Understandably, this is the news that nobody wanted to hear. However, all the Covid stats are currently heading in the wrong direction, meaning greater restrictions may need to be imposed again to prevent disaster.
It’s not only unwelcome news for the public, but also a huge problem for the Government, which is highly allergic to increased Covid restrictions, and especially the idea of shifting the country back into the red traffic light setting. The Prime Minister seems to be doing her best to avoid discussing the Covid situation, but when confronted with questions she has been dismissive of greater restrictions.
So, this all raises the question of whether we are going to let Covid complacency catch us out again in 2022.
The facts about the second wave of Omicron
What do we currently know about the latest surge? Firstly, the number of reported infections is increasing fast. After being around 5,000 a day, the weekly rolling average has now hit 8,013. And we have now had three days of hitting the 10,000 threshold.
Covid modeller Professor Michael Plank says we appear to be seeing infection numbers double about every 14 days. He, along with other public health academics, is suggesting that we may soon see a national peak of at least 20,000 daily cases. Others are stating a possible figure of 25,000.
In terms of hospitalisations, the seven-day rolling average has risen from 347 to 454. And today it hit 554. As epidemiologist Michael Baker says, “All the signs point towards a large wave of Covid-19 with an abrupt rise in cases”.
Deaths are also up – with an average now of about 15 a day. According to the “Our World in Data” source, New Zealand has the 6th highest weekly death rate, with only tiny countries faring worse than us.
The problem is that New Zealand is being infected with new and evolving variants of the Omicron virus. And these are more and more transmissible.
At the same time, the public’s immunity is waining. The fourth vaccine is currently being rolled out, but isn’t expected to occur very quickly or widely. Although the country achieved a high rate of double-vaccination, the rate of triple-vaxxed people is said to be only 73 per cent. What’s more the current vaccine appears to be less effective against the new variants.
Meanwhile, mask-wearing is said to be dropping fast, due to “mask fatigue” and complacency. According to the head of Retail New Zealand, Greg Hartford, customer compliance has “dropped off a cliff” with now only a third of shoppers wearing masks.
Increasing demand for action
Increasingly public health experts are calling for more to be done – especially around mask-wearing. For example, yesterday 1News reported: “150 health experts have called for the Government to introduce more restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19. Recommendations included making masks mandatory in schools over winter, giving people greater access to high-quality masks, and pushing for better ventilation indoors.”
Now that the daily infection rate has surpassed 10,000 – which was previously given as a rough threshold for the country being put into the Red setting of the traffic lights system – there are also increasing calls for a re-evaluation of the government rules and settings.
According to University of Auckland senior lecturer in computational evolution Dr David Welch, “Going back to red is something that the Government would be looking at very closely right now, they’d be looking at how the hospitals are coping and what are the projections”.
Certainly, if the numbers of infections really do head towards 20,000 a day, there will be expanded calls for the country to go into Red, or for the Orange settings to be adjusted.
The politics of going red
The decision to bring in greater Covid restrictions is clearly a political one to be made by the Government. And they are likely to be in a better place to judge what needs to be done than health specialists.
Politicians need to balance many different needs. This is well put today in the Herald by news director Lynley Ward, who says: “They’ve got so many competing interests now. You’ve got the business lobby and the economic imperative to get the country going as well as the social imperative, which includes getting children back in schools.”
That social imperative is acknowledged by many health experts. For example, Ross Lawrenson, a professor of public health at the University of Waikato stated this: “From a public health point of view, it would be nice to make masks compulsory and restrict movement around and try and restrict the spread, not only of Covid but also influenza… But I don’t think that practically, society … is up for that.”
According to Herald political editor Claire Trevett, the Government’s “mantra seems to be ABR: Anything but Red.”
Reacting to Ardern’s dismissal of going to Red anytime soon, Trevett explains today: “The last thing the Government will want to do is slap the country back into red just as school holidays are about to start – it would infuriate businesses… Nor would it be a great look in the middle of the PM’s globe-trotting exercise, pitching the Great Re-Opening of New Zealand and assuring the word we were open for business. Open for business provided you are seated and separated doesn’t have the same ring.”
Ardern’s wariness about going to Red is backed up by a lot of public voices. For instance, yesterday the broadcaster Broadcaster Kate Hawkesby said: “I think even the most law abiding lockdown fanatic would find it hard to stomach more restrictions coming back, just as we’ve worked so hard to shrug them off and find some normality. Compliance would be an issue”.
This doesn’t mean the Government can be complacent, however. Broadcaster, Rachel Smalley, says it’s time for the Government to start giving us more information about what’s going on: “The Government has been criticised for over-communicating at times but the silence at the moment is deafening. The polls will have told Labour that everyone’s a bit over Covid, and that’s why the PM has distanced herself from the response. And our Director-General, Ashley Bloomfield has resigned, so we’re a bit at sea and reliant on Ministers – which is fine, but I think we need to hear more from them.”
As infection rates rise, New Zealand’s Covid response will once against become debated and politicised. And in this regard, former National leader Simon Bridges writes today in the NBR, saying: “let’s all remember to have a little humility about what has and hasn’t worked. No country has got it entirely right. Not the UK, but not NZ either. We are increasingly working out Covid policies are not just about Covid health, strictly speaking, but have wider health, economic, social, and – ultimately – societal ramifications, short and much longer term. It isn’t, as many in our little nation blithely seem to have assumed, a binary, but rather a nuanced and complex set of issues.”
Also writing in the NBR today, political editor Brent Edwards warns his commercial readership not to be complacent about where things are heading: “businesses should be prepared for the worst and the possible move to the red light setting if the surge in cases shows no sign of slowing. At that point indoor gatherings are limited to 200, customers must be seated and separated from others, masks must be worn at hospitality venues and all hospitality workers must wear them.”
And Brent Edwards rightly concludes: “There is no doubt that people are sick of the virus but the problem is, the virus is not sick of us.” Complacency is clearly something that both public and politicians need to be wary of.
Dr Bryce Edwards is a politics lecturer at Victoria University and director of Critical Politics, a project focused on researching New Zealand politics and society. This article was first published HERE
What do we currently know about the latest surge? Firstly, the number of reported infections is increasing fast. After being around 5,000 a day, the weekly rolling average has now hit 8,013. And we have now had three days of hitting the 10,000 threshold.
Covid modeller Professor Michael Plank says we appear to be seeing infection numbers double about every 14 days. He, along with other public health academics, is suggesting that we may soon see a national peak of at least 20,000 daily cases. Others are stating a possible figure of 25,000.
In terms of hospitalisations, the seven-day rolling average has risen from 347 to 454. And today it hit 554. As epidemiologist Michael Baker says, “All the signs point towards a large wave of Covid-19 with an abrupt rise in cases”.
Deaths are also up – with an average now of about 15 a day. According to the “Our World in Data” source, New Zealand has the 6th highest weekly death rate, with only tiny countries faring worse than us.
The problem is that New Zealand is being infected with new and evolving variants of the Omicron virus. And these are more and more transmissible.
At the same time, the public’s immunity is waining. The fourth vaccine is currently being rolled out, but isn’t expected to occur very quickly or widely. Although the country achieved a high rate of double-vaccination, the rate of triple-vaxxed people is said to be only 73 per cent. What’s more the current vaccine appears to be less effective against the new variants.
Meanwhile, mask-wearing is said to be dropping fast, due to “mask fatigue” and complacency. According to the head of Retail New Zealand, Greg Hartford, customer compliance has “dropped off a cliff” with now only a third of shoppers wearing masks.
Increasing demand for action
Increasingly public health experts are calling for more to be done – especially around mask-wearing. For example, yesterday 1News reported: “150 health experts have called for the Government to introduce more restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19. Recommendations included making masks mandatory in schools over winter, giving people greater access to high-quality masks, and pushing for better ventilation indoors.”
Now that the daily infection rate has surpassed 10,000 – which was previously given as a rough threshold for the country being put into the Red setting of the traffic lights system – there are also increasing calls for a re-evaluation of the government rules and settings.
According to University of Auckland senior lecturer in computational evolution Dr David Welch, “Going back to red is something that the Government would be looking at very closely right now, they’d be looking at how the hospitals are coping and what are the projections”.
Certainly, if the numbers of infections really do head towards 20,000 a day, there will be expanded calls for the country to go into Red, or for the Orange settings to be adjusted.
The politics of going red
The decision to bring in greater Covid restrictions is clearly a political one to be made by the Government. And they are likely to be in a better place to judge what needs to be done than health specialists.
Politicians need to balance many different needs. This is well put today in the Herald by news director Lynley Ward, who says: “They’ve got so many competing interests now. You’ve got the business lobby and the economic imperative to get the country going as well as the social imperative, which includes getting children back in schools.”
That social imperative is acknowledged by many health experts. For example, Ross Lawrenson, a professor of public health at the University of Waikato stated this: “From a public health point of view, it would be nice to make masks compulsory and restrict movement around and try and restrict the spread, not only of Covid but also influenza… But I don’t think that practically, society … is up for that.”
According to Herald political editor Claire Trevett, the Government’s “mantra seems to be ABR: Anything but Red.”
Reacting to Ardern’s dismissal of going to Red anytime soon, Trevett explains today: “The last thing the Government will want to do is slap the country back into red just as school holidays are about to start – it would infuriate businesses… Nor would it be a great look in the middle of the PM’s globe-trotting exercise, pitching the Great Re-Opening of New Zealand and assuring the word we were open for business. Open for business provided you are seated and separated doesn’t have the same ring.”
Ardern’s wariness about going to Red is backed up by a lot of public voices. For instance, yesterday the broadcaster Broadcaster Kate Hawkesby said: “I think even the most law abiding lockdown fanatic would find it hard to stomach more restrictions coming back, just as we’ve worked so hard to shrug them off and find some normality. Compliance would be an issue”.
This doesn’t mean the Government can be complacent, however. Broadcaster, Rachel Smalley, says it’s time for the Government to start giving us more information about what’s going on: “The Government has been criticised for over-communicating at times but the silence at the moment is deafening. The polls will have told Labour that everyone’s a bit over Covid, and that’s why the PM has distanced herself from the response. And our Director-General, Ashley Bloomfield has resigned, so we’re a bit at sea and reliant on Ministers – which is fine, but I think we need to hear more from them.”
As infection rates rise, New Zealand’s Covid response will once against become debated and politicised. And in this regard, former National leader Simon Bridges writes today in the NBR, saying: “let’s all remember to have a little humility about what has and hasn’t worked. No country has got it entirely right. Not the UK, but not NZ either. We are increasingly working out Covid policies are not just about Covid health, strictly speaking, but have wider health, economic, social, and – ultimately – societal ramifications, short and much longer term. It isn’t, as many in our little nation blithely seem to have assumed, a binary, but rather a nuanced and complex set of issues.”
Also writing in the NBR today, political editor Brent Edwards warns his commercial readership not to be complacent about where things are heading: “businesses should be prepared for the worst and the possible move to the red light setting if the surge in cases shows no sign of slowing. At that point indoor gatherings are limited to 200, customers must be seated and separated from others, masks must be worn at hospitality venues and all hospitality workers must wear them.”
And Brent Edwards rightly concludes: “There is no doubt that people are sick of the virus but the problem is, the virus is not sick of us.” Complacency is clearly something that both public and politicians need to be wary of.
Dr Bryce Edwards is a politics lecturer at Victoria University and director of Critical Politics, a project focused on researching New Zealand politics and society. This article was first published HERE
7 comments:
So, despite our huge vaccination rate we're experiencing high infection rates and deaths.
Mmm...how can that be?
Well Bryce, if you had looked at the actual MoH Covid stats or even read some of the articles posted on this website, you may have been aware that the fully vaccinated (2 doses) and worse still the boosted (3 doses) are doing considerably worse in terms of hospitalisation and death than the unvaccinated.
At best, that would mean the Covid vaccine doesn't work and more likely, it actually suppresses your natural immune system and makes you more susceptible to the virus and other illnesses.
But you just keep on quoting the same old government experts whose predictions have been wrong since the start and who keep on telling us to do more of the same.
Including telling everyone to wear masks, which clearly don't work!
Easy to see you're on a big fat public salary and are content to shut the country down again for no justifiable reason.
Bryce Edwards is an astute political observer, normally well worth reading. This piece is perhaps not his best work, but he touches on an interesting point. After the government made extreme efforts to convince the public that single cases of covid were cause to be fearful, they are now laying low and hoping things play out for the best without doing too much more. Remember, this is the government who shut down the whole of Wellington for a single case! (a false alarm) And had the the entire South Island under an extended period of restrictions just in case! Worst of all, Auckland was forced to spend months grinding away proving elimination was not repeatable (apparently this was worth it to get people vaccinated for a variant that had by then disappeared).
The point being that the government has down a switcheroo in mid-flight, from blind panic and fear to nothing to see here, and most people have not even noticed.
They do say you can fool most of the people most of the time...
a. vaccines did not work
b. masks did not work
c. lockdowns did not work
d. poor existing health/immunity did not work
e. funding irresponsible behaviour did not work
f. teaching kids on zoom did not work
on the other hand...
a. taking personal responsibility did help self & others
b. freedom to evaluate trade-offs for self did work
c. natural immunity (with or without covid) did work
d. trying to get back to business as usual did work
in short, free market works better than 'pseudo-science'
what was the threshold for 'herd immunity'? why did that not work for NZ? whose resignation is being asked for?
Well that would be one way to get millions of people to leave the country thereby relieving the health system. There would be fewer taxpayers however. Who wants to live in a masked society, under fear of constant lockdowns? .Sounds like hell on earth if you stay
720 official covid deaths so far, 1.41m reported cases (lower than actual as I am sure we all know people who have had it and not reported it). So a death rate of 0.0005%.
0.006% hospitalization rate. 0.00022% ICU rate.
For reference NZ normally has about 40000 deaths per year. So we have 0.018% of annual deaths from Covid, ignoring that they have occurred over multiple years.
If we stopped reporting case numbers no one would actually care about it.
It is all about control. It's like being in an abusive or toxic marriage. The only thing you can do is leave for your own sanity and wellbeing. Which is why 1 million or so kiwis are planning on getting out while they can, before this govt goes full north korea.
Post a Comment
Thanks for engaging in the debate!
Because this is a public forum, we will only publish comments that are respectful and do NOT contain links to other sites. We appreciate your cooperation.