Not perfect but still proud of NZ’s Covid response
WHILE I know I am never going to change Morgan Meyers’ mind, I’d just like to challenge a number of the assertions and halftruths in the letter.
Claim: we have lost our medical autonomy. No, we have a right to say no to the vaccine. But, medical autonomy, as with all choices, comes with consequences. As well, we give up autonomy for the good of society — such as not smoking inside.
Claim: the vaccine is an unknown onesizefitsall vaccine with testing not complete until 2023. The Pfizer (and other Covid vaccines) are probably the most ever tested vaccines for efficacy and effectiveness. Trials around efficacy and effectiveness in children, among particular populations, variants, boosters etc continue as does more indepth reporting of results
Claim: little mention of a healthbased approach. New Zealand’s approach is almost entirely a standard public one — masking, social distancing, hand hygiene, taking care of whanau, locking down and border controls and now special efforts to increase vaccination rates to 90% double dose. Mandatory actions such as no jab no job play a very small role in a healthbased approach
Claim: this generation gave up its freedom of speech. The fact that Morgan Meyers’ letter has been published puts paid to that claim.
No response is perfect (the lack of outreach to Maori at the start of vaccination is one criticism) but I am proud of New Zealanders’ response to this epidemic
Ophir
SO Morgan Meyer feels miffed by the comparatively mild restrictions keeping Covid19 under control in New Zealand (Letters, 25.10.21). Perhaps it would console him to know that for just one day on Monday, October 25, 2021, Singapore’s comparable population of 5.6 million endured 3862 new cases and 18 deaths.
Those numbers are still going up. Plus The New Zealand Herald reports that Singapore’s health system is now seriously overrun.
Is that really what Mr Meyer wants to inflict on New Zealand? Jocelyn Harris
Roslyn
I AGREE with Morgan Meyers (Letters, 25.10.21) but think a tad contradictory shaming ‘‘Aotearoa New Zealand’’, which I believe refers to the North Island of New Zealand, or maybe that was the intention. Another of the other insidiousness that is creeping into our lives. Has anyone noticed how pedestrian crossing markings have increased in size, now no longer clean black and white lines? Pip Weber
Abbotsford
THERE are two things in life you cannot teach — one is logic, and two is common sense. Reading the rambling criticism of the Ardern Government by Morgan Meyers (Letters, 25.10.21) shows he is totally devoid of both. Gary McEwan
Wyndham
Matariki
THE Labour Party is on a hiding to nowhere, adding yet another annual holiday.
Personally, I support Matariki, because it gives us a winter festival. Something that Christmas never has delivered.
The ruling party is slipping in the polls for a number of wellknown reasons. Too far too fast, maybe? Our commercial sector is under siege at the moment, because of the pandemic. We need some light, instead of darkness on the horizon.
A move that all parties might consider is to abolish the provincial holidays, once and for all. They are a pain in the backside. They crop up randomly all over the country — sometimes when a service is badly needed. I doubt today that the benefit really justifies the cost. I think it is time for leadership, and prudence in government. Replacing the hotchpotch of provincial holidays for Matariki, in my view, would be a step in the right direction.
Cromwell