To be fair, it’s probably easier to be a COVID-19 denier in New Zealand than in the United States. The island country has effectively eliminated the virus, twice, and life is now carrying on largely as normal.

However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect to be absolutely torn to pieces if you start spouting virus conspiracy theories in public there. Sadly for one man, conspicuous by his American accent, that is exactly what happened at a campaign rally in the city of Tauranga this week.

The COVID denier piped up at a campaign event led by Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, and deputy prime minister in the coalition with prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party. Ardern’s government has been glowingly praised around the world for its decisive pandemic response which has seen New Zealand record one of the lowest death tolls from the virus on the planet, at only 25 people.

The man, who wasn’t named in a news report about the incident from TVNZ, can be …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]