Ardern pushes back at Hipkins' suggestion 'reconnecting to the world' strategy for 2022 is in doubt; But PM but also says she 'hates the idea of one preventable death' and wants 'everyone vaccinated'
Difficult to see how they can back down from such a position without unwinding the culture of pride in what the team of 5m have achieved (the whole world is watching us...) and fear (look at their death rate, there are babies with Covid...) created by their self-justifying narrative. On the back of a tiger now. You are unfortunately correct that this could easily go on to 2023 - an election year... I wonder if this serves their own voter-base and could lose marginals as life drags on in the Hermit Kingdom. Don't expect a snap election - she will have to take it to the wire.... 20 Nov 2023 = next election?
Preventing death is a laudable but unfortunately unattainable goal. It also rings a bit hollow, much like Julie Ann Genter's zero road toll objective. More importantly, though, Ardern's goal ignores the other deaths New Zealanders face each day. Delayed cancer, heart, and other treatments will perhaps cause far more deaths than Covid. They haven't gone away just because we're stuck at home. But they are being untreated.
I am with the PM. Of course concerns are with other illnesses that kill but these generally apply to individuals. However, the Delta Strain is different as this strain has the potential to cause many deaths to those of us of the Team of Five Million who are not vaccinated. Of course the lockdowns have caused grief to the hospitality industry, amongst others, but the industry would be in more financial strife if there were fewer customers to serve because of the deaths caused by Delta.
Obviously JA keeping her powder dry , targets seem silly when its full steam ahead on vaxxing (at the mo). Bernard do you have any modelling for low, medium, large scenarios, ie say we have
a NSW type event. What are the relative costs, dollars , lives, long covid, health care, businesses being able to operate , but at reduced capacity because of delta outbreak etc. Compared to our lock down approach.. Any projections?
Good to hear that people are getting their heads around “money printing” which when done by Governments can be held on the balance sheet or written off entirely. Might be nice if it was targeted by them to the real economy, people, planet and infrastructure though. Using tax reform as levers as the working class usually relied upon are losing jobs and here have had only minimal income to gouge more from. Best news I heard yesterday was that an at risk pregnant woman won her spot in MIQ via court action filed under our Bill of Rights.
Difficult to see how they can back down from such a position without unwinding the culture of pride in what the team of 5m have achieved (the whole world is watching us...) and fear (look at their death rate, there are babies with Covid...) created by their self-justifying narrative. On the back of a tiger now. You are unfortunately correct that this could easily go on to 2023 - an election year... I wonder if this serves their own voter-base and could lose marginals as life drags on in the Hermit Kingdom. Don't expect a snap election - she will have to take it to the wire.... 20 Nov 2023 = next election?
Preventing death is a laudable but unfortunately unattainable goal. It also rings a bit hollow, much like Julie Ann Genter's zero road toll objective. More importantly, though, Ardern's goal ignores the other deaths New Zealanders face each day. Delayed cancer, heart, and other treatments will perhaps cause far more deaths than Covid. They haven't gone away just because we're stuck at home. But they are being untreated.
What happens if we never get down to zero for mystery cases? How long do we stay in lockdown for?
Gary
I am with the PM. Of course concerns are with other illnesses that kill but these generally apply to individuals. However, the Delta Strain is different as this strain has the potential to cause many deaths to those of us of the Team of Five Million who are not vaccinated. Of course the lockdowns have caused grief to the hospitality industry, amongst others, but the industry would be in more financial strife if there were fewer customers to serve because of the deaths caused by Delta.
Obviously JA keeping her powder dry , targets seem silly when its full steam ahead on vaxxing (at the mo). Bernard do you have any modelling for low, medium, large scenarios, ie say we have
a NSW type event. What are the relative costs, dollars , lives, long covid, health care, businesses being able to operate , but at reduced capacity because of delta outbreak etc. Compared to our lock down approach.. Any projections?
Good to hear that people are getting their heads around “money printing” which when done by Governments can be held on the balance sheet or written off entirely. Might be nice if it was targeted by them to the real economy, people, planet and infrastructure though. Using tax reform as levers as the working class usually relied upon are losing jobs and here have had only minimal income to gouge more from. Best news I heard yesterday was that an at risk pregnant woman won her spot in MIQ via court action filed under our Bill of Rights.