James Cameron says America would be in "utter disarray" if there's another pandemic

“After the pandemic hit… [New Zealand] had eliminated the virus completely,” Cameron said on an episode of In Depth with Graham Bensinger (via Variety). “They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate. This is why I love New Zealand. People there are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down – going the wrong direction.” 

Cameron, who was born in Canada and officially got New Zealand citizenship last year, doesn’t have any intention of leaving. “Where would you rather live?” he asked. “A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.” 

It is true that New Zealand was world-renowned for its handling of COVID. The country has also been a fairly popular filming destination; the Lord Of The Rings series was famously shot there, and Cameron has been talking about filming in the country since at least 2013. Though the country is obviously beautiful, the director says in the podcast appearance, “I’m not there for scenery, I’m there for the sanity.”