Coronavirus: Ardern declares war on serious threat
The message was writ large from the first frame: New Zealand is at war. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern interrupted television and radio at noon on Saturday for a broadcast announcing strict new measures in the battle to contain Covid-19.
Her chosen format was unusual. New Zealand prime ministers rarely, if ever, conduct state of the nation type speeches from their offices.
Announcements like Saturday’s are more usually made from the Beehive theatrette. Even the framed picture of Michael Joseph Savage, perched over Ardern’s left shoulder seemed to scream ‘‘war’’. But it does not feel like a war. This week the bars and clubs of Ponsonby or Courtenay Place thronged like any other time.
That is part of the point of a speech like this. It reminds people this is serious – possibly the most serious threat of our country’s modern history. World War II killed 12,000 New Zealanders in combat; left unchecked Covid-19 will easily kill more.
But this war won’t be fought by brave soldiers on the beaches, landing grounds, fields and streets. Instead it will be fought by doctors and nurses in hospital wards, and by ambulance drivers, police, and customs officers.
It will even be fought in the aisles of supermarkets, as brave Kiwis decide to put down that extra can of tomatoes or infant formula knowing there is someone else who needs it more.
In 2020, being brave does not mean ‘‘going over the top’’, it means staying at home and calling your grandparents.
Ardern’s high amplitude rhetoric was appropriate. She announced war-like measures to combat a war-like threat.
The messaging was appropriate too – taking things up a notch signals the seriousness of the threat, lest New Zealanders be in any doubt.
Yet the fact the bars and pubs of Wellington were still crowded with people on Saturday night is evidence the message is not getting through. War-like rhetoric, it seems, is not enough to shake people into action when, for most, it just does not seem that bad. The problem for the Government is that by the time things actually start to look bad, it will be too late: see Italy.
You can understand the difficulty the Government is having in getting its message to cut through. The threat seems so global in scale, it is difficult to convince people they can make a huge difference. One person’s choices can save scores of lives.
It is a difficult thing for anyone to get their head around.
A few weeks ago, the notion that one could save scores of lives by staying at home with a bowl of pasta would have been laughed off as ridiculous but, for the next few months at least, it is reality.
Ardern’s challenge is to delicately thread the messaging needle. Reminding people of the gravity of their decisions and the threat of disease spread, while not going so far as to cause panic.
It is a challenge unlike any government has faced in modern times. And it is a humbling reminder of the limitations of government power. Despite its many hospitals, doctors and nurses, despite its seemingly infinite resources, there is little the Government can do to stop the spread of disease.
Even the United States, with all its wealth and resources, has been crippled by Covid-19.
It takes a lot of mind-bending to imagine that the choices of a handful of people can be more effective at halting the spread of disease than the most powerful government in the world but that is the situation we are in.
It is a massive challenge for our politics too. In normal times, politics tends to be about giving the people what they want. Now it is about convincing people that it is time to go without. To protect our way of life in the future, we need to change how we live now, is the message.
Already medical professionals are calling on the Government skip these early, voluntary measures and go straight to compulsory lockdown, warning that by the time we realise voluntary isolation has failed it will be too late to pivot back.
We will know in a matter of weeks, if not days, who was right.