Winter and Meals go together so nicely, and this winter has been no different. And we’re not going to let the inconvenience of a lockdown get in the way. The video clip is here to remind me of the pleasure I get sharing meals with the wife and whānau. If you enjoy it too, so much the better.
The meals have been made by the wife and/or myself. Care to speculate who cooked what?
In my last post post I promised to comment on misconceptions that many Americans, especially those on the right, hold about my favourite nation – Aotearoa New Zealand. But before I start I need to make a small correction. In that post I included a link to Tucker Carlson’s opinion piece but I inadvertently referred to uninformed comment that was actually on a different Fox News article. That article is a news item titled New Zealand to enter nationwide lockdown after single coronavirus case found. I should probably have held off publishing the post until later that morning instead of at 2:30 am. I’ve been suffering from the effects of a migraine that won’t decide whether it should come or go, and I was up at that time because sleep evades me with that type of migraine. I should have had the sense not to click on Publish, but I did.
The Fox News item was published on the day we first became aware of covid being in the community, and perhaps one of the most repeated comments was that locking down for one reported case was idiotic. I’ll ignore all the comments about authoritarianism, fascism and comparisons to North Korea, and for the moment I’ll take for granted that an elimination strategy is the appropriate course of action for this this nation. My question to those who consider a lockdown on a single reported case to be an overreaction is this: If this nation is to maintain an elimination strategy, how many known cases in the community should there be before a lockdown is considered? Ten? A hundred? A thousand? As was has been illustrated by the events in Australia, gradually ramping up restrictions based on the number of known cases is simply too little too late.
Here’s something to consider: How many other cases were there already out in the community? Is this the only case or is it the tip of a covid iceberg? Remember that with the Delta variant, people can be infectious before they experience symptoms. There is also the question of how did the virus get into the community? There may already have been a super spreader event where hundred of people have become incubators for the next wave of infections. This has already proven to be true. The number of confirmed cases, only twelve days later is now 512. The detailed situation as it stands at time of writing can be found on the Unite Against Covid-19 website.
On the Sunday before the first case was discovered, members of the Samoan Assembly of God church gathered as a community for the day, including worship sessions and gathered meals. One attender had unknowingly caught covid and passed it onto hundreds of other attenders. And before anyone else accuses the church members of ignoring rules or flouting safety precautions, let me be quite clear: They were responsibly following not only the “letter of the law”, but also the “spirit of the law”.
Just like everyone else in this nation they were not subject to any rules regarding social distancing, mask wearing, or limits on the size of gatherings. After all, we’ve been having sports events and concerts with up to 50,000 attenders throughout the pandemic apart from the brief lockdown periods, and all without incident. I need to point this out as already members of the AoG church are facing a backlash over this. The congregation and its leaders had no reason to suspect that someone within their midst was infected. Why should they? After all, the last reported community case was way back in February.
The need for some sections of society to scapegoat minorities – in this case Samoans and Christians – is appalling and must cease. And just in case you require statistic to support my stance, of all ethnic groups in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pasifika community has the highest vaccination rate for people over 40 years of age. They are also the most religious. So please no more talk about ethnicity or religion contributing to the current outbreak.
When we examine the number of ICU beds available in various countries, and see how even in the US, which has one of the highest number of ICU beds per capita in the world, still was stretched to capacity, and countries such as Italy had to ration access to ICU beds, it’s little wonder that NZ, with few ICU beds would look for another way to manage the pandemic. As a comparison, ICU beds per 100,000 of population are: US: 29.4; Italy: 12.5; NZ: 4.6. On a per capita basis, the US has more than six times as many ICU beds as NZ.
Another common theme to run through the comments was that we suffer under an authoritarian government and our freedoms are on par with North Korea or life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. The simple fact is that for the most part, this nation has had less stringent covid restrictions that the US, the UK, and yes, even more freedom than their golden boy model of covid management, Sweden
From 14 May 2020 to 11 August 2020 and from 31 August 2020 to 17 August 2021, Aotearoa New Zealand had fewer covid restrictions than the US, the UK and Sweden. Even during the period of 12 August 2020 to 30 August 2020, this nation was only marginally higher than the US and the UK. I included a Covid Stringency chart on my 2362 contacts post. But in case that is not enough, here’s some other freedom comparisons. I’ll restrict this to comparisons between NZ and the US as invariably, the accusations of a lack of freedom in this nation comes from Americans:
| Economic Freedom | Political Freedom | Press Freedom | Total Freedom Score | Ranking | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 92.92 | 98.04 | 91.84 | 94.26 | 1 |
| United States of America | 82.88 | 89.22 | 79.17 | 83.76 | 27 |
| Personal Freedom | Economic Freedom | Human Freedom | Ranking | Change from 2018 | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 9.21 | 8.53 | 8.87 | 1 | +0.01 |
| United States of America | 8.66 | 8.22 | 8.44 | 9 | -0.11 |
| Political Rights | Civil Liberties | Points | Ranking | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 99 | `4 |
| United States of America | 2 | 2 | 83 | 62 |
| Score | Ranking | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 10.04 | 8 |
| United States of America | 23.93 | 44 |
Reporters Without Borders also classify the US as an Enemy of the Internet due to high level of surveillance carried out by the authorities. Currently 20 nations are listed as enemies of the internet, so the US is in good company with China, North Korea, Russia, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
| Regime Type | Electoral process and Pluralism | Functioning of Government | Political Participation | Political Culture | Civil Liberties | Score | Ranking | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | Full democracy | 10 | 8.93 | 8.89 | 8.75 | 9.71 | 9.25 | 4 |
| United States of America | Flawed democracy | 9.17 | 6.79 | 8.89 | 6.25 | 8.53 | 7.92 | 25 |
| 2021 ranking | 2020 ranking | 2019 ranking | 2018 ranking | 2017 ranking | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| United States of America | 25 | 15 | 20 | 20 | 24 |
I freely accept that there are some criticisms of how the data is collected and rated for each of the indexes used above, but overall I think we can be confident that they provide a reasonable comparison of the two nations. I think it is safe to make the claim than Aotearoa New Zealand does not have fewer freedoms than the United States of America.
Several comments referred to the New Zealand population and made the observation that with such a small size the population should be able to be vaccinated in just a few months. Now think for a moment. If our population is one sixtieth the size of the US, it would stand to reason that the number of workers capable of giving a jab would also be one sixtieth of the numbers in the US. And given that a smaller percentage of the NZ workforce is employed in the health services than in the US, all things being equal it would actually take a little longer.
The fact that only 18% of the population is currently fully vaccinated also gave rise to the assumption the Kiwis are reluctant to be vaccinated. Wrong again. On many occasions over recent months we’ve learnt that there is only one or two day’s supply of vaccine available in the country. The problem isn’t on the demand side, it’s on the supply side.
None of the vaccine manufacturers have manufacturing facilities in this country, so all vaccines need to be imported. Given that practically every other nation is in a worse position than us, and that a number of countries have ruled that manufacturers must satisfy domestic requirements before they are permitted to export, is it any wonder that this country faces a number of hurdles in maintaining a regular supply of vaccine. The Government has also provided vaccines to our small Pacific neighbours as they are in a more vulnerable position and less able to cope with the pandemic if it arrives on their shores.
For there to be a high vaccination rate so that everyone can be vaccinated by the end of the year, there there needs to be a big increase in the number of people who perform the procedure competently. This is more than simply knowing how to jab a needle in someone’s arm, but also all the recordkeeping, safety protocols, etc that the vaccination rollout requires. Training has been underway for some time.
However the vaccination rollout is now in full swing. Anyone over the age of thirty is now eligible to be vaccinated, and currently 78% of those eligible have received at least one shot or have booked their first shot. From the beginning of September, everyone over the age of 12 will be eligible, and it is expected that everyone will have the opportunity to be vaccinated by the end of the year. Currently the vaccination rate running slightly ahead of plan. Only then will the government look at other processes for managing covid.
Of course a number of comments brought up the mythical confiscation of guns in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings. This has been interpreted in two different ways by commenters.
Obviously both theories can’t be correct. The simple fact is that there was an estimated 1.5 million guns that were in legal ownership before the shootings. That estimate today has not changed. The government buy back was for a specific type of weapon that, following a law change, could not be owned on a Category A gun holder’s licence. As firearms are not licensed here, the number of weapons affected by the change was unknown. Various estimates of the number of weapons affected ranged from 25,000 to 60,000. In the end the buyback resulted in 34,000 guns being handed in. While gun ownership here is estimated to be around a quarter of that in the US, we are still ranked in the top 20 nations for gun ownership.
A claim by many commenters that the New Zealand economy has collapsed or is rapidly heading that way due the the elimination strategy. Again, the evidence is very different. GDP in Aotearoa New Zealand is now above pre covid levels.
| GDP Growth 2021 | Unemployment 2020 | Unemployment 2019 | Govt dept as % of GDP | |
| Aotearoa New Zealand | +1% | 4.6% | 4.1% | 41.3 |
| United States of America | -3.5% | 8.1% | 3.7% | 127.1 |
Given that international tourism and international students accounted for a significant portion of this nation’s revenue, GDP and employment, and have all but disappeared since the arrival of covid, I think that a positive grown in our GDP vindicates this nation’s elimination strategy.
A common misconception among many commenters was that the US could not close its borders because their immigration rate is too high and that no one immigrates to NZ. If so, how can they explain the fact that one in four Kiwis are immigrants while a mere one in seven Americans are? The simple answer is that Aotearoa New Zealand has a relatively high immigration rate.
Comment was often made of New Zealand’s low population density, and if the population was spread evenly over the whole country, the low density would indeed be a significant factor. However 77% of New Zealand’s population live in the smaller of the two major islands, and 35% of our nation’s entire population lives in the vicinity of the city of Auckland. The population density of the North Island is 80 people per square mile. This is comparable to states such West Virginia (76) and Missouri (88). One third of the entire population of Aotearoa New Zealand lives in a region where the population density is approximately 3,100 per square mile.
And there are a lot of them:
There are more, but Fox News being such a toxic site, I’ve had enough.
I don’t normally include lengthy video clips on this blog, but today I’ll make an exception. The clip is of the daily briefing given by senior government politicians and public servants to the news media. Today’s briefing was conducted by the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay. Most of it was (as could be expected) was about the current covid-19 lockdown, but other topics such as Afghanistan are briefly touched on as well.
For any who might be interested in observing how our leaders conduct such a briefing:
For anyone interested in knowing how the current outbreak of covid is playing out in this nation (instead of guessing or listening to the likes of Fox News), I can’t do better than to point you to the official covid-19 website. There is a vast array of information available there, all based on solid science, not political posturing.
I, like most (but certainly not all) kiwis approve of this lockdown. As we have already proved, an elimination strategy can work. While it’s most likely an impractical strategy in the long term, it does buy us time to learn more about not only how this pandemic woks, but also other pandemics that are guaranteed to arise in the future. If the rest of the world had followed a similar strategy, then perhaps the world would be in a less chaotic situation that it is currently, and perhaps world economies would not have taken the hits that they have. The New Zealand economy is now above pre-covid conditions.
At this point, we cannot put the covid genie back in its bottle, and while I see much criticism of the route taken by New Zealand (especially from the American Right), isn’t it possible that the “New Zealand experiment” might provide some clues on how to better manage the next pandemic? I just want to remind our critics that the elimination strategy has never been thought of as a “final solution”. It’s a stop gap measure until a better way of handling this pandemic (and the next) is understood. It buys us time, something that most nations didn’t consider. As yet, science is has still much to learn about covid
To all those who say that covid will be with us forever, and it’s pointless to fight it, you might well be right. But what if you’re wrong? Once you’ve thrown in the towel, there’s no going back. Currently the jury is out on the best methods the world might be able to use to lessen the harm caused by pandemics. To those who claim we’re a bunch of scaredy cats, all I’m going to say on the matter is we’re not a bunch of quitters who gave up the moment the fight became difficult. To borrow from a popular commercial, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
I like to be reasonably informed on a large range of topics, and in light of our lockdown, I’ve been curious how people beyond our borders view our handling of not only our current lockdown but how we have handled the pandemic in its entirety. And to ensure I cover all bases I make a point of looking in, from time to time, on sources that express values contrary to my own. Afterall, there’s definitely a limit on how much you can learn by only listening to those who don’t challenge your current perspectives and prejudices. So I do make a foray into sources such as Fox News from time to time.
What strikes me about much online discussion, especially as it applies to Fox, is that as well has having those who are well enough informed to reach rational conclusions (even though they may reach a conclusion that is diametrically opposed to my own), there is a significant number who are, for the want of a better term, too ill informed to participate in meaningful discussion. And New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic is no exception.
Take a look at the discussion that follows the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” August 23, 2021. Although only a portion of the show was dedicated to the NZ lockdown, the discussion following is almost exclusively about that topic. I really couldn’t care less what Carlson’s politics are, but he really does need to learn that a sentence taken in isolation, out of context, and in a different cultural setting than the one he is immersed in does not necessarily convey the meaning understood by the conveyer or the receiver of the entire message.
Carlson makes a point of highlighting a sentence spoken by the Prime Minister, and failing to understand the context in which it was uttered makes the assumption that it must be understood in isolation from everything else she said at that news briefing, and everything else she has said since the pandemic first became a concern at the end of 2019. That sentence was “Don’t talk to your neighbours”.
Please Tucker, think for a moment. Since the beginning of the pandemic the Prime Minister has made a point of emphasising the necessity of being kind; checking on neighbours, friends and family; to help out whenever there is a need, including shopping for others who are unable to do so; to keep communications open with each other. How do you think that would be possible if we didn’t talk to our neighbour? The answer: it wouldn’t be possible. Period. Kiwis do understand the implied meaning of that short sentence, and while I don’t expect you to implicitly understand it’s context, I do expect someone in you position to at least discover the context in which it was uttered.
Just for your benefit, Mr Carlson, here is an expanded version of that sentence as every Kiwi will have understood it: “Don’t talk to your neighbors if it means breaking your bubble”. I really don’t want to go too deeply into what a bubble means to us in this context, but bubbles vary depending on the Covert-19 Alert Level. At Level 1, the entire nation is a single bubble, which means there are no restrictions with our borders, while at Level 4, each household is a seperate bubble. And I would like to remind you that for seventeen of the last nineteen months we have been at Alert Level 1. Can you say the same for the US? If you want to argue covid restrictions, first check out the COVID-19: Stringency Index.
I do find the discussion on that page rather interesting. If I ignore all the conspiracy theorists that seem to be attracted Fox News, there are still several categories that I can divide the comments in to: those who have made an attempt, to understand the NZ strategy for managing the pandemic; those who realise they lack sufficient knowledge and seek to understand it; those who do not realise they lack sufficient knowledge and make assumptions based on incomplete or false information; and those who are absolutely, and without a doubt, convinced that they have a better grip on the situation than the entire science community that advises the New Zealand government and policy makers.
It’s a complete waste of time trying to discuss the NZ strategy with the conspiracy theorists and those who are convinced they understand all there is to know about pandemics and how to manage them and refuse to even listen to the experts in that field. They are the willfully ignorant. Those who are the uninformed and the ill informed – the ignorant, but not willfully so – are a different matter. I don’t feel it a waste of time or effort in providing them with some resources that they can use to become better informed. I intend to do just that in the next blog post The aim isn’t to persuade them to agree with my perspective, but to provide them with some resources that will allow them to make their own informed conclusions.
To all those who have been so absolutely certain that this nation has gone mad because we went into lockdown less than 24 hours after a single covid-19 infection was discovered in the community, here’s why.
We’re in day five of the lockdown, and that one case has now grown to 72 cases, and there are now 8,667 close contacts who are required to isolate at home. There’s also 280 places of interest – places visited by individuals while they were infectious. These include potential superspreader locations such as a church, a gym, a lecture theatre, a public hospital, and six schools.
Waste water testing, which covers over 70% of the population has detected the Delta variant in a locality where there is currently no known covid case. It’s unlikely to be a recovered case still shedding RNA fragments as Delta is a very recent arrival in this country. If lockdown had been delayed for even a day, I’m sure that the number of contacts would be at least an order of magnitude larger than it is. If the authorities had delayed for several days, it would have been too late to put the covid genie back in the bottle.
Aotearoa New Zealand has a highly efficient and effective track and trace system, and genome sequencing has been carried out on every covid infection since the pandemic first arrived on these shores. To date, this has served us well and for most of the time we have had the freedom to move about and congregate in the same manner as before Covid arrived. Delta is a gamechanger.
What has become apparent is that with the Delta variant, a person can become infectious less than 24 hours after first being infected, and before becoming symptomatic. What this means is that if I were to catch delta right now, I’d be capable of transmitting it to someone else before this time tomorrow. But it could be another day or so before I recognise flu like symptoms and seek a test. In this country, most of those who are infected with the Delta variant are younger (typically in their 20s), more gregarious and socially mobile. This allows Delta to spread so much more rapidly than other variants, and has the potential to overwhelm the track and trace system, not to mention the entire health system.
All premises and places open to the public are required to display a Covid QR code for anyone to scan as they enter. I’ve been scrupulous in scanning in everywhere I go, but I’m an exception. As I’ve commented elsewhere on this blog, I estimate less than 10% of the public actually bother to scan. Due to Delta, this is about to change.
Locations where mask wearing isn’t always practical such as restaurants, cafes, churches, bars, etc, and events and locations that are potential superspreaders, will be required to enforce QR scanning. Personally I’d like to see it extended to include all retail outlets and places of business. But I understand placing the onus on the retailer to enforce compliance might be problematic.
On the other hand, I see scanning as a social responsibility, and I see no reason why the onus to do so shouldn’t be on me rather than the owner of the premises or event. As a member of society, I have responsibilities to do or not do certain activities, and I don’t see why this shouldn’t include scanning QR codes as well.
As new information comes to hand – the covid website is now being updated regularly, every two hours, with statistics and places of interest – I’m certain that an extension to the lockdown will be announced tomorrow. For how long, and how we’ll step back down from Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 1, I’m not sure as my crystal ball seems rather cloudy at the moment. I’d like to think that regions outside of those where known covid cases exist will be relaxed by the end of the month, but as this is all unknown territory – no other nation has eliminated the Delta variant – time will eventually reveal how this will all play out. Being forever optimistic, and having been through it once before, I expect it will be “business as usual” by the end of September. But just in case, I’ll keep my fingers and toes crossed.
To all those who claim that covid is not potentially dangerous, and often quote deaths per 100,000 of the general population to support their argument, case fatalities tell a very different story, depending on where you happen to reside. For example, if you live in the Yemen and catch covid, you have a one in five chance of dying. In Peru you have a one in ten chance of dying and in Mexico, a one in 12 chance. In the UK it’s one in fifty and the US one in sixty. They are not odds I’m prepared to gamble with. In NZ the odds of dying are around one in 110.
Given that the fatality rate for the Delta variant is similar to other variants even though it affects more younger people, it seems logical to assume the odds of a person in my age bracket dying from the Delta variant will be many times greater than the average – perhaps as much as ten times greater. That would increase the odds of me dying to somewhere in the vicinity of one in ten if I’m unlucky enough to catch covid. If you consider your “right” to spread a potentially fatal illness surpasses my right not to be isolated for the rest of my natural life, then you deserve everything society throws a you. Hopefully it’ll be a ton of bricks.
The good news is that this country no longer needs to ration covid vaccinations as supplies are now meeting demand. Vaccinations are now ramping up and as from the end of August, everyone over the age of twelve will be able to book their shots. Supplies are now guaranteed to ensure everyone will be able to be be fully vaccinated by year’s end.
Kia kaha
(Stay strong)
At time of writing there are now 2362 known contacts related to the current delta outbreak that started with a single covid case identified on Tuesday. Of those contacts, 31 are known to be infected with covid, three outside of Auckland, and more than 300 of the contacts are dispersed throughout the country, including the South Island. This is precisely what I predicted in yesterday’s blog post. In just three days, a single known infection has snowballed to almost two and a half thousand contacts.
We’ve also learnt that we will not be coming out of lockdown tonight (I didn’t think we would, but I was hopeful we might). The nation will remain in lockdown until at least midnight on Tuesday. The three infected individuals outside of Auckland were there over the weekend, one group returning to Wellington by air, the other by car, stopping at four petrol stations and a similar number of cafes on the way. This will give rise to considerably more contacts needing to be traced, and given the number of places these three travellers passed through I can see the number swelling by several hundred at least. And of course any new infections discovered between now and Tuesday are also likely to result in dozens of addition contacts.
Thankfully, by Monday, if everyone has been following the rules, new contacts should have dropped off to near zero, barring the possibility that an essential worker is infected but has escaped detection. I doubt we’ll immediately drop from alert level 4 back to alert level 1 (near normal but with closed border) on Tuesday, but my guess we’ll drop to alert level 3 (a less restrictive lockdown) for a week or perhaps two then to alert level 2 (restrictions on large gatherings) for a similar period before returning to alert level 1. Unlike most of the rest of the world, we’ve been been living near to a normal life since May 2020 – well as normal is possible given that the rest of the world continues to flounder hopelessly in a sea rising infections. and I expect we’ll return to normality in a few weeks from now.
Today, I read the comments on a few Youtube clips pertaining to the lockdown. I wish I hadn’t. As well as the usual range of conspiracy theorists, there were those that have no understanding of what exponential means or how it plays out, those who judge nations on the gender and/or sexual orientation of the leaders (the Prime Minister is a woman and the Deputy Prime Minister is gay), those who judge a nation on the physical appearance of the leaders, and those who find it implausible for a nation to consider their leaders trustworthy.
What I find surprising, but perhaps I shouldn’t, is that so many Youtube conversation threads degenerate into two camps: one camp being mostly Kiwis supporting New Zealand’s elimination stance, and in the other camp consisting mostly of non-Kiwis being anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, covid hoaxers, and conspiracy theorists, most of whom believe this nation is under the control of a fascist or communist (take your pick) authoritarian dictatorship fighting a losing battle with covid. Any references to world freedom indexes, be they from a left wing think tank or a right wing think tank, ranking Aotearoa New Zealand the most free nation on the planet are written off as irrelevant. The vitriol (spouted from both sides) reminds me why I chose WordPress as my platform for expression instead of Youtube.
Even in regards to restrictions specifically related to covid, this country has much less stringent than most other nations, but our detractors don’t seem to be able to follow a simple chart. The detractors refuse to accept the evidence that even their “ideal” model of covid freedom, Sweden, is more restrictive than Aotearoa New Zealand:
There is one New Zealand blog I follow where I disagree with almost everything that is posted. I follow it to remind myself that there are locals who have a radically different world view from mine. My opinions of their postings range from ignorant claptrap to idiotic nonsense, although very occasionally (and I emphasis very occasionally) I find a post that I can almost agree with.
My impression of those who comment on the blog is that most are anti-vaxxers, covid deniers, conspiracy theorists of various types, and mostly right wing (by NZ standards). In a post today, the writer lamented the fact that they had to cancel a restaurant booking due to the yesterday’s lockdown notice. Let me quote part of the article:
Call me simple and definitely cynical if you like but I fail to see any value to any of our group, the restaurant and its staff and the New Zealand Covid extinction by locking down anywhere south of about Hamilton and locking down the South Island is surely over kill.
Ok, I call you simple. It’s not about you.
In my view the blogger has a ludicrously overly simplistic understanding of how covid is transmitted. We know: the Delta variant is highly contagious – even a fleeting contact such as one person walking past another in a park; the case identified yesterday had been infectious in the community for many days and had visited at least 25 locations over that period, some hundreds of kilometres apart; the source of the infection is unknown; Kiwis are a highly mobile lot and I guess there’s been many tens of thousands of us who have travelled in and out of the Auckland and Coromandel regions from all around NZ over the past week. I can guarantee there have been hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who will have travelled between the poster’s home town and Auckland or Coromandel during the period in question.
While it’s highly unlikely that the writer or their dining friends will come into contact with an infectious person, the odds are very high that someone in their hometown who will be either a primary or secondary contact of the yesterday’s case or one of the six related cases identified so far today. Likewise, there’s probably thousands who have travelled between Auckland and the South Island in the week prior to lockdown. Sure, it’s highly unlikely that a specific person (the blogger in this case) will be a person of interest, but you can bet your bottom dollar that there’s at least one person in his hometown and the South Island who will be.
I think the blogger fails to understand the exponential rate of transmission of the Delta variant. It has an R0 factor of between 5 and 8. This means that a single person, on average, will infect between 5 and 8 other persons. In a best case scenario, one person will infect 5 who will infect 25 who will infect 125 who will infect 625 who will infect 3125. that’s a total of 3906 people in just five iterations. In a worse case scenario, and ignoring any superspreading event, the same number of iterations will result in a total of 37,449 infections.
Two independent modelling exercises indicate that with the immediate level 4 lockdown as of last night, the single reported case is likely to rise to somewhere between 50 and 130 before it’s squashed. It’s already at seven, and as yet we do not know the source of the current outbreak, the modelling may greatly underestimate what the final figure will be.
At the start of the pandemic, our government had intended to follow the same course that most other nations did – flatten the curve to prevent the outbreak from overwhelming the health system. However even the most optimistic modelling projections showed that the NZ health system would be totally overwhelmed in very short time. Hence the change to an elimination strategy shortly after covid arrived here. Given that this is the first lockdown we’ve had outside of Auckland apart from the initial 6-week lockdown in March last year, I am firmly convinced that it has been the correct path to follow.
We do know that this particular outbreak is related to the New South Wales, Australia strain of the Delta variant, so now there is a scramble to trace exactly how it arrived in this country. Genome sequencing can estimate how many intermediaries there have been between a known case and a newly discovered case, and due to the strictly controlled nature of entry into Aotearoa New Zealand, I think that there’s a good chance of tracking its path from NSW to NZ.
Update: As of 7 pm, today, the total number of cases has risen to ten. One case is a teacher at a high school, another is a fully vaccinated nurse in a public hospital, and another is a student who attended a lecture yesterday along with 80 others. These three instances are possible super spreading events that could seriously skew modelling estimates. One case is now known to have a connection with the border. Similar to the situation elsewhere most of the delta infections are in younger adults – here, mostly in their 20s.
For the first time in 169 days a case of covid-19 has been found in the community. It’s never been a case of if it returned but a case of when. At time of writing, no link to the border or managed isolation has been found. The result of genome sequencing will be available by the morning and that should identify the variant, if it is related to any known border contact or managed isolation source, and if so how many degrees of separation between that source and the single known community case.
As there is currently no identified source and in recent months most cases arriving at the border have been the Delta variant, and having seen the outcome in Australia where lockdowns have been too little too late, the authorities here have decided to go early and hard.
I’m sure in many in other parts of the world people will find it difficult to fathom why a whole nation should go into a total lockdown on the day that a single covid case is discovered in the community, especially as many nations are gradually coming out of various states of long term lockdowns or restrictions on social gatherings. Apart from the initial six week lockdown at the start of the pandemic, this country has been mostly in a state of “business as usual”, international tourism being the only exception.
However we only need to look across the ditch to Australia to see that by imposing minimum restrictions and then ramping up as they prove inadequate is not particularly effective. I don’t think they’ve reached the point of no return yet, but it must be getting closer by the day. In the other parts of the world, even where the rates of vaccination are high, hospitals are again experiencing overloads, and younger age groups are being affected compared to previous variants.
So for the first time since April 2020, Aotearoa New Zealand is going into a nationwide lockdown: one week for Auckland and the Coromandel, and 3 days for the rest of the country, starting a one minute before midnight tonight. Apart from essential services such as dairies (small convenience stores), supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, and medical and emergency services the nation will shut down. Movement outside our household bubbles will be restricted to accessing essential services or exercising in our neighbourhoods.
Masks have not been mandated here apart from on public transport, and it’s still rare to see them being worn in other public places. That might change in the next 24 hours. The Prime Minister has hinted that there may be some changes and they have been discussed in Cabinet, but until the regulations have been draughted and gone through the necessary legal processes, she will not speculate on what might change. I expect we will need to wear masks when going to the supermarket for the duration of the lockdown, perhaps a little longer.
This country is some way behind many other OECD nations when it comes to the rollout of the COVID vaccination. The prime reason is due to supply, but everyone over the age of sixteen will have the opportunity to be vaccinated before the end of the year. However, some ethnic groups – Māori and Pacifica in particular have relatively young populations. Even if everyone within those groups who are legible get a jab, it still leaves 30% of their population vulnerable. That’s not enough to provide herd immunity. It looks like those above twelve might soon be able to be protected, and I understand research is being undertaken on the safety and effectiveness of vaccinating those as young as 12 months.
Our borders are not going to open until herd immunity has been achieved. When that will be achieved is still open to speculation. I suspect that most Kiwis would prefer restrictions remain at the border rather than within it, and there is little appetite to open up to a covid ravaged world. For that reason I expect the any temporary restrictions imposed here will be be accepted with little opposition as it’s not much to pay for the freedoms we have enjoyed while the rest of the world has gone mad.
Kia ora!
Two to 2, or more precisely two days to Alert Level 2. At precisely 11:59 on Wednesday the 13th of May, Aotearoa drops to COVID-19 Alert Level 2. The announcement today came as a nice 71st birthday present.
Life at Alert Level 2 means we will be able resume most of our everyday activities — but but with strings attached.
The 10-person limit will expand over time depending on the rate of new infections.
Life will still have some way to go before we can consider it “normal” and we will have some restrictions for some time.
I can live with those for an extended period if need be.
kia haumaru, kia kaha
Keep safe, Keep strong
For the wife and I, living at Alert Level Three for the last ten days is for all practical purposes no different from the Alert Level Four we had been living under for the previous 33 days. We are still isolated in our household bubble. We can now drive the few kilometres to Kitchener park and take the boardwalk through the forest, but it hasn’t exactly been “walk in the Park” weather recently.
We had been restricted to accessing only essential services such as the supermarket, pharmacies and medical centres, or exercising in the immediate neighbourhood. Now we can purchase non-essential items either online or through contactless arrangements such as “click and collect”.
If we really felt the urge, we could order a takeaway (I think Americans call it take out) for delivery or through some form of “click and collect” or even a drive thru. Judging by the size of the queues at fast food outlets on the first day of Level Three, we might be unusual in not missing junk food.
Due to the new health and safety requirements regarding distancing, the output at fast food outlets is only a fraction of that prior to lockdown. On day one at Level Three, the queues at some fast food outlets were several hours long! Somehow fast food doesn’t seem an appropriate description.
There are a few people and businesses that want an immediate move to Alert Level Two, but given the cautious approach taken by the authorities, I expect the initial two-week period at Level Three to be extended by at least a few days or possibly a week or more.
Those clambering for an immediate relaxation conveniently ignore the fact that any upward trend in the infection rate under Level Three will not be seen for around two weeks, especially in the light of current new daily infections can be counted on one hand with several digits missing.
The current infection rate has an R0 of 0.4, and I prefer that it stays that way or drops lower. The authorities are expected to make an announcement on Monday of when Level Two will commence, and I won’t be surprised if they announce a date at least a week away.
The full details are on the official COVID-19 Website, but a more simplified version is available on the the official website of the New Zealand Government.
The most significant change for me is that I will be able to exit out household bubble and to rub shoulders (figuratively of course) with close friends and family. The downside is that I’ll also be expected to rub shoulders with the rest of society.
Over the six weeks of lockdown I’ve realised how stressful I find actual live social interaction, and if I had my way, I’d restrict communication to less interactive forms such as email or blogging. I’ve really embraced such forms over the last six weeks, and don’t really look forward to resuming more “immediate” forms of social interaction. I have little doubt that the most significant factor in feeling this way is due to being on the autism spectrum.
So while there’s no doubt that most Kiwis are looking forward to returning to something closer to “normal” as soon as possible, I’m in no particular hurry, and for my own peace of mind, I’m not particularly fazed if we stay at Level Three for several more weeks.
Two law professors, Professor Andrew Geddis, Faculty of Law, University of Otago, and Professor Claudia Geiringer, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington raise some questions about the legality of the lockdown orders that we in Aotearoa New Zealand are currently living under. We are, as from midnight last night, at Level Three, whereas we were at Level Four for the previous 33 days.
It will be interesting to see if there are any genuine challenges to the legality of the current lockdown orders. Such a challenge is likely to come in the form of a request for a judicial review. Two badly formulated claims for habeas corpus (A v Ardern [2020] NZHC 796; B v Ardern [2020] NZHC 814) have failed, but the article by Geddis and Geiringer certainly raise some issues that I think need clarification.
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