When The Government Got It Stunningly Wrong
The entire country silently (and some, not so quietly) mouthed "WHAT THE F**K?!" on Thursday 28 October when it was revealed that a person had travelled to Auckland and then back to Christchurch. She was not vaccinated.
She was infected with Delta and had spread it to others in Christchurch:
One member of the household, a woman in her 50s, had recently returned to Christchurch from Auckland. The ministry said the person travelled to Auckland to provide childcare and was there for five days.
The woman tested negative for Covid-19 before travelling, and returned a second negative test before they returned to Christchurch on October 15.
However, while the woman wasn't considered infectious when she travelled back to Christchurch, she became symptomatic on October 18 then later tested positive for the coronavirus.
Auckland is currently under Level 3 travel restrictions, with hard borders to the north of south of the sprawling city. To be clear, the woman broke no rules: they were given permission to travel. (Though their failure to scan QR codes is a fair criticism of their unacceptably casual behaviour.)
Their flight to a covid hot-spot, Auckland, and then back to Christchurch raises serious questions as to who is making decisions to grant travel exemptions; what criteria are being followed; and testing regimes.
Firstly, why is child care worthy of an exemption? And if it is, why was the event of short duration? If the child(ren) had no legal guardians, why was her presence in Auckland short-lived?
Secondly, why are unvaccinated people allowed to cross ostensibly "hard borders" into a covid hot-spot, and then back out again?
Why was this unvaccinated person allowed to travel for reasons that are questionable at best - whilst a fully vaccinated woman was recently denied permission to travel to Auckland to by a dying family member. This person offered to remain in Auckland, so she would not pose a risk as a virus carrier:
It took public scrutiny to pressure faceless bureaucrats to finally relent and give Ms Speir permission to cross the already-porous Auckland border.
Sasha Holden, in MIQ in Christchurch, was not quite as lucky:
Despite being vaccinated and testing negative Sasha Holden was denied a compassionate exemption to visit her father Lyell Beard in a Christchurch Hospital room across the road.
She said the government's planned overhaul of MIQ offers no more options to other people in the same situation.
Holden said she was "very, very close" to her father so dropped everything to return from Jersey, in the Channel Islands, when she heard he had been diagnosed with widespread metastatic cancer on 14 October.
[...]
The next day at about 4am, there was another blow. Her mother called telling her that her father had died.
[...]
“I understand there is a balance to be to be struck, but the balance was just not struck in the right place. Someone in my position who was double vaccinated and who has had two negative Covid tests can't be allowed a one or two hour visit with my dad who's dying, then something about that is fundamentally wrong.”
This is the same Christchurch where the unvaccinated woman was allowed to travel to Auckland; spend time in that city for child-care; then return to her home city. By that time, she had picked up an invisible 'hitch-hiker'.
Thirdly, how many more cases of unvaccinated people are there, moving in and out of Auckland?
We already know that truck drivers crossing the Auckland border are not mandated to be vaccinated. This has led to two previous cases of infected truckies driving to Tauranga and Palmerston North. One of the infected couple in Christchurch is also a truck driver and was working whilst infected with Delta.
Which raises another question; what is the point of hard borders encircling Auckland when it is porous to crossing by unvaccinated "essential workers"?
On RNZ's 'Morning Report', the CEO of lobby-group, Transporting New Zealand, Nick Leggett, continued to resist mandating truck drivers to be double vaccinated before crossing the Auckland boundaries:
“At this point, this close to peak season for freight at Christmas, at this point, if we drove a mandate for vaccination, without a proven case as to actually what we're trying to achieve, we could cause a chaotic shortage that would mean that freight slowed and in some cases stopped.”
The naked self-interest of this lobby group could not be more clearly expressed. Apparently, the delivery of consumer goods outweighs human lives. For Mr Leggett, Christmas presents carry higher priority than people ending up in ICU, struggling to draw oxygen into their covid-ravaged lungs, and even dying.
Let's hope those Christmas presents are worthwhile and don't end up in land fills:
It is inconceivable, inexcusable, and inarguably insane that people are allowed to cross the Auckland boundaries unvaccinated. Whilst vaccination does not prevent infection from covid, it reduces the viral "load" and transmission of the virus.
Why are truck drivers permitted to cross the border? Has the already shrill voice of the trucking industry amplified a hundred times by headline/click-seeking media, pressured the government into caving to industry demands?
It would appear so, according to Mr Leggett.
Mr Leggett's pressure has already been demonstrated to be capable of softening government's covid protocols:
The government is looking at making vaccination a requirement to cross regional boundaries for all but some travel.
Transporting forum chief executive Nick Leggett said the sector could not afford to take unvaccinated drivers off the road.
“We have a shortage of drivers and a shortage of people in the overall freight industry. We've got issues with ships being able to call at our ports,” he said.
“We are compromised and a compulsory vaccine requirement at borders I think would cause significant disruption and slow our economy even further at a time when we can't afford it.”
Anyone leaving Auckland for essential reasons must return a negative Covid-19 test in the seven days before they cross the border.
But the testing regime did not catch an unvaccinated person who later returned a positive result for the virus in Christchurch following a visit to Auckland - and now there are calls for vaccination to be a requirement for anyone leaving the region.
Mr Leggett's justification to exempt truckies was as astonishing as it was implausible:
Leggett said drivers did not pose a great risk of transferring Covid-19 to other people.
“It's a solitary occupation for much of the time drivers are sitting in their cabs often not interacting and when they do interact they can have decent PPE and keep distanced,” he said.
“We shouldn't run down a rabbit hole and compromise our supply chain potentially unless we really know what we are going to gain from a vaccine border mandate.”
Come again?! "What we are going to gain"?
Perhaps reducing spread of Delta? That might be a good start.
The media, as usual, were willing and able to spread Mr Leggett's very public, very strident, naked lobbying to ease border restrictions for truckies. Often uncritically and not even asking the most basic question: why aren't truck drivers getting vaccinated?
Instead, Mr Leggett and other industry lobbyists were touting "saliva" (Rapid Antigen) testing which has been shown to be dangerously unreliable. (See previous story: Business and Media pimp for dodgy covid test. Govt caves. Questions Remain.)
But Mr Leggett appears to be "stringing" us along.
At the beginning of March this year, he was reported as demanding truck drivers be given essential worker status to have them vaccinated as soon as possible so that potential disruption to the trucking industry could be minimised:
“The trucking industry is keen to understand when its frontline workers, mainly drivers, might be in line for a vaccination and whether they will be given priority over the general population, given their importance in keeping the supply chain running.
The yo-yoing lockdowns have significant impacts on moving freight and Covid outbreaks in Auckland put a large workforce at risk.
Ports of Auckland and other port workers are being vaccinated and it is only a matter of time before high-risk businesses start demanding any workers to their sites also be vaccinated.
Transport operators are keen to mitigate risk and exposure of their employees to Covid-19 as soon as possible and some clarity on vaccination prioritisation would be useful so they can plan.
[...]
We recognise that the Government will not achieve a 100% vaccination rate, but it will be important to have frontline and critical staff vaccinated and we would like to be able to inform transport operators of their responsibilities and rights around employee vaccination requirements as soon as possible.”
By the end of October, apparently either Mr Leggett had had a complete 180 degree change of mind, or an evil doppelgänger had taken his place. The new, Pod-Person Mr Leggett suddenly resisted vaccination for his members' truck drivers:
“We have a shortage of drivers and a shortage of people in the overall freight industry. We've got issues with ships being able to call at our ports.
We are compromised and a compulsory vaccine requirement at borders I think would cause significant disruption and slow our economy even further at a time when we can't afford it.”
It is fairly obvious that Mr Leggett, being a lobbyist and spokesperson for a major industry, is trying to delay and minimise anything that might impact on his paymasters' profit margins. Any slow-down or interruption to freight would certainly dent profits.
The risk to the entire country from infected truck drivers is obviously not part of Mr Leggett's concerns. In fact, his views on our covid protection agencies was laid bare on 8 September when he told a commercial radio host:
“... because, Ministry of Health seem to be running the country and I find that scary, and I think other Kiwis should find that scary as well.”
The trucking industry, platformed by an increasingly tabloidy, click-driven, mainstream media, had succeeded in pressuring the government to loosen restrictions.
The result should not be surprising: Delta spreading throughout the country.
The media, of course, will maximise this opportunity to run more and more stories with garish headlines, breathlessly reporting on Delta spreading and turning up in town after town; city after city.
Mr Leggett will have achieved his sole purpose: preventing any hindrance to trucking movements and preserving profits. Covid is not factored into his very narrow equations.
The government will race against the spread of Delta to raise vaccination rates.
And National - in close alliance with the trucking industry - will relish the opportunity to feast on every negative statistic; every disturbing headline; and every perceived 'failure' by the government.
One day, Labour will learn not to indulge business lobbyists. They do not have our best interests at heart.
Conclusion
Despite this government's mistakes over the last eighteen months (eg; not prioritising border workers for regular covid tests or appropriate PPE gear; foreign ship crews bussed through the country from one port to another,or failing to isolate properly; allowing short-stay MIQ for airline flight crews; unvaccinated truckies, etc), one thing is 100% certain - they are a vast improvement on this lot:
The Labour government's errors are substantial - but the rule-book for global pandemics is still being written. With global air-travel and inter-connectedness of international trade, the 1918 influenza epidemic "rule-book" (such as it was) was as useful as an instruction manual on the care and handling of horse and carts.
The rule-book clearly had to be re-written.
Even as we thought we had Covid Alpha sussed and sorted - Covid Delta forced us to throw out that hastily re-written rule-book before the ink was even dry.
The current rule-book has only one page, with only one sentence: Delay Delta for as long as possible until we can get as many people vaccinated as possible.
A National government would not even have bothered with a rule-book. Their policies were clearly outlined in their 'Plan B Open Up' document; Opening Up: National’s plan to tackle COVID-19, end lockdowns and reopen to the world. Basically, the document could be summed up in one short sentence: Open Up and consequences be damned.
It was a document Boris Johnson - Prime Minister of the U.K. - would have been proud to produce.
And it demonstrates, with crystal clarity, where a National government would've taken us. It would not have been 'pretty' to see:
PM Ardern's leadership, any day. With or without the mistakes.
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References
Stuff media: Christchurch in 'risky period' following two Covid-19 cases
Covid19: History of the COVID-19 Alert System
Stuff media: Covid-19 - Christchurch escapes level 3 despite positive case working in the community
RNZ: Woman desperate to help dying nephew denied Auckland entry
RNZ: Woman finally granted permission to care for dying nephew in AK
RNZ: Returnee calls for answers after 'brutal' MIQ treatment
RNZ: Truck driver's infection picked up in Covid-19 surveillance testing - Henare
The Sydney Morning Herald: Christmas waste revealed in $400m of 'unwanted' gifts
Recycling & Waste World: One in 10 unwanted Christmas gifts ends up in landfill, says survey
Forbes: The Dark Side Of Christmas - 5B Pounds Of Returned Goods Thrown Away Annually
Ministry of Health: COVID-19 - About the Delta variant - How we can protect ourselves - vaccine effectiveness and health measures
RNZ: Trucking industry pushes back at idea of mandatory vaccines to cross regional borders
RNZ: Covid-19 - Road Transport Forum unhappy with border testing
FDA: Stop Using Innova Medical Group SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Qualitative Test: FDA Safety Communication
Rural News: Vaccine timeline for truck drivers necessary - Road Transport Forum
Wikipedia: Pod People (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Newshub: Trucking industry pushes back at mandatory vaccines to cross regional borders
NewstalkZB: Nick Leggett - Extra days to get truck drivers crossing the border tested 'incredibly important'
Twitter: National Party – Sign the Trans Tasman bubble petition
Twitter: Judith Collins – Sign the Trans Tasman bubble petition
Newsroom: Cabinet knew about lack of border tests before August outbreak
RNZ: Man in MIQ 'blown away' seeing staff only wearing surgical masks
RNZ: Covid-19 - Mariners driven from Auckland to Taranaki pose 'very low risk'
RNZ: Covid-19 - Bungle allows cargo ship crew to skip isolation protocols
Newshub: Air New Zealand crew claim they're being 'forced' to work on COVID-19 quarantine flights
National: Opening Up: National’s plan to tackle COVID-19, end lockdowns and reopen to the world
The Guardian: UK records highest Covid deaths since March
Yahoo News: Don't panic, says UK, despite soaring Covid rates
CNN: The UK has more new Covid-19 cases than France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined
Bloomberg: U.K.’s Boris Johnson Predicts Difficult Winter as Covid Deaths Rise
Al Jazeera: UK under pressure to reimpose restrictions as COVID cases soar
Reference Sources
MIQ: History and origins of MIQ
Covid19: History of the COVID-19 Alert System
MBIE: Managed isolation and quarantine data
RNZ: Timeline – The year of Covid-19 in New Zealand
Stuff media: Covid-19 – A timeline of the Delta outbreak
Other Blogs
Bowalley Road: Putting On The Armour Of Covid Righteousness.
The Standard: Why vaccine mandates are needed
Previous related blogposts
Life in Lock Down: Day 28 – An Open Letter to Prime Minister Ardern
Is Air NZ the Covid re-infection problem? Possible evidence points to national airline
Does OIA evidence confirm possible Air NZ link to recent covid outbreaks?
Team 5 million vs Covid: Aotearoa on Three Strikes
The Virus, the Bubble, and the Trap
Business and Media pimp for dodgy covid test. Govt caves. Questions Remain.
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Acknowledgement: Rod Emmerson
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