Here in the trenches on the frontline it's becoming increasingly apparent that people are bucking the lockdown regime. Testing numbers are nowhere near high enough to assure that the figures we're getting are giving us an accurate depiction of the real extent of community spread - we're seeing evidence of it in random people presenting a…
Here in the trenches on the frontline it's becoming increasingly apparent that people are bucking the lockdown regime. Testing numbers are nowhere near high enough to assure that the figures we're getting are giving us an accurate depiction of the real extent of community spread - we're seeing evidence of it in random people presenting at ERs and testing positive.
There is no perfect world where 100% of symptomatic people get tested. If I might venture a guess as to why that might be, I'd strongly suggest that's because of the practice of throwing COVID+ people into MIQ, or 'COVID jail', as people are calling it. IMHO this practice needs to end immediately if they want to get testing numbers and contact tracing to where it needs to be to have a chance of ending this - it's critical, people on the margins aren't going to comply if the result is punitive. And it is punitive - people already on the bottom rungs of a vastly, outrageously inequitable society feel hard done by. How dare the people that put them there, and do nothing to help them scold them for that suspicion and 'antisocial' paranoia...
There is no amount of whining and pleading from the ivory towers and swanky $2million+ average house price suburbs that will change that reality on the street. Our bourgie elite needs to wake-up to that reality and meet them halfway, or just give it up - those are the stakes we're dealing with here.
Compulsory quarantine in lousy MIQs has to go, last week, if they want to get the common folk on their side - they're not out there storming the Bastille, but they've gone deaf to the Usual Suspects tut-tutting them with the usual condescension. I'm here, in my community, doing the 'hard yards' (no I don't want any thanks! Please shut up!!), and this is what I hear and see...
That's a really valid point. I'm fairly sure I had RSV recently so I did get tested. However, my wife and I live by ourselves and have two dogs but no family or really close friends we could leave them with if I tested positive and we both got slung into MIQ, so I did think about it for a bit before I went. It was only chatting with family and friends overseas when it dawned on me that this approach is fairly unique (I'm sure the government would argue it is a necessary control but it certainly feels very authoritarian to me). I know your point wasn't necessarily aimed at me as such but I can see exactly what you are saying.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It's no secret this outbreak is concentrated and incubating in the poorest areas of Auckland - people can't do this anymore. They can't afford to 'self-isolate' or tighten their belts for months on end, they can't work remotely, they live in crowded conditions and mixed bubbles because of the housing crisis ... we're talking about people barely hanging-on at the fringes in the best of times, small businesses struggling to stay solvent.
There's desperation in the air, we're stretched too thin - and in this 'bubble' it feels like we're being forgotten, We've got Goffy today talking about people living 'below subsistence level' and I'm not sure the rest of the 'team of 5 million' understands what that really means ... People are giving up, because the disease can't be worse than the cure. That sentiment will assuredly get shouted-down by certain people I'm sure we all know, but maybe they should just shut up (for the record I think Ardern is a very good PM, and I think she's just looking for an off-ramp at this point) - the more they talk and dig their heels in the
The people with a voice (media/government/academia) in this unusual situation are not plugged-in to this simmering discontent (with a few exceptions) or properly cognizant of the incipient social crisis unfolding quietly in isolation. I think we've passed a tipping-point - as much as people might think they can de-politicize this, Labour will fold when the polls start tipping against them - just like Australia. This may happen quite a bit more quickly than many suspect, given that South and West Auckland are bastions of Labour support.
Bernard, thankyou for advocating an alternative political vision (on our behalf - rest assured! We need people to speak-up louder for us); I would like to, but I'm not going to because I don't want my name or those those of my friends and acquaintances to be dragged through the dirt in the national/social media. The public shaming and Facebook lynch-mobs, and potential legal and economic consequences require discretion.
We live in a society in which an All Black guilty of a vicious assault and violent threats gets-off with a punishment that doesn't even amount to a slap with a wet bus ticket, while 'essential' workers who go to their job one day and get accidentally infected with an almost unstoppably virulent disease suffer worse consequences. This country has lost the plot - no I won't cooperate (for the record: the only time I've left my house is to vaccinated. I care, I'm afraid - but I can't afford to be, I'm swamped by anxieties that've been building for a decade and more... I don't know what to do Bernard, I don't want to be here anymore - I'm ready to roll the dice on COVID, with the shot in my arm; such is life on the margins).
And that is exactly why this lockdown is failing. You're not seeing it, because you're not here, you don't know any of us ... I've got a sinking feeling. We have so much to worry about, so many fears for the/our future - and where does COVID even rate next to global warming, the housing crisis (we can't afford to live where we live, we're not even allowed to move), etc. People are more afraid of authority now than they are of the virus. There's no shitty self-selecting Facebook poll that's gonna capture this acutely-targeted distress, because nobody is asking us, nobody is attentive to our advocates. We're not idiots, or ignorant (Kelvin Davis ... you Ffff ...).
Here in the trenches on the frontline it's becoming increasingly apparent that people are bucking the lockdown regime. Testing numbers are nowhere near high enough to assure that the figures we're getting are giving us an accurate depiction of the real extent of community spread - we're seeing evidence of it in random people presenting at ERs and testing positive.
There is no perfect world where 100% of symptomatic people get tested. If I might venture a guess as to why that might be, I'd strongly suggest that's because of the practice of throwing COVID+ people into MIQ, or 'COVID jail', as people are calling it. IMHO this practice needs to end immediately if they want to get testing numbers and contact tracing to where it needs to be to have a chance of ending this - it's critical, people on the margins aren't going to comply if the result is punitive. And it is punitive - people already on the bottom rungs of a vastly, outrageously inequitable society feel hard done by. How dare the people that put them there, and do nothing to help them scold them for that suspicion and 'antisocial' paranoia...
There is no amount of whining and pleading from the ivory towers and swanky $2million+ average house price suburbs that will change that reality on the street. Our bourgie elite needs to wake-up to that reality and meet them halfway, or just give it up - those are the stakes we're dealing with here.
Compulsory quarantine in lousy MIQs has to go, last week, if they want to get the common folk on their side - they're not out there storming the Bastille, but they've gone deaf to the Usual Suspects tut-tutting them with the usual condescension. I'm here, in my community, doing the 'hard yards' (no I don't want any thanks! Please shut up!!), and this is what I hear and see...
That's a really valid point. I'm fairly sure I had RSV recently so I did get tested. However, my wife and I live by ourselves and have two dogs but no family or really close friends we could leave them with if I tested positive and we both got slung into MIQ, so I did think about it for a bit before I went. It was only chatting with family and friends overseas when it dawned on me that this approach is fairly unique (I'm sure the government would argue it is a necessary control but it certainly feels very authoritarian to me). I know your point wasn't necessarily aimed at me as such but I can see exactly what you are saying.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. It's no secret this outbreak is concentrated and incubating in the poorest areas of Auckland - people can't do this anymore. They can't afford to 'self-isolate' or tighten their belts for months on end, they can't work remotely, they live in crowded conditions and mixed bubbles because of the housing crisis ... we're talking about people barely hanging-on at the fringes in the best of times, small businesses struggling to stay solvent.
There's desperation in the air, we're stretched too thin - and in this 'bubble' it feels like we're being forgotten, We've got Goffy today talking about people living 'below subsistence level' and I'm not sure the rest of the 'team of 5 million' understands what that really means ... People are giving up, because the disease can't be worse than the cure. That sentiment will assuredly get shouted-down by certain people I'm sure we all know, but maybe they should just shut up (for the record I think Ardern is a very good PM, and I think she's just looking for an off-ramp at this point) - the more they talk and dig their heels in the
The people with a voice (media/government/academia) in this unusual situation are not plugged-in to this simmering discontent (with a few exceptions) or properly cognizant of the incipient social crisis unfolding quietly in isolation. I think we've passed a tipping-point - as much as people might think they can de-politicize this, Labour will fold when the polls start tipping against them - just like Australia. This may happen quite a bit more quickly than many suspect, given that South and West Auckland are bastions of Labour support.
I'll keep an eye out for that polling shift. Will see when The Spinoff is planning another Sticky Beak poll.
Thanks Barley. Know any people in Auckland willing to say that publicly? Give them my email address. cheers
Bernard, thankyou for advocating an alternative political vision (on our behalf - rest assured! We need people to speak-up louder for us); I would like to, but I'm not going to because I don't want my name or those those of my friends and acquaintances to be dragged through the dirt in the national/social media. The public shaming and Facebook lynch-mobs, and potential legal and economic consequences require discretion.
We live in a society in which an All Black guilty of a vicious assault and violent threats gets-off with a punishment that doesn't even amount to a slap with a wet bus ticket, while 'essential' workers who go to their job one day and get accidentally infected with an almost unstoppably virulent disease suffer worse consequences. This country has lost the plot - no I won't cooperate (for the record: the only time I've left my house is to vaccinated. I care, I'm afraid - but I can't afford to be, I'm swamped by anxieties that've been building for a decade and more... I don't know what to do Bernard, I don't want to be here anymore - I'm ready to roll the dice on COVID, with the shot in my arm; such is life on the margins).
And that is exactly why this lockdown is failing. You're not seeing it, because you're not here, you don't know any of us ... I've got a sinking feeling. We have so much to worry about, so many fears for the/our future - and where does COVID even rate next to global warming, the housing crisis (we can't afford to live where we live, we're not even allowed to move), etc. People are more afraid of authority now than they are of the virus. There's no shitty self-selecting Facebook poll that's gonna capture this acutely-targeted distress, because nobody is asking us, nobody is attentive to our advocates. We're not idiots, or ignorant (Kelvin Davis ... you Ffff ...).
Thanks Barly. Completely understand the reluctance. Be safe. Things will get better. One way or another. Thanks.