As I stood at the end of my drive on Anzac Day morning, my thoughts were not only of those that served in conflict but those serving now on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I stood in solidarity with my fellow New Zealanders against the threat of Covid-19 to our community and even managed to spare a thought for our Australian colleagues. Sharing of repatriation flights and the prospect of a conjoint bubble has perhaps gone some way to repairing the transtasman relationship, a good effect from Covid-19 .
How did we ever manage to get ourselves into this mess in the first place? Most information indicates Covid-19 transferred to humans from animals in a “wet market” where different and unrelated species of animals are crowded together for humans to trade and eat. This practice crosses natural boundaries in that such a mixture of species would not come into close proximity in nature. By these actions we show that we still do not understand nature and that we do not recognise and respect natural barriers and limits.
What then must we do beyond the simple expedient of shutting down wet markets? I suggest that we must learn new respect for nature, remember that we are still subject to natural laws, and that there are natural boundaries and limits that we must recognise and that we cross at our peril. We are hard up against many of these limits now in population, climate, biodiversity and the capacity of natural resources like water. We have shown little sign of recognising this and even less sign of responding with concerted action. Covid-19 acts as a timely reminder about living within the limits imposed by nature and that we must act on that reality now.
In New Zealand we have been fortunate in having a coalition Government that valued people as well as the economy. Our leaders have regularly delivered clear information based on facts. The open and factual approach in New Zealand has helped to establish authenticity and consequently trust within the community. This has in turn helped foster national unity and purpose that has allowed us to achieve some difficult goals. We should recognise the much better result achieved with clear and factual communication and we should recognise and value this when we elect future governments.
In the Covid-19 pandemic we have seen the value of scientific advice. We have derived value from our appointment of a chief science adviser. We have regularly heard from epidemiologists and have heeded their advice. We have followed closely the global scientific effort to rapidly sequence the genome of Covid-19 and to select sequences from the spike protein to act as vaccine targets.
However, we have hesitated to provide funding to our own scientists who are eager to join the global effort to produce a vaccine. We should follow through from putting our faith in epidemiology, to recognising the ability of our microbiology and immunology scientists. We should back their calls for funding a New Zealand contribution to the global scientific mobilisation against Covid-19.
There always was a strong argument for using our scientific community more for solving our own problems like Kauri dieback, myrtle rust, and pest control. Covid-19 provides a strong reminder that we should back our New Zealand science community and look to them for solutions instead of automatically turning our gaze overseas.
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only given us time to reflect upon our current problems, it has also allowed us to experience a new sense of community and what we can achieve when we act with common purpose.
Can we together develop a vision of a future New Zealand that lives within natural limits, values speaking the truth in government and backs our own science?
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Comments
Well said, I hope when it is election time voters will remember that it was Sars-cov-2 (and ultimately mankind’s respect or lack thereof for nature) that was at the basis of how society will be doing at that time and not the government’s fault. I am afraid National will milk this to the max. But it was this coalition government that gave us a chance to survive this. I hope collectively we have done enough and used that great privilege respectfully and with conscience.
I enjoyed John Highton’s article: “Value placed on Kiwi science” in the ODT May 11, 2020 and his comments on Covid-19. As a retired virologist I agree that the “wet markets” where animals of different species are crowded together in caged and stressful conditions provide an opportunity for viruses to cross species barriers. SARS and MERS are further examples of viruses that have emerged under similar conditions.
John goes further to suggest that we must learn new respect for the laws and boundaries of nature and that we cross them at our peril. As a retired academic one has the time to pause and think what is meant by natural laws and boundaries. This leads one to contemplate the the bigger picture and the cosmos — the cosmological view of the events.