I feel like we are currently Pavlov’s Kiwi.
Not knowing what to do, because it will cause us pain.
We are all sick of Covid, but fucking Covid is NOT sick of us.
Business screams for more Kiwi workers, but the workers and customers keep getting sick.
Business screams for more relaxed Covid restrictions, but the workers and customers keep getting sick.
Business screams for more migrant workers, but the workers and customers keep getting sick.
The Right want everything with none of the ramifications!
Long Covid is a thing, the virus will keep mutating and our collective goodwill is the only protection between us and the void.
We are in a morally difficult minefield right now.
The reality is the vast majority of us won’t have a problem with this virus. They will have a fever and then move on and their own experience of the virus will shape their risk analysis and that analysis will be ‘fuck you, give me my life back, it’s not that bad’.
Unfortunately for all the weak people in society, this mentality is a possible death sentence.
The immunocompromised (which seems to include every woman who likes to take photos using a black and white filter on their phones and calling themselves ‘artists) the old that we culturally ignore and stack in underfunded retirement prisons, the obese who hate themselves as much as everyone else hates them and the disabled who we have always treated appallingly are all on the front line because some equate wearing a mask as an invasive crucification of personal autonomy akin to the Nazi genocide.
I wear my mask whenever I enter a shop, or travel on the bus or in an Uber.
I keep my social distance in public because I despise most of you and I am all vaccinated and boosted because I’m not a fucking moron.
I’m as sick of this pandemic as the rest of you are, but our collective goodwill to simply do right by our neighbours (even if they aren’t doing right by you) is part of who we are as Kiwis!
Our egalitarianism, our need to help one another on these shakey isles on the edge of the Southern Ocean should overcome our intense dislike for Anti-vaccine Qanon lunatics and the woke who have adopted militant Covid restrictions as part of their identity. I would like both groups to catch the bloody virus and die, but that would be unkind.
And we mustn’t be unkind even when we really want to!
Wear your fucking mask, do right by others and accept that this Pandemic really is going to be harder and longer than we had hoped for, that this virus and its reverberations will be the new normal for at least another half decade!
Life is hard right now, and it’s very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, 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very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, likely to get worse.
Take care of yourself, take care of your Whānau, take care of your community and don’t be a dick.
Refuse to allow your anger, fear, frustration and desperation to be manipulated politically by people whose solutions would make shit worse for most and a little better for some.
Brace for impact.
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I always wear a mask in public, social distance from people I don’t know, am getting the next booster shot, and keep an eye on friends and family.
The Govt. needs to take urgent action again because the health system is almost over capacity, do what? well…
• more strategic lockdowns
• Compulsory mask wearing in schools
• Pay nurses and other medical staff more
• Basic Income to all citizens paid through iRD (the richos got their billions in the first round of lockdowns, time for working class to get some)
Now is the winter of our discontent….
(I loved the line about immunocompromised women LOL!)
Meanwhile back in reality, the virus will mutate endlessly forever, dodging all of our best laid plans. The scientists are telling us that we can get infected through our eyes and from anything we touch, and it can stay viable on frozen food for weeks. Your mask may slow the infection rate down a bit, if you have the right type, wear it properly and replace it maybe hourly, but it will never stop it.
Game over.
I am usually in agreement with your blogs but perhaps because I am health compromised ii m not happy with the push against masks and more vaxing .I hate them as much as anybody but because the health sector is in such a mess they need as much help from people they can get .If mask stop one person from going to hospital it will be a win and there could be a bed for me to get my heart fixed.
Perhaps as well at some stage Little will open his eyes and see the need to promote an understanding with the nurses instead of trying to win a fight and conditions will improve
I wonder if a win-win could be achieved with a yearly peak winter 3 week level 3 lock down with wage subsidiary for anyone earning under 100K.
Market it as paid whanau holiday. You have a whole year to know its coming which takes the stress out of sudden snap lock-downs.
Corporate sponsors providing goodies deliveries and the likes of free streaming movies and games to keep kids from fighting.
You can leave NZ during this time but those entering also 3 week lockdown.
Free RAT tests delivered to mailbox. After 3 weeks any sick households continue stay on holiday until recovered and for the the rest of us its back to normal life until next whanau holiday in a years time.
This combined with coming medical advancements could go along way towards eliminating a vast range of viruses.
Its only 3 weeks, I could do that standing on my head.
In hindsight NZ is probably paying the price for it’s success during Covid A to D. No one foresaw it but shut away from the world, we missed flu season 2020 and 21 our seasonal immunity weakened.
To me it’s a slow road back to normality. Our government with its broken healthcare and its people tried but we can’t beat the system. We can’t hide under our beds as time matches on, we need to just get on with whatever life brings!
X-ray, we are paying the price for people not following simple hygiene rules and thinking, because we are bored with the virus and don’t want to play with it anymore, that in some magical way it will just go away.
It’s here to stay like any other virus. If you think simple hygiene rules make a difference to this baby, you are delusional!
Talk about tliting a windmills!
” If you think simple hygiene rules make a difference to this baby, you are delusional!” .. Oversimplification of what is actually a multifaceted problem is the bane of intelligent, and rational discourse.. Hand sanitising is a logical counter to the fact that people do touch their faces almost continually throughout the day, usually without conscious thought. All it takes is for an infected person to sneeze, or cough near a surface that other people will touch, and then rub their nose, pick it, or wipe their lip, or eye, and pick up that infection.. This isn’t the most common way of catching the virus, but it is one way you can.. Mask wearing actually does more to protect others from the infected person than the other way around, but is still more effective on the whole than not wearing a mask… To tout one aspect of the resistance to this epidemic as the only way is limited to the point of useless.. Being arrogantly sarcastic as a counter to that limited view isn’t what I would consider a mature, thoughtful response regardless how many laughs it gets.. As an asthmatic, this thing has a better than even chance of finishing me.. Having to listen to so called “mature responsible adults” blithely consigning a decent proportion of the population to a horrific death really does bring home the fallacy of humans being the peak of evolution on this planet…
I don’t know about you but Omicron is still running strong, and more and more variants are popping up than ever before. Cases are through the roof and current fatality figures would have been unfathomable to us, barely a year ago.
And yet despite all this, government, for unknown reasons, have relaxed most measures…and yet we are to blame for the current state of affairs. F me!
We are paying the price for opening the borders and letting the swarms of infected immigrant and returning kiwis who lied about their RATS . If we had controlled borders and MIQ there would be few deaths. Right wingers arent saying much about the 15 av deaths per day.
” I keep my social distance in public because I despise most of you ” LOL . This is why I like you Martyn .
Mildly abusive , acerbic , sarcasm makes a welcome change from anodyne antiseptic pc tripe served up by other writers . Keep it up .
I won’t be wearing a mask anymore (unless on private/public premises and someone asks me to), nor getting another first generation vaccine for a 5/6th generation virus and otherwise ignoring official advice. I have had covid – for most it is a mild to medium flu. The current traditional flu strains going around are far worse.
We are world standard in regards to covid infections despite having one of the world’s highest vaccination rate and still significant restrictions. Something doesn’t stack up and reeks like 10-day old cat piss yet you dare question the official advice and you are listed as a Qanon nut job terrorist.
We keep getting told to “trust the science” from the same mob that believe men can give birth and have periods. You can’t have it both ways and selectively pump for science over “feelz” when it suits your argument.
Isn’t it the official advice that the vaccine won’t stop people catching Omicron, but instead lessen the severity of illness? The cases may soar, but focus turned more towards hospitalisation and ICU capacity. And while our double-vaxxed rates were high, Omicron required a 3+ dose regimen, which just over half the population have completed. Most of the initial measures for Omicron were buying time for most of the population to become eligible for the booster, and to try and prevent everyone catching it all at once and overwhelming the health system. People are expected to catch Omicron, but hopefully not require hospitalisation or worse.
Yeah yeah yeah I get it nasty bosses taking advantage of poor unsuspecting employees blah blah blah
My wife and I have had the covid, back on deck manning the thin front line (hospo) and like other small business desperately short of staff not so much staff but quality staff, the ones that can turn up when they say they can without all the cockiememe excuses under the sun, we’ve banged up prices where possible so we can pay staff what the current market calls for ( $24-$30 per hour).
Time to put our big boy, big girl, big lbgqxyz pants on and if we can’t get the quality employees our customers deserve from within our borders, then so be it, open the flood gates.
“Open the flood gates” says Mark Bowie.l Some of us appreciate how the government puts pressure on micro businesses while throwing money at the corpses and big ticket projects. However you need to be aware you are in a two-tier economy and society. You are in the lower tier and it is this tier that will suffer from the floodgates being opened approach. So you are suggesting hurting your community.
In Marx’s view of society the small shopkeepers became the lower middle class.
In the mid-19th century, the German economist Karl Marx and other Marxist theorists used the term petite bourgeoisie to identify the socio-economic stratum of the bourgeoisie that consists of small shopkeepers and self-employed artisans.
Petite bourgeoisie – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Petite_bourgeoisie
Actually you are part of the people that make society and are most involved regularly in the economy. But I think you probably don’t get that feeling from the PTB.
Covid is thrombotic vascularitis. It hits everyone vaxed or not, young or not, the damage is cumulative and wide spread in the body. How many times are you planning on getting doused in this shit?
Seasonal? LOL
Hybrid Immunity Wall? LOL
Mild? As in mild ischemic strokes and heart attacks?
We need to make like China, and do Dynamic Zero Covid. Divvy the country up into practical sectors for the sake of targeted rolling lockdowns.
AND ENFORCE THE LOCKDOWNS WITH MILITARY PRESENCE IF NECESSARY.
The failure of the Right Wing’s ‘open up, let it rip’ mantra is unfolding (here and overseas) before our eyes – yet they are so blinkered they can’t or won’t admit it.
Yes Peter Kelly the right are blinkered by money its all about money to them, fuck the people. The let it rip mentally is just sick as is letting in more people, many with virus intact and we are seeing the numbers coming in at least 300 some days some coming home or here with the virus after all our hard work and sacrifice.
And then we have the disgruntled ones our expats that cried to come home and are now kicking our country in the guts and are gonna piss of again.
As a National supporter I am not happy with their stance on covid and masks . We need masks mandated at schools and in all situations where pratical. I would not like to see unvaxed nurses back on the wards as they must be anti science not to be vaxed unless it is medically necessary. The governments needs to change the immegration rules to attract more nurses now.
I am glad most schools are refusing to take back unvaxed teachers as they set a poor example of community care to pupils.
I thought registered nurses were on the skill shortage list.
Your answer is to poach nurses from third world countries who are more desperate than us.
If you are referring to the nurses from the Philippines then they are not poached from an unwilling country they are trained so they can go oerseas to earn money which is sent back .zThe men are trained as truck drivers and building workers . I am from the UK and I know this was done in Ireland in the 60s. Not sure if it is the same now.
NZ has gone from smug hermit kingdom to desperate failing state. Congrats Robbo and team.
Vote for a National/Act coalition whose intention is to privatise our medical services.
that’ll fix it…. for those that can afford it. eff everyone else.
A john Key fanatic. Time you changed your photo of JK for for luxon.
I keep my social distance in public because I despise most of you and I am all vaccinated and boosted because I’m not a fucking moron.
Please all do as Martyn does and feel the same way that he does, and still keep on trying to fight the way through endless paper bags towards supportive friendship and practicality and we will reach the awesome light, happy relaxation and a feeling of being back in Good Sanityland at least once a day for a while. (That’s not sanitaryland as we can cope with a few germs, but practicality says limit them.)
I went out and caught it as soon as I could. So little to fear from me but I’m still courteous to those around me. It’s just common decency isn’t it?
Saint Bloomfield put out an official statement on behalf of the government saying if you don’t want to wear a mask then stay home, shop online and get your groceries delivered. No. It is the vulnerable and the elderly who need to stay home if their is an imminent risk to health (the only emergency at the moment seems to be that being created by the media), you don’t protect the sick by quarantining the healthy and letting the snivelling frail loose in the community. This is not how health care works you morons. Speaking of not working, I thought if you had your precious vaccine then life would get back to normal. Was that a lie? In any case government ministers don’t seem to be too concerned about the current situation, Baker and Bloomfield and the rest are sounding the alarm because they need a pandemic to remain relevant and to get more funding for every covid related death (which happens to be just about every reported fatality now). And this crisis emergency in the health sector? Health care is about the patients not you, you prima donnas. You could always quit and go on the sickness benefit though, your stress levels will melt away and you will hopefully get the care you need. So wear your mask prayer amulet if you must. The rest of the world has moved on, maybe because they possess more intelligence than the average Kiwi.
Daily arrivals and departures list. Updated daily forever until last week when departures were accelerating. Then the most transparent government in NZ’s history stopped publishing the results. What a joke. https://www.customs.govt.nz/covid-19/more-information/passenger-arrivals-departures/
It’s such an awesome time to be alive! We are all witness to a wonderful paradigm shift. Hang in there everyone! I’m good wearing a mask. It’s up to you what you choose. We’re all in!
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