That New Zealand's strategy has failed

[JudesBiggestFan]

And they will have to start the long and painful process of learning to live with Covid? I spoke to my friend in NZ earlier and he was in shock at being back in lockdown. He said they really felt they'd defeated the virus and this has just come out of nowhere. I feel for him but an airborne virus...it can't be stopped. And the cost of trying is too high. Or do they still have a chance of beating the virus?

@NeverTalkToStrangers

Did you miss the Winter/Spring 2021 European second/third wave? The rest of the world needed those vaccines far more than New Zealand did between December 2020 and April 2021, until the production lines really got rolling. I quite agree that New Zealand could do with vaccinating quicker now, but up until about May 2021 it would have been immoral for them to even start.

It really wouldn’t have been immoral to start vaccination. That’s silly. NZ was only Covid free because to all intents and purposes it’s shut. Now I get that some NZers on here appear to be fairly sanguine about it being shut, but irl many are getting somewhat pissed off. The rollout has been indefensibly slow, and actually is still not efficient. It’s all very well JA coming on the presser with ‘good news’ about who can now get vaccinated, but access to appointments is chaotic.

"Seriously you are very very light on the actual scientific facts harriet and understanding how viruses work - and instead choose to simply berate posts that do not fall in line with your government's world view on covid strategy."

Hang on Step. Who do you assume my Government is ?

I can understand some Kiwis being fed up. It's bloody tedious.

For sure, they need to sort out their vaccine supplies as a matter of urgency.

I have to say there's a few in the UK that are pretty unimpressed with how things have been dealt with by the Government over here, and I know there's some very pissed off people in Aussie!

The world is sloshing around in vaccine and it has been for over a year now, and yet you are telling yourselves your vaccine failure is due to goodwill and choosing to put other 'needy" countries first?!!! Even though this is clearly a total lie.

Seriously where do you get this stuff from!

Your vaccine roll out is failure because your government didn't buy anywhere near enough vaccine period, then said government gave you the idea that due to their exceptional control methods you could pick and choose what vaccine was preferable, and allowed you the luxury of thinking you were safe indefinitely whilst you decided whether the vaccine was even right for you or not. All the while stripping out your civil liberties and basic human rights and you call it what? Philanthropy!

It sounds more like exceptionalism from here.

You could not make this stuff up!!

You are being lied to, misled and sold a dream reality that does not exist. ffs wake up and smell the coffee.

Step Go and have a lie down and leave the New Zealanders themselves to worry about any concerns they may have. We have enough of our own here in the UK.

@HarrietPierce

Step Go and have a lie down and leave the New Zealanders themselves to worry about any concerns they may have. We have enough of our own here in the UK.

And mebbe a nice up of tea.

And again no real reply Harriet so I can only assume you agree...

Also a hobnob.

Stepup

you keep repeating the same thing over and over. New Zealanders who are actually there have answered you time after time and still you keep repeating yourself and ignore what they say, why? Are you personally affected more than those who are there? Not sure if you're being deliberately goady or if you're highly anxious for whatever reason. Either way it's not healthy. Try and take a step back, go for a walk and clear your mind. When you get a negative thought try and replace it with a positive one (sometimes easier said than done) for example, if the media in the UK is telling you it's all doom and gloom in New Zealand, you can either choose to believe that and continue to be worried and anxious or you can speak to those who are actually there and experiencing it and get a variety of answers as to how things are and then you can say to yourself ok it's not as bad as I've been led to believe, some enjoy the lockdown and some don't but at least it's not as gloomy as I've been led to believe. Then you can get on with your day. If you are personally affected by it then say what it is and how your affected and I'm sure the kiwis in here will be happy to give you answers if they can. They've been very patient with you so far probably more than you deserve at times.

[quote Bigballa]@AuntyJoyce I'll give you that it was not entirely altruistic, although not down to mismanagement. Why vaccinate a population that's not at risk with a new vaccine?

We waited, we let you lot be guinea pigs and now we know it's safe. If anything the delay has made people more likely to get the vaccine. It definitely hasn't made people more resistant I don't know where you got that idea from.[/quote]
"We let you lot be guinea pigs" absolutely stinks of just as much smugness as some of the posts on here that NZ mners have been berating for being smug.

"And again no real reply Harriet so I can only assume you agree..."

Well certainly not with you, step !

Bigballs - your post is so deeply offensive and basically opitimises what I said and got shot down for in my first post. NZ shut its doors and waited for the world to bail them out. I said laughing their socks off and from your post I was quite frankly right. Sadly, I know you are not alone in your opinion.

As someone, along with a lot of my colleagues - who blindly signed up and took part in the first vaccine trials in the world - you are an embarrassment to your country. None of us knew what would happen when we enrolled but we did it for the greater good and a 50:50 chance of actually getting the vaccine.

I am a Kiwi - and whilst proud of how NZ contained COVID - attitudes like that are an embarrassment to my country. I am proud that I stood up and was counted to help the world - bcause it is a world wide problem.

You are beyond words in your offensiveness and disrespect for those who have caught COVID, survived, died, those who have learned to treat to the best of their abilities and those who trialled a vaccine to move the world to a better place.

This thread is like stepping into the twilight zone.

Many people in NZ are chill and happy. Just let them be chill and happy. No one knows how this will end anyway. And even if it ends badly for NZ it’s not like we are going to all say “oh no remember that wet weekend when I watched tv at home in lockdown feeling quite content jeez I wish I’d spent it worrying about a dystopian future like step instead”

Meanwhile, back in the paradise that is the Far North of NZ, we continue to be at level 4 because of the fucking selfishness of fucking * jafas who believed that they had the right to flee fucking Auckland to their fucking northern holiday homes. The whanau who rely on fishing and kaimoana gathering to keep their kids fed are stuck at home. People look out for each other and share produce, but it's so unfair on our region, where there have been no cases or contacts at all.

• jafa = "just another fucking aucklander" - not a term of endearment, used by the rest of the country about anyone from Warkworth to Drury.

No one wants this to end badly for NZ and being chill and happy is fine.

Not the absolute disrespectful crap utter by a previous poster that the rest of the world were NZ guinea pigs.

Meanwhile, back in the paradise that is the Far North of NZ, we continue to be at level 4 because of the fucking selfishness of fucking jafas who believed that they had the right to flee fucking Auckland to their fucking northern holiday homes.*

As a life-long JAFA I could not agree with you more. It's sheer selfishness and I'm sorry that you are bearing the cost for people who choose not to stay in their own no doubt perfectly nice homes.

Not sure if you're being deliberately goady or if you're highly anxious for whatever reason. Either way it's not healthy.

I've come to the conclusion that it is some kind of projective anxiety/grief. Claiming her life now is 'practically normal and wonderful' and prophesying future doom and suffering on a country that so far has escaped the worst of what hers has gone through is perhaps a way of avoiding acknowledging uncertainty and anxiety about her own future, as well as enormous anger and grief at the price her country has already paid.

I think it's best just not to engage.

Opportunities for 🍿🍿 notwithstanding... nearly 900 posts in, this thread could essentially be summarised thusly:

Irrationally overinvested poster: NZ has it all wrong, doom and disaster cometh, you must listen to meeee!

Kiwi MNetters: yeah, there's been a few issues. But here's why Ardern's policies largely work for us (not limited to small, relatively isolated nation; small, not hugely funded health system)... we're mostly fine with what's going on. Cheers.

IOP: no, no ... doom and gloom. Authoritarian state, China!

KMs: no, we really don't feel that. It's mostly all good here. Early issues with vaccines, but fortunately that's ramping up now. Thanks tho.

IOP: but China!!!

KMs: H'OK 🤷🏼‍♀️

IOP: 🤯🤯

KMs:

I think you're right cheeky. I think perhaps for some people their suffering is easier to bear if they convince themselves that it was inevitable, that there was nothing that could have been done. The fact that some countries have avoided such suffering so far threatens that belief. So they have to pounce on any piece of negative news to calm themselves down. Or if the news isn't bad enough, they have to imagine how in the future it will be so much worse. Or convince themselves that the measures used are causing unbearable suffering. And again when others don't go along with this, the beliefs are threatened so they have to become more and more desperate.

You can see this on any of the threads about Aus/NZ, but it's particularly intense on this thread. I try to intervene to give a more realistic picture to anyone who might be reading along, but you're right I think at a certain point it's probably best to stop engaging.

I'm thinking it would be nice to have a Kiwi chat thread, we could check in and natter away while UK Mumsnet sleeps.

I think it's best just not to engage.

This, absolutely this.

@AmorFati

I'm thinking it would be nice to have a Kiwi chat thread, we could check in and natter away while UK Mumsnet sleeps.

Waves from Hawke's Bay

FiveShelties it's turned out another stunner of a day, hasn't it! I'm in Ahuriri, right across the road from the beach, lockdown has been idyllic here.

Weather is fantastic, I am in Havelock and have been sitting in the garden. You are lucky to be near the sea, I walk my dog at Waimarama often and missing my fix of sea, but there could definitely be much worse places to spend Level 4.

I expect to be eaten alive for this once the UK lot wake up but I do think at it’s heart NZers do have a stronger sense of social responsibility than many in other countries. Not sure why - maybe size or comparative lack of class system? Not everyone of course and we have plenty of faults but I just can’t imagine putting other people at risk so I could walk around without a mask