Newsroom's Marc Daalder has an excellent piece this morning on long covid in New Zealand. Its currently affecting tens of thousands of kiwis, and with the government's "let it rip" strategy, that number is only going to increase (in the UK, where almost everyone has had covid, 3% of the population report suffering from long covid. The NZ government's best case scenario is 2% of all kiwis will get it). It can cause serious disability, with victims reporting severe pain, mobility issues, anxiety / depression, and 40 - 50 percent of them saying it interfered with usual activities (like going to work, or taking care of their kids). But is there government support? Of course not:
As it stands, there are relatively few options available to those with Long Covid. Crossan's support group is putting together resources for patients to take to their employers. But ACC has declined to cover the condition if it can't be proven that Covid-19 was caught in the workplace and Long Covid isn't considered a disability eligible for government support.So, to make this clear, the government gave up on covid and let it spread unchecked, letting half the country get it. And now, when confronted with the long-term consequences of that stupid decision, its "fuck you, your problem".
This isn't "kind". It is immoral. Quite apart from general principles of welfare policy in NZ - under which disability support is clearly the government's responsibility - these people are disabled because of the government. They have this problem due to a clear and unquestionable failure of government policy. The government cannot simply walk away from that and abandon them. At least, not under any reasonable ethical standards.
The government needs to accept its responsibility here, and provide support. And if they don't, well, 2% is normally enough to shift elections, and people should vote for a government which will.
