The Moscow Circus is in Auckland this month but it has stiff competition in the clown department.
There were lies, live and exclusive on the AM show yesterday morning with “anxious Aucklanders (are) waiting with bated breath for the results of genome sequencing from the latest case of COVID-19”.
I’m not sure who is holding their breath but it’s surely not the long-suffering Queen Street businesses forced to close during an extended lockdown or their workers who are now unemployed.
We watch the COVID circus scripted by a government unable to keep the virus from crossing the border and infecting the community. They had one job to do and they failed.
There are 3 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9am 12 November 2020. There are now 53 active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand.
The AM show panned to their reporter standing on the street outside the contaminated building in central Auckland.
“Well the streets are eerily quiet this morning, there is no traffic and very few pedestrians out and about. Now, everyone here at the Vincent residences [site of the latest community case] has been asked to self-isolate for three days but those rules appear to have already been broken.
I just watched a man leave this morning with a suitcase, a second man has left in exercise clothes with two bags and a lady has left with a very large back pack so it’s not off to a good start”.
Minutes later the reporter returned to report that they had now observed a total of five errant tenants leaving the building. Shock horror, one resident left the building to purchase a bottle of milk!
By all means, stick to the fear-mongering script if you must, but why neglect to state the real reason central Auckland’s streets were quiet yesterday morning? It was because workers had been asked NOT TO GO TO WORK ON FRIDAY THE 13TH until the COVID genome sequencing of the latest community case was complete.
Early indications are this latest community case is related to the Defence Force breach that caused a COVID cluster.
Lying low in your tiny apartment for two weeks (now that the weather is finally coming right) to sit around twiddling your thumbs waiting to find out if you’re going to die from COVID is not high on escapee wish lists.
Six months ago we cowered in fear, scuttling out for essential purposes only to slap on a face mask and feverishly scan bar codes while hand sanitising and keeping our distance from potential carriers. For what? So that 25 aged people with pre-existing conditions, most confined to rest homes, would be alive today? Some of them had never been tested for COVID.
Putting the government’s faulty COVID methodology aside (it would have been more effective and cheaper to put our efforts into protecting the vulnerable), we have every right to demand of the government, “we did our job so why didn’t you do yours?”
Auckland mayor Phil Goff created a nice little diversion for the government by stirring up trouble for the latest unfortunate COVID victim and her employer.
“He said the worst part about the case was the woman being told to isolate after taking a test, only to be told by her manager to return to work.
Might I suggest that the worst part of this latest COVID border breach is that the government turned border control into a clown show? It’s a joke!
And get this from the COVID minister:
“Hipkins says it is a disappointing situation. He’s asking employers to be “good” and accommodate staff calling in sick by allowing them to stay at home.”
C’mon man! You can do better than that! How about the government starts taking their role more seriously and starts being “good” with border security?
Yesterday the COVID Minister pre-empted the AM show’s fear-mongering with this appalling statement:
“COVID is raging around the rest of the world.”
Diversion tactics like “look over there!” and “we are doing so much better than other countries” is old and incredible given the six reported cases of COVID in the community in the last 24 hours.
Where to from here with a border protection plan that repeatedly fails? Back into lockdown? What is the government’s long term plan for re-opening the borders – assuming that they have one?
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