So, having saved us from Covid for 18 months, our government has just surrendered to the virus, announcing a "transition plan" to loosen restrictions while Covid is still spreading in the community. This is exactly the sort of insanity which has led to outbreaks and mass death in the UK and NSW, and there's no reason to think it will end any differently here.
I'm just glad I don't live in Auckland (and glad that there will still be a hard border to slow the coming shitshow's spread to the rest of Aotearoa). But I'm also sorry for everyone who lives there. You deserved better than this. And you deserve a government which will keep you safe, rather than sacrificing your lives for a pack of greedy whiners.
I'm also personally fucked off, because when the PM told people to go out and get vaccinated 3 weeks ago, like thousands of people I did what was asked, moved up my appointment, and got jabbed with the six week spacing for maximum effectiveness. My second booking isn't for three weeks, and I won't be safe until two weeks after that, and the government has just said they'll let the virus rampage before then. Obviously, I'll be looking at moving that up. But it feels like a personal betrayal to have the government change its mind on something so vital like that.
(And there's a whole cohort in this situation, and under 12s who still can't be vaxxed at all, plus minorities with low uptake and high vulnerability. But waiting a bit longer to solve those problems was apparently too hard for the government, so it's "let her rip")
Meanwhile, I guess Aotearoa's days of being a "model Covid response" are over. The government has just decided to surrender to the virus, because they were sick of the whining from the Auckland business class. They've basicly become quislings for the virus, just like Boris Johnson and Gladys Berejiklian. And we'll be paying the price for their cowardice in deaths and long Covid.
