Judith Collins in her recent opinion piece on Stuff on her proposed border agency, “Tough Times calls for Tough measures” humorously said maybe the government thinks the origin of the coronavirus disease was caused by an “immaculate infection“.
The witty phrase was invented (I understand) by list MP, Nicola Willis to throw off at the government’s inability to find the source.
Maybe Minister Hipkins really thinks this is the case as he has said more than once with a dreamy look, “It is a mystery.” Yeah right, I feel a Tui ad coming on. Ardern constantly repeats that there is no evidence the border is the source. Plus it is a “tricky infection“, in the hope we might believe her. Even an untruth repeated often enough becomes a reality. They are her speciality.
Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an advisor to the WHO on COVID-19 from the University of NSW, was interviewed on Q & A. She says although New Zealand has done well there have been mistakes on border security and testing and tracing, and that for our government to say there is no connection to the border as a source is just not feasible. They just haven’t found it. After over 100 days COVID free, it has to have come in over the border, there is no other place for it to have arrived.
McLaws says that means interviewing is not thorough enough, or the subjects being interviewed are not always being completely honest.
This government has put great store in giving returning Kiwis a high level of trust which is a recipe for disaster with a virus like this. Earlier this year we saw thousands let in without testing, prior to quarantining being introduced. They were trusted to self-isolate with varying levels of success, according to the former Commissioner of Police, reporting to the former Epidemic Response Committee.
Now we are trusting people to give all their contact details. It is clear some are not, or they simply forget and don’t get back to the interviewer. For this to work, we also are reliant on the efficacy of the interviewers.
As this is a public health matter which is having a huge impact on our economic prosperity, perhaps we need to put some legal framework around contact tracing with a fine, or some such, for withholding information.
This government lacks agility, or the sophistication to finesses policy on the hop to get the best results. That is my fear if they get re-elected.
Sean Hendy, a professor of physics, warned the public this week on Newshub that complacency caused the south Auckland cluster to grow. That is patently untrue, but diverts attention from the real reason, government incompetency.
The Auckland public are innocent of the resulting infringement on their freedoms (once again). The government’s mismanagement of the border let it in again.
An apologist for the government and the ‘go to’ person for TVNZ and others when they want an opinion, Hendy is not an epidemiologist. He is infamous for his wildly inaccurate modelling prediction of 80,000 deaths if we didn’t lock down. He made this prediction without considering all the other factors and variables coming into play and the likelihood that modelling actually doesn’t work. So why still consider him as the oracle?
Broadcaster, Peter Williams, has remarked on more than one occasion that Hendy is hardly the right person to refer to for an informed opinion. I couldn’t agree more.
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