Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has a plan for reopening his country at a 70-80 per cent vaccination rate. Photo / Getty Images, File
So according to expert modelling out of Australia, if they completely open up with 70-80 per cent vaccinated they can expect about 25,000 Covid deaths overall. There will also be five times that suffering debilitating long Covid illness and long term healtth damage.
Scott Morrison wants to go down that route of complete freedom as soon as possible as do many government critics here.
So are we prepared to accept probably five to six thousand NZ Covid deaths and five times more seriously ill, many with long term health damage?
Or do we stay the course with containing Covid until the virus is beaten? Even if it means the occasional lockdown and ongoing health precautions. We could be talking another year or two to save thousands of lives. Or is making money more important?
Jeff Hayward, Auckland Central.
Options available
New Zealand has an enviable record in managing Covid 19.
Despite this, with the country now in lockdown and more than 100 cases, the focus is turning to the extremely slow vaccination rate.
As an Australian now living in NZ, I can't help wonder why only one vaccine is on the table. It's clear that the supply of Pfizer is impacting the speed of the vaccination rate in NZ. Other safe vaccines are available. AstraZeneca is the most widely used vaccine in the world, having been used in 178 countries.
More than 500 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered worldwide.
And Australia has three million spare doses. Surely it's worth a phone call?
The Delta variant has proven to be a game-changer, not only in the speed at which people are catching and spreading it, but in the age of those it affects.
In Australia, more than 3500 thousand children under nine years of age have caught Covid. Can NZ afford to wait for what may prove to be a deathly slow delivery rate of Pfizer, when other vaccines are available, effective and safe?
Kathy Bowlen, St Heliers.
Warning unheeded
On July 14 this year, media commentators raised a red flag about Covid safety issues at the Crowne Plaza MIQ facility where perspex barriers did not go to the roof – exposing the public to the same air breathed by quarantined persons exercising a few metres away.
The Plaza houses over 60 businesses and a ground floor cafe. "An outbreak waiting to happen" was one comment.
Now the truth might be about to surface as to whether this was the genesis of this latest lockdown, causing great disruption and possibly the death knell of many more businesses.
If the cause was a simple technical mistake based on an ignorant assumption – then we need to know and soon. No more excuses, no more lax rules that make our borders permeable.
New Zealanders deserve better.
John Clark, Glen Eden.
Vaccine delay
Dismissing international evidence to the contrary, the Prime Minister's adamant denial that having just 19 per cent fully vaccinated in New Zealand is not responsible for the extent of the latest viral spread, and more importantly the intensity and probable length of the present lockdown, just cannot be accepted.
Having a vaccine rollout as the worst in the developed world has to be regarded as an inept failure, with the resultant social, medical, and economic outcomes as totally unacceptable.
Dr Hylton Le Grice, Remuera.
Preferential treatment
Kate McNamara (NZ Herald, August 18) wrote that Pfizer offered the Ardern Government
preferential access to the Covid vaccine - alongside USA, Canada and Israel - for an additional $4 per vaccine.
That offer was apparently turned down. Why?
Had the offer been accepted, all New Zealanders could have been vaccinated between mid-February and August - and lockdowns would no longer be necessary.
For the sake of $40m of forethought we could have avoided this latest lockdown - which in just two weeks will cost the country more than 100 times the requested premium.
What foolish folly and failure of foresight - and a now failed fortress that should be open for business.
Don Jaine, Campbells Bay.
Put in context
Those demanding a "just give us the facts" approach to the Covid updates would be the first to accuse Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of authoritarian bossiness if she did just that.
I appreciate being addressed like an intelligent person who wants to know why as well as what.
Michael Smythe, Northcote Pt
One-way prices
Crude oil has dropped by $12 on a barrel, but fuel prices still remain high.
Fuel companies must make big profits and Government score on GST.
This is unfair to car owners.
Johan Slabbert, Warkworth.
Deposit guarantee
In the Business Herald, Tamsyn Parker (NZ Herald, August 23) addresses the near certainty that increases in interest rates will cause mortgage debt-servicing delinquencies. She doesn't follow up with a discussion of how banks might react to such non-payments.
Banks will face a liquidity shortage leading to reductions in business credit and possible default on deposit liabilities. Either will precipitate a recession. To stave off a credit crunch the Reserve Bank must ease access to its credit window. To prevent deposit losses the Treasury should institute a guarantee scheme, tout suite.
The currently mentioned time frame for introduction of a guarantee scheme - 2023 - is decidedly too delayed.
Robert Myers, Auckland Central.
More, please
Paul Goldsmith (NZ Herald, August 24) tells us: "Education is the greatest opportunity provided to all New Zealanders to reach their potential…"
Opportunity. My late father did not often quote from the Bible, but he remembered that somewhere it said (approximately): "To them who have more, much will be given; and from them who have less will be taken away the little that they have."
Arch Thomson, Mt Wellington.
Thanks so much
Along with hardworking supermarket staff, let's not fail to recognise the service that Herald journalists provide in difficult times, sourcing public information and focus.
I personally loved the recent piece on Ron Brierley (NZ Herald, August 19).
Keep it coming.
Ellie Carruthers, Eden Terrace.
Sing together
About 60 years ago, songwriter Tom Springfield sat down and wrote a song. Sung by The Seekers it became an international best seller. The lyrics of the song seem appropriate as we enter another extended period of lockdown.
"Close the doors, light the lights; we're stayin' home tonight; far away from the bustle and the bright city lights; let them all fade away; just leave us alone; and we'll live in a world of our own."
James Gregory, Parnell.
On bubbles
From my observations there are people who are sharing more than one bubble.This is deadly serious and now isn't the time for a "bubble bath". Dave Miller, Matua.
On vaccine
Funny how vaccinating suddenly becomes a priority only after the inevitable outbreak. Warren Cossey, Morrinsville.
On Simons
Getting Simon Wilson to write about Simon Bridges is like getting a vegan to review a butcher's shop. Nick Hamilton, Remuera.
On complaints
Well spoken, Peter Brooks of Marangi Bay, and another Herald writer before that. Whingers are wearisome. Hing Yu, Pakuranga Heights.
On All Whites
Why it is okay to have a rugby union team named the "All Blacks", but not a soccer team named the "All Whites"? Is this related to racism, or just prejudice against football? Mike Yeoman, Waipū.
Real Madrid play in a white strip and are called Los Blancos (the whites). NZ Football should rename their team the All Woke. R J Prince, Welcome Bay.
On tūī
Wise tūī in the cherry tree knows that all trees are indigenous to Planet Earth. R A Tyson, Mt Eden.
Scomo is 100 per cent correct. Any state and territory that thinks that somehow they can protect themselves from Covid with the Delta strain forever, that's just absurd. Hiding in a cave won't work. Andrew M.
This is a standard response from a politician who has lost control of their options and therefore has no other path forward. The same was admitted publicly by the Premier of NSW. They dithered for two weeks about locking down. With an uproar from the states with little or no community spread, how will a consensus be reached ? Will Australia break into small principalities with state border control? Andrew M.
Experts also predicted the UK health system would collapse after freedom day. Did that ever happen? What do these experts want? Locking us up for the rest of our lives? If not even an 80 per cent vaccination rate is enough to open up, what is? Matthais S.
Interesting how casually now 19,000 deaths reduced to 10,000 is referred to. That is still a lot of dead people - fathers, mothers, kids and friends. People. Surely patience at this stage when there is an end in sight with vaccination is preferable to a lot of dead and long-term illness which will cost the countries far more in the long term. Chevonne L.
Sitting in Germany here, it's not a normal summer at all. We are awaiting the next wave, all stuck in limbo, nobody knows what will happen next. Our Pfizer vax protection is significantly lower after just a few months, everyone is learning. I have three friends and colleagues with long Covid: one has ongoing pain in their tongue, one cannot taste properly months later, the other can't walk around the park as it's too exhausting. Elimination is by far superior, you cannot imagine but society here just feels very, very broken, a world away from how New Zealand felt at Christmas. Laura V.
We need to learn to live with the virus, and to do so that requires a level of immunity. This will either be from becoming infected and recovering, or from getting vaccinated. Jodi O.
Thank God we live in NZ. Thank God we have Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister. Timothy T.
'We now have the internet!'