With this new Covid outbreak the critical role of scanning has been heightened, writes Arthur Davis. Photo / Dean Purcell
With this new Covid outbreak the critical role of scanning has been heightened.
The plea from authorities for each of us to check the locations of interest is fine, but it would not have been necessary if everyone who visited those locations had scanned in — the alert system would already have advised us if we had been exposed. Our complacency with scanning over recent months has made contact tracing even more difficult.
The QR scanning system is twofold — it tells the authorities where we have been and, if there has been an exposure, we can be advised if we were at a location of interest.
Then if we activate the Bluetooth function of our phone, we can be advised that we have been in close proximity to someone who has tested positive.
So, please keep up the scanning!
Arthur Davis, Waterloo.
What a dangerous article written by Thomas Coughlan. We need to remain free from Covid and out of our small number of ICU beds.
Florida and other US states have no more ICU beds so if you have a heart attack etc. you can't get a hospital bed. They are having to wait for someone to die to access their bed. He is wrong about the rest of the world able to live happily with Covid. Thousands are sick and dying. Those who are well are out and about, that is true, and it is likely they too will catch this very infective Covid or are passing it on as they frolic at the beach.
We don't need this promotion of such dangerous advice based on a few people looking happy in Covid-hit countries. We want everyone to listen to the scientific advice and stay safe, especially for those who are immunocompromised or may need a hospital bed.
Frankie Letford, Hamilton.
I would like to make an early nomination of Charlotte Bellis for New Zealander of the year 2021. Initially I was thinking of Rob Waddell, Chef de Mission of our NZ team at the Tokyo Olympics. In my view, he did an outstanding job keeping our huge team of 211 athletes safe in a very unsafe environment. However, I then learn about Bellis. This fearless Al Jazeera journalist who has put her life on the line daily in Afghanistan is one of us, a Kiwi. She was the only female journalist allowed to attend the Taleban's first official press conference. Then courageously she challenged the armed Taleban leaders head-on. "I want to talk to you about women's rights and girls' rights. About whether women will be allowed to work and if girls will still go to school," she said.
In my view, she has done all New Zealand proud by her bold questions and determination to stick up for the rights of women wherever in the world.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
Of course there was a rush to the supermarkets when the lockdown was imminent. Those who normally grab a bite on the way into work or eat out daily for brunch don't have a fridge or pantry ready-stacked with essentials.
It wasn't the panic buying of toilet paper that necessitated an extra shop but breakfast basics of bread, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, hash browns, overpriced tomatoes, milk, butter, coffee/tea, fruit juice, yoghurt, cereals and so on.
Ray Green, Birkenhead.
What a load of wimps the males in New Zealand are. Most TV and radio ads depict males as hopeless losers completely dependent on their female partners and unable to cope with the most basic functions or decisions.
Women on the other hand are shown as strong, capable and wise and wholly superior beings.
Pointed this out to my wife with the response, "And your point is?"
Vince West, Milford.
A house-building boom is spreading right across Auckland and other parts of New Zealand at an extraordinary rate. This boom in housing development is not helping homeless New Zealanders, nor is it offering affordable opportunities for first-home buyers. Can anyone explain why?
J. Leighton, Devonport.
America starts a war, New Zealand gets refugees. Been this way since 'Nam.
C.C. McDowall, Rotorua.
John Roughan, writing on climate change, stated the problem for governments is that "most people will not lower their living standards. Nor should they. Human ingenuity can do better." This, in the same week that a damning IPCC report came out. Heaven help our grandchildren's chances of a liveable world.
P. Ferguson, Tauranga.
Here we are again paying a very big price for Government's past lack of ownership of, and lack of urgency with the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Let's hope the lesson has at last been learned about the critical importance of vaccinations to avoid Covid-19 and to recover, both locally and internationally, from the pandemic into a normal life pattern.
Hugh Perrett, Remuera.
Thomas Coughlan's suggestion that we might be envious of America and Europe's "new normal" glibly forgets their year of mortalities, disruption and economic stagnation in addition to blindly disregarding the continuing infection, hospitalisations and deaths. Thankfully, few in the population and government suffer from such a short and selective memory.
John Wilkinson, Stonefields.
I live in London and my children live in New Zealand. I have not been able to travel to NZ to see them for 18 months due to New Zealand's border closure — seeing my children is deemed not to be a "critical purpose".
It is clear that "Zero Covid" cannot be attained. Our only hope of reducing infection, hospitalisation and deaths from Covid lies in the vaccines. The UK has double vaccinated 89 per cent of its adult population. The EU 62 per cent. Yet New Zealand has only managed a paltry 23 per cent.
Why? Is the New Zealand Government incompetent? Is it enjoying its new-found powers too much to wish to relinquish them? Or is there something in your Government's psyche that seeks to turn a great international trading nation into a "hermit economy"?
Less of the pious posturing from your mediocre leaders and more vaccinations, please!
Edward Docherty, London.
Could we please celebrate spring with a tūī in a kōwhai or kākābeak, both of which are flowering now. Rather more of a challenge to a photographer than the hackneyed image of a tūī in a Taiwan cherry, which is an introduced pest plant, or environmental weed if you prefer, in parts of your distribution range.
Janet Vaughan, Titirangi.
As the country goes into another level 4 lockdown, consideration needs to be given to supermarket workers who are at the frontline and at a high level of risk because of being in stores crowded with people.
After public pressure during the last level 4 lockdown, supermarkets begrudgingly agreed to pay their staff a bonus to acknowledge the risk they were putting themselves at by coming to work to ensure the country remained fed.
However, as soon as the lockdown ended, the supermarkets promptly stopped this bonus despite having made considerable profits with the exclusive monopoly on trade given to them during this period, such as is occurring again now.
The country has seen and acknowledged the critical importance of supermarket workers during lockdowns, yet despite the massive profits supermarket owners make, the staff in these stores continue to be some of the most poorly paid in the country, with many on minimum wage.
It is time for supermarkets to start paying their workers their true worth and the living wage would be a good moral start as a thank you to these staff who are keeping the country going during these unsafe times.
R. Anderson, Pukekohe.
On Ashley Bloomfield
Damned if you don't and damned if you do is the position Dr Bloomfield has found himself in admitting to not being vaccinated at this time. People would have been equally critical if he had used his position to jump the queue. Alan Thomas, Silverdale.
On Toyota utes
In the Weekend Herald, Toyota exec Neeraj Lala states that the increase in utes from 20 per cent of their total market to 30 per cent over the past 20 years is an increase of only 10 per cent. It is actually an increase of 50 per cent. Fiona McAllister, Mt Maunganui.
On UK trade
The UK Trade Secretary is reported (NZ Herald, August 18) as saying, "NZ needs to offer more on services, mobility and investment if they want a deal." I just wondered if 30,000 dead soldiers, 65,000 casualties and hundreds of millions of tons of food over 140 years would perhaps suffice? Robert Finley, Howick.
On the Taleban
The Taleban promise that women's rights will be respected "within our religious framework". Hardly a straight answer. Larry Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
On vaccination
Fun to watch the PM, MOH officials and ministers doing the soft-shoe shuffle to avoid answering the hard questions on the not-a-race vaccination rollout. The spin no longer works. Pim Venecourt, Pāpāmoa.
Uncertainty around elimination strategy
Painfully slow vaccination rollout means either lockdown or health catastrophe. Go hard, go early didn't apply to the vaccine programme and we are now all paying a huge price. Laura H
People overseas enjoying "vacations" is specious. They were in hard lockdown for over a year in many cases. We've had those freedoms and more for nearly all that time. As our vaccine rollout picks up pace, we will soon be in that situation again without all the deaths, suffering, and economic consequences. Robert H
I am an American, fully vaccinated since February, who only just arrived in New Zealand to work as a registered nurse. I am highly supportive of New Zealand's Covid response. I am overwhelmed with gratitude every day that I got my children, who are too young for vaccination, out of the US before the current Delta surge. Joseph L
Level 4 lockdown is the best way to get a handle on the scale of the problem and to reduce its spread — it's that simple. Dee R
And yet in heavily, fully vaccinated Israel they're considering lockdowns in response to rampant Delta infections. Why is it that the business right are so intent on opening us up to the pandemic? It wasn't so long ago that we were enjoying a summer of festivals and fun, lots of internal travel. So what if we can't jet off to Europe or climb aboard those floating cesspools called cruise ships. That doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice. Max K
'He has disregarded our voice and continued with this divisive kaupapa.'