I feel reassured watching the press conferences and briefings and reading the commentary in the paper.
I’m impressed with the professionalism of our senior civil servants, their grasp of the issues and their honesty when it comes to answering the hard questions.
Before the covid-19 pandemic I’d heard of director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield but had no idea what he looked like.
I hadn’t heard of his colleague Dr Caroline McElnay, Civil Defence executive Sarah Stuart-Black or Otago University academics Professors David Murdoch and Michael Baker.
I’m pleased they are on our side and have considerable respect for them.
Likewise with our politicians. I don’t see what more Prime Minister Jacinda Ardernm and Finance Minister Grant Robertson could do and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has been hands-on and effective.
I’ve been highly critical of Trade Minister David Parker over the years but I’m appreciating his statements about keeping trade routes open.
I believe the lockdown is the right way to go and accept the hardship it will cause. I don’t believe there was any alternative.
Judging by the new infections at the time of writing, it’s working.
One of the problems of a crisis like covid-19 is it brings people with opinions out of the woodwork and they get reported whether credible or not.
For a start I received a pile of “scientific” evidence about how 5G is responsible for the pandemic. People are taking it really seriously but as we’ll never get 5G in the provinces it isn’t a worry.
Previously, I’d been told 5G would, among other problems, cause my bollocks to drop off so covid-19 is light relief by comparison.
We then had an Otago University psychologist telling us because older people can’t go outside they could suffer dramatic cognitive decline. In common language that means losing mental agility.
Not all older people are in retirement villages. We’re outside and active in the provinces.
That was followed by another Otago academic, an associate professor no less, saying rural towns are most at risk from the virus because they have the lowest socioeconomic status, higher levels of chronic disease, more elderly people and poorer access to health services.
As a septuagenarian I take exception.
If people are older in the provinces they could well be fitter. I’m unaware of chronic diseases and the health services I’ve enjoyed in provincial NZ are infinitely better than those I’ve suffered in the cities.
We’ve been bombarded with “research” about business and farm confidence plummeting. Of course it is. You don’t need research to tell you that.
The commentary from the fringe has also been entertaining.
One of our outlandish commentators said NZ shouldn’t be in lockdown but should adopt the herd-immunity principle.
What that means is that you just let it run riot as the British initially did. It’s survival of the fittest.
For those over 70 they suggested oases around the country for the vulnerable and Waiheke Island was mentioned.
As one of the target group can I suggest I have no intention of going to Waiheke Island and will be staying exactly where I am.
Not to be outdone, the ubiquitous Mike Hosking demanded a lockdown but when it happened claimed it was an over-reaction.
Then outlandishly, in my view, he suggested the Government had based its modelling of the impact of covid-19 on numbers pulled from thin air.
For the record, I believe the Government.
I’m also getting sick of the political games from the Opposition. We’re in this together.
One commentator suggested we ring an over 70-year-old to wish them well. I obediently rang a mate about a kilometre away to do just that. His laughing response was unprintable in a family publication but I did try.
Moving forward I accept GDP will suffer in the short term, unemployment will increase and firms will go under.
The provinces have been there before.
I remember the Douglas/Prebble reforms of the early 1980s where farmers and the provinces were expendable.
We suffered, farmers went to the wall, walked off their farms, committed suicide and provincial NZ ground to a halt. Food production was described as a sunset industr. We were on our own.
Look at farming now. Realistically, we’re all the country has.
As the headline on the front page of last week’s Farmers Weekly said, farming finds a way.
We have in the past and will in the future.
Stay safe.
