I won’t be here next week because I’m off for a week of the school holidays; to my living room, like every other Aucklander, but before I go, I thought I’d make a prediction for Monday.
I still think, as I said the other day, that we’ll go to Level 2 in Auckland and Level 1 for the rest of the country. But it won’t be called Level 2, it’ll be a new bespoke arrangement, some version of a 2 with a cutesy catchphrase they’ll think up to try to make it sound fun; like Delta 2.5+ or something.
They'll just want to give us the illusion we're not in 3 anymore. It’ll include a hard boundary around Auckland, as we know already. But, we will get hairdressers open and a few shops, the idea being that we feel so grateful and appreciative for that, that we forget about how long we’ve had our freedoms taken off us.
I know people tend to predict things they hope will happen, and I’m guilty of this too, this may be my hope overriding my common sense, but I just can’t see how they keep Auckland in 3 and the rest of the country in 2. When in the same breath they keep saying they’ve got control of this, that there’s no widespread transmission, and that they’re not worried about case numbers.
Of course, if that’s the case, then what the hell have we been doing locked up all this time?
But logic is not their strong suit, nor reason, they’ll simply look for appropriate spin, and hope we suck it down like Kool Aid.
I’m finding fewer and fewer people around these days who find lockdowns a good idea.
You’ve got the odd retired person, or those who’ve swallowed the fear messaging who seem to enjoy it, but anyone with a business, a young family, teenagers, students, or half a brain about the country’s economy and debt levels, are over it.
We don’t have the same novelty around it this time, it’s been longer and more painful, we’ve had less clarity (if that’s even possible), there’s been no plan, and the ultimate sting that much of this could've been avoided, had we made a decent and timely vaccine order back when everyone else did.
Every tunnel needs a light at the end to drag us through it. This one has just felt like a long dark tunnel.
A torch flickers on and off periodically when they talk about vaccination rates, but then they back peddle and say ‘oh actually vaccinations are not the only thing that’ll get us out of lockdowns’.
So how much is on us and how much is on them? It’s their job to sort ICU nurses and ventilators and vaccines and access to vaccines, all we can do is get vaccinated.
Given this Government’s addicted to good press, I reckon we’ll see a political decision made Monday to appease people; a drop of sorts, a bone thrown. I don’t even care anymore, as long as they open the hairdressers.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
2 comments:
Quite right. They keep telling us how they are doing in deepest Africa or the Antarctic but we are doing better than the Martians etc. etc.
Really, who gives a toss.
Getting everyone vaccinated and the country open is not a competition with the rest of the world.
To treat it so is abhorrent.
As for Auckland going to level 2, unlikely, even level 2.5 or something is a wish too far. Each change in level down means they have ceded some small amount of control, that's really not in their playbook.
But whatever happens next week, we will comply without too much complaining, being the sheep we are.
Well said Kate,
I can recall back in late March, we were told "all frontline workers have been vaccinated". It was a lie, as we are now witnessing.
Also we were told in late March, that " Eight million doses of vaccine are on their way". Another lie.
What happened to the vaccines between March and August?
Why did the government fall asleep at the wheel and do NOTHING to carry out vaccination between March and August ? What were they doing?
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