I wrote this post two months ago about how I thought Covid 19 would play out in Aotearoa.
It was written at the time that infections had peaked to just under 90 per day. I added a postscript celebrating that there were only 63 new infections reported that day.
I also said this:
This is just the start of something that will take a long time to resolve, New Zealand is in as good a place as anywhere in the world to deal with this, but things are not going back to normal in four weeks time. Further isolation periods are almost inevitable, the economy is going to take a hell of a battering and foreign travel is going to be a distant fond memory for quite a while.
Thankfully my comment about further isolation periods being almost inevitable may have been too pessimistic. We are all quietly celebrating having had eleven days of no new infections, and to the poor person still suffering I and most of the rest of the country will have a quiet beer to celebrate your return to good health if there are no new infections reported in the meantime.
It appears that, for now, we may have dodged a rather dangerous bullet.
But just as the first infection made its way into the country and spread the chances of this occurring in the future are still ominous.
The boarder will have to be closed for some time. Various sectors in the economy are being decimated.
This has been a frustrating time for the opposition. They have had to acknowledge that Jacinda Ardern and the Government have performed a remarkable job. They are reduced to now saying that we should be at level one as soon as possible.
The Government’s desire to hold the line and follow the professional advice is cautious. But I do not see any significant public opinion in favour of opposing it. The overwhelming response that I get when I talk to people is one of gratitude for the job that Ardern and the Government have done. And the polling clearly shows who the public think should be in Government leading the country.
This should be contrasted with the United Kingdom which shows the results of not handling the pandemic by some pretty basic rules.
And America is falling apart and the President has resorted to tear gassing protesters to clear space in front of a church so he could have this rather apocalyptic photograph with a bible taken.
New Zealand can cautiously head towards level one and then deal with the economic repercussions and the new world order that is emerging from the pandemic. And enjoy a level of freedom that other nations would be jealous of.
The UK and the US are at risk of a further surge. Australia has not been able to stamp out the spread of the virus. And claims that Australia’s economy is doing better than New Zealand’s appear to be misplaced. New Zealand is doing pretty well and criticism that it has been too staunch is nit picking.
The problem for National and in particular for Todd Muller is that damned MAGA hat is a reminder of people of an obsequious deference to Trump. And locals prefer Ardern’s compassionate science driven approach to Trump’s gung ho science denying populist approach.
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