To some that may seem a pretty harsh description, but we don’t think so. We believe many will consider it a fair summation of a weakening stance by a government now clearly more concerned with the politics of the situation, and next year’s general election, than with doing what is right for Kiwis according to the science.
The second wave of the Omicron variant is washing over the South now and could well be weeks away from peaking. Warnings from experts are that that peak, in terms of the number of cases and those hospitalised, will exceed that of the first wave several months ago.
In the face of such a threat to our people and our health system, what do we have? A real lack of leadership, and a government still grimly clinging to the totally useless and ludicrous traffic light alert system, with the lights firmly stuck on Orange.
As the daily case numbers keep rising, and mask use keeps falling, and pressure continues to mount on hospitals and medical staff, this would have been the right time to roll out some bold moves to try to alleviate these issues.
A brave government, which we did have once but which appears to have dissolved before our very eyes, might have announced two things – a mask mandate in schools and for all indoor settings, and a move to the Red traffic-light setting, to reduce the size of indoor gatherings to a maximum of 200 people.
Instead, we had Covid-19 Minister Ayesha Verrall and director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield asking people to wear masks, nay pleading with people, imploring them, to don them.
Why not "tell" people to wear them? Why won’t the Government give its backing to such a move? University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker has it spot on with his comments that politics now appears to be trumping science, saying it is "like we’re denying transmission happens at schools, which is bizarre".
He also believes we will rue the day the Government took such a laissez-faire attitude to mask-wearing in schools.
Dr Verrall says 10 million child masks are being provided for year 4 to 7 pupils, with another 30,000 masks a week being made available for other students and school staff.
If you are struggling to understand the Government’s approach, other political groups seem to have an even more confused view of things.
Certainly don’t look to the National Party for any guidance on this. Opposition leader Christopher Luxon barely looks like he knows what day it is as he stumbles through his explanations of how the rest of the world is faring on the coronavirus front, let alone what appropriate Covid-19 etiquettes might look like here.
In fact, Mr Luxon’s statements that the rest of the world has moved on from Covid-19, implying we need to get a grip and do the same, are actually offensive to those who have died from it and their families.
People who are suffering with Covid, or who have had it and now have long Covid symptoms, or who have watched parents or grandparents or siblings succumb to it, are over the bleatings of the hospitality sector, which seems to have forgotten that there are effects other than on their back pockets from this potentially deadly disease.
Masks are inconvenient, and they are uncomfortable to wear. But probably not as inconvenient and uncomfortable as an intensive-care unit respirator.
Dr Verrall says at the moment, people are catching the virus in their homes and at work, which was where the Government’s focus on control was. So are people not catching Omicron in schools, or at large indoor gatherings, such as last weekend’s rugby test match in Dunedin?
It is a shame to have to say this. But how the mighty have fallen.
