David Seymour is all class

mickysavage
3 years ago
Categories: class, class war, covid-19, david seymour, poverty, the praiseworthy and the pitiful

So yesterday David Seymour suggested that suburbs where the vaccination rate hit 90% should be allowed extra freedom.

ACT Party leader David Seymour wants suburbs with Covid vaccination rates of 90 per cent or higher let out of lockdown and given a guarantee they won’t ever be put under stay-at-home orders again.

Many Aucklanders are reaching “boiling point” as the city enters its eighth week of lockdown and needed to see a “light at the end of the tunnel”, Seymour said on Monday. He said easing restrictions for highly-vaccinated suburbs would also encourage people in under-vaccinated areas to be jabbed.

“Why should a suburb who has done the right thing, and there’s many of those in central Auckland for example, continue to face the same sanctions as areas where vaccination rates are low?” he said.

“If they [the Government] made the commitment that they really won’t lock down suburbs that have reached 90 per cent vaccination, that creates a real impetus for those areas who tragically had low vaccination rates to start getting vaccinated.”

So which suburbs would they be?

In Auckland the data suggest that Herne Bay, Remuera, Takapuna, Howick and St Heliers would qualify first. Out west the only area that would qualify is Henderson Heights and the part of Te Atatu Peninsular that has a view of Auckland Central. Out south you can forget Mangere, Otara and Manurewa. Can anyone see a pattern?

And the further away from the centre of the city the lower the vaccination rate. Inner city suburbs have had great service. Aotea, Waiheke, Rodney, the outskirts of Waitakere and Franklin are not doing so well.

This screenshot from Spinoff shows the disparity. It is very clear to those that know the city that the wealthier the area the higher the vaccination rate.

The comment is badly camoflagued dog whistling. It is also epidemiologically bonkers. The virus does not respect the boundaries of wealthy suburbs. But regrettably this sort of coarse class politics should be expected from Seymour. He should have stuck with dancing with the stars.