Here's a detailed but still accessible read about what the SARS-CoV-2 virus does at the cellular level and the what and how of potential therapies against it.
My new favourite thing is Italian mayors and regional presidents LOSING IT at people violating quarantine. Here's an eng subtitled compilation. "I hear you wanna throw graduation parties. I'm gonna send the police over. With flamethrowers." #Covid19#coronaviruspic.twitter.com/NbYuWePIVt
Panic buying is not a socially acceptable response to the pandemic, but it is understandable.
The enemy is unseen and could be spreading from the person next to you in the lift, or the handrail you touched on your way up the stairs. There is no adequate protection against such an invisible enemy. [Apart from strict social distancing].
So what can a person do? Well, attempt to control the things that are within control – if I have to be locked in my house, at least I can make sure I won't starve. Hence the buying of goods that are unlikely to run out, like bread and flour.
That's the explanation I heard from a psychologist and it makes a certain amount of sense.
But then, it is easier to blame fear and panic on those that risk losing everything, while doing nothing really to squelch the fear and panic but actually doing what should be done.
declare total shut down
IRd to send checks to all
Supermarkets to go to online ordering only
rationing as per nutrituional value etc
and then strict enforcing of rules as in France/Germany etc where the police and the army drive through empty streets reminding people that staying at home is saving lifes.
so far in NZ we continue to go to work, and the fear is everywhere.
We need the government to do the right thing and declare shut down.
We the people of this fair land need to stay the fuck at home, and staying at home should not bankrupt anyone, nor should it render anyone destitute.
To have a lockdown, there needs to be adequate enforcement systems in place.
People defying the lockdown probably do it for similar reasons to people doing panic buying.
The supermarkets limiting opening times might seem logical for shelf stocking reasons, but it is increasing the panic buying and lack of physical distancing. The Government needs to find a way to ensure supermarkets get increased staffing
And there is the problem, amongst all this "lockdown" talk are all the logistics that need to be undertaken, all the planning, the organising. That was my first thought about limiting supermarket times, is less time for ppl to shop, the call to give everyone 1k (more than I earn a week btw) would just increase panic buying. There has to be a huge, top down plan, and I'm sure there are people doing this planning right now. Is it happening fast enough? Maybe not, but clearly people need to be told what to do, which is quite sad really.
This is Place Massena in Nice – one of my old stomping grounds. At this time a year, until October this place is packed. The images are taken from a balcony on hte other side of the square ' Old Nice'. My beautiful Nissa la Bella.
personally if people want to defy the lock down that is their choice, i now however want the government to provide a reason for people to stay at home.
Because frankly you might want to think of shop keepers and supermarket/gas station/mitre ten/bunnings staff etc as heros, but with all due respect, they and myself we are just shitting ourselfs.
I have gone to online order only, i have run out of hand sanitizer to give to my customers and literally spray myself down with industrial kitchen santizer, gloves are starting to be in low supply and hard to come by.
the government needs to shut down. It has spend enough time protected big business, it is subsidizing the wages of those whose businesses are still alive, now its the time to help the rest of the country.
I have posted a few links from italy and france, these images from the hospitals are not 'the hardest' hit, they are the ermergency services. I suggest that people look at these images and understand that this is us.
And by gosh, we don't even have an ambulance service that would cope. We.Need.To.Stay.At.Home.
Because i need to pay my lease on the 7th of the month.
Because i need to pay bills on the 20th of the month.
Because i do not want to pick up a loan on the eve of the biggest financial calamity that this world has ever seen.
Because no one is going to buy my 'assets' at a time of the Global Financial Crisis 2020 that will make the Global Financial Crisis 2008 look like childs play.
And this is the reason all of us that go to work, still go to fucking work.
So if you can stay the fuck at home, do so. Because you are at risk, not form those in self isolation but from us that can't.
because at the end of the day, when all this is said and done, the debt collector will want his pound of flesh, and they will have no issue stripping us to the bare bones.
The supermarkets limiting opening times might seem logical for shelf stocking reasons, but it is increasing the panic buying and lack of physical distancing. The Government needs to find a way to ensure supermarkets get increased staffing
Essential Industries. That's another very strong phrase when it comes from Government during a State of Emergency, which is where we are now with the Pandemic Plan being rolled out. Government will do what is required, people will be asked / directed to work where they are required.
In reading the Pandemic Plan the supermarkets have been involved in planning for this eventuality for a long time, it'll all happen fine from their end. Managing the public's behaviour might be different.
Well, I hope it can be managed. As far as I can see, the big problem is lack of staff, and that's where the government can help. More shelvers, more managed shopping – queues with physical distances, and limited shoppers in a supermarket at any time. More drivers to deliver to supermarket, more people doing home deliveries… etc.
Backed up by police maintaining a balance between friendly community engagement, and tough on people who break the rules.
IMHO, this coronavirus crisis has exposed the NZ pundit class as a bunch of out of touched reckons with not much insight, not much to say, and very of what they say having any value.
Every last one of them is either part of an out of touch white upper middle class or useless boomers who reflexively support National and whose every utterance reeks of their privilege.
This crisis should lead to a shake up of the opinion writers in our MSM, a new broom to sweep away the dessicated detritus of people who intellectual peak is well in the past and whose insight shrivelled up and blew away twenty or thirty years ago, but it probably won't.
It is just astonishing, the complacency and vapidity and lack of relevance of almost all of it. The lazy horse race analysis that is the warp and weft of so much of what passes as analysis here has been brutally exposed for it's feeble irrelevance buy this virus while the squalid cynical scorn of privileged right wing pundits, usually disguised as the world weary sophistication of realists, has also be revealed in a lurid and ghastly precision by the coronavirus. GAH!!!!
Are you willing to bet the lives of your loved ones, your house, your savings the Gov is doing the right thing
[deleted image (broken). Karl the “Risk = probability x consequence” thing is now kind of spammy. If you want to explain it please do, but otherwise there’s no need to keep repeating it so often.
I’m also uncomfortable with calling the govt cowards. There’s a balance to be had between critiquing govt policy, strategy and action, and undermining confidence in them in a time of crisis. Please have a think about how you comment in that regard, thanks – weka]
Hi Mutton bird, I appreciate and understand your concern. However, my theory is the potential line of advice given to JA is that all NZD kids will go off running madly through the streets if not at school. I know kiwi kids are better than that. Yeah,some kids will need care at school but not all. There are other alternatives. This is one of the best opportunities for NZINc to practice emergency protocols (& developing new ones)
If you look at critical path analysis, children are one of the main vectors for infection. It’s almost as if the gov has gone out of its way to make it spread.
Take care M Bird, I do get where ya coming from but respectfully disagree.
Just to be cheeky, you did not answer the question, would you bet your loved ones lives on the Govs approach given the evidence from around the world
yes or no?
Be safe
Aside it’s as almost as if this has happened to our gov, in that NZInc is being taken down by some other Nations Psychological operations (PSYOP). The real truth maybe worse we have people advising that are just wrong
Hi Karl. I don't subscribe to such conspiracy theories, and I won't be entertaining a bet which involves loved ones' lives – it's kind of grotesque really.
As far as I know the current policy on schools is to maintain normality in children's lives. Also sending them home into isolation prematurely will cause havoc in many households, particularly vulnerable ones.
This eventuality is not the same as normal school holidays where there is no lockdown.
Using your own equation; Risk = probability x consequence.
As for the "bet", frankly I'll take the government advice over anything from commenters or msm opinion pieces.
But then I know some of the people involved in that advice, and I know the balance that needs to be struck. That's why I had coffee with colleagues in an almost empty cafe today (after completing the registration process required for contact tracing).
Because even if our covid, flu, gastro, and STI rates go to the floor because of all the handwashing and physical distancing, as companies fold and people are trapped in houses together our suicide, abuse, and depression rates are likely to correspondingly increase if isolations are too long and strict.
Because even if our covid, flu, gastro, and STI rates go to the floor because of all the handwashing and physical distancing, as companies fold and people are trapped in houses together our suicide, abuse, and depression rates are likely to correspondingly increase if isolations are too long and strict
This needs to be debated rationally, and words like "coward" are not helpful.
No political courage is needed to do what people are demanding. That's a day's good press, for sure. Whether it's the right thing to do is a much harder dilemma.
Announcing is easy. Enforcing is another matter altogether.
Ardern has to address the growing calls for moving to a lockdown and for at least school closedown.
It's going to happen soon anyway, so why not reduce risk and do it now?
I'm setting up to work from home from today, and setting up a quarantine zone at home for family members at greater risk. It's just not worth the risk waiting a few days.
I've read it all and posted on it all over the weekend. I'm acting on level 2 advice now.
But that was on Saturday, which itself was a significant change from what was announced on Friday and on Thursday.
Since then a number of experts and medical professions and teacher representatives have made it clear that the current measures aren't enough, they are too big a risk.
I think Saturday's effort was good at the time and seems to have been an attempt to prepare people and phase in changes, but that now seems behind the curve.
It makes no sense to let things spread further – and that will be happening – waiting for some sort of measurement while risks increase (which means lives are further endangered).
Some health professionals and teachers seem to think that the risk factors increase every day that there is still widespread social interactions.
It has even been quantified – the number of CONFIRMED cases is currently doubling every three days in New Zealand, similar to rates in other countries.
So that means potentially a doubling in risk every 3 days.
And yet official advice to the government appears not to support the opinions of a selection of doctors and teachers.
When the risk factors do go up you will be alerted because it will be announced we are on Level 3.
It must be remembered New Zealand had a heads-up on this pandemic and were able to put in place measures which weren't put in place early enough in other countries.
Normally a stickler for precise and authoritative evidence, you appear to have set sail for the choppy waters of conspiracy and mistrust.
Pete, instead of hand-wringing at home and compartmentalising your house, you’d be doing your country a great service by getting out and shutting down those student parties along the road.
Lucky you being able to continue to work, albeit from home. I am one millions of NZers for whom that’s not possible. A total lockdown will most likely see me and a lot of others on the dole queue. Is it any wonder the PM is treading very carefully? I assume that lockdown is coming, preparing us for that, was presumably, the point of the PM’s address on Saturday.
The recovery figures don't show the permanent lung damage that can remain for some people. Welfare is temporary, the support the system will need to give you if this type of damage occurs will not be.
Let's be brutally honest about this. Your post (ScottGN) outlines the other aspect of this pandemic. This pandemic isn't just a health issue – otherwise we would be at stage four by now. Unfortunately, the advice of medical experts is just one consideration the government has to consider. It also has to try and prevent a complete economic catastrophe. So like a war, it is about balancing loss of life vs trying to keep the economy going.
No one will put it as blunt as to say it in those terms, but yeah. That is why Jacinda looks so worn out. She is balancing human lives vs economic survival. I wouldn't have her job for all the tea in China.
It also has to try and prevent a complete economic catastrophe.
Overseas forecasts for the next quarter are, in the US -14% and likewise for the UK.(Larry Elliot, writing a worthwhile piece in the Guardian quotes 'Capital Economics' figures of 14 – 20%)
To put that in perspective , when the USSR 'headed south', the economy shrunk by about 9% p.a. over a number of years.
The government does not have to prevent an economic catastrophe – it can't. But it ought to be bent on preventing a human catastrophe coming off the back of that economic one. But it's not. And it won't. We have allowed ourselves to be ruled by clowns and dullards who simply can't think outside their wee chrematistic box.
In their world, when their idea of what an economy is sinks, then we all get to hang on to boulders and plummet right alongside the dive.
There are several differences between this and something like a earthquake, volcano, or tsunami.
The problem is that if you just shut everything down and push the army into the streets to shoot people (ie the far end of phase 4 and what may happen) which is YOUR logical end of argument – then even worse things happen.
You have breakdowns in supply chains – including (and especially for) medical supply chains. You don't have plans for how people can get food. You don't have plans for anything that are widely understood and accepted.
You also don't have any way to make this consistent over the whole country. Which essentially means that you're going to have idiotic knowit all fuckwits who think that they know better precipitously screwing the pooch and building pockets of disease to cause waves of disease to keep flooding the rest of the country when you finally get to lift restrictions.
Personally I'm in favour of just shooting the loudmouths who don't know what they're talking about when it comes to political decisions. However I'm not that willing to commit suicide at present. But I recognise that I'm not making the balanced decisions that are designed to carry society safely over the next 4 months…
I'd suggest that you read the pandemic plan – I put it up in a post a few days ago.
It's very interesting seeing much of the discussion missing the fact that all our lives are dependent on big, complex systems, and you don't take those down at short notice unless you *really have to. It's almost like people don't understand how interdependent everything is.
the other important difference is that in big natural disasters there's a lot of community self reliance based around people coming together to sort things out until things get back to normal. Can't do that with a pandemic.
Agree with both Lynn and weka, about the way some people would respond to a sudden shut down, and the problem with complex interdependent systems.
It seems to me the calls for immediate lock down are more panic responses, and it has a contagious impact on people's contacts and networks – everyone gets over-hyped.
Maybe just calm down and follow the safe practices – good hand washing practices, social distancing, and providing support for others as needed. Allow NZ's systems and infrastructure time to adjust to the new normal. Follow official guidance that is leading is through the alert levels when the time is right.
'Personally I'm in favour of just shooting the loudmouths who don't know what they're talking about when it comes to political decisions. However I'm not that willing to commit suicide at present.'
Heh …….. and there but for the grace of jeebers go us all
If any of you have been out it's not like those non essential businesses are doing a roaring trade. They might as well close.
People generally are standing back, washing their hands but going about their lives as if going out to restaurants, visiting friends, traveling within a few hours drive is not causing harm – it is and it needs to stop.
El Salvador just declared a 30 day lockdown for all but essential movement, only one person per household allowed out. NZ is pathetically lagging at a point where every single hour that passes without lockdown increases the risk against a virus with exponential growth and a health system that was already harming people (blindness, death, suicide..) before this began.
This morning, Gov. Tate Reeves invited Mississippians to pray with him via Facebook Live:
"I believe in the power of prayer, so I’m inviting you to pray with me on this Sunday morning. 'For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.'" pic.twitter.com/qru7fuoO44
At prior emergency meeting, Culpepper said his son discovered coronavirus “cure” on website that sells “nano ozone vapor” device hunters use to mask their scent from deer (he’s ordered 5 of them) and he hopes the White House is watching #BecauseFloridahttps://t.co/fBATxZAY2kpic.twitter.com/yoee0pD3EJ
I think it would be helpful if the PM announced a Committee of the most senior MPs in Parliament to give advice and to act as a sounding board for the ministerial committee that is meeting daily. Probably 4 from government (2 from Labour, one from NZF, one from the Greens) and 3 from National. It would reinforce the sense of national unity that is essential at this time. The members would be the most senior by position, a bit like the Intelligence Committee.
I also think the election should be delayed to the last possible date (probably Dec 12). If it needed to be later, that would have to be done by special legislation.
As for the Levels, I think they are about right, though they could be refined. For instance is 100 people in one place too many? It surely could be reduced to 50. At present I think Level 2 is about right.
I sure would like to see the airport sorted. Maybe it is by now. But last week looked real bad.
Is a nationwide shutdown of schools warranted yet? I think not, based on everything I read. There is no real evidence that they are a particular danger point. But people are sure anxious about that. Maybe more public information is needed about specific risks.
Self isolation for those testing positive? I would prefer actual quarantine, in special facilities. Maybe the govt could rent a couple of hotels for this purpose. But of course on the actual medical issues I imagine the government is acting on advice from the Director General, who seems to be doing a really great job.
I think things will be redefined, constantly. I have school age kids and was happy to keep sending to school, but now I see the teachers council are lobbying to shut the schools, likewise with the health professionals petition, the people at the coalface. I think the Govt are doing as well as they can, but I'm also gonna think for myself.
Having Simon Bridges anywhere near this committee would be a terrible idea.
I suspect the government would be thankful for the extra skills and input at the Covid-19 decision-making table but Bridges has proven himself incapable of concentrating on the task at hand, instead preferring to use the situation for political advantage, and he has shown no interest whatsoever in a "sense of National unity".
The whole point of bringing the opposition on board is just that. The government doesn't get to dictate who the opposition are. Yes, Simon could have done better last week (and I am sure learnt a lesson from that), but he is still the leader. So you deal with the opposition as they are, or you don't.
The government doesn't have to do this, but I reckon they are making a mistake if they don't.
First, they tried a unity government in WW2. After six weeks of delicate negotiations, Sid Holland and one other National MP joined a war cabinet. They lasted about two months before flouncing off – it was a total waste of time. So New Zealand has NEVER had a successful unity cabinet, even in the extremity of an actual war to the actual death against actual Nazis.
Second, being in a cabinet would actually constrain the opposition (if it was responsible) from doing it's job. In a democracy effectively co-opting the democratic choices of the people is always a terrible idea. Let the government do it's job and the opposition do theirs.
Wayne, I appreciate that your comments are in good faith, but the last 2 years have taught Simon Bridges many such lessons, repeatedly – and little has been learned.
I don't need to go through the whole list (accusing everyone from Speaker to Parl services of leaking his travel details, and never apologising when the culprit was in his caucus all the time, joining in the social media nastiness against the PM, belittling her as "photo op" while doing his photo ops, backsliding on gun reform, even descending to a shameful implication of "anti-semitism" only 2 months ago … that's just for starters).
He chose to lead in a particular way (these aren't "mistakes", as I'm sure you know, they're a deliberate strategy, made in the Republican USA).
Nobody will lose out if Bridges isn't in on the decision-making. The NZ public have no reason to believe in his good faith, and that's nobody's fault but his.
I think Simon needs to make an apology of some sort. Extend the hand and acknowledge his actions and the entirety of method are/were wrong.
Can't see the government valuing his opinion or input with his current settings. He'd do more damage than good. That’s the problem when your key focus has been to attack others rather than be constructive.
I think National has already proven, at least with today’s National party, that honesty, good faith and working for the best of the country, rather than instilling fear, using US attack dog division, and dog whistling, are foriegn concepts.
A committee of seven senior permanent politicians is how the Swiss manage Switzerland at all times .
Incoming planes should only be coming into Auckland now and everybody coming in should be put into quarantine for 14 days because of all the flouting of the self- quarantine requirement and airline crew should be contained somewhere isolated from the community between flights.
Switzerland also profiteered from the Holocaust and you almost literally requires your neighbours permission to change the clour of your letterbox. It offers no particular role model either culturally or morally for us to follow.
One of the biggest surprises is the severe situation that Switzerland finds itself in. The majestic mountain redoubt that is so organized that you can set your watch by the trains, because they are rarely even a few seconds late, has the second-highest rate of COVID-19 infection in the world. The rate of infection is going up so quickly — 758 new cases on Saturday — that the government says it has been having trouble keeping track of the growing numbers.
They are in the exact opposite position to us. In the middle of a continent with 1000s of workers crossing the borders of Germany, Italy and France to work each day. They got their first case about 1 day before us. They quickly locked down their borders but they are allowing the outside workers in still – many of them work in the hospitals ! Everyone who can stays at home they are compliant. Shops and businesses are closed and no grouping is allowed in most areas- police break it up and fine them if a group is found.
Supermarkets are actively restricting the numbers of people allowed into shop at one time. No more than 50 and as one comes out one more can go in.
I think it would be helpful if the PM announced a Committee of the most senior MPs in Parliament to give advice and to act as a sounding board for the ministerial committee that is meeting daily. Probably 4 from government (2 from Labour, one from NZF, one from the Greens) and 3 from National. It would reinforce the sense of national unity that is essential at this time. The members would be the most senior by position, a bit like the Intelligence Committee.
Sensible and I suspect it will happen soon – like this week. The committee presided over by Jacinda Ardern – as an extra person (chairperson) over and above the suggested committee number.
If such a committee is formed the government won’t get to dictate who the opposition nominates, and of course they know that. I expect the committee would be chaired by the PM. And she won’t have nearly the problem about Simon that many here have. They know each other quite well from their time on TV together.
My experience tells me that MP’s from opposing parties especially senior ones, know how to work together if needs be. There is a lot more interaction than the public generally understand. They also know the demands of particular roles, and are quite able to look past various missteps.
They could certainly refuse a nomination if they thought that person had a history of not working constructively and was unlikely to benefit the committee because of that.
I'm again thinking of Bridges, Bennett and Mitchell here.
The government (assuming they establish such a committee) won't do that. They know they will have to deal with National's leadership. So that means Bridges, probably Bennet (National might go with Woodhouse) and I would imagine Goldsmith.
As I have said, senior MP's do actually know how to work together, even if they are on opposites sides.
Genuinely, I think the Nats are very happy with what the gov is doing…….(tick tick tick)
The lack of action will provide the Nats good ammunition if the Gov is wrong.
Personally, if they put the right support in place and mechanisms JA will be seen to be hero’s if they close schools etc.cant loose and will be seen not to be gambling with our vulnerable population.
They need to keep kids at home, they need to allow people to stay at home.
heck at the best of the time our health system is not coping – waiting times, no ETA from Ambulances when all are out in the field, and so on and so forth. And we are pretending this is business as usual, and hope the devil has pity with us. It.is.not.
A non-exhaustive list of media cliches and lazy reckons that should be consigned to history after the reality of Covid-19:
"Lazy public servants" … turns out they're the people keeping the country going, and the public informed. Ashley Bloomfield, not a "faceless bureaucrat", just conscientiously doing his job.
"Ivory tower academics" … sure, you could get your advice from graduates of the School of Talkback, but people who have studied the thing at those out-of-touch universities – they seem a bit more useful, eh?
"Kiwi Mums and Dads" … sure, that's most of us, and we like to think we're good people, but you know those panic-buyers and careless queuers at the supermarkets? they're "Kiwi Mums and Dads" too. Common sense is not a given.
Good list – please add some more as they come to mind. Also it's worth thinking about the inverse of each of these. The inverse, which was meant to be true, is now revealed as bullshit as well. So the inverse of "lazy public servants" is meant to be "the dynamic and efficient private sector" – also a myth.
The inverse of “ivory tower academics” is “practical, down to earth ZB talkback hosts”. Etc.
well i guess no extra staff was hired? Btw, i hope these crittes work from home.
And yes, it would have been easier to simply mint that trillion dollar coin, and instruct IRD to send every single adult in this country a check – min wage – for the next few weeks.
Or legislate by emergency degree a rent/bill/holiday for all.
But now, you must try and reach Winz, who already in the best of times is not up to task.
This is just abject bullshittery by those that have know their wages and bills will be paid.
true that, but it might also help those that have absolutly no income.
I use min wage as that is what is government instituted. And it is the amount of the wage subsidiy that the government pays to businesses that still have employees. You know, solidarity, treating everyone the same, oh and that would include all the government critters. 🙂 Maybe then they would understand that our system can not be fixed with a wee trickle down here and hten, but needs proper regulations and rules for the common good of all rather then just assuring survival of a few.
Wayne, a joint committee of MPs from all parties would be worthwhile. Just keep Simon Bridges off it. He is not up to it, having no sensitivity awareness at what is a difficult time.
In breaking fake news the entire parliament who supports the current COVID19 approach of leaving schools open etc will be betting their entire life savings on their strategy
Some have even gone further and doubled down saying they will put their loved ones on the frontline 24/7
Apparently those who agree in the public space are Showing solidarity by doing the same…..
I would *never* use language like this, obvs 😉 – but we could all do with a smile just now. And if humour helps get the message across… https://t.co/9UZmwwn6V9
Not sure who has been talking about lazy public servants and ivory tower academics – but having a close relative working at MOH I am aware of the 12 hour days, as well as weekend and evening work that has been undertaken for the last 4 – 6 weeks. They are pretty tired. But I would go by their advice before the Mike Hosking and other talkback ranters and ravers, who disgust me.
watching the words of Karl Sinclair slop around like those of a lunatic.
That he is given a childlike massive amount of space on this little blog – which itself is miles below that of health and economy experts – is not helpful in the least.
Flinging abuse at the Prime Minister further scums this blog down.
Observer Thanks for you passionate response, I see your happy to gamble and go with gov approah. The unfortunate thing is your gambling with my loved ones to.
So now I am officially grounded. Under GP's instruction to self-isolate.
Not a great time to get a bout of tonsillitis – probably strep throat/tonsils. My right tonsil looks like it did in my younger days when I was prescribed antibiotics. It's a mild irritation, and I feel fine otherwise.
From today, my GPs have gone to phone consults for immediate issues, and advance, non-urgent in person consultations booked up til next week some time – because of the pressures they are now under.
I had a very good phone consultation with a GP this morning.
Basically, she thinks it's either a virus or bacterial infection, or the result of past infections, – the latter not a problem. She's prescribing me antibiotics to clear any bacterial infection, and arranging for the chemist to home deliver it within the next day or 2. Chemist are also under pressure, and she thinks my case is not urgent.
Unless my condition deteriorates noticeably in the mean time, she has booked me for a flu vaccination next week.
I have been doing social distancing for a while, and have not had any close contact with people/groups since beginning of March. I have not knowingly been in contact with anyone who recently travelled overseas.
If, perchance it is Covid-19, though unlikely, it would be a mild case – hence self-isolate. She asked if I had relatives who could deliver a food package from time to time – done – email sent to nephew across town who offered such help.
I have a home delivery scheduled for Sunday from my local supermarket. But there's no certainty if I'll be able to book a slot in the future.
Sorry to hear you are unwell. The medical people sound like they have things sorted, which is encouraging. Hope you get lots of rest and recover swiftly.
Thanks. Actually I don't feel unwell – just the scratchy throat and also feels a bit like a lump in my throat from the swollen tonsil. In fact, I felt I didn't seem bad enough to go to a GP, but thought it best to check.
I mostly rest. But, I asked the GP if it was OK to keep working out on the exercise bike in my flat. She said "sure" and to just listen to my body and stop if I'm feeling too tired, or not up to it.
She was not my usual GP, but said from my record I am pretty healthy, and it is more over 70s with other health conditions that are at risk from the impact of Covid-19.
I was impressed with her response. The GPs do see under a lot of pressure right now.
Assistant Director of Nursing at QE has said they’ve had a message today that virus seems to be spreading quickly via petrol pumps so they advise to wear gloves when filling up or use paper towel and bin straight away. Can you copy and paste to your status to let everyone know. Could make huge difference.
If you have gloves wear them, wipe down super market trollies, wipe down your door handles at the care when coming back from shops etc.
and yeah, feel free to call me a bullshitter. who cares.
Wow. The one time I've been out early last week was to pick up some library books I had requested, and fill up with petrol. I had with me some Detol handwipes I had at home, from before Covid-19 times.
I hand wiped my hands and car doors after the library and after filling up. As I was getting into my car, I guy approached me for help cos his car was low on petrol or something. Me, who has been social distancing a lot, thought "WTF! Why pick on an elderly woman at this time". I said I was in a hurry, ask the petrol station staff, and got in my car.
If people start talking about mortgage holiday to help people, or making it impossible for banks to foreclose of people who can't pay their mortgage, what about a rent freeze as well? Ie people who live in rental accommodation who can't find the money to pay their rent because they have lost their job etc not having to pay their rent for a few months? After all, 50 percent of New Zealanders now live in rental accommodation with no hope of buying a house and they are the people who are most likely to be on low wages and finding it tough to make ends meet. Landlords who aren't collecting their rent should then be protected from the banks foreclosing on them.
Yes, the focus seems STILL to be on property ownership.
I'm a pensioner non-property owner who rents. My security is in some term deposits with an Aussie owned NZ bank. But I see Hickey is pretty much saying let the overseas banks crash, and protect the family home.
Some of us renters need our savings protected or we're up shit creek.
Anecdotally Govt departments in wellington laid off a lot of contractors on Friday.
Given that all through central & local govt , there are quite a lot of contractors with few employment protections doing largely run of the mill work for only average type remuneration – this is an under the radar layoff.
We are all in this together? – well only so long as we protect the existing economic distribution – dump on people at the bottom and protect those at the top.
The 7 Airnz directors who shared a pool in 2019 of $1.1million (plus $390 k of travel and entertainment expenses – likely gone) have apparently taken a 15% reduction reducing their average remuneration from $150k to around $122k for what is seen as part time work because they can and do hold other directorships.
Must be sooooooooo exhausting sacking people when you could be more altruistic.
No wonder some want a government of national unity – just in case workers get seats on boards , upper end incomes are cut or higher tax rates on high incomes are imposed.
I can see this type of behaviour becoming a flash point.
Decided to work from home today and kept the girls home from school. All of Miss 15's exams and assessments have now been cancelled until further notice.
Have asked the girls to each come up with a 14 day challenge, just in case. My youngest has decided her challenge is to learn Spanish. Hola!!!
Meanwhile I'm giving them a one day challenge that involves folding the washing, washing the floors and cooking dinner lolololz 🙂
No need to stress about situations we have no control over, better just to get on with it.
What great ideas Cinny! I'm keeping mine home too, and will think of some new skills they could learn, mine are a bit younger but I can leave them while I work thankfully.
This is our future. At this point the only explanation for not taking the most stringent measures possible that I have is that the government wants old people to die so they don't have to pay Super. Figure it out.
I live in Spain and just received this video via whatsapp with a crying doctor explaining that they’re taking away respiratory machines from +65 year olds to give to younger people. The older people get sedatives to die less painfully. pic.twitter.com/U4YlU4CltU
Wellington city wants just a few councillors making decisions on issues and not just corona virus.
Given we have a right wing mayor and a pretty left wing council this smacks of a takeover. And they are looking at processing annual plans and the like . Given that there are some likely controversial issues ( allowing property developers to build to multiple stories in heritage areas ) and there cannot be meetings on these –
Maybe we could make a list of jobs that we will need people to stay in, so we can see just how much child care will be needed if the schools were shut today.
police
medical staff (hospitals, medical centres, labs, community care)
petrol station attendents
supermarket staff (front line, people who do the ordering, shelf stacking)
people who provide cleaning and personal cares at home for elderly and disabled
freight companies
NZ Post
banks
mechanics
essential repair places (who is ok with a broken washing machine over the next few months?)
electricians
plumbers
armed forces
people who manage crucial infrastructure like power generation and water supplies.
Agreed…people picking fruit and veggies should also definitely be included on the essential jobs list. This is necessary both to feed the nation and for the economy/exports.
If left in the ground or on the tree/bush it will rot.
On another note, the sad news of the death of humble NZ underground music legend Peter Stapleton died this weekend. He had been active since the late 70s, in CHCH then here in Dunedin. The Terminals are/were the best rock band esp live, their albums are essential! He was also in bands like Dadama, Victor Dimisich Band, Scorched Earth Policy, Flies Inside The Sun, Handful Of Dust, any many more, he also ran labels and orgsnised the Lines of Flight music festival. He was a lovely, quiet guy, who was happy to talk with anyone, not pretentious or up himself at all. A drummer who wrote poetry.
[I’ve turned that into a link so we don’t have to look at sensationalised and alarmist headlines. My suggestion going forwards is to write a short intro to any vids in case I remove the visuals. Not aimed at you specifically A – weka]
thanks to my customers i managed to pay all my supplier bar one this month.
i deal with next month when it will come. Told my accountant that i shall ignore taxes and GST returns, the government can come and claim it when we are through on the other side. He agrees, it must have hurt him to say so.
Tomorrow evening i plan to get royally pissed, no pity, what we call in Germany "Kampf Drinken" and on thursday i shall sleep in.
I will dream of the smell of sanitzer for the rest of my life.
Just listened to the briefing. Looks like the government is doing everything correctly. Without panic (ie unlike the panic of Mike the Moron)… Timed well.
Now to write a post – provisional title : "Throw idiot vigilantes on their own island".
Watching these briefings and the subsequent press conference, it’s clear that the government wanted to have as much lined up as possible before announcing the most dramatic public action in our national history. Ardern has been able to answer every question.
Bridges wants lockdown now!!! Jeez I'm glad we have a rational, calm and thoughtful leader right now, imagine the confusion had we locked everything down without planning, or slowly moving people towards the idea. Now yes, WINZ and IRD need to help everyone, regardless if they're on a benefit or a Ranger owning property developer.
Anyone seen any kind of comprehensive list of what are essential services that remain open under a level 4 lockdown?
There's a lot of grey areas. Such as the veterinary care industry – I could see a callous argument that our furry friends aren't essential, but I would hope we've got more compassion than that. Plus the farming related side of it is an integral part of our food supply chain.
There has been a list around for decades that I know about. However it looked 'old' when I last saw it in the early 90s. Back then I was looking at it with regard for ISDN network support, EFTPOS network support, credit card network support, ATM network support, etc (the focus was from when I was working at a telco). It appeared to have cut off being updated somewhere in the mid 1970s.
I suspect that there has been some discussion recently on what needs to be updated.
This list may evolve over time. SectorsEntities providing essential services (including their supply chains)
Accommodation
Accommodation services for essential workers and people who need to be isolated/quarantined
Border
Customs New Zealand, Immigration New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries
Building and construction
Building and construction related to essential services, critical infrastructure, or immediately needed to maintain human health and safety at home/work
Courts, tribunals and the justice system
Courts of New Zealand and tribunals
Critical Crown entities (eg Electoral Commission)
EducationAt level 3 only:
Schools and educational facilities (e.g. ECE centres)
Fast-moving consumer goods
Businesses involved in the supply, delivery, distribution and sale of food, beverage and other key consumer goods (but not takeaway shops)
Financial services
Banks, insurers and other financial institutions
Health
Hospitals, primary care clinics, pharmacies, medical laboratories, care facilities
Ambulance services
Mortuary services
Local and national government
Any entity involved in COVID-19 response or that has civil defence/emergency management functions
Key public services
Primary industries, including food and beverage production and processing
Packaging, production and processing of food and beverage products
Food safety and verification, inspection or associated laboratory services, food safety and biosecurity functions
Veterinary and animal health/welfare services
Public safety and national security
Emergency services
Security and intelligence services
Justice system
Public safety and national security roles
Science
Any entity (including research organisations) involved in COVID-19 response, hazard monitoring, resilience, diagnostics for essential services
Social services
Welfare and social services, including NGOs, which meet immediate needs (further guidance will be provided)
Transport and logistics
Transport services
New Zealand Post and courier services
Any small passenger service vehicle driver – including taxis and ride-share services
Utilities and communications, including supply chains
Electricity, gas, water, waste, fuel, telecommunication services, internet providers and media
These businesses will continue working, but will put in place alternative ways of working to keep employees safe, including shift-based working, staggered meal breaks, flexible leave arrangements and physical distancing.
I'm driving for "meals on wheels" here. I would assume that would fit under the Social Services category, meeting immediate needs. We can drop off the meal at the door – no need for face to face contact. However will await to hear confirmation from the hospital staff.
I'm thinking about low income people without cars right now. Unclear if the PT is stopping completely though. They may scale down and use a 2m rule (not sure how that might work for paying).
The PM said public transport will move to being for essential workers only.
But she also said they are working on ensuring supermarkets are able to implement physical distancing.
But it will be a problem for some to get to supermarkets. Help others is a partial solution.
Plus Hipkins was talking about working on getting homes with children without internet access, the connections and hardware needed. Should be for all low income households so they can organise visits to the supermarket.
There are older people (and some lower income households – who might be using public transport to access food bank help) without on-line shopping (no internet etc). This is going to become a problem.
I want to see my social media feeds over run with golden muffins fresh from the pan, rich velvet cakes dripping with icing and serving plates groaning under the weight of the biscuits (plain and fancy) piled there on.
Commentators like Mike Hosking and his chorus on social media have been getting nostalgic about the John Key years. If only he was still in charge, we would have moved much faster, closed the borders weeks ago, true leadership, blah blah.
So, just for the record, this is what John Key was doing in March 2020. I'll repeat that: March 2020. When the virus was already dominating the news …
If only they all dressed like that, it’s a fierce look
The UK has decided to take one for the team and cheer everyone else up by sending its widespread moron population to form huge and in some cases quite violent queues outside McDonald’s restaurants before they all close.
“Our first idea was to contribute to the global fight against the coronavirus by providing medical supplies and staff,” said a Number Ten spokesperson. “Then we realised that we don’t have any so instead thought we’d give other countries a giggle with footage of idiots ignoring social distancing and brawling just to buy a handful of sweaty mechanically recovered meat.”
“The rest of the world will see the long lines and the emergency services being deployed to them and they’ll be tickled pink. Proving that laughter really is the best medicine. Which is handy because we’ve got bugger all medicine.”
McDonald’s will close nationwide at 19:00 this evening. Let the games begin.
F1 is on ice. Someone mouthier than me should front Red Bull and say "Hey you know the 17 million you saved because the Melbourne GP was called off, wanna do some good with that money?
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ...
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.Well, we’ve all said we wish we had more time to read and now we’ve got what we wished for. Jenna, Kiran and Louisa delve into some book news (that’s not too heavy for ...
The prime minister says she expects the health minister to continue doing his job, including media interviews, after he broke the lockdown rules last week to go mountain biking. ...
There have been calls for major institutions like Auckland Art Gallery to do better in identifying queer or queer-associated artists. New Auckland Art Gallery director Kirsten Paisley believes it’s ‘a conversation that needs to happen’. Writer Samuel Te Kani digs into the complications below the surface of the erasures of ...
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...
Netflix’s four-part series Unorthodox traces a woman’s escape from a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Emily Writes considers the lessons we can all learn from her journey. There was a moment watching Netflix’s miniseries Unorthodox when I felt like I was actually in Berlin, where much of the show is ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...
We needed a reasonable period of time to allow the recent surging wave of highly geared first home buyers to get financially comfortable. We didn’t get it, writes David Hargreaves of interest.co.nz.You know, I was really beginning to think (as well as hope) that we might just get away with it.By ‘it’ ...
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. ...
Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence.I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell.There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this!We all know where the words ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes.It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes.And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...
On Friday night, the government quietly laid down some lockdown rules via a legal order under the Health Act. Law professor Andrew Geddis explains what it means for all of us (including David Clark). As the first week of level four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was ...
The health and wellbeing of people working and being held inside our prisons needs to be a priority, writes JustSpeak director Tania Sawicki Mead. Kelvin Davis’s interview on The Hui last weekend made it clear that precautions taken by Corrections to stop the spread of Covid-19 will create an unprecedented restriction ...
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes.Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks.When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By David Robie A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation. In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle ...
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...
Alex Casey speaks to a dream expert about why so many people are suddenly remembering their vivid and often horrible dreams. As the days begin to blur together and the only thing we get between sleeps is unimaginably horrible news and an embarrassing tootle around the block, it’s no surprise ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Medical centres across the country are condensing services, moving online, and ushering in pandemic plans. Josie Adams assesses what it’s like to access and provide essential medical care under alert level four.On Monday, Sandra Russell woke up before dawn and drove to Milford to get her blood tested. She has ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, writer and doctor Glenn Colquhoun, with the second of his Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions. ...
ANALYSIS:By Haiqing Yu of RMIT University and Michael Keane of Curtin University China has gradually emerged out of its shadow of despair as the epicentre where the coronavirus pandemic started. Now, there is face saving required – as well as agenda-setting in the global power play. China played ...
Tech giant Google has released a giant global data set which shows how different countries are locking down, and which NZ regions are most compliant with its lockdown.A giant set of reports released by Google, created using its anonymised cellphone location data reveals the scale of human behaviour change the ...
Comedian Penny Ashton writes on the necessity of the arts, especially during lockdown.On March 22, everyone’s favourite fiscal bloodhounds, the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, sent out a tweet in response to Creative New Zealand’s announcement that it will dedicate an emergency response package to helping New Zealand’s artists, in the ...
Wellington writer Philippa Swan’s new novel TheNight of All Souls is an homage to Pulitzer-winning and all-round fabulous American writer Edith Wharton. Wharton died in 1937 but, Swan writes, she’s very much of the moment. Nobody does social distancing like Wharton did. While Wharton was still comparatively young, she created the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford.I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...
How do you hold a funeral service with the country in lockdown? Where there’s a will – and a tech-savvy uncle – there’s a way, Erin Kavanagh-Hall discovered.I was floating somewhere in the Cook Strait when I heard my grandfather’s funeral had been cancelled.I should elaborate. It was a Monday, ...
‘Stay in your bubble’ didn’t exist 100 years ago, but our ancestors would want us to know how essential it is to do so, says Jai Breitnauer.It was a warm but slightly grey January day in 2019 when I pulled the car over to the side of SH1, just south ...
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...
Every day at 1pm New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announces precise figures on the number of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in the country. He is working on the best information available, and during this week the level of community transmission was put at around ...
Most of New Zealand's MPs are in lockdown just like the rest of us, confined to their neighbourhoods and stuck in their bubbles. Checkpoint called a few to ask them what they're doing. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Deery, Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, University of Melbourne “Stupid coronavirus!” I heard my six-year-old mumble while talking in her sleep. Earlier that day her swimming and basketball lessons were cancelled, a birthday party postponed, and she had to race with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University “Zoombombing” in case you haven’t heard, is the unsavoury practice of posting distressing comments, pictures or videos after gatecrashing virtual meetings hosted by the videoconferencing app Zoom. With hundreds of millions ...
Analysis - A leading epidemiologist says health authorities 'really have no idea' of the extent of community spread, Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee gets its teeth into what's going on during the lockdown and the horrendous economic imp ...
The fifth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
The Finance Minister says struggling companies will be able to put some debt into hibernation, under new legislation unveiled today. Watch the latest government update here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lund, Commissioning Editor, The Conversation Editor’s note: The following is current as at April 3, 2020. Things are changing quickly so best to keep an eye on the latest information from WA Health, as well as the federal government.This article ...
During the challenges associated with lockdown, the Māori Party are congratulating Ngāti Ruanui and South Taranaki on the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling What does the COVID-19 pandemic sound like? For this episode, Dallas Rogers – a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney – asked academic colleagues from all over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sven Gallasch, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (published in 1776), “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the ...
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Spain and Switzerland top cases, countries converging. Chart by Keith Rankin.Of the larger European countries, Italy is now in third place for known cases per person in the population. Spain has overtaken Switzerland for ...
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Kaahui o Rauru are celebrating the decision of the Court of Appeal, announced today, to stop Trans-Tasman Resources plans for risky seabed mining off the South Taranaki Bight. The Court of Appeal found that there ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...
Political commentators from the left and right sides of the political divide are questioning the powers being exercised by police during the nation-wide “lockdown”. The Asian Invasion 2019 blog draws attention to the warning sounded by former UK Supreme Court Justice Jonathan Sumption when he challenged Covid-19 actions by British ...
Pacific Media Watch The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) has strongly condemned the shoot-to-kill order by President Rodrigo Duterte this week as a ‘dangerous’ opening to target and kill anyone in a public space. “We are raising the alarm in the international community on President ...
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...
Four PhD students engaged a clinical psychologist to help them navigate an uncertain time in their studies. They share their findings here.As four PhD students from Massey University’s Joint Centre for Disaster Research we, like many others, can’t stop reading and talking about the unfolding events that have gripped our ...
The SpinoffBy Ashleigh Rushton, Lisa McLaren, Marion Tan & Sara Harrison
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Young people in Australia are among the fastest-growing group to contract COVID19. According to the Department of Health, there are now more cases in Australia among people aged 20 – 29 years than any ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Pattinson, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Getting a good night’s sleep can be difficult at the best of times. But it can be even harder when you’re anxious or have something on your mind – a global pandemic, for example. ...
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...
The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand is delighted that the government has moved quickly to provide an initial financial support package for pharmacy. The $15 million package was paid this week to pharmacy contract holders. Pharmaceutical Society president ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and bookseller Ash Davida Jane. washed up! it gets tiring pushing the fire alarm every nightbut things keep catching on fireor sometimes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Foster, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Sydney Our earliest vertebrate (animals with backbones) ancestors laid eggs, but over millions of years of evolution, some species began to give birth to live young. There is a traditional dichotomy in vertebrate reproduction: species ...
Open mike 23/03/2020 
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...1 hour ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 3 hours ago
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...7 hours ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...9 hours ago
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...9 hours ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...24 hours ago
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messages from different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...1 day ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...2 days ago
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...2 days ago
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...2 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...3 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...3 days ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...4 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 4 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...5 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...5 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...6 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...1 week ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...1 week ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...2 hours ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...2 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...2 days ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...1 hour ago
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...2 hours ago
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...3 hours ago
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...5 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...6 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific The number of people with Covid-19 in the Pacific continues to climb with French Polynesia hitting 40 cases, Guam now over 90 and the US state of Hawai’i suffering its third coronavirus death. In the past day, another person tested positive for Covid-19 in French Polynesia. ...7 hours ago
Covid-19 is a real threat to older people, but these Central Otago seniors are embracing technology, experiencing no FOMO, and finding new ways to connect and share, finds Jill Herron When the full lockdown began on March 25 it meant the end of going for a swim, spa or to ...13 hours ago
Former editor of the Woman's Weekly, Nicky Pellegrino, bids farewell to the magazine that brought information and fun to generations of New Zealand women. All those stories. Gone. Stories about our politics, our health, our education, our aspirations. Stories about the houses we lived in and the gardens we grew, ...13 hours ago
As small businesses fight for their survival in the Covid-19 lockdown, it seems one of the country’s biggest retail landlords is not keen to share the pain. On the one side, you have Jonathan*. Jonathan runs a small business out of South Auckland’s Sylvia Park - New Zealand’s biggest mall. ...13 hours ago
With no Covid-19 cases and its economy desperate to restart, the Chathams is keen to go fishing again, writes Jim Kayes. It shouldn’t really be a surprise. They are, after all, ahead of New Zealand by 45 minutes. And though they are part of Wellington’s Rongotai electorate, the fiercely ...13 hours ago
Like countless New Zealanders stranded overseas, Wellingtonian Rosie O’Hagan will be braving authorities, airlines, airports and uncertainty to make it back from the other side of the world, writes Jim Kayes. Rosie O’Hagan hadn’t stepped outside for three weeks. When she finally did – around midnight on Friday ...1 day ago
Simon Wren-Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, raises good questions about Britain’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them seem germane to this country’s response. Wren-Lewis posted his critique on his Mainly Macro blog under the heading Following the Science or a ...1 day ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...1 day ago
Normally heaving year-round, Queenstown has ground to an eerie halt as Covid-19 cases rise and tourism income plummets, reports Paul Taylor. On a hill behind Queenstown's coronavirus Covid-19 community testing centre, the resort's iconic Skyline gondola sits motionless. More than 17 million people are estimated to have ridden the gondola ...2 days ago
Are we drinking more in the lockdown? Hard to know, writes David Slack, but we’re certainly having to get creative about it. Almost every phone call I’ve answered this week has begun the same way: “You still off the drink, then?” Fair question. What a time to be not drinking. ...2 days ago
Kiwi clinical psychologist Desiree Dickerson is stuck with her family in Spain and has written a guide in Nature: "Seven tips to manage your mental health and well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak." It’s Day 17 of the Covid-19 lockdown in Spain. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast, about ...2 days ago
"Will our ills be cured? Will our feet carry us? For how long?": a short story set in Henderson by West Auckland writer Serie Barford. I learned to drive a tractor when I was a kid feeding out hay with my cousins on a dairy farm down the line. I ...2 days ago
Without active testing in the community our Covid-19 picture isn’t complete, an epidemiologist says. David Williams reports. There are worse places to be self-isolating than Whakatāne, in the Bay of Plenty, says Bridget Robson, who lives on a two-acre block and keeps chickens. “We live in a beautiful part of ...2 days ago
David Clark’s misadventure in mountain biking was a stupid, but ultimately forgivable offence. The bigger problem is the continued uncertainty around what is and isn’t appropriate activity in lockdown, as Sam Sachdeva writes. Given the pressure he and his Cabinet colleagues are under, it is little surprise Health Minister David ...2 days ago
Assessing the economic impact of Covid-19 requires a new approach to a problem economists have not encountered in modern times, writes Dr Kirdan Lees Covid-19 has presented quite a problem for economists. Containment policies that seek to flatten the Covid-19 curve or eliminate the virus, restrict economic activity. All governments ...2 days ago
Environment Minister David Parker has directed officials to find ways to fast-track consents for infrastructure and development projects. He says his goal is to help create a pipeline of projects so that some can start immediately once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted “so people can get back into work as fast ...2 days ago
Contact tracing is a crucial part of the Covid-19 puzzle and technology might prove essential to scaling up New Zealand's tracing capacity, Marc Daalder reports With the lockdown reducing physical contact between members of the public and testing ramping up, the only missing piece of the Covid-19 puzzle is contact tracing. ...2 days ago
Insolvency laws will be temporarily changed to allow troubled companies to trade while technically insolvent Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced changes to the Companies Act to allow companies to put their debts into "hibernation". Robertson said companies facing liquidity problems would have "safe harbour" from their normal insolvency duties ...2 days ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about a massive spike in US jobless claims, and they talk about an inspiring Kiwi app to fight Covid-19 globally. Guest, Pie Funds chief executive Mike Taylor also joins them to talk about the massive market swings and hopes for recovery. Bernard zooms out ...2 days ago
The Reserve Bank looks set to start buying council bonds as well as Government bonds to unfreeze financial markets and allow councils to defer rates and jointly invest in infrastructure with the central Government, Dileepa Fonseka reports In what would be another unprecedented move to calm financial markets and help ...2 days ago
Covid-19 testing of the wider population is on the cards as World Health Organisation research shows people are most contagious within their first few days of being infected Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says Covid-19 carriers are highly infectious when they show few signs of carrying the virus. People were ...2 days ago
Z Energy is the latest company to cut its dividend payout and start talking to its banks about strengthening its finances. Chief executive Mike Bennetts said the company, the largest fuel retailer in the country, had been battered by a range of issues over the past 18 months, and was ...2 days ago
Journalist and Great Barrier Island resident Lindsay Wright reflects on outer gulf pandemic preparedness. Hardy locals can tough it out but Auckland bach owners and boaties should keep their distance. Aotea Great Barrier, the easternmost island in the Hauraki Gulf, are undergoing a Covid-19-inspired population flood. Great Barrier has scenery that makes ...2 days ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference and are "as of 9am" of the day. There were 71 new cases of Covid-19 in ...2 days ago
Are you the Virus?
Nope.
I am not the virus but I am a Killing Joke fan.
Here's a detailed but still accessible read about what the SARS-CoV-2 virus does at the cellular level and the what and how of potential therapies against it.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/covid-19-the-biology-of-an-effective-therapy/
Very good link.
Where the fuck are you all going?
OMG that's funny
Really funny, holy shit. So good to see people in authority doing it well.
Panic buying is not a socially acceptable response to the pandemic, but it is understandable.
The enemy is unseen and could be spreading from the person next to you in the lift, or the handrail you touched on your way up the stairs. There is no adequate protection against such an invisible enemy. [Apart from strict social distancing].
So what can a person do? Well, attempt to control the things that are within control – if I have to be locked in my house, at least I can make sure I won't starve. Hence the buying of goods that are unlikely to run out, like bread and flour.
That's the explanation I heard from a psychologist and it makes a certain amount of sense.
it makes perfect sense.
But then, it is easier to blame fear and panic on those that risk losing everything, while doing nothing really to squelch the fear and panic but actually doing what should be done.
declare total shut down
IRd to send checks to all
Supermarkets to go to online ordering only
rationing as per nutrituional value etc
and then strict enforcing of rules as in France/Germany etc where the police and the army drive through empty streets reminding people that staying at home is saving lifes.
so far in NZ we continue to go to work, and the fear is everywhere.
We need the government to do the right thing and declare shut down.
We the people of this fair land need to stay the fuck at home, and staying at home should not bankrupt anyone, nor should it render anyone destitute.
The problem with total lockdown is many people in "liberal democracies" are defying the lockdown.
It works in an authoritarian state, but many young people internationally are defying it.
Stuff report on flouting it from France to Florida & Aussie
To have a lockdown, there needs to be adequate enforcement systems in place.
People defying the lockdown probably do it for similar reasons to people doing panic buying.
The supermarkets limiting opening times might seem logical for shelf stocking reasons, but it is increasing the panic buying and lack of physical distancing. The Government needs to find a way to ensure supermarkets get increased staffing
And there is the problem, amongst all this "lockdown" talk are all the logistics that need to be undertaken, all the planning, the organising. That was my first thought about limiting supermarket times, is less time for ppl to shop, the call to give everyone 1k (more than I earn a week btw) would just increase panic buying. There has to be a huge, top down plan, and I'm sure there are people doing this planning right now. Is it happening fast enough? Maybe not, but clearly people need to be told what to do, which is quite sad really.
well we then will do what the other countries do.
This is Place Massena in Nice – one of my old stomping grounds. At this time a year, until October this place is packed. The images are taken from a balcony on hte other side of the square ' Old Nice'. My beautiful Nissa la Bella.
personally if people want to defy the lock down that is their choice, i now however want the government to provide a reason for people to stay at home.
Because frankly you might want to think of shop keepers and supermarket/gas station/mitre ten/bunnings staff etc as heros, but with all due respect, they and myself we are just shitting ourselfs.
I have gone to online order only, i have run out of hand sanitizer to give to my customers and literally spray myself down with industrial kitchen santizer, gloves are starting to be in low supply and hard to come by.
the government needs to shut down. It has spend enough time protected big business, it is subsidizing the wages of those whose businesses are still alive, now its the time to help the rest of the country.
I have posted a few links from italy and france, these images from the hospitals are not 'the hardest' hit, they are the ermergency services. I suggest that people look at these images and understand that this is us.
And by gosh, we don't even have an ambulance service that would cope. We.Need.To.Stay.At.Home.
So why are you open for customers? I think you are a bullshitter.
nope, open for online orders only.
table at the doorway, people order online, specify pick up or delivery.
Pick up will take what is by the table.
I had two deliveries today, and three pick ups.
No am not a bullshitter, but hey what ever makes you feel better.
cause we need the fucking money.
Because i need to pay my lease on the 7th of the month.
Because i need to pay bills on the 20th of the month.
Because i do not want to pick up a loan on the eve of the biggest financial calamity that this world has ever seen.
Because no one is going to buy my 'assets' at a time of the Global Financial Crisis 2020 that will make the Global Financial Crisis 2008 look like childs play.
And this is the reason all of us that go to work, still go to fucking work.
So if you can stay the fuck at home, do so. Because you are at risk, not form those in self isolation but from us that can't.
because at the end of the day, when all this is said and done, the debt collector will want his pound of flesh, and they will have no issue stripping us to the bare bones.
https://covid19.govt.nz/government-actions/covid-19-alert-system/
Essential Industries. That's another very strong phrase when it comes from Government during a State of Emergency, which is where we are now with the Pandemic Plan being rolled out. Government will do what is required, people will be asked / directed to work where they are required.
In reading the Pandemic Plan the supermarkets have been involved in planning for this eventuality for a long time, it'll all happen fine from their end. Managing the public's behaviour might be different.
Well, I hope it can be managed. As far as I can see, the big problem is lack of staff, and that's where the government can help. More shelvers, more managed shopping – queues with physical distances, and limited shoppers in a supermarket at any time. More drivers to deliver to supermarket, more people doing home deliveries… etc.
Backed up by police maintaining a balance between friendly community engagement, and tough on people who break the rules.
Government has asked (told) the Commerce Commission to be relaxed about competing businesses working together.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12318864
Thanks. Hope there is proper oversight so that businesses don't use this as an excuse for hoarding or price gouging.
IMHO, this coronavirus crisis has exposed the NZ pundit class as a bunch of out of touched reckons with not much insight, not much to say, and very of what they say having any value.
Every last one of them is either part of an out of touch white upper middle class or useless boomers who reflexively support National and whose every utterance reeks of their privilege.
This crisis should lead to a shake up of the opinion writers in our MSM, a new broom to sweep away the dessicated detritus of people who intellectual peak is well in the past and whose insight shrivelled up and blew away twenty or thirty years ago, but it probably won't.
1ZB got an absolute grilling (comparatively, for the normally very sedate Colin Peacock) by Mediawatch.
Basically calls them incoherent and dangerous.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018739390/media-strive-to-adapt-to-the-new-normal
Jack Tame's opinion is worthy of a read or a listen:
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/opinion/jack-tame-were-all-in-this-together/
Well done Jack. You put some of your narcissistic, brain-addled partisan colleagues to shame.
Yes on both the diagnosis and the prediction. I think their gravy train has just pulled into a siding for a while.
It is just astonishing, the complacency and vapidity and lack of relevance of almost all of it. The lazy horse race analysis that is the warp and weft of so much of what passes as analysis here has been brutally exposed for it's feeble irrelevance buy this virus while the squalid cynical scorn of privileged right wing pundits, usually disguised as the world weary sophistication of realists, has also be revealed in a lurid and ghastly precision by the coronavirus. GAH!!!!
No-one could say it better Sanctuary. You've nailed the situation, and pinned the sadistics, like butterflies, to a billboard for all to see.
Couldn’t agree more Sanctuary.
Potential for so many things to change for the better. Good to keep an eye on that ball amongst everything else. What do we want it to change to?
Jacinda, close the schools etc
You and Parliament are gambling with lives using a really bad hand.
Whoever is advising you is giving you wrong advice. Is Psychological operations from enemy countries advising you?
From a PR perspective, if you close schools there is no massive down side. You’ll be seen to be strong, If you don’t
……….
Will you forever be known, as “coward of the county”
Lines from the Gambler being your swan song
You seem pretty certain the government is getting the wrong advice. What do you base that assumption on?
Risk = probability x consequence
Are you willing to bet the lives of your loved ones, your house, your savings the Gov is doing the right thing
[deleted image (broken). Karl the “Risk = probability x consequence” thing is now kind of spammy. If you want to explain it please do, but otherwise there’s no need to keep repeating it so often.
I’m also uncomfortable with calling the govt cowards. There’s a balance to be had between critiquing govt policy, strategy and action, and undermining confidence in them in a time of crisis. Please have a think about how you comment in that regard, thanks – weka]
My sector is already screwed for 18 months or more so I have nothing with which to bet.
I think it's incumbent upon all of us to remain calm and follow the authorities' guidelines. If we do this we may not even reach Level 3 or 4.
The hysterical reaction isn't helping anyone.
Hi Mutton bird, I appreciate and understand your concern. However, my theory is the potential line of advice given to JA is that all NZD kids will go off running madly through the streets if not at school. I know kiwi kids are better than that. Yeah,some kids will need care at school but not all. There are other alternatives. This is one of the best opportunities for NZINc to practice emergency protocols (& developing new ones)
If you look at critical path analysis, children are one of the main vectors for infection. It’s almost as if the gov has gone out of its way to make it spread.
Take care M Bird, I do get where ya coming from but respectfully disagree.
Just to be cheeky, you did not answer the question, would you bet your loved ones lives on the Govs approach given the evidence from around the world
yes or no?
Be safe
Aside it’s as almost as if this has happened to our gov, in that NZInc is being taken down by some other Nations Psychological operations (PSYOP). The real truth maybe worse we have people advising that are just wrong
Hi Karl. I don't subscribe to such conspiracy theories, and I won't be entertaining a bet which involves loved ones' lives – it's kind of grotesque really.
As far as I know the current policy on schools is to maintain normality in children's lives. Also sending them home into isolation prematurely will cause havoc in many households, particularly vulnerable ones.
This eventuality is not the same as normal school holidays where there is no lockdown.
Using your own equation; Risk = probability x consequence.
The word lock down is rather emotional and can mean different things spplied on a sliding scale
I respect your comments
“won't be entertaining a bet which involves loved ones' lives – it's kind of grotesque really.”
Thanks, you answered my question ….. we know where you stand
Take care
your "psyop" idea is incredibly silly.
As for the "bet", frankly I'll take the government advice over anything from commenters or msm opinion pieces.
But then I know some of the people involved in that advice, and I know the balance that needs to be struck. That's why I had coffee with colleagues in an almost empty cafe today (after completing the registration process required for contact tracing).
Because even if our covid, flu, gastro, and STI rates go to the floor because of all the handwashing and physical distancing, as companies fold and people are trapped in houses together our suicide, abuse, and depression rates are likely to correspondingly increase if isolations are too long and strict.
Quoted for Truth
well, that didn't age well.
My whole morning just aged incredibly fast.
mod note for you above Karl.
Message received loud and clear Weka
Will do
Take care
This needs to be debated rationally, and words like "coward" are not helpful.
No political courage is needed to do what people are demanding. That's a day's good press, for sure. Whether it's the right thing to do is a much harder dilemma.
Announcing is easy. Enforcing is another matter altogether.
Ardern has to address the growing calls for moving to a lockdown and for at least school closedown.
It's going to happen soon anyway, so why not reduce risk and do it now?
I'm setting up to work from home from today, and setting up a quarantine zone at home for family members at greater risk. It's just not worth the risk waiting a few days.
She addressed the entire nation on Saturday. The information is all in the Alert Level document.
Here's the document if you haven't read it. I have it stuck on the fridge for handy reference. You might wish to do the same.
I've read it all and posted on it all over the weekend. I'm acting on level 2 advice now.
But that was on Saturday, which itself was a significant change from what was announced on Friday and on Thursday.
Since then a number of experts and medical professions and teacher representatives have made it clear that the current measures aren't enough, they are too big a risk.
I think Saturday's effort was good at the time and seems to have been an attempt to prepare people and phase in changes, but that now seems behind the curve.
It makes no sense to let things spread further – and that will be happening – waiting for some sort of measurement while risks increase (which means lives are further endangered).
The only thing which has changed from Saturday is the opinion of some health professionals and teachers, not actual risk factors.
It might pay to bear this in mind.
Some health professionals and teachers seem to think that the risk factors increase every day that there is still widespread social interactions.
It has even been quantified – the number of CONFIRMED cases is currently doubling every three days in New Zealand, similar to rates in other countries.
So that means potentially a doubling in risk every 3 days.
It might pay to bear this in mind.
And yet official advice to the government appears not to support the opinions of a selection of doctors and teachers.
When the risk factors do go up you will be alerted because it will be announced we are on Level 3.
It must be remembered New Zealand had a heads-up on this pandemic and were able to put in place measures which weren't put in place early enough in other countries.
Normally a stickler for precise and authoritative evidence, you appear to have set sail for the choppy waters of conspiracy and mistrust.
Pete, instead of hand-wringing at home and compartmentalising your house, you’d be doing your country a great service by getting out and shutting down those student parties along the road.
Lucky you being able to continue to work, albeit from home. I am one millions of NZers for whom that’s not possible. A total lockdown will most likely see me and a lot of others on the dole queue. Is it any wonder the PM is treading very carefully? I assume that lockdown is coming, preparing us for that, was presumably, the point of the PM’s address on Saturday.
They waived the stand downs, apply online. Done.
The recovery figures don't show the permanent lung damage that can remain for some people. Welfare is temporary, the support the system will need to give you if this type of damage occurs will not be.
Let's be brutally honest about this. Your post (ScottGN) outlines the other aspect of this pandemic. This pandemic isn't just a health issue – otherwise we would be at stage four by now. Unfortunately, the advice of medical experts is just one consideration the government has to consider. It also has to try and prevent a complete economic catastrophe. So like a war, it is about balancing loss of life vs trying to keep the economy going.
No one will put it as blunt as to say it in those terms, but yeah. That is why Jacinda looks so worn out. She is balancing human lives vs economic survival. I wouldn't have her job for all the tea in China.
yup. Economic disruptions kill, too.
It also has to try and prevent a complete economic catastrophe.
Overseas forecasts for the next quarter are, in the US -14% and likewise for the UK.(Larry Elliot, writing a worthwhile piece in the Guardian quotes 'Capital Economics' figures of 14 – 20%)
To put that in perspective , when the USSR 'headed south', the economy shrunk by about 9% p.a. over a number of years.
The government does not have to prevent an economic catastrophe – it can't. But it ought to be bent on preventing a human catastrophe coming off the back of that economic one. But it's not. And it won't. We have allowed ourselves to be ruled by clowns and dullards who simply can't think outside their wee chrematistic box.
In their world, when their idea of what an economy is sinks, then we all get to hang on to boulders and plummet right alongside the dive.
Elliot link – https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/22/the-coronavirus-is-leading-to-a-whole-new-way-of-economic-thinking
It takes time to plan and organise on such a large scale, Pete. Saying “make it so” doesn’t make it so.
Pete… I did some work on CD stuff decades ago.
There are several differences between this and something like a earthquake, volcano, or tsunami.
The problem is that if you just shut everything down and push the army into the streets to shoot people (ie the far end of phase 4 and what may happen) which is YOUR logical end of argument – then even worse things happen.
You have breakdowns in supply chains – including (and especially for) medical supply chains. You don't have plans for how people can get food. You don't have plans for anything that are widely understood and accepted.
You also don't have any way to make this consistent over the whole country. Which essentially means that you're going to have idiotic knowit all fuckwits who think that they know better precipitously screwing the pooch and building pockets of disease to cause waves of disease to keep flooding the rest of the country when you finally get to lift restrictions.
Personally I'm in favour of just shooting the loudmouths who don't know what they're talking about when it comes to political decisions. However I'm not that willing to commit suicide at present. But I recognise that I'm not making the balanced decisions that are designed to carry society safely over the next 4 months…
I'd suggest that you read the pandemic plan – I put it up in a post a few days ago.
It's very interesting seeing much of the discussion missing the fact that all our lives are dependent on big, complex systems, and you don't take those down at short notice unless you *really have to. It's almost like people don't understand how interdependent everything is.
the other important difference is that in big natural disasters there's a lot of community self reliance based around people coming together to sort things out until things get back to normal. Can't do that with a pandemic.
Agree with both Lynn and weka, about the way some people would respond to a sudden shut down, and the problem with complex interdependent systems.
It seems to me the calls for immediate lock down are more panic responses, and it has a contagious impact on people's contacts and networks – everyone gets over-hyped.
Maybe just calm down and follow the safe practices – good hand washing practices, social distancing, and providing support for others as needed. Allow NZ's systems and infrastructure time to adjust to the new normal. Follow official guidance that is leading is through the alert levels when the time is right.
'Personally I'm in favour of just shooting the loudmouths who don't know what they're talking about when it comes to political decisions. However I'm not that willing to commit suicide at present.'
Heh …….. and there but for the grace of jeebers go us all
If any of you have been out it's not like those non essential businesses are doing a roaring trade. They might as well close.
People generally are standing back, washing their hands but going about their lives as if going out to restaurants, visiting friends, traveling within a few hours drive is not causing harm – it is and it needs to stop.
El Salvador just declared a 30 day lockdown for all but essential movement, only one person per household allowed out. NZ is pathetically lagging at a point where every single hour that passes without lockdown increases the risk against a virus with exponential growth and a health system that was already harming people (blindness, death, suicide..) before this began.
Don't be one of them Gatlin boys, you know how things ended for them.
Hugs n kisses off planes from folk who have just come through the most likely point of infection, an international airport/airline !
The lack of social distancing, zero masks/gloves was concerning. Their announcement was also stating a 1m distance not the 2m suggested elsewhere.
We're not helping ourselves.
That's why the constant cries of "Government, Make The Decision For Us!" are too simplistic.
Hugs and kisses at the airport should be stopped. By us. Not by police arresting the law-breaking huggers.
TO:
GCSB
NZDF
POLICE ETC……
SHUT THE SCHOOLS DOWN etc
You need to chat to JAcinda.. help her get there, she has the wrong advice
Are you advocating a military coup? Such talk could be seen as treasonous. Be careful what you say.
Hi Marco….
Thanks for the comments
Nope, not a military coup, just a quiet chit chat.
I suspect certain voices are not being heard or worse, truthful opinions not shared
Why doesn't Simon Bodges come out and say this himself?
Yup, babby Yehua’s dad’s gonna to sort it.
/
A nation led by dunces.
I think it would be helpful if the PM announced a Committee of the most senior MPs in Parliament to give advice and to act as a sounding board for the ministerial committee that is meeting daily. Probably 4 from government (2 from Labour, one from NZF, one from the Greens) and 3 from National. It would reinforce the sense of national unity that is essential at this time. The members would be the most senior by position, a bit like the Intelligence Committee.
I also think the election should be delayed to the last possible date (probably Dec 12). If it needed to be later, that would have to be done by special legislation.
As for the Levels, I think they are about right, though they could be refined. For instance is 100 people in one place too many? It surely could be reduced to 50. At present I think Level 2 is about right.
I sure would like to see the airport sorted. Maybe it is by now. But last week looked real bad.
Is a nationwide shutdown of schools warranted yet? I think not, based on everything I read. There is no real evidence that they are a particular danger point. But people are sure anxious about that. Maybe more public information is needed about specific risks.
Self isolation for those testing positive? I would prefer actual quarantine, in special facilities. Maybe the govt could rent a couple of hotels for this purpose. But of course on the actual medical issues I imagine the government is acting on advice from the Director General, who seems to be doing a really great job.
I think things will be redefined, constantly. I have school age kids and was happy to keep sending to school, but now I see the teachers council are lobbying to shut the schools, likewise with the health professionals petition, the people at the coalface. I think the Govt are doing as well as they can, but I'm also gonna think for myself.
Having Simon Bridges anywhere near this committee would be a terrible idea.
I suspect the government would be thankful for the extra skills and input at the Covid-19 decision-making table but Bridges has proven himself incapable of concentrating on the task at hand, instead preferring to use the situation for political advantage, and he has shown no interest whatsoever in a "sense of National unity".
Of course if National got rid of Bridges…
The whole point of bringing the opposition on board is just that. The government doesn't get to dictate who the opposition are. Yes, Simon could have done better last week (and I am sure learnt a lesson from that), but he is still the leader. So you deal with the opposition as they are, or you don't.
The government doesn't have to do this, but I reckon they are making a mistake if they don't.
First, they tried a unity government in WW2. After six weeks of delicate negotiations, Sid Holland and one other National MP joined a war cabinet. They lasted about two months before flouncing off – it was a total waste of time. So New Zealand has NEVER had a successful unity cabinet, even in the extremity of an actual war to the actual death against actual Nazis.
Second, being in a cabinet would actually constrain the opposition (if it was responsible) from doing it's job. In a democracy effectively co-opting the democratic choices of the people is always a terrible idea. Let the government do it's job and the opposition do theirs.
Wayne, I appreciate that your comments are in good faith, but the last 2 years have taught Simon Bridges many such lessons, repeatedly – and little has been learned.
I don't need to go through the whole list (accusing everyone from Speaker to Parl services of leaking his travel details, and never apologising when the culprit was in his caucus all the time, joining in the social media nastiness against the PM, belittling her as "photo op" while doing his photo ops, backsliding on gun reform, even descending to a shameful implication of "anti-semitism" only 2 months ago … that's just for starters).
He chose to lead in a particular way (these aren't "mistakes", as I'm sure you know, they're a deliberate strategy, made in the Republican USA).
Nobody will lose out if Bridges isn't in on the decision-making. The NZ public have no reason to believe in his good faith, and that's nobody's fault but his.
I think Simon needs to make an apology of some sort. Extend the hand and acknowledge his actions and the entirety of method are/were wrong.
Can't see the government valuing his opinion or input with his current settings. He'd do more damage than good. That’s the problem when your key focus has been to attack others rather than be constructive.
Paul Goldsmith on the other hand…
I think National has already proven, at least with today’s National party, that honesty, good faith and working for the best of the country, rather than instilling fear, using US attack dog division, and dog whistling, are foriegn concepts.
Surely he can advocate for his paymasters quite satisfactorily as things stand?
Agree with each of your points ……
A committee of seven senior permanent politicians is how the Swiss manage Switzerland at all times .
Incoming planes should only be coming into Auckland now and everybody coming in should be put into quarantine for 14 days because of all the flouting of the self- quarantine requirement and airline crew should be contained somewhere isolated from the community between flights.
Switzerland also profiteered from the Holocaust and you almost literally requires your neighbours permission to change the clour of your letterbox. It offers no particular role model either culturally or morally for us to follow.
Yup, bang up job they're doing.
/
One of the biggest surprises is the severe situation that Switzerland finds itself in. The majestic mountain redoubt that is so organized that you can set your watch by the trains, because they are rarely even a few seconds late, has the second-highest rate of COVID-19 infection in the world. The rate of infection is going up so quickly — 758 new cases on Saturday — that the government says it has been having trouble keeping track of the growing numbers.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6713906/coronavirus-switzerland-commentary/
They are in the exact opposite position to us. In the middle of a continent with 1000s of workers crossing the borders of Germany, Italy and France to work each day. They got their first case about 1 day before us. They quickly locked down their borders but they are allowing the outside workers in still – many of them work in the hospitals ! Everyone who can stays at home they are compliant. Shops and businesses are closed and no grouping is allowed in most areas- police break it up and fine them if a group is found.
Supermarkets are actively restricting the numbers of people allowed into shop at one time. No more than 50 and as one comes out one more can go in.
Lets hope we don,t get to that point too.
Sensible and I suspect it will happen soon – like this week. The committee presided over by Jacinda Ardern – as an extra person (chairperson) over and above the suggested committee number.
If they had to do this I think Goldsmith (Finance), Collins (Planning) and Woodhouse (Health) would be acceptable.
Definitely not Bridges, Bennett or Mitchell.
They would be my picks too.
And for Labour: Robertson, Parker and (maybe) Woods.
Min of Health, David Clark needs to be freed up to concentrate on the massive heatlh related logistics involved – I would think.
If such a committee is formed the government won’t get to dictate who the opposition nominates, and of course they know that. I expect the committee would be chaired by the PM. And she won’t have nearly the problem about Simon that many here have. They know each other quite well from their time on TV together.
My experience tells me that MP’s from opposing parties especially senior ones, know how to work together if needs be. There is a lot more interaction than the public generally understand. They also know the demands of particular roles, and are quite able to look past various missteps.
They could certainly refuse a nomination if they thought that person had a history of not working constructively and was unlikely to benefit the committee because of that.
I'm again thinking of Bridges, Bennett and Mitchell here.
Muttonbird
The government (assuming they establish such a committee) won't do that. They know they will have to deal with National's leadership. So that means Bridges, probably Bennet (National might go with Woodhouse) and I would imagine Goldsmith.
As I have said, senior MP's do actually know how to work together, even if they are on opposites sides.
the same Woodhouse that underfunded the healthcare system to what it is now?
great.
That's true, but for the purposes of the committee Wayne has asked for, Woodhouse is the Opposition spokesperson for Health, so Woodhouse it is.
The armchair punditry is becoming really, really tiresome.
Hey ScottGN…,
Wondering what you think about Govs Covid response
Would you bet your loved ones life on it or bank account
See Muttonbird’s reply to the same question from you further up the thread.
I’m with him/her.
Me too Scott.
Thanks, you answered my question ….. we know where you stand
Take care
Karl do you think that it is possible that the Opposition Dirty Tricks Team have set out to sow alarm and distrust with the Government actions?
Genuinely, I think the Nats are very happy with what the gov is doing…….(tick tick tick)
The lack of action will provide the Nats good ammunition if the Gov is wrong.
Personally, if they put the right support in place and mechanisms JA will be seen to be hero’s if they close schools etc.cant loose and will be seen not to be gambling with our vulnerable population.
Take care
good night and good luck
this i agree with you.
what our government is doing now is what National would have done. Minus the lifting of the GST.
Heck they did not even cancel the end of the year or push it out to July/August.
But then i guess the suits want their wages. Has any of them offered to take a pay holiday for a month or two to help?
no.
bullshit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/world/europe/germany-coronavirus-budget.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-22/germany-asks-carmakers-to-produce-medical-gear-for-virus-fight
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8095835/Overwhelmed-Italian-hospitals-running-200-cent-capacity.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11228626/frontline-nhs-doctor-describes-horror-coronavirus-victims/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8140335/Coronavirus-claims-651-lives-24-hours-Italy-bringing-devastating-death-toll-5-476.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/coronavirus-europe-death-toll-spain-lombardy-lockdown-a9417081.html
https://nltimes.nl/2020/03/22/total-coronavirus-cases-quadruple-week-4204-death-toll-reaches-179
They need to keep kids at home, they need to allow people to stay at home.
heck at the best of the time our health system is not coping – waiting times, no ETA from Ambulances when all are out in the field, and so on and so forth. And we are pretending this is business as usual, and hope the devil has pity with us. It.is.not.
In his little corner of the world Mike Hosking is doing that. In other words, business as usual.
A non-exhaustive list of media cliches and lazy reckons that should be consigned to history after the reality of Covid-19:
"Lazy public servants" … turns out they're the people keeping the country going, and the public informed. Ashley Bloomfield, not a "faceless bureaucrat", just conscientiously doing his job.
"Ivory tower academics" … sure, you could get your advice from graduates of the School of Talkback, but people who have studied the thing at those out-of-touch universities – they seem a bit more useful, eh?
"Kiwi Mums and Dads" … sure, that's most of us, and we like to think we're good people, but you know those panic-buyers and careless queuers at the supermarkets? they're "Kiwi Mums and Dads" too. Common sense is not a given.
etc.
Good list – please add some more as they come to mind. Also it's worth thinking about the inverse of each of these. The inverse, which was meant to be true, is now revealed as bullshit as well. So the inverse of "lazy public servants" is meant to be "the dynamic and efficient private sector" – also a myth.
The inverse of “ivory tower academics” is “practical, down to earth ZB talkback hosts”. Etc.
WINZ wait time on helpline….88 minutes
well i guess no extra staff was hired? Btw, i hope these crittes work from home.
And yes, it would have been easier to simply mint that trillion dollar coin, and instruct IRD to send every single adult in this country a check – min wage – for the next few weeks.
Or legislate by emergency degree a rent/bill/holiday for all.
But now, you must try and reach Winz, who already in the best of times is not up to task.
This is just abject bullshittery by those that have know their wages and bills will be paid.
Just a snide comment from me, but maybe a few weeks of everyone on min wage will make some people realise min wage ain’t all it’s cracked up to be …
true that, but it might also help those that have absolutly no income.
I use min wage as that is what is government instituted. And it is the amount of the wage subsidiy that the government pays to businesses that still have employees. You know, solidarity, treating everyone the same, oh and that would include all the government critters. 🙂 Maybe then they would understand that our system can not be fixed with a wee trickle down here and hten, but needs proper regulations and rules for the common good of all rather then just assuring survival of a few.
Wayne, a joint committee of MPs from all parties would be worthwhile. Just keep Simon Bridges off it. He is not up to it, having no sensitivity awareness at what is a difficult time.
Hmm yeah…Amy Adams, Nikki Kaye, Paul Goldsmith
In breaking fake news the entire parliament who supports the current COVID19 approach of leaving schools open etc will be betting their entire life savings on their strategy
Some have even gone further and doubled down saying they will put their loved ones on the frontline 24/7
Apparently those who agree in the public space are Showing solidarity by doing the same…..
heh
😂
🙂
Not sure who has been talking about lazy public servants and ivory tower academics – but having a close relative working at MOH I am aware of the 12 hour days, as well as weekend and evening work that has been undertaken for the last 4 – 6 weeks. They are pretty tired. But I would go by their advice before the Mike Hosking and other talkback ranters and ravers, who disgust me.
Jesus, I hate to go on about it but the MSM is just so fucking useless.
NZ Herald/Newshub/Stuff news cycle:
DAY 1: PANIC/ ANECDOTE/ SECOND GUESS/ RECKONS / PANIC/PANIC!
DAY 2: PANIC/ ANECDOTE/ SECOND GUESS/ RECKONS / PANIC/PANIC!
DAY 3: PANIC/ ANECDOTE/ SECOND GUESS/ RECKONS / PANIC/PANIC!
DAY 4: CONTRARIANS / LOOK AT ALL THE FOOLISH PANICKING! SILLY FOOLS! HOW TO PANIC CONSTRUCTIVELY!
DAY 5: WHY IS EVERYONE PANICKING? BOOMER SAYS SOMETHING.
Rinse and repeat.
Heh, much like The Standard …
It is sad ….
watching the words of Karl Sinclair slop around like those of a lunatic.
That he is given a childlike massive amount of space on this little blog – which itself is miles below that of health and economy experts – is not helpful in the least.
Flinging abuse at the Prime Minister further scums this blog down.
Observer Thanks for you passionate response, I see your happy to gamble and go with gov approah. The unfortunate thing is your gambling with my loved ones to.
please read this, oh, and take care
Coronavirus: NZ must 'work very hard to eradicate this infection now' – epidemiologist https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412381/coronavirus-nz-must-work-very-hard-to-eradicate-this-infection-now-epidemiologist
Observer T, also this
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-new-zealand-needs-to-go-into-extreme-shutdown-leading-science-adviser.html
covid interactive map for those inclined
https://covid19map.co.nz/?fbclid=IwAR3OYotM8GeWICWzMmLc13gRb3bSn7MbmX0IfkzC_34JvSoiuWPPFSric30
So now I am officially grounded. Under GP's instruction to self-isolate.
Not a great time to get a bout of tonsillitis – probably strep throat/tonsils. My right tonsil looks like it did in my younger days when I was prescribed antibiotics. It's a mild irritation, and I feel fine otherwise.
From today, my GPs have gone to phone consults for immediate issues, and advance, non-urgent in person consultations booked up til next week some time – because of the pressures they are now under.
I had a very good phone consultation with a GP this morning.
Basically, she thinks it's either a virus or bacterial infection, or the result of past infections, – the latter not a problem. She's prescribing me antibiotics to clear any bacterial infection, and arranging for the chemist to home deliver it within the next day or 2. Chemist are also under pressure, and she thinks my case is not urgent.
Unless my condition deteriorates noticeably in the mean time, she has booked me for a flu vaccination next week.
I have been doing social distancing for a while, and have not had any close contact with people/groups since beginning of March. I have not knowingly been in contact with anyone who recently travelled overseas.
If, perchance it is Covid-19, though unlikely, it would be a mild case – hence self-isolate. She asked if I had relatives who could deliver a food package from time to time – done – email sent to nephew across town who offered such help.
I have a home delivery scheduled for Sunday from my local supermarket. But there's no certainty if I'll be able to book a slot in the future.
Sorry to hear you are unwell. The medical people sound like they have things sorted, which is encouraging. Hope you get lots of rest and recover swiftly.
Thanks. Actually I don't feel unwell – just the scratchy throat and also feels a bit like a lump in my throat from the swollen tonsil. In fact, I felt I didn't seem bad enough to go to a GP, but thought it best to check.
I mostly rest. But, I asked the GP if it was OK to keep working out on the exercise bike in my flat. She said "sure" and to just listen to my body and stop if I'm feeling too tired, or not up to it.
She was not my usual GP, but said from my record I am pretty healthy, and it is more over 70s with other health conditions that are at risk from the impact of Covid-19.
I was impressed with her response. The GPs do see under a lot of pressure right now.
my friends called me to tell me her mum is dying.
if the home can find a suit, mask, gloves, goggles n stuff she can come and see her mum a last time, if not she won't be allowed in.
And she is to self isolate at home as a risk group and to deal with this on her own.
We are going to be a very different country when this has passed us, as it will. I can't see how we can go back to business as usual.
Gee, that's tough for your friend. Is her mum dying of THE virus or something else?
Condolences to your friend.
frankly i don't know.
she has trouble breathing, etc but she is also very old. In saying that we had planned a big 90/s birthday party for her.
her other son is in self isolation with his wife. My friend has been not leaving the house for about 4 weeks now.
Gosh. That's sad about the 90th party.
Tough times. Hope the son in self isolation will be OK.
Hawaii is gone into shutdown, so frankly i hope he is a lucky guy, his wife is a smoker etc etc a prime candidate.
Luckily i have friends who finally have cancelled a trip to the South Island to visit Dad.
This came in from my Accountant in Auckland:
Assistant Director of Nursing at QE has said they’ve had a message today that virus seems to be spreading quickly via petrol pumps so they advise to wear gloves when filling up or use paper towel and bin straight away. Can you copy and paste to your status to let everyone know. Could make huge difference.
If you have gloves wear them, wipe down super market trollies, wipe down your door handles at the care when coming back from shops etc.
and yeah, feel free to call me a bullshitter. who cares.
Wow. The one time I've been out early last week was to pick up some library books I had requested, and fill up with petrol. I had with me some Detol handwipes I had at home, from before Covid-19 times.
I hand wiped my hands and car doors after the library and after filling up. As I was getting into my car, I guy approached me for help cos his car was low on petrol or something. Me, who has been social distancing a lot, thought "WTF! Why pick on an elderly woman at this time". I said I was in a hurry, ask the petrol station staff, and got in my car.
If people start talking about mortgage holiday to help people, or making it impossible for banks to foreclose of people who can't pay their mortgage, what about a rent freeze as well? Ie people who live in rental accommodation who can't find the money to pay their rent because they have lost their job etc not having to pay their rent for a few months? After all, 50 percent of New Zealanders now live in rental accommodation with no hope of buying a house and they are the people who are most likely to be on low wages and finding it tough to make ends meet. Landlords who aren't collecting their rent should then be protected from the banks foreclosing on them.
Yes, the focus seems STILL to be on property ownership.
I'm a pensioner non-property owner who rents. My security is in some term deposits with an Aussie owned NZ bank. But I see Hickey is pretty much saying let the overseas banks crash, and protect the family home.
Some of us renters need our savings protected or we're up shit creek.
Yes we need a full rent/lease/mortgage and bill holiday.
i linked to how El Salvador does it yesterday. Two years to pay back the accrued bills with no interest charged.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/
Anecdotally Govt departments in wellington laid off a lot of contractors on Friday.
Given that all through central & local govt , there are quite a lot of contractors with few employment protections doing largely run of the mill work for only average type remuneration – this is an under the radar layoff.
We are all in this together? – well only so long as we protect the existing economic distribution – dump on people at the bottom and protect those at the top.
All traffic control guys will be pulled back i was told just right now.
We are all in this together ?- not really.
The 7 Airnz directors who shared a pool in 2019 of $1.1million (plus $390 k of travel and entertainment expenses – likely gone) have apparently taken a 15% reduction reducing their average remuneration from $150k to around $122k for what is seen as part time work because they can and do hold other directorships.
Must be sooooooooo exhausting sacking people when you could be more altruistic.
No wonder some want a government of national unity – just in case workers get seats on boards , upper end incomes are cut or higher tax rates on high incomes are imposed.
I can see this type of behaviour becoming a flash point.
Decided to work from home today and kept the girls home from school. All of Miss 15's exams and assessments have now been cancelled until further notice.
Have asked the girls to each come up with a 14 day challenge, just in case. My youngest has decided her challenge is to learn Spanish. Hola!!!
Meanwhile I'm giving them a one day challenge that involves folding the washing, washing the floors and cooking dinner lolololz 🙂
No need to stress about situations we have no control over, better just to get on with it.
What great ideas Cinny! I'm keeping mine home too, and will think of some new skills they could learn, mine are a bit younger but I can leave them while I work thankfully.
This is our future. At this point the only explanation for not taking the most stringent measures possible that I have is that the government wants old people to die so they don't have to pay Super. Figure it out.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120487452/wellington-city-council-set-to-operate-on-skeleton-crew-as-it-readies-for-coronavirus-outbreak
Wellington city wants just a few councillors making decisions on issues and not just corona virus.
Given we have a right wing mayor and a pretty left wing council this smacks of a takeover. And they are looking at processing annual plans and the like . Given that there are some likely controversial issues ( allowing property developers to build to multiple stories in heritage areas ) and there cannot be meetings on these –
Maybe we could make a list of jobs that we will need people to stay in, so we can see just how much child care will be needed if the schools were shut today.
Please add to the list.
NZ is in the middle of the national harvest is that an essential business?
Yes 🙂
Sensible.
All food, grocery and medical production should be essential.
Agreed…people picking fruit and veggies should also definitely be included on the essential jobs list. This is necessary both to feed the nation and for the economy/exports.
If left in the ground or on the tree/bush it will rot.
Farming. Shipping. Ports. Rail.
MetService. Always gets forgotten. 🙂
On another note, the sad news of the death of humble NZ underground music legend Peter Stapleton died this weekend. He had been active since the late 70s, in CHCH then here in Dunedin. The Terminals are/were the best rock band esp live, their albums are essential! He was also in bands like Dadama, Victor Dimisich Band, Scorched Earth Policy, Flies Inside The Sun, Handful Of Dust, any many more, he also ran labels and orgsnised the Lines of Flight music festival. He was a lovely, quiet guy, who was happy to talk with anyone, not pretentious or up himself at all. A drummer who wrote poetry.
A great drummer is the engine of any band. Always mocked and underrated, without them the entire genre of modern music would be neutered.
Australian cases now doubling every 3.5 days
Video on youtube
[I’ve turned that into a link so we don’t have to look at sensationalised and alarmist headlines. My suggestion going forwards is to write a short intro to any vids in case I remove the visuals. Not aimed at you specifically A – weka]
Warning … being proven right by events is not a virtue around here.
no kidding.
Hey … sympathy isn't much use to right now, but best wishes with your business. Tough times.
I finally cracked and went shopping this morning. Two weeks ago shopping was boring, now it's an adventure where you take you life into your hand
Still the woman standing in the queue next to me said "beer and black humour" will get her through. Must have German genes …
Magnum icecream does it for me. If I am going down I am sure as hell going to enjoy my Magnums beforehand.
thanks to my customers i managed to pay all my supplier bar one this month.
i deal with next month when it will come. Told my accountant that i shall ignore taxes and GST returns, the government can come and claim it when we are through on the other side. He agrees, it must have hurt him to say so.
Tomorrow evening i plan to get royally pissed, no pity, what we call in Germany "Kampf Drinken" and on thursday i shall sleep in.
I will dream of the smell of sanitzer for the rest of my life.
And this is for all of us
mod note for you A.
Just listened to the briefing. Looks like the government is doing everything correctly. Without panic (ie unlike the panic of Mike the Moron)… Timed well.
Now to write a post – provisional title : "Throw idiot vigilantes on their own island".
Lol. I'm thinking about one on how to manage our inner authoritarian.
Level Four. Thanks PM, we can't ask for more than that. Take care!
In 2 days…
Bridges wants lockdown now!!! Jeez I'm glad we have a rational, calm and thoughtful leader right now, imagine the confusion had we locked everything down without planning, or slowly moving people towards the idea. Now yes, WINZ and IRD need to help everyone, regardless if they're on a benefit or a Ranger owning property developer.
we are so, so lucky.
Anyone seen any kind of comprehensive list of what are essential services that remain open under a level 4 lockdown?
There's a lot of grey areas. Such as the veterinary care industry – I could see a callous argument that our furry friends aren't essential, but I would hope we've got more compassion than that. Plus the farming related side of it is an integral part of our food supply chain.
I don't think they've released it yet. Guessing: farm vets yes, home vets for emergencies yes, home vets for allergies and vaccinations, probably not.
Hasn't been released yet as far as I am aware.
There has been a list around for decades that I know about. However it looked 'old' when I last saw it in the early 90s. Back then I was looking at it with regard for ISDN network support, EFTPOS network support, credit card network support, ATM network support, etc (the focus was from when I was working at a telco). It appeared to have cut off being updated somewhere in the mid 1970s.
I suspect that there has been some discussion recently on what needs to be updated.
Now online:
Thanks for that Andre
I'm driving for "meals on wheels" here. I would assume that would fit under the Social Services category, meeting immediate needs. We can drop off the meal at the door – no need for face to face contact. However will await to hear confirmation from the hospital staff.
There may be enough food, but there is going to be hardship for some getting it.
Those dependent on public transport for access, and on-line systems not being able to cope, with the ordering, let alone delivery scheduling.
I'm thinking about low income people without cars right now. Unclear if the PT is stopping completely though. They may scale down and use a 2m rule (not sure how that might work for paying).
The PM said public transport will move to being for essential workers only.
But she also said they are working on ensuring supermarkets are able to implement physical distancing.
But it will be a problem for some to get to supermarkets. Help others is a partial solution.
Plus Hipkins was talking about working on getting homes with children without internet access, the connections and hardware needed. Should be for all low income households so they can organise visits to the supermarket.
There are older people (and some lower income households – who might be using public transport to access food bank help) without on-line shopping (no internet etc). This is going to become a problem.
There are significant driver shortages with the grounding of over 70's.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=126725
There is going to be a lack of delivery vans/small trucks (area deliveries – scale – keeps the cost per house down).
The higher cost of using other vehicle delivery (cars/utes) would have to be subsidised by government, or be prohibitive.
we could use the Army.
I have tried three times today to log on to New World on-line shopping and nothing,
Everyone go home and eat for victory!
I want to see my social media feeds over run with golden muffins fresh from the pan, rich velvet cakes dripping with icing and serving plates groaning under the weight of the biscuits (plain and fancy) piled there on.
I thought it was going to be couch surfing for victory! And connecting online for physical distancing!
Good Work NZ Govt
I Salute you for today’s decision
Commentators like Mike Hosking and his chorus on social media have been getting nostalgic about the John Key years. If only he was still in charge, we would have moved much faster, closed the borders weeks ago, true leadership, blah blah.
So, just for the record, this is what John Key was doing in March 2020. I'll repeat that: March 2020. When the virus was already dominating the news …
He wanted to "entice visitors" to New Zealand. Seriously.
No wonder he's been silent since.
UK to give world a bloody good laugh by getting morons to panic buy McDonald’s
If only they all dressed like that, it’s a fierce look
The UK has decided to take one for the team and cheer everyone else up by sending its widespread moron population to form huge and in some cases quite violent queues outside McDonald’s restaurants before they all close.
“Our first idea was to contribute to the global fight against the coronavirus by providing medical supplies and staff,” said a Number Ten spokesperson. “Then we realised that we don’t have any so instead thought we’d give other countries a giggle with footage of idiots ignoring social distancing and brawling just to buy a handful of sweaty mechanically recovered meat.”
“The rest of the world will see the long lines and the emergency services being deployed to them and they’ll be tickled pink. Proving that laughter really is the best medicine. Which is handy because we’ve got bugger all medicine.”
McDonald’s will close nationwide at 19:00 this evening. Let the games begin.
I'm going to miss expecting more from the Warriors, anticipating the Blues results and swearing at the Crusaders.
F1 is on ice. Someone mouthier than me should front Red Bull and say "Hey you know the 17 million you saved because the Melbourne GP was called off, wanna do some good with that money?
Lob 1000 kayaks into coastal schools.