Nothing comforts people so much as knowing they’re part of the same crowd. It’s a tribal thing rooted in our two million years of brain evolution.
You can see this even more clearly when one person is left stranded as the crowd moves on. Surprised, shocked, ill-at-ease, and wondering if she should follow the crowd on their new path.
NZ Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern, is rapidly becoming that lost soul.
Australia to end ‘covid zero’ policy:
Australia is set to end its “covid zero” policy after Prime Minister Scott Morrison determined that the country’s approach is not “sustainable” in the face of the more infectious COVID-19 delta variant.
The government will drop most restrictions once 80% of adults are vaccinated, which the government believes could happen by the end of the year, The Economist reported. Any further action would occur only after hospitals reached a point at which they could no longer cope with new cases, but will otherwise handle what they can.
…The delta variant provided a new challenge for a nation that The Washington Post once labeled a “pandemic success story.” The nation responded to the variant by instituting what it called “circuit breakers”: any detected cases would result in a lockdown to stop the spread “at the beginning.”
However, Morrison on Aug. 23 said the current course of action was “not a sustainable way to live in this country.”
“Once you get to 70% of your eligible population being vaccinated, and 80% … the plan sets out we have to move forward,” Morrison said in a video address. “Because if not at 70% and 80%, then when? Then when? This cannot go on forever, this is not a sustainable way to live in this country.”
Maybe it was when the rescue dogs were shot?
Or maybe it was this, because unlike small businesspeople being destroyed and all that stupid stuff about economics and money that lead to the inevitable cries of “You just care about profits not grandma”, and other such emotive “arguments”, this is actually about death vs. death.
It’s not just at the Federal level either, Victoria gives up on COVID-zero.
Despite locking down hard and early, Victoria’s struggling to get on top of COVID case numbers and Premier Daniel Andrews says COVID-zero is no longer a possibility…
Perhaps authoritarianism is just too exhausting for our modern Western politicians? It looks like it’s too much even for the ones in SIngapore:
Singapore has decided to give up on the dream of covid-zero and will instead learn to “live with the virus,” according to the country’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday. The decision comes despite the fact that Singapore has one of the highest covid-19 vaccination rates in the world, with 80% of the adult population fully vaccinated—second only to the country of Malta’s 82%.
Singapore, a country of roughly 5.7 million people, has been among a handful of countries that have pursued a strategy of completely eliminating covid-19, rather than just suppressing the virus. Other covid-zero countries over the past year have included New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and Australia.
“It is no longer possible to bring covid-19 cases down to zero, even if we lock down for a long time. Therefore, we must prepare for covid-19 to become endemic, like the flu or chicken pox,” Lee said on Sunday during a speech to commemorate the country’s National Day, according to a transcript from the Strait Times.
Meantime we await the success of the latest Level 4 lockdown in dealing with the Delta variant of the Chinese Xi Snot virus, which overseas data shows to be more infectious but less lethal than its Alpha parent.
Liberty Scott also has some questions that the MSM might consider asking the government. Here are just five of them:
- Is the real reason NZ has been slow in obtaining vaccines because it “didn’t want to compete” with others that needed it more, or was it just bureaucratic or political inertia? After all, Australian PM Scott Morrison apologised for not ordering enough vaccines, why is NZ different? Is it because Pharmac didn’t order them?
- Isn’t the real reason contact tracing is a nightmare the complacency encouraged by having “kept Kiwis safe” with less than 10% QR code scanning and having planned not at all for a ramp up of contact tracing for a future lockdown? i.e. didn’t most people treat Level 1 as Level 0?
- Why wasn’t their planning for ramping up testing if there was another outbreak and why did vaccinations have to halt because there had been no planning to take into account vaccination in an outbreak?
- What is the basis upon which Cabinet decides to change Covid lockdown levels? Is it infection rate, is it case numbers, is it contacts? If there isn’t some objective basis to start from, how is this decision made?
- Why were frontline emergency workers not regarded as a priority for vaccination?
…
UPDATE (just for Wayne, who missed it the first time and hates Texas)
No Minister 
Thanx Tom I have been on about the collateral damage the insane lockdowns are inflicting onNew ZEalanders of all ages, creeds and financial positions. A total mystery how Politicians of all stripes can view those appalling stats on suicide and still cling to office, Yes Ararice is a strong reason but there must be a limit for those who are directly responsible for almost a thousand suicides in the two states. Hell it was suggested Himmler was concerned about what slaughtering thousands of Jews and others nominated for extinction could do to the triggermen, sheesh.
I made these points about the lockdown strategy as far back as April last year:
Lockdowns don’t work. What does?
And…
Epidemiology Modelling Problems
The latter one that contained links to a report looking at the death toll from falling GDP per person was especially interesting.
Watching our Public Healthcare officials over the last 18 months has been like watching an obsessive-compulsive wash their hands a hundred times a day.
“Insane lockdowns”. Is that supposed to be a serious comment?
What would you do when Delta is out in the community and there is a relatively low level of vaccination?
Do nothing? Follow the NSW approach and get to 1,500 cases a day with numerous deaths each day? Does that look like success to you?
Do you ever look at World-o-meter and see what is happening in the US? Already back up to 1,500 dying of Covid each day. Things are getting out of control in Texas with nearly 400 deaths per day, but with the Texas government wanting even fewer restrictions.
Yes, you can be critical of the slow vaccine rollout. The government was too slow on that.
But to suggest there should be no lockdowns in the current situation (the implication of your comment) is patently ridiculous. It is no surprise that about 85% of the population support the current lockdown, albeit reluctantly. Now of course you would just say they are sheeple. I would call it the wisdom of the crowd.
NZ has had 26 die of covid in 18 months. Based on your comment it seems that you would be quite prepared to accept 26 per week (the NSW level with their ineffectual lockdown).
High on emotion with selected facts to suit the narrative as usual.
Your solution (and presumably your party’s) is to simply keep going. The problem is that the lockdowns are not going to work. They had plenty of time to prepare for delta, but we keep having border breaches.
Each border breach cost over a billion dollars per week in lockdowns. It’s obvious that it won’t be contained because we can’t test fast enough and we keep having border breaches.
I’m not interested in the statistics you have quoted because you have cherry picked them as usual, and it’s highly likely those deaths are from people with one foot in the grave and another on a banana skin.
Oh, and lets not worry about the really big taxes that the next generations will have, to repay all the debt, because it won’t effect you will it?
I wonder if the penny will ever drop for poor old Dr Wayne Mapp?
There are not “1500 deaths a day” in the USA, the number is actually closer to 25,000.
Goodness gracious this torturing of Statistics to frighten the sheep is reprehensible but what is more alarming is how a so called educated man like Dr Mapp is so easily led down the garden path
You fool Dr Mapp – we can be locked down for ever and jabbed on a daily basis but that wont change a thing, the grim reaper still has your number and will be visiting you soon enough
Silly Cindy cannot confer immortality on anybody
And I for one would like to live my life and not waste whatever time I have left skulking in my home except for the when I am queuing at the supermarket face covered by a grotty germ filled mask, only to find I cannot buy the things I need because the shelves are bare
It is a total clown show and a testament to the stupidity of humanity
In fact the number of people who die every day in the USA is closer to 65,000 not 25,000
And so, the carefully constructed narrative collapses.
I suspect that the current Blip has peaked(As predicted by Des Gorman last week).
Like Singapore’s blip and Taiwan’s Blip we will return to normal in the near future.
But wait.
Singapore and Taiwan didnt go to an equivalent of Level 4?
But wait.
Vietnam who went to a lockdown more severe than Level 4.
The Blip continues to soar.
Do our public health advisors actually analyze what’s happening in the world.
Or are they stuck in Group think?
No countries(3 island nations excepted) have Zero Covid cases.
Yep, we can safely say that North Korea and Turkmenistan havent reported any – but that’s a political decision not a public health decision.
My solution to the problem.
Ban TV and Radio news from mentioning anything to to with the virus/Covid
Ignorance is bliss.
I must say you are right. I’m absolutely sick and tired of the wall to wall covid bullshit in the Australian media.
Every time some seriously ill fat old prick tests positive it is ‘breaking news’ or ‘a tragedy.’ Of course the Labour premiers of W.A. and Queensland are trying to derail the PM’s efforts to end the lockdown nonsense while the idiot in Melbourne has put Victoria into lockdown for another three fucking weeks!
You have to work hard to find any news at all about the eighty billion dollars worth of military equipment, weapons and ammunition Biden and Milley handed to the Taliban
The Zero-Covid policy will continue unless the polls go dramatically further south, or they have worked out to change their policy without losing face.
meanwhile, the supermarkets are struggling to keep up, and empty shelves are starting to appear. (shades of Venuzuela, the socialist paradise of a few years back).
the next ‘in’ thing to save us will be vaccinations….
Get ready to be inundated with smug people talking about getting vacinated in much the same way the some people talk about their expensive electric car .
No, I certainly would not call it a success, which is why they’re starting to wonder how much longer they can go on with lockdowns. But I thought the NSW approach was our approach, or did I miss something different between how their police are enforcing lockdown laws and how we are?
It really must be killing Wayne Mapp and National that they weren’t in charge when this hit. All that power and control over even the smallest aspects of people’s lives, 85% support from the populace for the first time ever and with all of this powered by a vast sense of self-righteousness for letting granny live a few months longer.
Tom,
The NSW Lockdown is no where near like NZ’s. As I am sure you know.
Their “go slow, go soft” has been a failure. In contrast our “go hard, go early” looks like a success. 49 cases today compared to nearly 1,500 in NSW.
In any event my posts are not really addressed to you, Gravedodger or Andrei. You already have your views. I do my posts so that the alternative mainstream view is actually put forward. So that others who may read this blog, don’t think the blog is entirely of the 10% opposed to any form of lockdown, (which is how I interpret your numerous posts on this issue).
I would note that my viewpoint has a large consensus in NZ, including the two major parties. It is not typically the case that those who stand out against the prevailing viewpoint are correct. More frequently the minority is wrong.
@Wayne
I’ve updated the post just for you Wayne, with a graph from a few days ago that’s entirely relevant. As the Tweet says:
You probably hadn’t seen that chart, glued to the MSM as you are. As I said in the original post, Comparing Apples to Islands
you probably didn’t know Hawaii just hit an all time high for covid hospitalisations – because the MSM can’t blame a lack of masks, lack of vaccines, lack of lockdown harshness, President Trump, Trump voters, or Republicans in general for this data. Hawaii is as solidly Democrat Party as California or Illinois.
I do not know that at all given that I’ve seen them impose lockdowns and then re-impose them – just as we have now done. Let alone the details of their lockdowns, which I think you need to specify as to the differences and why they matter. In any case your argument was solid until the latest NZ lockdown.
To put it bluntly, there may be other factors at work here, starting with the fact that both NSW and Victoria are not islands surrounded by thousands of miles of oceans. Ever considered that factor?
God all bloody mighty. How many times have you said that on this blog on almost every subject under the sun.
This is not a political party nor am I or any of the authors here, politicians. That’s not the point of blogs, which first came into existence precisely to provide an alternative view to what was seen, heard and read in the mainstream. Which brings me to this:
Thank goodness for that. God forbid that the alternative mainstream view suffer the fate of not being represented in every corner of our world. The next thing you know these suppressed ideas will be the driving part of the MSM. Thank you, thank you, for bringing to No Minister the voice of the silenced minority.
I wonder if that is true? I’m sure it is in Wayne’s World but among the “deplorables”, I’m not so sure.
But following the herd is an ovine behavioural trait in any case and usually ends with the slaughter board with a meet hook through the ankle and the life blood flowing from a severed throat
There was a large consensus in 1939 Germany that Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and Goering were really really great guys.
Further, Dr Mapp does not help his argument by failing to note the population difference between NZ and NSW.
I swear, the more that Mapp speaks, the more I vomit at the thought I effectively voted for him for almost a decade.