Yesterday the Government held a press conference on remaining Covid restrictions. The main health point was that the seven day isolation rule would stay in place for two months while they consider moving to a test-to-release policy. That could see people leave isolation sooner than seven days, based on the result of a Rapid Antigen Test.
I was quite pleased they hadn’t gotten rid of all the rules. It might cause some sort of imbalance in the equilibrium of the Universe if the anti people had nothing to moan about. Seriously though, are there really people that would complain about staying home to avoid infection of others? (Spoiler: the answer is yes).
So that remains, a full seven days of isolation when someone tests positive to reduce transmission. Experts predicted that hospitalisation numbers and deaths could have increased by as much as 25% if the rules were removed and some people didn’t isolate.
David Seymour declared the retention to be draconian, just to confirm it’s staying home so as not to spread illness that he is talking about as draconian. God knows what he made of being told to wash his hands! He continued:
"New Zealand is becoming almost a kind of Hermit Kingdom 2.0 redux in 2023. Actually, what we need to do is move on and start embracing normality."
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by normality. Maybe he made the certainties in life - death and taxes? Funny thing is Mr Seymour thinks we should do all we can to avoid taxes. Death apparently - not so much.
Meanwhile Green Party spokesperson Teanau Tuiono said "Over the last week alone, more than 12,000 cases of Covid-19 were reported. I expect nearly every one of these people would agree that self-isolating is an important and necessary step they can take to protect others, particularly our immunocompromised and disabled whānau. This simple step can also avoid additional strain on the health system."
Christopher Luxon was on RNZ this morning and he of course disagreed with the Government’s decision. Regardless of what decision had been made he would have opposed it - it’s what he does. Pull his chain and hear him repeat all the familiar meaningless corporate phrases and buzzwords.
I had to turn it off. I was feeling quite emotional thinking how many more people would have died if he was the Prime Minister during the pandemic. Thousands of people would have died, tens of thousands of New Zealanders right now would be without a parent, a brother or sister, or a best friend they had know since childhood.
They’d be gone now - dead and buried. Luxon would be sitting there explaining how they’d followed the most appropriate course of action and their review has confirmed he was right.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he is evil, that he would have intentionally caused those people to die. I think he is just nothing. There is nothing in there, nothing at all that would make him stop to think about putting the health of people first over impacts to business. I don’t think he would even understand the concept, much less have followed that course of action.
A friend of mine said “I can't take anyone seriously when they oppose abortion but think human sacrifice for the economy is a fair trade.”
Another friend said “As someone that's been in isolation for over 3 years now, I'm grateful for those politicians that listened to the scientists. Writing this while receiving Chemo in hospital.” When you think of people who are really vulnerable it really does seem churlish to complain about the few remaining restrictions. He continued, “many of us chemo patients still getting groceries delivered, no malls, no concerts, no family gatherings.. But we are thankful.”
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