There’s a good reason that, despite the feathers it ruffled, I described New Zealand’s response to the Wuhan pandemic as lazy, complacent and selfish: because it is.
Except that I forgot to add: delusional.
The stated goal of the Ardern government is “Zero Covid”. This is a fantasy. The genie is out of the bottle – or, more correctly, the virus is out of the Wuhan lab – and it’s not going away. “Zero Covid” is only remotely feasible if New Zealand is sealed up tighter than feudal Japan.
Short of that ludicrous scenario, the “tricky little virus” will continue to leak from MIQ. Are New Zealanders really prepared to endure snap lockdowns forever?
Much like in Australia, New Zealanders have been fed the false promise of ‘Zero Covid’ for so long that they are complacent about getting vaccinated. The new case that sparked the lockdown was New Zealand’s first case of transmission within the community in six months. Why get vaccinated if there is next to no risk of catching Covid? If a case emerges, the government will just lock the country down anyway.
Even if all New Zealanders suddenly rush to be vaccinated, “Zero Covid” remains a silly fantasy.
Can vaccination really chart a course out of the Zero Covid nightmare? When you decide that any number of Covid cases should lead to a nationwide lockdown, the level of vaccination becomes almost irrelevant to the enforcement of the Zero Covid policy.
Widely vaccinated Britain recorded 26,852 new cases on Tuesday. For New Zealand to experience a similar infection rate, it would need to record around 1,900 cases per day. After 18 months of being told that a single case of Covid is an existential threat to New Zealand, will even a vaccinated public accept 1,900 cases per day without locking down? As evidence emerges that even fully vaccinated people can be infected with Covid and pass it on to others, it seems unlikely.
This is the harsh reality New Zealand has to face.
There is no escape. If eliminating Covid is the goal, there is no end to lockdowns, no end to restrictions and no end to the constant fear that, at any time, your freedoms will be taken away and your life will be put on hold. Your country can be largely free of the virus for six months, but when one person in a city you have never been to tests positive, lockdown returns. New Zealand will leave this lockdown, but the fear of the next one will remain until the government and the people shake themselves out of this Zero Covid fantasy.
New Zealand’s biggest problem is that its Dear Leader is too inclined to believe the publicity fed to her by her bought-and-paid-for media hacks. “Jacinda has led the world!” they obediently chirp, as the ‘Covid Queen’ preens in front of the biggest mirror that $55 million can buy.
Britain has shown that even with over 26,000 cases in a single day, you can still live with the virus. Locked-down Aucklanders will be able to watch packed British football stadiums full of maskless fans on their TVs this weekend, while they are forbidden from visiting their neighbours. New Zealand is living in a Zero Covid fantasy land. Britain is living in the real world.
Spiked Online
But New Zealanders also have only themselves to blame. Starry-eyed and lazily complacent, they rewarded Ardern at the ballot box for selling them the lie of “Zero Covid”. Unless ordinary Kiwis are prepared to face reality and learn to live with Covid, they cannot seriously expect their Dear Leader to graciously grant them back the freedoms she had no right to strip away in the first place.
New Zealand married in giddy haste. They’ll have plenty of time under the years of inevitable lockdowns to repent at leisure.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD