The Parlermaid
Despite my loathing for our current Prime Minster and her Cabinet of Incompetents, I will grudgingly give them credit for one thing. At the outset of this pandemic, they locked down New Zealand for long enough for us to assess our position and begin to plan a way through what had the potential to be very disastrous times. The world was exploding with news of the emergence of a virus that no one knew enough about to be certain of the potential for catastrophic consequences and we needed time to digest and plan.
Politicians, informed by the medical and scientific community, had choices to make that would hugely affect the lives of the people for months, even years thereafter. It was critical that the right decisions be made, which is where it began to fall apart.
Scientific and medical communities have always operated on the basis that dissent is critical to informed decision-making. Theories are theories until evidential data is uncovered. The premises for opinions leading to planning and treatment can only be altered by honestly debating them.
Unfortunately, the Prime Minister surrounded herself with people who would enthusiastically give assent to her approach, dismissing the opinions of those who dissented as being harbingers of “misinformation” and that was her first (although not last) mistake.
Over time, this has led to one position after another being backtracked upon after the emergence of further information which ought to have been known to her advisors in advance. In its turn, the backtracking has led to the faith of the people, so important in times of great uncertainty, being undermined and ultimately lost.
Globally, this is not a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as has been parroted from the United States and by our own Ministers – this is, and always has been, a “Pandemic of Politics”.
I have not only followed with interest the unfolding plethora of protest events around New Zealand – I have actively engaged. I’ve been fortunate enough in my line of work to be able to speak with vast numbers of people who would have been represented (if not present) at those events, and I’ve been in a position to engage with them about their reasons for losing faith and trust in the current government.
Most of the reasons given for their refusal to follow government advice are simply that they do not trust the government to make decisions in the best interests of the people and they consider the government’s responses to be political rather than health-based.
That is indeed a sad indictment on Jacinda Ardern, her Cabinet, and her communication skills. One day its, “Yip, that’s exactly what it is, yip!” and the next we hear, “Well, I wouldn’t define it in that way.”
But she did define it in that way, and denying it or attempting to redefine it again only serves to harden the hearts of the public against her even more.
The one thing that will seriously affect Ardern’s chances at re-election is public confidence in her and her Ministers and advisors. But what few remaining dregs of confidence she had held on to were completely poured out on the battleground of medical apartheid.
Having bought time to assess all of the information before committing to a plan of action was the highlight of the Covid-19 Public Health Response in 2020. Government bought precious months to look around the world and see what worked and what didn’t and we held onto that advantage right up to July 2021 when Delta finally (but not unexpectedly) emerged in the community.
The Prime Minister dropped the ball for the last time when she thoughtlessly initiated a system of “two classes” of people – the vaccinated and the unvaccinated – and then set about segregating the latter from essential freedoms and services, even revoking their right to be employed in their chosen field, based on that class system.
We knew “zero-Covid” wasn’t a real thing. All the “elimination strategy” did in the end was make Ardern’s government so complacent about their perceived success that they failed to prepare for any alternative outcome.
We knew transmission comes by contact and that the virus doesn’t “hunt” for specific victims by vaccination status.
We knew that hand-washing and coughing into our sleeves lessens transmission of infection. We’ve known this about viral influenzas for many years and there’s no reason to think that has changed.
We knew that vaccinated people could be infected. The information on this was being published in medical journals long before Ardern’s class system was introduced.
We knew that vaccinated people can and do transmit Sars-CoV-2 regardless of vaccination status.
We knew that vaccinated people will end up in hospital, and some will die.
We knew that the virus doesn’t discriminate by age, bypassing the under-11s.
Knowing all of that and knowing it before the government’s hurried implementation of social classes, showed us two things: Firstly, that our government was so busy patting itself on the back for its elimination strategy that it was embarrassingly caught out when it failed and, secondly, that the rush to implement the apartheid system was the result of a shocking (but again, not unexpected), lack of planning and the need to quickly ‘borrow’ from overseas examples – examples that we knew were doomed to fail.
Jacinda Ardern, in her haste to appear prepared and able, has shown us that her hand contains only useless cards. Her poker face failed her as much as her advisors did. She has rightfully earned the hatred of tens of thousands of Aucklanders, innumerable business owners who now bear the brunt of her failed employment policy for unvaccinated workers, the workers themselves (including those left behind struggling with increased workloads). Business people who have the added cost and responsibility for policing her unworkable Vaccination Pass program – PLUS: Over 80,000 new beneficiaries and 26,000+ companies that could not survive and every New Zealander who thought Christmas was going to be good this year.
Instead, they’ll be treated to drunken relatives who have no topic of conversation but a shared hatred for the lipstick that Labour tried to reapply to the pig.
It’s no wonder security is heightened around MPs at the moment – last year was bad enough, but now Jacinda Ardern has turned out to be the Grinch that stole not only 2020… but now 2021… and probably 2022 as well!
