Linda Hall: Bishop Brian Tamaki needs to get off the stage

Covid is sneaky - it's crossed the Auckland border once again. Photo / NZME

OPINION

Delta is sneaky.

Every time we think we have a handle on it, it pops up somewhere unexpected.

In the last few days alone it has crossed the Auckland border, turned up at hospitals and taken a ride in a taxi.

It's not going away anytime soon so our only option is to be smarter than the Covid-19 Delta variant.

And being smart does not mean holding or attending a rally.

It was disgusting and shocking to hear Brain Tamaki stand up in front of a crowd of close to 2000 people and call Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Ashley Hitler.

He shouted it down the microphone more than once . He also said "we the people want our freedom back and our lives back".

The crowd cheered, yelling, clapping, singing, most of them unmasked.

That's fine — if you want your "freedom and your lives" back, take yourselves off to a remote area of the country and you will be free to do as you please,

However, you are not entitled to put the rest of us at risk.

All it takes is one infectious person at that rally and life as we know it today is out the window.

People have been complaining that police didn't intervene. I think they made the right decision.

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.

That would have played right into Tamaki's hand. He would be shouting from the roof now about his right to protest, even though he were breaking all the level 3 rules around gatherings, masks and social distancing.

Any police intervention would have certainly ended in violence.

It's ironic that people are protesting about restrictions because it's those very restrictions that have kept us safe

At the moment we are lucky enough not to be living in a country with hospitals and mortuaries full of Covid patients.

Now we have a vaccination, a far better way of ensuring we keep the virus away from our friends and families.

Sooner or later it's going to land in Hawke's Bay and as Napier Port CEO Todd Dawson points out in his Talking Point on page 9, New Zealand simply doesn't have the infrastructure in place to seamlessly move product along the supply chain without ports.

Think about the consequences of an outbreak that would close our port. That's what Tamaki should be thinking about. Ways to keep his congregation and everyone in New Zealand safe.

Not using Covid as a means of preaching and seeking attention.