The shambolic result of not planning for another level 4 lockdown by this government is not pretty. And to add insult to injury our performing seal, aka Dear Leader, on a whim, announced that children 12-15 can go with their parents, UNBOOKED, for a vaccination!
She cannot bear to be upstaged, and this could be a reaction to Scott Morrison’s decision to vaccinate all of their 12-15-year-olds in a stadium. One-upmanship is her forte. This has just opened her up to more ridicule. I have run out of superlatives!
Her announcement, predictably, has not been met with joy by our stressed Covid workforce and anxious, stressed New Zealand parents. The quote below is from a contributor to a Stuff article on 21 August:
‘How about another reason that people are not getting vaccinated, the booking website is a shambles and doesn’t work for a lot of people. Also the PM said I can take my kids with me to get vaccinated and the medical center said no bloody way. I have to cancel my booking and rebook for all 3 of us. They said we were gob smacked that the PM said something so irresponsible.’
Actually, I am not gobsmacked, as she has not got the ability to think beyond her last ‘brilliant’ idea and blurt it out. That is why the idea of Professor Des Gorman (and many others including Rob Fyfe and Sir John Key) – a Covid committee of experts – would be invaluable.
There is apparently no one, qualified and experienced in logistics work in particular, to prevent the carnage they have unleashed and to produce a viable plan to get us through.
For a start, a logistics expert (or myself and I am no expert!) could have told them that opening up vaccinations, in a panic, to practically everyone so quickly, when there are millions of people to get through was obviously going to create chaos. Thousands of over 65s have still not been jabbed and let’s not to forget the 6,000 police, front line and essential workers unvaccinated as a result of lack of planning and the vaccine stroll out all year.
I have not heard the media questioning how this could not result in chaos. And then just for maximum effect, Ardern has thrown unbooked teenagers into the mix. A recipe for failure. It seems I am the only one in the media to find the situation just plain crazy.
A logistics expert would have demanded targets (yes that dirty word the PM hates) be set in February, so people would have a goal, to get through the different levels at pace so when Covid, inevitably, leaked through our porous border we were more fortified against it. Too late, no plan!
The wise saying: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail should be stuck in the most visible place for the (laughable) Covid recovery team. We could add to that ‘I must not fear targets and accountability’ to be repeated daily by the PM and Robertson.
Another writer who is at his wits end with Ardern’s dramatic unplanned approach to shutdowns is Peter Dunne, who says:
I would prefer the government when dealing with complex but not unexpected situations like this week’s outbreak to keep its focus solely on the facts, without the extraneous, embellishing drama
breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com
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Where are the vicious cartoons from the MSM to illustrate the PM’s huge failure over the vaccine rollout and booking system shemozzle to accompany the many critical pieces by our MSM commentators of late?
Despite not being in power, Judith Collins has borne the brunt of these. Her crime? Nothing more than being the opposition leader and asking obvious questions about a plan to take us forward.
Oh, that’s right, there is no plan. As Andrea Vance, opined in her Stuff column:
‘The Government failed to play its part.’
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