Editorial: New year a chance to brighten things up

Pōhutukawa flowers, Devonport. The new year is a time for brighter spirits and optimism. Photo / Michael Craig

The new year has a chance to have a brighter tone and outlook to the pandemic-dominated past two years because there’s no political appetite to bring back Covid requirements.

Even with the uncertain outlook over China’s outbreak, the Government hasn’t yet joined other countries in introducing testing for arrivals from China. Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker doesn’t believe it would be useful. The EU cites its own high immunity for saying screening is unjustified.

The main danger is that new variants could eventually emerge from the outbreak, but the world isn’t suddenly back to square one.

In 2022 Omicron blew through this country and was followed by a pandemic hangover of negativity and disgruntlement. Other concerns over crime and costs merged with it. There was a common mental state, a hard-to-shift defensive crouch.

For people wanting to enjoy doing more and go about life in a more constructive, confident way, the grumbling among family, friends and on social media could be exhausting.

At this new year, Kiwis aren’t living through extreme cold as in North America, or having missiles rain down on our cities as in Ukraine. There aren’t widespread strikes as in the UK.

In 2023 the country can have a cleaner break from the pandemic. We can push on with more optimism, rather than dwell on past frustrations, and individually help others we know, such as long-Covid sufferers or people struggling financially.

Thinking about what’s next with a positive, outward approach boosts your wellbeing, how you make others feel, and how they feel about you.