An astonishing effort
For the shock jock and armchair pundit, Covid provides a never-ending feast. Any action can be too harsh or not harsh enough, too soon or too late. This measure should be included and that one left out. With selective hindsight and no need for coherence, hours of fun can be had
For those charged with responsibility, it is not a parlour game. The world over, livelihoods and health, mental and physical, are affected. And for millions, it is a matter of life and death.
NZ has done astonishingly well so far, but we have reached the point where our elimination strategy must give way to accepting that the virus will become endemic. This was inevitable after the rest of the world failed to eliminate.
Deaths will happen. If we wish to avoid the death rates that other countries are experiencing, the vast majority need to hold their collective nerve and see this through, hopefully with the unsure joining.
But what should be done with those who actively seek to undermine our monumental collective effort?
Jim Colvine, Mangawhai Heads.
Gormless irony
The Freedoms & Rights Coalition protest group set up their traffic gridlock on Saturday to impinge on the freedom and right of citizens to go about their business in a normal way.
Signage on vehicles like, "Let Freedom Reign" and "It's not about health it's about control" perfectly depicted the gormlessness.
"Freedom, no more control" while limiting the freedom of others by controlling the way they could get around?
Peter Nicholson, Ruatāngata.
Roll up or out
David Seymour (NZ Herald, November 15) wants to see an end to the "no jab, no job" mandate because companies are becoming under-resourced and finding it difficult to cope.
However, what he might have considered in reaching that view is that I - like many others, well in excess of the 5 per cent he quotes - am not prepared to be forced to work in close proximity to those who who are unvaccinated and threaten my health and the health
of my family and friends.
I would suggest that that presents a far greater risk to the business community and the economy of our country than kowtowing to an irresponsible minority.
Gerald Payman, Mt Albert,
Testing too late
Act Leader, David Seymour (NZ Herald, November 15) wants the Government to relax the no vax, no job policy and allow regular testing as an alternative for people working in the educational, health and disability sectors.
Unfortunately the test does not provide any defence against being infected by the Covid virus, which the vaccine does. It only advises that the person being tested has already got the virus and has potentially already passed the virus infection on to their pupils or patients which would be very unfortunate.
The policy being advocated by David Seymour should not be adopted.
David Mairs, Glendowie.
Housing as a product
In reply to one contributor to The Premium Debate (NZ Herald, November 15), housing is not like an antique. It is a basic need, like food, water, medicine, and safety.
Allowing it to become a "product" like any other is the reason we have runaway prices which have created the widening gap between those with a house and those desperately trying to get on the ladder. Electricity has doubled for the same reasons due to the predatory actions of companies to benefit their shareholders.
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, two British health researchers, wrote "The Spirit Level" in 2009. They looked at the negative effects of wide social inequality.
Using graphs on life expectancy, imprisonment, teenage births etc as evidence to support their theories, they concluded that equal societies do better on many measures of social health and wealth.
New Zealand did not come out well in their book, which they attributed to the introduction of free-market ideology; such as treating the housing market as a "product".
S. McLaren, Titirangi.
