Jacinda Ardern

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Epidemic Response Committee Forces Clark’s Hand

By Wendy Geus

 

Oops I did it again”, reads David Farrar’s headline on his Kiwiblog, referring to our naughty Health Minister David Clark’s other (concealed) breaches of the isolation rules, as daily laid down by his PM. I laughed out loud at the accuracy of Farrar’s reference.

Lucky Clark has been able to hold on to his job, thanks to his kind and caring boss, and pay the price by slipping down the cabinet rankings (not sure if Dr Bloomfield will approve the downgrading of his crucial ministry), and he has lost his associate finance minister role. 

The PM’s explanation at Tuesday’s press conference unintentionally revealed Clark’s real reason for coming clean. She said whilst preparing for his appearance at the select committee on Tuesday he remembered his other breaches and phoned her Monday night.

Translation: His 20/20 memory occurred at the prospect of appearing before the Epidemic Response Committee on Tuesday. Under the close questioning of National MPs, if he concealed his other indiscretions, he would be lying to a government select committee. Our flakey minister, not averse to breaking the rules, drew the line at that.

So he came clean and did his big mea culpa in front of the media at the beginning of the Committee’s session on Tuesday morning. 

The Epidemic Response Committee (along with the media and experts) is having an important influence on the Government response to the epidemic. 

Professor of Epidemiology Sir David Skegg emphasised twice during his appearance on Tuesday, the importance of quarantining the border. Ever the brilliant communicator, he said that the current border status is “like emptying a bath with a cup and leaving the tap dripping.” Love this man. 

Fast forward an hour to Tuesday’s press conference where Dr Bloomfield said he was providing “active advice” on border security. That is a euphemism for “I have been nagging the government for weeks to impose full quarantine at the border.”

(Bloomfield is my personal hero of this crisis: restrained, respectful of the media, a total professional, striving to retain objectivity under the impossible restraints of the government’s spin.)

And yesterday after David Williams on Newsroom’s concern that journalists were not getting answers, suddenly Ardern was there bright-eyed at the 1pm briefing with Dr Bloomfield, announcing they would “linger longer” taking the media’s questions.

Now Ardern is using phrases like the border must be “watertight”, is an “ongoing” area of risk and “more announcements will be made shortly.”

This is an about turn from last week, where, willing to leave things to ‘trust’, she was flippantly resisting journalists’ questions around fuller quarantine. What a difference a week makes!

Ardern looks like the pressure is starting to take its toll. But she is holding up well. She sets a better standard than her minister. 

Tony Ryall, National’s Health Minister during the 2009 global swine flu pandemic, gave two media briefings a day. Beside him Clark looks like a dying duck in a thunderstorm.

 

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Massive Quarantine Operation Could Have Avoided Extreme Lockdown

(And Huge Economic Loss)

By Wendy Geus

 

The government’s tone-deafness to total border quarantine until yesterday will contribute massively to the approaching economic devastation.

Jacinda has managed the public relations side of the crisis magnificently. However, as Sean Plunket also said yesterday on his Working Group, Dr Ashley Bloomfield and other officials made the key decisions which led to the lockdown. She is merely the front person. 

My belief is that Bloomfield has been forced to take this course as Ardern dug her heels in initially and refused to fully quarantine, against his advice. With the Opposition on her case since February to adopt tough border controls (and questioning individual cases such as the unwell, untested Iranian woman) that was all the incentive she needed to ignore the Director General as well.

Also, she was a tad distracted by the approaching one-year commemoration of the Christchurch massacre and mindful of her global PR obligations (despite the Muslim community making it clear they do not commemorate this way). Huge pressure on her to cancel this and the Pasifika Festival from Bloomfield and other officials did not dissuade her until the day before the event. 

CRUCIALLY HER MIND WAS NOT FULLY ON THIS PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS UNTIL AFTER 15 MARCH.

Ardern’s Achilles heel is always her adherence to ideology. In this case, as the darling of open borders, she was reluctant to go the whole hog to fully quarantine returning Kiwis, after declaring our borders closed on March 20^th. 

Reliance on the public to self-isolate correctly is unreliable. This will work …for most. It is always the minority who let us down. Some intentionally, others ignorant of the rules. Gosh even her own wayward health minister couldn’t grasp the rules, and he supposedly set them!

Photoshopped image credit Pixy

Adherence to such things as ‘human rights’ detract from the immediate issue of a life or death situation and are actually irrelevant in a crisis. (We have tragically seen this in Italy where the choice of whom to sacrifice had to be made in their overburdened hospitals)

The Green branch of Ardern’s government would have been in her ear on this. Another reason why they must be toast come the September elections. (or whenever)

Only with esteemed epidemiologists, health officials, the media and the opposition on her case – along with National’s 24-hour 40,000-person petition – did she finally cave.

Let’s be clear. She had not been planning this all along. Her reported narrative to the media makes a lie of this assertion. In her naivety, she was all for trusting returning kiwis.

The best scenario of full quarantine of the border from February or early March would have been a massive logistical undertaking costing possibly 100 million dollars, or much more. 

NO JACINDA, IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK. Only little minds who are not agile enough and strategically and intellectually unable to take on the massive logistics planning requirements would fail. Say no more. 

We could have avoided shutting down New Zealand completely and putting our economy into free fall and the massive $20-30 billion we are now borrowing to keep the economy afloat.

The $100-million-plus cost of fully quarantining our borders much earlier would have been chicken feed, compared to what we are now facing and the massive burden being placed on generations to come.

 

 

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NZ’s Covid Timeline of Not Going Hard or Early

NZ Government Slow to Respond and Withholding Information on New Clusters and Availability of Medical Supplies

By Suze

he prime minister did not quarantine airport arrivals or turn away infected cruise ships, and for her failures we pay the price of being locked in our homes for weeks.

Wibble commented on Wendy Geus’s post Massive Quarantine Operation Could Have Avoided Extreme Lock down

 

“Jacinda said that it was “just too hard” to check everyone who might have the virus coming into the country, because there are so incredibly many of them. So it is best to wait until almost everyone with the virus is already in the country, and then only check the tiny few stragglers still remaining. And the media and all Jacinda voters see absolutely no problem with that ‘strategy’.”

It is six weeks after our first case and two weeks into lockdown when the PM finally agrees to quarantine all arrivals.

Under lockdown, the ministry admits to breaching privacy legislation by releasing the names of two COVID-19 cases. But instead of addressing their own internal failing they simply refuse to share detailed information on new cases. They won’t give us affected suburbs or timely information about new clusters. A Newspaper reports that once again, we pay the price for the government’s mistakes. 

“Up until last week, specific information about clusters including their exact location was published online. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today that approach changed because of a privacy breach by the ministry.”

We are the whipping dog for incompetent handling of COVID-19. At some point, hopefully, sooner than later, this dog will wake up and bite the hand that has treated it with disdain. The dog gratefully licking the prime minister’s hand today, because it thinks it’s off the hook from the disease, will bare its teeth. Comforted by flattened numbers of COVID-19 cases under lockdown and with more tests being carried out the PM says she is “cautiously optimistic.” She is lulled into a false sense of security.

Initially, testing was restricted and sick people complained they were refused testing because they lacked the travel element. There was also confusion around the testing criteria, which were recently expanded. Was this to cope with an initial shortage of test kits?

No one knows how many asymptomatic virus carriers are triggering new clusters or how many people still harbour the disease because, although the criteria for recovery have changed several times, they still don’t include a negative test — which is fundamental overseas practice.

The government is also keeping the location of new Covid hotspots to themselves.

“An Auckland COVID-19 cluster comprised of [sic] dozens of positive coronavirus cases is shrouded in mystery, with the Prime Minister and the Director-General of Health both refusing to provide further details.

“Government officials are staying mum on the cluster, which they’ve revealed involves 25 people and originated in an Auckland workplace, but won’t say any more about.”

Corralled at home we are like children fed just enough information to encourage optimism. When medical staff complain they lack PPE why would we believe the ministry that says there’s plenty to go around? Shortages are simply a distribution issue they say. Coincidentally, the same explanation applies to complaints about a shortage of nasal swabs. Michael Morrah writing for Newshub says there “appears to be a massive disconnect with what the public is being told, and what is actually happening on the ground.”

“Despite constant assurances that we have thousands [of nasal swabs], I am speaking to doctors on a daily basis who say they’re struggling to get enough (5 at a time), or have been told by labs their practice cannot get any as there is not enough.

“Early in this crisis, I put a simple question to the Health Ministry’s media team about Personal Protective Equipment.

“It took FOUR days to get a response, and when I did, the information provided was vague, unhelpful, and did not answer my question.”

Plugging the borders in early March would certainly have avoided the Ruby Princess clusters, and who knows how many others? This week the PM’s excuse for not quarantining earlier was the unavailability of hotel rooms, but what about the Whangaparoa Naval Base available since February, or the numerous military and church camps up and down the country? Leaky borders guaranteed community spread and economic uncertainty. We will bear the brunt of government stuff ups.

The NZ Timeline of COVID-19

2019

• 17 November – first case in Wuhan, Hubei province China but not reported until 8 April 2020 when the South China Morning Post accessed previously unreleased government data
• November – American intelligence officers knew a new contagion was sweeping Wuhan in November but they couldn’t get the message through to the top, according to ABC News. As we are part of Five Eyes, when was our intelligence service, and the PM, alerted?
• 27 December – first cluster of 180(?) incurable pneumonia cases reported to Chinese health authorities
• 31 December – China notified WHO of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak

2020

• 21 January – WHO first situation report released
• 24 January – NZ Ministry of Health sets up a monitoring group and says we are currently a low risk
• 25 January – Australia reports its first three cases
• 27 January – NZ public health staff start meeting flights from China to look for signs of the virus
• 30 January – NZ government charters an Air New Zealand flight to evacuate New Zealanders from Wuhan
• 31 January – WHO declares COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern
• 3 February – New Zealand Government places entry restrictions on foreign nationals travelling here from, or transiting through, mainland China, and those who can enter the country must self-isolate for 14 days
• 6 February – flight from Wuhan arrives with 193 passengers who are quarantined for 14 days at a naval base in Whangaparaoa
• 8 February – Diamond Princess with two New Zealanders on board is berthed in Yokohama with 64 passengers infected and quarantined in their rooms
• 12 February – WHO names the novel coronavirus COVID-19
• 17 February – first death outside China reported in France, and 60 million people in Hubei province are told to stay home
• 19 February – Iran reports its first case
• 22 February – the Diamond Princess now reports 634 cases and proves cruise ships are Petri dishes for the virus, with a 890% increase in 14 days. Italy quarantines more than 50,000 people from 11 different municipalities in the north of the country
• 26 February – increased cases in Italy, Iran and South Korea outnumber reported cases in China
• 28 February – NZ reports our first case, a traveller from Iran. Muslim family members of people who died in the Christchurch mosque shootings said they were unhappy about a public commemoration on the March 15 anniversary. They are ignored.
• 29 February – NZ health staff begin meeting direct flights landing at New Zealand airports from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand
• 4 March – NZ’s second case, who flew in from northern Italy
• 5 March – our third case, a family member of someone who flew in from Iran
• 6 March – our fourth case, related to travel from Italy
• 7 March – our fifth case, related to travel from Iran
• 8 March – more than 100 countries report cases
• 8 March – Ruby Princess docks in Sydney, having travelled from Port Chalmers with 158 sick passengers on board, 13 registering high temperatures. Nine were tested in Sydney however ALL passengers were allowed to disembark including a Northern Territory couple who flew to Darwin and later tested positive for COVID-19
• 10 March – the whole of Italy is put into lockdown
• 11 March – WHO declares a pandemic
• 12 March – Ruby Princess sails from Sydney with 2,700 new passengers on board and docks in Port Chalmers on Thursday 12 March, Wellington on Saturday 14 March and Napier on Sunday 15 March without alerting passengers that coronavirus cases were suspected on board. Clusters developed in Wellington and Napier.
• 13 March – Auckland’s Pasifika Festival is cancelled due to concerns about the risk of the virus spreading into the Pacific and Europe is now the epicentre of the pandemic
• 14 March – our sixth case, related to travel from the US. The NZ Government announces anyone entering the country must self-isolate for 14 days, except those arriving from the Pacific. Cruise ships are banned from the country but the Ruby Princess continues its voyage from Wellington to Napier. Strict border measures for people travelling from New Zealand to the Pacific are put in place, including health assessment requirements. France and Spain go into lockdown but NO strict border measures for NZ airport arrivals. Tomorrow’s Christchurch mosque commemorations are cancelled at the last minute
• 15 March – two more travel-related cases bring our total to eight, and Grant Robertson says the government is expecting a serious blow to the economy from the effects of the virus and the travel ban
• 15-18 March – Ruby Princess docks in Napier causing a cluster of cases
• 16 March – Jacinda Ardern says any tourists that enter New Zealand and don’t self-quarantine will be deported. Germany closes its borders with France, Austria and Switzerland, Canada shuts its borders to foreign nationals except for US citizens. Other countries with border closures include Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Our airports remain open to incoming travellers, who are NOT checked for COVID-19
• 17 March – three new cases are confirmed in New Zealand, and Healthline is monitoring 2875 people in self-isolation. The government announces a $12.1 billion package, worth 4 percent of the country’s GDP. The package includes a $500 million boost for health, $8.7 billion in support for businesses and jobs and $2.8 billion for income support and boosting consumer spending. A Dunedin school will close for the next two days after a pupil is confirmed to be the country’s 12th case of COVID-19
• 18 March – NZ has eight new cases, all travel-related
• 19 March – NZ has another eight cases, all travel-related. Indoor gatherings of more than 100 people are to be cancelled. Our borders are closed to all but NZ citizens and permanent residents but still no airport checks
• 20 March – 11 more cases of COVID-19 are confirmed. Auckland Council closes pools, libraries, galleries and other community facilities for 14 days. Worldwide it has taken more than three months to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 12 days to reach the next 100,000.
• 21 March – we have 13 new cases including our first two suspected cases of community transmission. Government introduces the four-stage alert system, saying we are already at Level Two with no explanation of when we went into Level One.
• 22 March – we have 14 new cases; some are suspected community transmission and PM announces we are at Level Three and will move to Level Four in 48 hours. People are instructed to stay at home. Schools and other educational facilities will be closed from 24 March. All non-essential businesses will close (this excludes essential businesses like supermarkets, pharmacies and medical clinics.) Travel will be severely limited and healthcare services will be re-prioritised. First Pacific death in Guam with cases in Fiji (2), Papua New Guinea (1), French Polynesia (11), New Caledonia (4) and Hawaii (48). Nauru, Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu have all declared a state of emergency
• 24 March – 24 new cases including four confirmed community transmission
• 25 March – 50 new cases. A state of emergency is declared and the country goes into lockdown under Level Four at midnight, for a minimum of four weeks 
• 26-28 March – under lockdown with a daily increase of new cases
• 28 & 30 March – each day has 100 diagnosed and probable new cases which is the highest number of daily new cases to date
• 29 March – first NZ death
• 31 March – total cases 647 with 74 people recovered
• 1-7 April – new cases bring the total number to 1,120 with 65 recovered. Returning travellers take the virus back to their families in lockdown
• 6-10 April – a drop in daily new cases causing unsupported optimism given we have no idea about the number of asymptomatic cases of community spread yet to be revealed
• 9 April – Well overdue, the government FINALLY tightens the borders, making 14 days quarantine mandatory for returning New Zealanders and ending incoming COVID-19. This day we have 29 new diagnosed and probable cases, the lowest daily number to date
• 10 April – second death and 1,283 total cases

 

 

[tripple alliance 1,026]

Here's an interesting stat  , Queensland had 9 new virus infections yesterday , Queensland population 5.1 Million and they haven't had extreme , financial ruining restrictions placed on them . They will have  big costs to endure but because Ausse has been more open with business a return to financial stability will be much quicker than here in NZ .

All will be sorted here and in Ausse in a couple of months , what will people think of comrade cindy when the true cost of her decision to take extreme measures becomes apparent and people are hurting , 2 deaths so far .

[Ohokaman 5,844]

More good news to look forward to....

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/120995116/coronavirus-treasury-models-paint-dire-economic-picture-mass-unemployment?rm=a

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Remember When They Told Us That Talk of a Lockdown Was Fake News?

By Ibdkiwi 

 

For the nostalgia buffs.

Do you remember when the lefty-press (almost all of them) said talk of a lockdown was fake news, totalitarian, and all that? Do you remember when they said it would cause massive social alarm and induce panic? Do you remember when Ms Ardern, the single source of truth, was ‘forced’ to deny it? Do you remember when we were told that it was “vital that we think harder about what we read and hear”

 

The BFD

Do you remember when, two days after the Dompost editorial, Ms Ardern announced we were going into lockdown, thanks to her enlarged capacity for nong-think, complacency, and above-average cluelessness? Do you remember how “others” had urged her to go harder, earlier?

Now, apparently, she’s a model of leadership. Do these clowns think we were born yesterday?
I think they do.

The BFD. Photoshopped image credit SadButTrue

 

[Nerula 1,403]

The reality is she is out of her depth. Her Deputy has gone awol to Whananaki. The health Minister is an idiot, The DG of Health is a lightweight. Robo is itching to print money.

The lockdown we know now from events is madness, as elimination of the virus is a dream when there is an unknown number of asymptomatic people ready to start the virus round 2 then round 3 and on.

All the deaths here are WITH the virus. The answer is for the vulnerable to stay isolated (I'm that) and everyone go back to work and try and save the country.

We are not fighting a war, we are hiding under the bed.

[Ohokaman 5,844]

Bob Jones well worth a read....

https://nopunchespulled.com/2020/04/13/the-coming-economic-crisis-and-its-political-consequences/

[100 1 1,386]

Bob didn't even mention the the US Treasury has taken control of the Fed Res.

Don't think he has any idea what is coming US wise .

All govts are going to be implicated.

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Media Propaganda Takes the Cake

By Ibdkiwi

 

arie Antoinette never said, “Let them eat cake”. It was a propaganda invention, but as for taking the cake, that’s a media reality, happening in front of our very eyes.

Hot on the heels of the love-fest following news of the USA’s most insignificant cable news channel ‘praising’ Ms Ardern’s leadership, followed by strictly-left Washington Post‘s column by New Zealander Anna Fifield, a glowing wee piece filed from the metropolis known as Havelock North, we now have headlines of “praise” from the Independent‘s Alastair Campbell.

 

The BFD.

Yes: that Alastair Campbell – dyed in red leftist, Chardonnay socialist, Tony Blair’s bulldust-peddler, curator of the 2003 Dodgy WMD Dossier, intensely-disliked media-man for the “worst ever” 2005 Lions’ tour to NZ; despised by All Black fans and Lions tour-group players alike, anti-Brexiteer, organiser of the failed vote-split strategy in the 2019 UK elections: that Alastair Campbell.

The man previously introduced thus:

“The English spin-doctor accused of conjuring tall tales of imaginary Iraqi weapons of mass destruction is at it again in our own backyard” and “Controversial Campbell”

Both from the NZ Herald. The Listener piled in as well:

“Campbell wasn’t just a Tony Blair spin-doctor. He wasn’t just a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq…”

You get the idea.

But praise “Blunder Woman” PM Jacinda Ardern, Winston’s preferred Prime Minister, and suddenly he’s forgiven, his opinion not just newsworthy, but headline-worthy. It’s utterly astonishing. Cringe-worthy. What a sad and sorry group of slobberers our mainstream media have become, and that’s very concerning.

What actual ‘leadership’ can these ‘praisers’ point to? One single thing? Just one? There’s nothing but nothingness. Not a single original or timely idea can they point to during this crisis because she hasn’t had one. In fact: she was ‘praised’ for down-playing the pandemic by Media Inc. while “Orange-Man” Donald Trump was accused of over-reacting.

Campbell romanticises:

“Could any other leader have stood at a government lectern as she did recently and talked directly to children about how yes, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny were key workers”

Well: probably, yes. But they would have been laughed off the lectern for it.

Mr Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction claims that while Mr Johnson in the UK, and Mr Trump in the USA, were “dithering”, “Blunder Woman” Ms Ardern was delivering a pitch-perfect message of essential social restraint and ramped up testing on March 21st. This ignored, of course, that Mr Trump had removed all federal restrictions on COVID-19 testing three weeks before, pre-empted Ms Ardern on travel restrictions and declared a ‘National Emergency’ on March 13th. Meanwhile, Mr Johnson had declared all bars, restaurants, cafe’s, gyms and schools closed for the public good prior to Blunder Woman’s ‘original’ and ‘inventive’ masterstrokes.

This media massaging is no more than the left cheer-leading the left, presented as news. It’s pure propaganda, writ large and in action. It’s nonsense. It takes the cake.

Dog whisperer Cartoon credit: SonovaMin

 

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Posted on April 12, 2020
By Dr Muriel Newman

 

As we end the third week of the Government’s State of Emergency 28-day lockdown, it becomes easier to imagine what it would be like living under socialist rule in a Police State.

In a BBC interview, the former British Supreme Court Judge Lord Sumption warns that lockdowns represent an ‘hysterical slide into a police state’: “The real problem is that when human societies lose their freedom, it’s not usually because tyrants have taken it away. It’s usually because people willingly surrender their freedom in return for protection against some external threat. And the threat is usually real but exaggerated.”

There’s no question that the threat from COVID-19 in New Zealand has been exaggerated by Prime Minister Ardern and her Government to justify the imposition of State rule. Her doomsday predictions of “tens of thousands of deaths”, based on ‘worst-case’ computer modelling, helped shock the nation into compliance. 

Lord Sumption asks the question that’s now on everyone’s mind – is the cure worse than the disease: “Is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy for an indefinite period, destroying businesses that honest and hardworking people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt, depression, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable distress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all?”

The former Judge reminds us that at times like this, when our democratic safeguards have been suspended, it’s our duty to question authorities and hold them to account. 

As new information becomes available about the virus, it’s therefore crucial that we challenge the Government’s actions.

Back in January, they told us the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan had been enacted to protect the country from the new coronavirus. That plan sets out three main goals. Firstly, a human goal to “minimise the impact of the disease and mitigate its effects”. Secondly a social goal to keep society functioning “as normally as possible during and after a pandemic”. And thirdly an economic goal to “minimise and mitigate the economic consequences of a pandemic”.

By making the radical decision to ignore the social and economic goals, in order to eliminate the virus through a nation-wide lockdown, the Ardern Government is disrupting society and damaging the economy to such an extent, that New Zealand will face not just a recession, but a prolonged and deep depression.

As April’s editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal explains, “This elimination strategy is a major departure from pandemic influenza mitigation. With the mitigation strategy, the response is increased as the pandemic progresses and more demanding interventions such as school closures are introduced later to ‘flatten the curve.’ Elimination partly reverses the order by introducing strong measures at the start in an effort to prevent introduction and local transmission of an exotic pathogen…”  

The editorial claims “New Zealand society has made a large ‘upfront’ sacrifice in pursuing an elimination strategy” – since the risks “may be substantial” and success “is far from certain”.

With influenza-type viruses usually regarded as far too contagious to be contained, the article would have been more accurate if it had pointed out that the decision to sacrifice New Zealand society by pursuing this high-risk elimination strategy rests with the Prime Minister.    

Not everyone thinks elimination can work. 

Professor Knut Wittkowski, formerly of New York’s Rockefeller University, is an epidemiologist with 35 years of experience. In a fascinating interview, he explains that the only way to stop influenza-type viruses is through building herd immunity within a population:

“With all respiratory diseases, the only thing that stops the disease is herd immunity. About 80% of the people need to have had contact with the virus, and the majority of them won’t even have recognized that they were infected, or they had very, very mild symptoms, especially if they are children. So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible, and then the elderly people, who should be separated, and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about 4 weeks when the virus has been exterminated….”

He warns that by trying to eliminate the virus, restrictions will need to be re-introduced whenever a new outbreak occurs, prolonging social disruption and economic hardship. Worse, those who are the most vulnerable – the elderly and anyone with chronic health conditions – will remain at serious risk of infection until a vaccine becomes available.

In pursing elimination, the Professor says that governments like ours have got it wrong. Instead of locking down the nation and trying to stamp out a virus that he believes cannot effectively be contained, we should be quarantining and supporting those who are vulnerable to keep them safe, while enabling the rest of society to get back to normal. In that way, within a month or so, once herd immunity has developed, not only will it be safe for those vulnerable groups to re-enter society, but our borders can also re-open.

Professor Wittkowski describes COVID-19 as ‘another bad flu’ – albeit one that can have grave consequences for the vulnerable.

But in reality, that’s also the case with the seasonal flu, since every year it kills upwards of 500 vulnerable New Zealanders – predominantly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. 

Professor Wittkowski also believes the public are being far too docile: “People should talk with their politicians, question them, and ask them to explain, because if people don’t stand up to their rights, their rights will be forgotten.”

Challenging the Government’s actions is exactly what a group of New Zealand academics and public health experts are now doing: “The way we stop the spread of an epidemic virus strain must be proportionate to the threat posed by the infection… Prolonged lockdown is likely to cause greater harm than the virus to the nation’s long-term health and well-being, social fabric, economy, and education.”

They too believe much of the modelling was overestimated, with new data now showing the virus is not the disaster we feared and no deaths of New Zealanders under the age of 70.

They warn “Elimination of this virus is likely not achievable and will be almost impossible to sustain as the virus is likely to become endemic across the rest of the world.”

As a result, they propose moving to a risk-based management plan aimed at preventing stress on the health system. Anyone who is low risk would be able to return to normal activities, while state-funded support would be provided to those at high risk of complications – namely the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions – to enable them to remain in isolation until it’s safe to re-enter society. 

The ease with which New Zealand’s lockdown was imposed is a major concern to this week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, former Judge and law lecturer Anthony Willy. He explains that for the first time in our history we have lost the rights and freedoms set out in our Bill of Rights – including the freedom of association, the freedom of movement, the right not to be arbitrarily detained, and the right to live in a Parliamentary democracy:

“In a sinister twist loss of these rights is backed by an apparently highly popular government-encouraged scheme of dobbing in one’s neighbour for possible infractions. At the time of the fall of the Berlin wall it was estimated that the membership of the Stasi was about 80,000 but that many times this number were unpaid informants assisting the Stasi to protect the state from infection with the very ideas and principles the government has suspended. It is impossible to know just what is the overriding public interest which supports this unprecedented government action. It might be the preservation of life; it might be to allow the health system to continue to function smoothly. It might be to save people from themselves, and from the negligence of others. None of this was thought to be necessary during the other Chinese virus scares – SAARS or Avian Flu or swine fever – so why now? Perhaps the Government has abrogated its duty to govern to the panicked computer modelling of some ‘experts’, forecasting terrifying death rates, much of which is already demonstrated to be hopelessly inaccurate.”

He warns that through their actions, this Government may have set a dangerous precedent: “There is nothing a lawyer or legislator likes more than a precedent. Once established it never goes away. The whole development of the common law and the liberties it supports rests on precedent. The law is what Courts say it is on up the hierarchy until it reaches Parliament which is the highest Court in the land. So, we now have it established that a fear of widespread infection in the community of a virulent disease is sufficient to lock people up in their homes and suspend Parliament. Really! This not the first such plague to affect New Zealand and it will not be the last. Yet this is the first time our civil liberties and our democracy have been suspended in order to minimise its effect on public health.”

Of course, environmental fanatics have long been pressuring the Government to declare a state of emergency over clime change. Now that we understand how easy it is to impose one, can we be confident that in the future our Prime Minister won’t decree climate change – which she has already described as her generation’s ‘nuclear free moment’ – to be as catastrophic as COVID-19 and require similar state of emergency controls?

Finally, while the country has been focussed on health, the lockdown, and the plight of the economy, there have been new developments regarding tribal claims for our coastline.

You may recall, that just before the April 3, 2017 deadline for claims under the Marine and Coastal Area Act, almost 600 applications were lodged covering the entire coastline. Some 200 were High Court claims, and 387 were for direct negotiation with the Minister of Treaty Settlements under the Crown Engagement pathway.

Now, three years later, a Draft Crown Engagement Strategy has finally been released, seeking claimant feedback by April 24.  

The strategy recommends that 175 of the Crown Engagement claims, which were also lodged in the High Court, should be deferred until after the Court hearings.

It suggests the rest of the claims should be grouped geographically with those in the Gisborne and New Plymouth regions to be decided first, between 2020 and 2023.

Under the Minister’s proposed timetable it will take 20 to 30 years for the claims to be resolved!

A separate discussion document, also seeking claimant feedback by April 24, asks whether the taxpayer funded assistance for the claims process is sufficient: up to $412,000 is available for Crown Engagement cases and up to $312,000 for the High Court.

Taxpayer funding has also now been allocated to enable claimants to appeal High Court decisions, to the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court – $92,000 for appeals made by claimants, and $139,000 for appeals made by those with ‘overlapping’ claims.

In addition, $70,000, is now available to help tribal groups prepare submissions on Crown Engagement claims.

While the Minister promised a process would be put in place to allow the public to also make submissions on Crown Engagement claims, no details have been published as yet.

With hundreds of overlapping claims, hundreds of millions of dollars in claimant funding, and timeframes stretching out for decades, it’s increasingly clear that this foreshore and seabed gravy train will never end.

These are troubling times. Our democratic nation, built on independence, liberty, and equality, is now governed by those who encourage State informants, who give legal and financial privilege based on race, and who have used their power to suspend our basic rights and freedoms – even Parliamentary democracy itself.

As we look to the future, it’s hard to shake a sense of foreboding.

[Archer 296]

But it would FAR worse if National were in control.

[6xes 699]

1 minute ago, Archer said:

But it would FAR worse if National were in control.

you are not far wrong!!

National / Labour is just the same party different name.. playing out in a kabuki theatre

We awake yet??

 

[Ohokaman 5,844]

1 minute ago, 6xes said:

you are not far wrong!!

National / Labour is just the same party different name.. playing out in a kabuki theatre

We awake yet??

 

Still in a coma....???

[6xes 699]

Just now, Ohokaman said:

Still in a coma....???

WAKE UP OHAKA WAKE UP!!

[tripple alliance 1,026]

29 minutes ago, Archer said:

But it would FAR worse if National were in control.

Love your sense of humour . Seriously just look at the horrendous failures of comrade cindy , Child poverty a huge increase , homeless doubled , emergency grants up 85% , food parcels trebled + ,  and this is all before the shut down , frightening really , many people were poor before this virus arrived ..

Over 80 per cent of Manawatū businesses have been severely affected by the coronavirus lockdown , and many fear they will have to close for good if a cash injection is not imminent.  400 food outlets , restaurants in Wellington don't expect to reopen ,,Healthline has seen a 20 per cent jump in calls from patients with chronic health problems in the past week .

AND here we have the perverted thinking of people who have never relied on private enterprise to put food on the table .

Twyford told the committee , The rationale for essential businesses under level 4 had been what was essential to human survival, not an industry's economic value. 9 DEATHS , BORROWING $50 BILLION .

Welcome to NEW VENESUELA .

 

[Archer 296]

Child poverty and homeless were far worse under Keys government, I have no problem with emergency grants or food parcels. And if they had trebled (doubtful) then that too would have been a legacy of Nationals failure over 9 previous years to look after the poor.

Jacindas only fault was to not IMMEDIATELY lift the benefits to a decent level when she took over. And to think it took this outbreak to raise it (by 20 miserly dollars).  

The NATS always gave all the money to their friends, the Left tried to help some people, but overall failed as well.  

Beneficiaries have been kicked and trodden on so many times by National over the last 30 + years its unbelievable they have not risen up and struck down those despots. But Clarkes government did the same avoiding an increase (except by 1.80 once). So I think there is going to be some radical changes coming up and nothing like you all think. 

The border closing was necessary but WAY too LATE .... 

The whole essential thing was a pile of sh*te from the start, you can't have any containment if you have EXCEPTIONS. Why NO ONE pointed this out at the many media opportunities was appalling.  

Instead of imprisoning all the public they should have simply locked up the SICK !

Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil, so they don't have a problem, once Trump is eliminated.  

[Archer 296]

And yeah my other MAJOR problem with the current situation, was the fact, that the people in charge were on FULL PAY (90% doing sfa) and yet they they stood and smiled as they said 'WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER' while terminating money for 99 % of the population.   

The whole TV coverage with sports stars and goodwilling (unpaid) people is just slimey. and in the same breath saying they gonna CRACK DOWN HARD on people that don't believe their crap and also saying NARK on your neighbours or anyone you think maybe breaking their false imprisonment.  

Seriously you don't think that National would have armed all the police and let them go a rampage against peoples basic rights, yeah sure,  roflol  .... And because the Nats needed more money, they would CUT the benefits to those useless beneficiaries    

[tripple alliance 1,026]

8 hours ago, Archer said:

Child poverty and homeless were far worse under Keys government, I have no problem with emergency grants or food parcels. And if they had trebled (doubtful) then that too would have been a legacy of Nationals failure over 9 previous years to look after the poor.

Jacindas only fault was to not IMMEDIATELY lift the benefits to a decent level when she took over. And to think it took this outbreak to raise it (by 20 miserly dollars).  

The NATS always gave all the money to their friends, the Left tried to help some people, but overall failed as well.  

Beneficiaries have been kicked and trodden on so many times by National over the last 30 + years its unbelievable they have not risen up and struck down those despots. But Clarkes government did the same avoiding an increase (except by 1.80 once). So I think there is going to be some radical changes coming up and nothing like you all think. 

The border closing was necessary but WAY too LATE .... 

The whole essential thing was a pile of sh*te from the start, you can't have any containment if you have EXCEPTIONS. Why NO ONE pointed this out at the many media opportunities was appalling.  

Instead of imprisoning all the public they should have simply locked up the SICK !

Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil, so they don't have a problem, once Trump is eliminated.  

Child poverty Worse under key  NO .

Latest child poverty statistics released | Stats NZ

After housing costs have been deducted, the number of children living in New Zealand in relative poverty rises to one in five children (235,400). ... Looking at that material hardship measure, in the year ended June 2019, about one in eight children (13.4 percent) lived in households reporting material hardship.Feb 24, 2020

 

[rdytdy 5,343]

Jacinda Ardern Has Not Changed Her Modus Operandi

7 am on Thursday 16th April 2020 and I am more nervous about this whole bloody mess we find ourselves in than at any time since it all started. We are six hours away from an announcement which will (might?) detail what will be imposed on our lives in the next stage of this national and international cluster.

 

I have long (and what is long in this ever-changing landscape – a week, a couple of weeks?) said that I think the cure is going to be more injurious than the disease. I am writing this in a country that has fifteen people in the hospital from a viral illness. Fifteen. There have been nine deaths – all tragic at a family level – of people already in the final phases of their lives. And yet this health catastrophe has led our government to bring the country to its knees now and for the foreseeable future.

The BFD. Cartoon credit SonovaMin

This has been based on mathematical modelling which in turn is based in questionable data at best. Our political leaders, who have been shown up to be intellectual midgets forever, have chosen one set of experts and seemingly will brook no other opinion. The focus is, and apparently remains, purely health-based. We are in a quest to ‘eliminate’ the virus. This is as daft as it is impossible. You cannot eliminate it.

We have to work out ways of living with it inside our community. We know nowhere near enough about the disease from a clinical point of view to be able to do this with any certainty but it would appear that the current ‘lockdown’ for everyone is almost certainly too much.

I think our current health model is the wrong way round. We need to be like one of those Lindt spherical chocolates (some of which I still have left over from Christmas) that are hard on the outside and soft in the middle. We are the opposite. Our border is soft (and when it mattered, it was downright runny) and our centre is hard. It is so hard that it will destroy the whole if it is just given time.

The BFD. Cartoon credit SonovaMIn

And this is my fear bordering on terror as to what our “Fearless Leader” Jacinda Ardern is going to announce at One O’clock. She is public approval driven and knows she is never going to be criticised for being over cautious now. It matters to her not at all that to stay in Level 4 Lite will have dire consequences ( even deaths, the avoidance of which she values above all else at present) some way down the track.

She will announce Level 3 (it doesn’t really matter what it is called) and will then make up what that means pretty much on the fly. She doesn’t have the intellectual candlepower to do anything else. As I alluded to above, I think it will be more Level 4 Lite than a beefed up Level 2. We have no idea what it will be and no idea how long it will last.

She announces it today but cabinet will not decide whether it will be enforced until Monday. This is very smart. It gives her four days to prevaricate and change things according to what people think of her cunning plan. This has been her MO for her entire premiership and I see no reason, when her back is against the wall like never before, for her to change.

This is giving the decision to a working group on steroids.

---

Postscript:

Well, all my fears I expressed when I wrote this yesterday have been realised. An unknown period of Level 4 Lite and the absolute devastation that will have on our lives for a long time awaits us.

Just as worrying is the increasing confidence and apparent enjoyment our “Fearless Leader” Jacinda Ardern is developing in her role as dictator.

A black day, indeed.

 

[eljay 1,720]

Missing in inaction at Press Conference

Dr Bloomfield

The P.M.

 

Did they wish to preserve their popularity so handed the hot spud over to Grunt.  

He basically said either level 4 will continue or will go to level 3 where only difference will basically be resumption of State Projects with level 3 then continuing for a long time which will mean Mr Average Kiwi will be confined to their homes.     I think Racing can toss it away till at least next season - I hope I'm wrong

[eljay 1,720]

Jacinda said that she didn't want to sack the minister because of what value he would be - but not a peep out of him since,      I think Jacinda's attempts at being the popular heroine are starting to cause her no little embarrassment. 

[tripple alliance 1,026]

On 4/16/2020 at 5:49 PM, tripple alliance said:

Love your sense of humour . Seriously just look at the horrendous failures of comrade cindy , Child poverty a huge increase , homeless doubled , emergency grants up 85% , food parcels trebled + ,  and this is all before the shut down , frightening really , many people were poor before this virus arrived ..

Over 80 per cent of Manawatū businesses have been severely affected by the coronavirus lockdown , and many fear they will have to close for good if a cash injection is not imminent.  400 food outlets , restaurants in Wellington don't expect to reopen ,,Healthline has seen a 20 per cent jump in calls from patients with chronic health problems in the past week .

AND here we have the perverted thinking of people who have never relied on private enterprise to put food on the table .

Twyford told the committee , The rationale for essential businesses under level 4 had been what was essential to human survival, not an industry's economic value. 9 DEATHS , BORROWING $50 BILLION .

Welcome to NEW VENESUELA .

 

Hell this is bad , just watched poor people in AK  getting shafted , can't get money . The developing situation is tragic , this is NZ people we are better than this but how is it possible people can't afford to feed themselves , Christ this pack of no hopers , the COL haven't got a clue , we are doomed , generations of debt .

Cabinet hasn't yet started discussions on just how we plan to pay back the billions being borrowed . A couple of dozen billion dollars has already been spent or earmarked for spending to prop up the economy . Asked by Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd how the Government planned to pay that back, and whether it would involve tax hikes, Nash said they're yet to discuss it - but the sooner New Zealand can eliminate the virus, the better.(and then what)  "But there's no doubt about it, we're borrowing a lot of money to  get us through this. Discussions around what recovery looks like in terms of tax, they're still to be had."

I Spent a little time in hospital yesterday , chatted to a couple of nurses , they can't believe how small business is being treated , most seemed to agree many more businesses could be open in a controlled manor . 

SO the government has no idea what they are doing , I suspect they will keep borrowing to prop up the economy until the election .

[Gruff 2,800]

This is a Country whose Government turned  away Two brand new Fire engines from the US because nobody wanted to pay the duty, then when Port Villa was on fire more water was coming out of the hoses than the end with their existing equipment .

[Gruff 2,800]

March 19

Those who have travelled here from other countries recently are still required to self-isolate, and those who have been here longer are being encouraged to look at how they can get home.

"I'm not willing to take risks here," Ardern said.

There are no covid cases in Vanuatu today