Heavy Hands: Over the past few days, the centre of Melbourne
has witnessed some of the worst political violence in a generation. Police
officers have been hospitalised. Rubber bullets have been fired. Hundreds have
been arrested. And all because the state government of Victoria is insisting
that all construction workers present evidence of vaccination before being
allowed onto their building sites.“YOU NEED TO GIVE PEOPLE what they want. Not what you want
to give them. Or they’ll get it from someone else.” The whole trick of dealing
with the Covid-19 pandemic effectively has been to convince a solid majority of
the population that they actually want what the experts reckon they should
have.
Jacinda Ardern has done this better than any other leader on
earth. Her “Team of Five Million” rhetoric galvanising New Zealanders like no
other people on earth. She made us believe we were all in this together, and
her Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, reassured us that she – and
we – were right. New Zealanders had no need to get what they wanted from
someone else – they already had it.
This week, however, the formula fell apart. This week
Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet had to choose between what the experts reckoned
New Zealanders should have, and what New Zealanders – or, at least, the third
of them living in Auckland – actually wanted. Crucially, they had ceased to be
the same.
Most of the epidemiologists and “modellers” upon whom New
Zealanders have come to rely for reassurance that Jacinda and her Team of Five
Million are doing all the right things, would have preferred Auckland to remain
in Level 4 Lockdown for at least another week. Politically, however, that had
ceased to be a viable proposition. What Aucklanders had been led to expect, and
what they really, really wanted, was a move down to Level 3. So, that is what
they got.
The epidemiologists and modellers described the Prime
Minister’s decision (politely) as a “calculated risk”. Others, with less
civility, called it a “gamble”. These doubters looked around the world and
noted how little success anybody has had, anywhere, at “stamping out” the Delta
Variant of Covid-19. Their intuition told them that the extraordinary success
of this country’s “Elimination Strategy” – which, far from turning New Zealand
into a “Hermit Kingdom”, had transformed it into a passable imitation of
Shangri La – had finally met its match in Delta. The nature of the game is
changing.
The Prime Minister is now being called upon to pivot away
from her highly successful Elimination Strategy, and convince New Zealanders
that what they want now, more than anything, is for 90 percent-plus of the
population over the age of 12 to be fully vaccinated by Christmas. With upwards
of 90 percent of teenage and adult New Zealanders “double-jabbed”, say the
rules of this new Covid game, New Zealand will be well-positioned to “live
with” the Coronavirus. Managed properly, life in a fully-vaccinated New Zealand
could return – almost – to normal.
Which would be fine, if every New Zealander could be relied
upon to bring a rational and reasonable frame of mind to the idea of
near-universal vaccination being the only way to bring their country safely out
from under Covid-19. But, that is a very big ask – quite possibly too big.
Polling has revealed upwards of a quarter of the population either seriously
hesitant about, or downright resistant to, receiving the Pfizer vaccine. In
other words, relying upon the good sense of our fellow citizens might not be
enough to get us through the Delta challenge.
Okay, that’s disappointing, but nil desperandum! If too many
people are either hesitant or resistant, then the next obvious step is to issue
Vaccination Passports to all those who have done their civic duty. Flourish one
of these and the world will open to you. Fail to present one, and, sorry, but
you can’t come in. No Jab, No Job! Or anything else.
No one’s proposing to strap the anti-vaxxers to a table and
stick ‘em with a syringe-full of Pfizer. It’s their right to refuse the jab.
But, by the same token, its society’s right to exact a price for that refusal.
Except that’s a dreadfully risky course to take. Over the
past few days, the centre of Melbourne has witnessed some of the worst
political violence in a generation. Police officers have been hospitalised.
Rubber bullets have been fired. Hundreds have been arrested. And all because
the state government of Victoria is insisting that all construction workers
present evidence of vaccination before being allowed onto their building sites.
Stamping out Covid-19 by stomping on the heads of our fellow
citizens? Is that really what New Zealand wants?
Chris Trotter blogs at bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz. This essay was originally published in The Otago Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 24 September 2021.
9 comments:
I disagree with your comment, "Jacinda Ardern has done this better than any other leader on earth. Her “Team of Five Million” rhetoric galvanising New Zealanders like no other people on earth. She made us believe we were all in this together, and her Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, reassured us that she – and we – were right."
She hasn't and that will be put to the test if forced vaccination on any significant scale becomes a reality here. The response here will be the same as seen in Melbourne. People do not want a politician violating their personal space. And as to "being the sole source of truth" - what utter garbage. The PM has huge political capital in the issue and can't be trusted. She, as would any politician, will put her political interests ahead of everything else. Chris, as a student of politics, would know this better than anyone else. Just look at the tyrants throughout history and the very same dynamics are at play: fear, propaganda, force. We have the COVID fear, we have the team of 5 million propaganda. We have yet to have the force. If that happens then Melbourne will come to a neighbourhood near you.
Reading Chris' blog, you can feel his adoration for Jacinda oozing out of every paragraph.
- "the extraordinary success of this country’s “Elimination Strategy” – which, far from turning New Zealand into a “Hermit Kingdom”, had transformed it into a passable imitation of Shangri La..." Come off it Chris - that's hyperbole gone mad! If your idea of Shangri La is being locked up at home and wearing face masks everywhere you must have had a very tough upbringing.
- "With upwards of 90 percent of teenage and adult New Zealanders “double-jabbed”, say the rules of this new Covid game, New Zealand will be well-positioned to “live with” the Coronavirus. Managed properly, life in a fully-vaccinated New Zealand could return – almost – to normal." Considering that the efficacy of the vaccine decreases to only 30% after 6 months then that will involve jabbing at least 90% of eligible arms on a very regular basis. In fact it will likely have to be a continuous rolling vaccination program - great for Pfizer. That will never happen - people get tired of this kind of thing and numbers would certainly fall off.
- "Stamping out Covid-19 by stomping on the heads of our fellow citizens? Is that really what New Zealand wants?" Well, it sounds as though it's exactly what Chris wants. His statements "If too many people are either hesitant or resistant, then the next obvious step is to issue Vaccination Passports to all those who have done their civic duty." and "It’s their right to refuse the jab. But, by the same token, its society’s right to exact a price for that refusal." demonstrate that Chris favours this course of action.
But I'm sure he'll go along with whatever Jacinda decides "who has done better than any other leader on Earth" and "galvanises New Zealanders like no other leader on Earth". Sorry...heading for the sick bucket soon!
It's great to see real quality objective and unpartisan articles on Covid - but this ain't one of them!!
Wow, another Jacinda Adern adoring fan. I thought Chris Trotter was more intelligent.
No, our PM is not more successful with the covid rollout.We are an isolated island for goodness sake. We had everything going for us. It is unknown whether the vaccine will be successful. It appears from overseas data that vaccinated people are still getting covid albeit not as bad.
Meantime, we New Zealanders are sacrificing in many other ways. All our rights are being taken away. This being done secretly with covid as a cover. We have lost many of our freedoms and are becoming a very divided society. Maybe Chris regards that as success, many don't.
I can understand why Melbournians are protesting, they have been locked down for months. No innocent protesters should be targeted with rubber bullets.
When the inevitable short and long term consequences of the pfizer “vaccine” adverse effects flood our health system for years to come, as they will ( just look at the VAERS database in the US of A for a fore taste) will you Chris support the right of those who chose to remain unvaccinated, to exact from the 1 to 2 percent pfizer spike long term injured, and those who drove them, a price for THEIR arrogant foolishness in rushing to ‘vaccination’ prior to a single long term safety study being done and in the clear knowledge that the technology being activated in their bodies has never before been used in this way in humans.
It's the flu Chris not the Zombie apocalypse mate! The survival rate is 99.9% get the vaccine you can still spread & have the virus something well proven in countries with high vaccination rates. In parts of India the virus has swept through leaving 80% of the general population with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, naturally too please note. The suggestion that comrade Ardern has saved us or patently absurd, our geographic isolation and lifestyle choices were our supposed natural defence. First time in history we're locking up perfectly healthy people, for what exactly a virus grossly overstated and something multinational drug companies are literally making a fortune from! Forced vaccination is draconian nonsense this isn't the Ebola virus Chris!
The Commissar thinks that her petulant stamping foot will rid us of COVID 19. She is totally wrong in that belief. The Delta variant proves that COVID is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it. There is no way we can continue to live in our little bubble, borrowing incessantly and pretending we are "showing the world" how it should be done. We are like lemmings heading for a cliff at the bottom of which is economic ruin and more COVID.
We have to start right now learning to live with this pandemic.
Tongue in cheek surely?
As for politicians having the best interests of the public in mind when dealing with events like Covid is a fallacy. Their first response would be to see how much political capital can be made from it.
Withe situation as it at present, with lock downs etc. the government has the tiger by the tail from here on in.
Commentaters have recently alluded to Auckland having had enough of lock downs and may not respond favorably to continued lock downs or further restrictions of any kind.
Even Cindys spin team must running out of crap to feed the sheeple.
What I’m not hearing from the Government is how they propose paying back an estimated $200 billion in borrowings.
Absolutely no mention in any COVID-19 correspondence.
So what is the time frame to pay this back and how will Government fund this?
It seems unlikely vaccination rates will get much over 80 percent. Once we open up, the unvaccinated 20 percent will very quickly swamp our extremely limited hospital facilities. This is particularly true of Auckland where Public hospital resources are already bordering on dis functional. Also factor he likelihood of a growing number of ‘breakthrough’ infections among those vaccinated. From a personal and entirely selfish perspective I am looking at the likelihood that at some point, despite being fully vaccinated, I will get a breakthrough infection. So, reading around, I am investigating the possible early treatment therapies most likely to enable me to recover quickly without hospitalisation.
The bottom line incentive is the strongest Covid immunity possible: double vaccination, booster vaccination and rapid recovery from a breakthrough infection. What constitutes effective early treatment is highly controversial, so I won’t go into bat for any of the many multi-drug and nutraceutical combinations with good data around rapid recovery. My point is that the living with Covid, successfully, as an individual and an economy most probably depends on effective early treatment resulting in low mortality and low hospital admissions.
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