Mike Hosking: Time for action on Covid restrictions

Actions, as it turns out, do speak louder than words.

Last week's poll around our view of Covid is backed up by; 1) another poll and 2) more importantly, real life.

Last week's poll had 65 percent of us wanting all restrictions gone. That's a fairly large majority.

This week's poll has fewer and fewer of us adhering to the so called rules.

Johan Anderberg: How Sweden swerved Covid disaster

A hundred years ago, in New York City, 20,000 people marched down Fifth Avenue in protest against one of the greatest public health policy experiments in history. One of them was wearing a sign featuring an image of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” beside the slogan, “Wine was served.” There were posters of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Another read: “Tyranny in the name of righteousness is the worst of all tyrannies.”

For a year, beer, wine and spirits had been illegal throughout the United States. From a public health perspective, it seemed a reasonable enough measure. That alcohol was a dangerous substance was clear: disease, violence, poverty and crime were intimately bound up with it. Even now, despite its failure, it is known as the “noble experiment”. But was it right to prevent people from making drinks they not only enjoyed, but that also served important cultural and religious purposes? Not for the first time, Americans found themselves torn in a balance between freedom and security — nor for the last.

Derek Mackie: Have a merry Covid Christmas!

2021 is a year we all want to forget for a raft of reasons, not just Covid and the accompanying restrictions on our freedoms. But with the summer holidays approaching I’ve been trying to get excited about our first and hopefully last, real Covid Christmas. I don’t count last year because we were able to do whatever we wanted...apart from leaving the country and getting back in again, which is still an issue. 

 There is a slim chance that the Covid Queen with the dazzling smile will wave her magic wand and all the restrictions will be lifted. But only if every DHB in NZ gets a golden ticket by reaching the 90% vax target. Even if just one DHB, far far away from where you live, is at 89% then Christmas, as we know it, will be cancelled for everyone. This does seem a tad unfair but that’s the “new normal”, as our government never tires of telling us. 

 If the worst happens, and it does seem likely, you may get depressed that you’ll be stuck at home in lockdown with only immediate family and Netflix for company - but that’s most people’s regular Christmas anyway, so get over it!