How have NZ and Taiwan been able to manage the COVID-19 crisis while others have done poorly? In this paper, I argue that the adroit pandemic crisis response and management of Taiwan and New Zealand can be attributed to two critical factors – political leadership and political communication. I offer a theoretical framework based on issue definition suggesting that leadership’s ability to move and control the rhetoric by contracting the issue space and its effective communication of the preferred narrative are significant factors in these two countries’ effective pandemic response.