the hands, reduce the chances of inadvertently placing the virus in the nose, mouth or eyes.
A mask is another form of isolation, as many can attest. Thus, only the sick need wear a mask since the purpose of a mask is to minimize or eliminate one significant means of transmission: cough, sneeze, and runny nose. The sick should voluntarily stay home, but if they go out, wearing a mask can keep spittle from reaching surfaces where others can make contact with the disease. Again, we quarantine the sick, not the healthy. Making everyone wear a mask is neither based on science or common sense. Only a fearful bureaucrat would dictate such an irrational action.
Wearing a mask for long periods of time is not only physically harmful; it is psychologically, emotionally and socially harmful. Public health officials seem unduly focused on the physical at the expense of the other aspects of human wellness and flourishing.
Finally, how a pandemic is reported by those in the press can mean the difference between panic and courageous resolve. Most of the panic and fear can be traced back to the press. That is, it isn't true that people in NZ stopped dying of the flu. Rather, all deaths due to "influenza like" illnesses were being reported as deaths due to Sars-coV-2.
Here in the United States, the people have access to the CDC website, where one can find information concerning causes of death, especially death as the result of disease. Last time I looked, the CDC was reporting "influenza like illnesses", of which Sars-coV-2 is but one of many kinds of "flu."
News reports were mistakenly, inadvertently, or purposefully reporting "influenza like illnesses" as "Covid-19" cases. When in fact, only about 6% of all "influenza like illnesses" were due to Sars-coV-2.