Responsibility to your community
The deadline was not because the virus became deadlier at 1am.
The coronavirus crisis is right now testing the effectiveness of the leadership and institutions of every country in the world. Yet it is how we react individually in our communities that will make a material difference to the severity of the event as we experience it in New Zealand.
So far our understanding of the crisis and how our individual actions can make it better or worse does not appear to be complete.
The announcement that all international arrivals would have to self-isolate for 14 days from 1am on Monday was a sobering example. Thousands of people raced to rearrange flights to get home before the deadline.
That’s predictable but still regrettable. Beating the deadline offered no magical protection from contracting or spreading the virus. The deadline was not because the virus became deadlier at 1am. It was set at that time so the facilities and systems needed to make it happen were in place.
We should expect those people who arrived before that period to recognise this. Legally they do not have to isolate themselves. Morally their responsibility to their community demands they consider keeping themselves away from others for a period.
The furious reaction to an Australian dance teacher’s decision to fly to New Zealand on Saturday, despite awaiting the results of what would be a positive test for coronavirus, shows there are heightened expectations on individuals.
His visit was not illegal but it was morally reckless. He put his needs ahead of everyone else’s. This is not the time for such selfishness.
We must think of the people around us and act with extreme caution and understanding that a period of inconvenience now is to help avoid the potential of a far more significant crisis that could involve losing those we love.
Ironically while thousands of us are selfisolating in our homes and looking askance at every cough, sneeze or sniff we hear, there has never been a more practical time to make sure you know your neighbours. You can help them and they can help you.
Should the country end up in lockdown, the experience in Italy show hospitals will quickly be overwhelmed and people will have to expect to look after themselves in all but the most extreme cases.
Knowing your neighbours and how to contact them by phone potentially could be the lifeline that saves you, enabling you to get everything from medicine to food, to the latest information on the crisis.
They can also provide emotional support during what promises to be a surreal experience where we are vulnerable to becoming engulfed in hopelessness, despair and loneliness. A coronavirus lockdown would simply be too big to face alone.
Employers too have a critical leadership role to play in stopping the spread of the virus.
Regardless of what economic stimulus package or financial assistance the Government announces today, it must make it clear right now that workers’ pay packets will not shrink if they are forced to take time off or self-isolate because of the crisis.
The short-term cost will be significantly less than the expense of unnecessary contamination.
The coronavirus crisis will pass. That’s one fact in an ocean of uncertainty.
Our willingness to acknowledge and fulfil the individual responsibilities of a community member will be one of the key influences to the depth of suffering it causes before it’s over.