Well done New Zealand — we made it

Take time this weekend to reflect on the extraordinary four weeks that are about to pass, and exactly where we are at this moment. Experts asked 4.8 million New Zealanders to go home and stay home. With remarkable and unified purpose, that’s largely what we did.

We flattened the coronavirus curve, kept our hospitals almost free of patients, and our ventilators mostly quiet. A huge majority of us mastered the language and logic of exponential growth and learned to create bubbles and stay in them.

These achievements have not prevented 11 deaths from complications of Covid-19, nor more than 1400 known and probable infections.

It is no time for fireworks. In the coming weeks and months, and probably a century from now, Kiwis will debate whether we should have gone faster, slower, harder, softer.

Those disagreements will be engaging and enraging and sometimes dull, but on this day in mid-April 2020, let’s acknowledge that, when we went into our bubbles, it was not clear that this prescription would work.

Now, almost four weeks later, it looks like it did. It’s time for quiet congratulations.

Meanwhile, it’s worthwhile pinning down exactly where we are today and how little we know about the future. Coronavirus is not eliminated in New Zealand. There will probably be flare-ups, new clusters and, sadly, more deaths.

Would moving to alert level 3 next week be wise? We may have to return to level 4. Can the economy recover? How fast? Which sectors? Have we taken on too much debt, not enough? How bad will unemployment be?

We do not know these things, although many have opinions. There’s an election coming later this year and folks are already revising history and pointing out ‘‘mistakes’’ that were ‘‘obvious’’ and ‘‘stupid’’.

Clearly mistakes have been made, and there will be new blunders – lots of them. Policymakers and experts have made decisions with imperfect and incomplete information.

It might pay to jot down a few notes – send yourself an email – on what you think might happen economically and politically. Because memories fade.

Reflect also this weekend on what you did during the lockdown.

For many, it was a time for small accomplishments, not grand projects.

Whatever. Many of us probably worked from home, entertained ourselves online, cooked and cleaned. Yes, it was sometimes boring.

For others, it was a time of loneliness, anxiety and unhappiness in all of its insidious faces. To acknowledge this is not to address it.

However you got through lockdown is OK. Muddling through is a splendid Kiwi tradition, and a human one too.

We survived – meaning the virus for now, and the lockdown.

These are deeds worthy of quiet praise.

Add to that email how you got through lockdown.

The years ahead will be long and cruel. Let’s softly recognise our progress to date.