Lockdown!

Monday 23 March 2020

Today life changes for every New Zealander.

We walk up to the campsite café for morning coffee. There is a sense of concern in the air. We see some motor-homers and I ask them how they are feeling. They say they have their sailings booked for later in the week and are keen to get home now. I know what they mean. I think I will be okay until Sunday and I am keen to get across the water then.

We set off to go through Nelson. I am looking for somewhere to stay tonight, and I am seeing more camp sites closing. We see lots of campervans and motorhomes heading towards the port – people are going home early. That’s why the sailings are full. We have to wait for six days for our sailing, so we might as well enjoy the six days while we wait.

Arriving in Nelson, I hear on the news that the PM is giving an important press conference at 1.30 pm. We stop in Countdown supermarket carpark to watch the announcement. We hear that there are 36 new confirmed and probable cases, giving a total of 102 confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand and so the country will move to ‘Level Three’ immediately and ‘Level Four’ in 48 hours for four weeks. This means that in 48 hours the ferries will stop, no travel will be allowed, house arrest for the whole nation. Supermarkets and chemists only to be allowed to open. No online shopping. No businesses open. Essential service businesses allowed to provide essential services only. (Were DOC forewarned and so closed their campsites from midday on 23^rd? )

Ardern uses the Otago University Report (see 16 March) to guide her in this decision for lockdown. That is: without lockdown we can expect 150,000 Kiwis in hospital. 36,600 in ICU, 27,600 deaths. Even with lockdown we can expect the numbers to rise dramatically over the next fortnight.

As Ardern is speaking we watch the carpark fill up with cars and people rushing into the supermarket to shop. Panic buying? Yes.

We don’t get out of the car. We immediately start driving straight to Picton, and while P is driving, I am on the phone and on the internet trying to get an earlier booking before Wednesday. Everything is booked until Sunday which is when we are already booked for. The ferries stop running on Wednesday. I am panic-stricken. What are we going to do? I am very scared.

We arrive at a large campsite in Blenheim and immediately it is clear that there are hundreds of frightened NZMCA members who are going to be stranded.  We are about to be trapped in the South Island in a small caravan with summer clothes and no way to buy warm clothes, no proper bathroom facilities, no electricity, gas for only 5 days, heading into winter and with nowhere to stay as the commercial sites are all closing. 

We don’t know where to turn for help.  NZMCA is not helping at all. C phones our local MP who immediately sees the seriousness of the problem and lobbies on our behalf, and on behalf of everyone wanting to cross to the right island. Ardern says that she doesn’t want to see any New Zealanders stranded and the ferry has permission to stay open until Friday. The extension is allowing a few more hundred people to get across the Strait, but thousands more will be left behind. Thousands of New Zealanders and tourists are going to be stranded when the ferries stop. Does she know that people are stranded? Does she care at all?

Our last resort is a flight home. Air New Zealand puts on extra flights. The caravan and car can stay with B’s friend who has a lifestyle block and room there for us to park, and B can lend us suitcases and drive us to the airport. I am shaking as I book a flight. I have to make more than one attempt as the flights are filling so fast that the flights are full by the time I get to payment page. When the booking is complete, I look to see when the flight is and how much it has cost us. At the moment of booking, those things are irrelevant. So we leave our caravan and car behind and get one of the last flights out of Blenheim before lockdown. We expect to be back in a month, although I am worried it might be a bit longer than that.

At the airport and on the flights, everything is calm and quiet. There is ‘social distancing’. The plane is only half full with one passenger per row. P and I are allowed to sit next to each other and so the row across the aisle is empty. I feel sorry for the flight attendants who are so courteous and helpful and yet will likely lose their jobs in the coming days.

All the while on these stressful couple of days, NZMCA is adding to the problem by sending emails to say it is closing sites and telling people to go to commercial sites – which were also closing, or else charging high rates. And then sending out press releases again scolding members who are trapped or stuck.  In our hour of need our camping organisation fails its members, and adds to our distress.

Wednesday 25 March 2020

C picks us up at the airport and takes us home to enjoy a yummy dinner she has made for us. We are home with a couple of hours to spare before the lockdown starts at midnight. For four weeks. The Government declares a National State of Emergency. We are now in a police state with the whole country under house arrest.

I am so relieved to be home, but I am sad to leave the car and van behind. I just want to get them back here ASAP. And now I am starting to be angry. The whole country under the strictest lockdown rules in the world. People are terrified of this illness. The Government is looking decisive, but creating an enormous muddle of inconsistencies and cruel rulings.

Just two months ago I am horrified to see this sort of thing happening in China and feeling thankful that we live in a free country. How fast things are changing! How fast our freedoms are being stripped! And not only that, but everyone is accepting it!

Some Facts About the Danger of the Virus

C points me to an article in the UK Daily Mail by Peter Hitchens published on 22 March. He quotes Professor John Ioannidis, who is Professor of Medicine, of epidemiology and population health, of biomedical data science, and of statistics at Stanford University in California. He is considered to be the most widely respected epidemiologist in the world. Peter Hitchens says: ‘The data are utterly unreliable because so many cases are going unrecorded. He quotes John Ioannidis.

‘This evidence fiasco creates tremendous uncertainty about the risk of dying from Covid-19. Reported case fatality rates, like the official 3.4 per cent rate from the World Health Organisation, cause horror and are meaningless.’In only one place – aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess – has an entire closed community been available for study. And the death rate there – just one per cent – is distorted because so many of those aboard were elderly. The real rate, adjusted for a wide age range, could be as low as 0.05 per cent and as high as one per cent.

As Prof Ioannidis says: ‘That huge range markedly affects how severe the pandemic is and what should be done. A population-wide case fatality rate of 0.05 per cent is lower than seasonal influenza. If that is the true rate, locking down the world with potentially tremendous social and financial consequences may be totally irrational. It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat. Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8138675/PETER-HITCHENS-shutting-Britain-REALLY-right-answer.html

Rob Arnott writes an article called ‘COVID-19 and the Unintended Consequences of Economic Shutdown’. He writes a lot of sense. He says ‘On the Diamond Princess cruise ship, with 3,000 aboard, everyone was tested. For both the Diamond Princess and South Korea, the mortality rate is about 1%. Those who are over 60 years old with other risk factors (the aforementioned heart or lung disease, cancer or diabetes) comprise roughly 80% of that total. This means that, for most age groups, a COVID-19 victim faces mortality risk that very roughly matches one’s risk of dying from all other causes in 2020. Why are we shuttering the global macroeconomy for a threat that temporarily doubles our risk of dying, and only for those of us who are infected? While a muscular national response is both expected and necessary, the old saying of “first do no harm” rates prominent consideration. In a noble effort to save lives, let’s please be careful to not crush people’s careers, plans and dreams in the process.’

So before the lockdown starts tomorrow we can see that the figures people have been scared into believing are not true. They are modelling figures which are notoriously inaccurate. Shaun Hendy is advising the Government that his modelling shows up to 40,000 deaths, and even 80,000 deaths without lockdown. Those numbers are truly scary. How does he get these numbers?

We have facts here giving a different picture and it is looking as though a lockdown is NOT necessary. A lockdown quarantines the healthy. It is usually the sick who are quarantined.

Thursday 26 March 2020

First day of lockdown. Photos of empty streets. We are told that there will be thousands of cases of the virus before we reach the peak in a couple of weeks. We are told that without lockdown the country could see as many as tens of thousands of cases and deaths. We are now expecting to see numbers into the thousands before the effects of the lockdown are felt.

Ardern says she will be following Taiwan’s model – Taiwan has not locked down. But they have closed the border properly. Why are we locked in our homes with everything closed? This does not feel right.

Friday 27 March 2020

85 new confirmed and probable cases giving a total of 368. The Government says that we can expect these numbers to climb steeply in the next 14 days. We could be looking at several thousand ‘infections’ before we will see any benefit from the lockdown. P says he doesn’t think they will rise that fast. I tend to agree with him.

Sunday 29 March 2020

First death in New Zealand: an old lady who goes to hospital with flu, gets tested positive for Covid. The Director General of Health tells us how very sorry everyone is and how tragic this death is. Total number of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is now 514.

Although we are very thankful to be home and not stranded on the wrong island, as so many hundreds, maybe thousands, of Kiwis are, we are angry with Ardern. Her decision to suddenly stop the ferries and public transport which prevent people getting home is pure thoughtlessness. Such blindness. Such hubris. We are talking about it a lot at home and thinking about it all the time. We all need to calm down and take a chill pill.

P is able to work from home, but there isn’t much work as people are not working. When he talks to people on the phone, they are all tense and needing urgent help with their attempt to work from home or keep their business on track. 

D writes a cheeky song about lockdown to the tune of ‘What shall we do with a drunken sailor’.  He is learning to play the ukulele and he plays it and sings the song.  It makes us all laugh.

All churches are closed which is sad, so we watch a live church service on YouTube. It is strangely comforting.

Monday 30 March 2020

Sweden is going against the rest of the world by not having lockdown. They ban large meetings and they recommend social distancing. Cafés and restaurants are open, but people must be sitting down and served, so no walking up to a bar, for example. Then for the rest of it, people are allowed to make their own wise choices – many are working from home, trying to live a life of sensible precautions. I admire this. They are not being infantilised, they are allowed and encouraged to keep themselves safe.

Daily life isn’t vastly different for us as we already spend a lot of time at home, and C and family are included in our ‘bubble’.  But the news is vastly different and the mood in the country is absolutely different.

On closer inspection the Government lockdown plan is full of loopholes and is looking a bit silly. For example, if you are a lawnmowing man or a gardener who has no contact with clients or with anyone else, you are not allowed to work. Optometrists, dentists, chiropractors and physiotherapists are all considered non-essential. There is no internet shopping allowed. Why not? Other countries have internet shopping during their lockdowns. The only stuff you can buy online is what is considered ‘essential items’. Seeds are considered essential items so the seed companies can send out seeds and they are inundated with orders and running out of seed.  However the nurseries who have seedlings are not considered essential, so they are not allowed to sell their seedlings.

If we had online shopping then people would be able to order clothes, DIY gear, paint, shoes, slippers, toys, … all sorts of things and this would help the economy keep ticking over. People would be happier at home too, being able to get on with DIY jobs, being able to get some new things – games, books, clothes, craft items. We know that other countries are allowed to shop online, so why not here?

People in New Zealand start ordering from overseas. Who would blame them? What a pity that New Zealand shops can’t sell to New Zealanders. Ardern is tutting and telling people not to shop overseas.

People are scared witless by the media reports and the pronouncements of the Government. Truly, people seem to have lost their wits and common sense. For example, my friend has a birthday, I offer to make her a birthday cake and leave it on her doorstep but she is afraid that if I have coronavirus and it gets on the cake and she eats the cake she will get the virus.

Another example, a neighbour who is widowed a few weeks ago after 62 years of happy marriage, lives alone.  Her son and his family have recently moved away too.  Her children say she is not allowed out, and they have taken her car away. They say she may not borrow books or a jigsaw from me because they could have coronavirus germs on them.

I don’t like to see people being so frightened. Although I am not surprised they are scared; I was very scared for a short while. And the media reports are sensationalist and full of misinformation. The media are frightening everyone. Each day we have a press conference with Ardern and the Director General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, where they tell us the numbers of new confirmed and probable cases and talk for a while about how wonderful they are and what a fabulous job they are doing and how frightened we need to stay.

I am losing my fear of the virus and getting suspicious of the Government’s rules.

Tuesday 31 March 2020

Ex-Prime Minister John Key raises questions about how New Zealand leaves the coronavirus Alert Level Four, saying it will be ‘challenging’. Talking on Newstalk ZB, he says ‘It’s easier to get into lockdown. It’s much harder to get out. What does it mean – go back to Level Three?’ I don’t know. In the letterbox we find a chart showing the different levels according to what the epidemic is doing, and it looks to me like we should be in Level One. And yet here we are in Level Four, the highest level.

We have a total of 647 suspected and confirmed cases in New Zealand. 74 are recovered. What about the thousands of cases that were going to happen? We have been in lockdown for a week and the virus needs up to two weeks to incubate, so we should be seeing very high numbers by now from the infections before lockdown.

A further report commissioned by the Government, from Otago University says that, left unchecked, the virus would infect 89 percent of the population and kill up to 80,000 people. See also, 16 March where the Otago University gave estimated casualty figures of 150,000 in hospital. 36,600 in ICU, and 27,600 die.

I have seen a few of these reports, and the numbers are very high. The variation between what they call ‘future scenarios rather than predictions’ and what is actually happening is startling. Even without any border control and without any lockdown, I don’t see how we could get near the figures in their reports. No country in the world is heading anywhere near those numbers. And these are the reports our Government is using for guidance in their decisions. We need leadership who can ask the deep questions and get reports from more than one source before making such life-changing decisions for the country.

A New Zealand Herald article by Jamie Morton, Science Reporter, talks about numbers being talked about which say that left unchecked, two thirds of the population will be infected, 32,000 will need hospital care, 4,000 will need ventilators, 14,000 could die. Even with these lower figures, no wonder people are scared with these sorts of figures.

Lockdown Week Two

Thursday 2 April 2020

We start our second week of lockdown and the Government puts the country into a second week of national state of emergency. This bothers me. Why is a national state of emergency needed? We are effectively living in a police state under house arrest. The Government and the police, both, have made websites for people to go and fill in a form to dob in anyone they think is breaking the lockdown rules. This is horrible. A nation of narks. And the PM then says, ‘Be kind.’ What a laugh!

My friend loses her sister today. The sister dies in the early morning in hospital after a long illness. My friend is told that her sister can’t have a funeral and she can’t even go to the burial. So the sister is buried the same afternoon with no family present at all. So sad.

Bauer Media announces the closure of all their magazines in New Zealand. That includes The Listener, Metro, Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, North and South and Next. Gone. Finished. Blame the strict lockdown in New Zealand that says no publishing of magazines and local newspapers.

Friday 3 April 2020

The Ruby Princess cruise ship which is allowed to dock and disembark passengers in Hawkes Bay on 14 March is the root of the cluster in Hawkes Bay. When the ship leaves New Zealand it goes to Australia where it is responsible for hundreds of cases.

Only half of the food shops are allowed to open, so the growers who supply the other half of the food shops have no outlet, and their fruit and veggies are being left to rot, while the other half of the fruit and veggies has to cover everyone and the prices have gone up.  The Government has so far refused to budge on this by allowing more food shops to open, and there are permanent queues at all supermarkets that are open.  On my last visit, yesterday, it’s not too bad – only a 20-minute queue to get in and ten minutes queue for a checkout.

Monday 6 April 2020

Still watching Sweden, the casualty numbers are rising, as they are rising worldwide. They don’t have lockdowns although every other European country is doing some sort of lockdown. Sweden seems to be keeping pace with other European countries in numbers of infections and deaths per capita. This looks to me like lockdowns don’t help to reduce reported cases or deaths.

The Government has started spending money, making announcements about how they will help businesses. The figure from the Minister of Finance is twelve billion dollars to help during the lockdown. The country will be in debt for a long time after this. It is looking more and more like the cure is going to be worse than the disease.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Tuesday morning, 8 am. I go to the supermarket as I have been doing for years at this time. I go at this time because it’s always very quiet and peaceful. Today the carpark is almost full. I arrive at 8 am, shop opening time. There is a queue outside the shop. It takes 30 minutes of queuing to get in. Where is everyone from? Why is there now always a queue at the supermarket, no matter what time you go?

In the supermarket there are signs as we walk in with instructions of how to shop and what is safe and what we mustn’t do. There are stickers on the floor showing us where we must stand when we queue for the checkout. We must unload the trolley and then step back onto the floor sticker away from the checkout. There are large Perspex screens between the checkout lanes and between the customer and the checkout operator. It feels uncomfortable and scary.

Wednesday 8 April 2020

We are at the end of our first fortnight of lockdown. We should now have many thousands of cases. We actually have a total of 1210 both probable and confirmed cases with 282 recovered. This makes it less than a thousand confirmed and probable active cases today.

So one thousand positive tests and not the tens of thousands we are expecting to have by this date. The projections were wildly, completely, extremely inaccurate. Now is the time for the Prime Minister to show leadership, to recompute and to change direction. We can come out of lockdown and practise physical distancing, hand washing and shielding of vulnerable people.

We could even close the borders properly. This is possible because we are so far from any other country. Closing the borders would be horribly tough on the tourism and education sectors. But it would be better than the harsh lockdown which is wrecking the whole economy and causing mental anguish for thousands, if not millions of Kiwis.

Thursday 9 April 2020

Starting our third week of lockdown. The National State of Emergency is extended for another week. Why is a state of emergency needed? What does Ardern expect people might do that she thinks she needs to enforce a state of emergency. This is sinister.

Experts believe that the virus takes up to two weeks to incubate, which is why the number of cases is expected to rise dramatically in the first fortnight of lockdown. And as lockdown is supposed to stop the virus spreading we should now be at the peak number of cases.

We actually have 44 new confirmed and probable cases today. The peak of new cases is five days ago, when we got 89 confirmed and probable new cases in one day.

There is no doubt that the modelling is extremely faulty. Lockdown isn’t needed to save the many thousands of lives we are told it would save. So it is time to come out of lockdown straight away. We can practise physical distancing and hygiene and keep safe. I think that would be a wise, kind, and appropriate action.

On Monday the Government says that wool shops can do internet sales if they do social distancing with packing, because handcrafts are helpful for mental health. So the online craft shops re-open online for business. Today the Government says no, they can’t re-open, so they have to close again.

And finally, New Zealand is closing its borders. Anyone entering New Zealand after today will have to go into mandatory quarantine in a designated hotel for a fortnight. It’s a pity this didn’t happen in late January. We could have saved lockdown; we could have protected our economy and our people.

There is an Epidemic Response Committee chaired by Simon Bridges, leader of the Opposition. Today the committee continues to look at ‘essential businesses’. The Road Transport Forum tells the committee that fewer than 50% of trucks are on the road. He says, ‘The ones that are, are travelling longer distances and are often not carrying as much freight as usual, due to not being able to back load with non-essential freight and that’s often the bit that makes the difference for transport companies.’ He says that while those companies were still operating that many in fact would be operating at a loss while still paying their staff. Meanwhile Ardern says that even when we move down to Alert Level Three not all businesses will be able to operate.

Friday 10 April 2020

A friend living in an Auckland suburb tells of how it is in the suburbs. He describes people as being ‘lockdown nazis’. A neighbour goes for her usual daily swim in the sea and while she is swimming a woman on the beach starts screaming at her and she thinks there is a shark in the water. In fact she is being screeched at for going for a swim during lockdown.

Another of my friend’s neighbours goes out in his kayak as he does regularly and the police launch comes out. The kayaker (a QC) asks what the legal basis is for not allowing him to kayak and the police say that they don’t want anyone who is immunocompromised to feel like they would need to rescue him if he were to get into trouble.

Saturday 11 April 2020

My friend’s friend died, and my friend is invited to a very small funeral today. Funny that last week this friend couldn’t even attend her own sister’s burial. They are unwittingly breaking the lockdown rules, but I am glad they are doing it. It is kind and realistic. If anyone reported them the police would have gone around and broken up the funeral. We have police going to surf beaches and standing on the beach waiting for surfers to come out of the water so that they can issue fines for breaking lockdown.

I am feeling concerned about the Government’s Covid response. When the projected figures are shown to be absolutely way off and totally inaccurate, we need a strong leader to reconsider and say that lockdown isn’t necessary and needs to end immediately. Where is that strong leader? Why is Ardern continuing as though we are in a dreadful crisis when it’s patently clear now that we are not and never were at risk of tens of thousands dying.

Sunday 12 April 2020

Day 18 of lockdown. 18 new confirmed and suspected cases. This is not the thousands of cases that Ardern warns we would be having by now, the warning that gives her the reason to put the country into a month-long lockdown.

Out of a total of 1330 confirmed and probable cases, 471 of those are recovered. That’s good to have low numbers. It’s wonderful. But it’s time to move on now and start to prepare to come out of lockdown. Ardern would do well to admit the projections were way off and move forward in a direction that suits what is happening in the country. Lockdown has not been necessary and has not stopped thousands of cases because there were not thousands of cases waiting to happen. Lockdown has been an expensive overreaction. Is it time to come out of lockdown, to say that there is an over-reaction and numbers are all under control?

But things are not being eased up. In fact, lockdown might be extended. Why? This is a horrible shock. We won’t even be told when lockdown ends until a couple of days before the four-week lockdown ends. I thought that the country’s reward for the huge sacrifice is to be out of lockdown, with the ‘curve flattened’ so that the health service would not be overwhelmed by the coronavirus sick people. And now we hear that even though the numbers are dropping almost daily, and the numbers have never been in the thousands, we won’t be out of lockdown on 23 April. We will simply be subjected to a new set of stringent rules.

A new word quietly enters Ardern’s vocabulary. It’s eliminate. She is now talking about elimination and not flattening the curve. Unrealistic, expensive experiment. I am not happy.

I am surprised that people in New Zealand are being so compliant. They must be very frightened to agree to all this nonsense. Or maybe they don’t understand that New Zealand can NOT be virus-free and stay connected to the rest of the world.

I am concerned about the economic impact of the lockdown. The debt that the Government is taking on will have an effect on the future of my children and grandchildren. This is not OK.

I am concerned about the emotional impact on children in unhappy homes. How are they bearing up? What about the children who only get fed at school? Will they be hungry?

And I am concerned about the human rights aspect of the lockdown – worldwide. The Governments of the world are going to have too much control and surveillance on their citizens. I am horrified to read about some of the surveillance and tracing and monitoring plans that are being considered.

I start to wonder if this is the end of the world as we knew it. Is the future going to be very different? Or will we recover from this pandemic over the next few months, or possibly two – five years? Will we ever go back to the old ‘normal’? Will air travel for the masses every return? Or will it be just for the rich as it once was? Will cruising recover? Who knows what the future will hold? Everyone has an opinion, and no-one really knows.

Ardern is listening to worst case scenario people who have so far been proved completely wrong. I wonder why she doesn’t consider how wrong their predictions and projections have been and then take their new predictions with a pinch of salt. She believes that she can eliminate the virus in New Zealand, and she believes that that will be a good thing. I don’t think it can be eliminated and I don’t think it would be a good thing to try and eliminate it. What happens when this is all over, will the rest of the world have some immunity and New Zealand have none? Flattening the curve is reasonable. Lockdown isn’t needed for that.

Alternatives to Lockdown

Monday 13 April 2020

Watching Sweden, and the numbers are still rising, in line with the rest of locked-down Europe. The difference is that Sweden’s economy is not suffering as badly as other countries. It is suffering because its trading partners are in lockdown, though. There is a lot of pressure coming on the Swedish Government to go into lockdown. Pressure from WHO, world media, and some ‘experts’. So far, they are holding steady. Go Sweden!

Finally, I know someone who got the coronavirus bug. It’s my friend who went to the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown 8 – 13 March. The World Hereford Conference organisers actually consulted the Government about whether the conference should go ahead, with so many delegates from overseas attending, and they got the green light.

My friend writes to me: ‘At the end of the conference we stayed with [daughter] for the weekend and attended church with them on the way home on Sunday 15 March. By Thursday, we were tested for Covid-19 as we both were starting to feel unwell. At the weekend our results were positive, so all the people we had spent time with (15 minutes or more) had to be contacted by Public Health. There was a considerable list, as it also included the two days [husband] had worked at Tauranga Hospital, immediately after his return. To our amazement and relief, none of our family, church congregation in the South Island, friends at the conference, [husband]’s hospital colleagues, patients,  nor farm worker here, have caught the virus.’

I wonder why her family and all the close contacts do not get Covid? Is Covid is not as infectious as they say? Or do others catch the virus and have no symptoms? Is it possible to have the virus and no symptoms?

Constant news around the world of exaggerated and false stories about the virus. E.g. a story about the Swedish PM saying he is wrong with the approach he is taking, and he will be changing things. This is false. Another story about Ardern saying that she says New Zealand has beaten the virus. This also is false.

Mis-representation of information bothers me. Headlines that give large numbers rather than percentage figures or per capita figures are very misleading. E.g. USA passes Italy in case numbers/death numbers. Well of course that is to be expected as USA has a population six times larger than Italy. This mis-representation continues to scare people.

An article on RNZ National Programme tells of a New Zealander who lives in USA and got coronavirus, and is now recovering, and in his opinion (remember he lives in USA so is not affected by New Zealand economy or life) New Zealand should not lift lockdown. He is just a single person, a nobody, with no vested interests in our country, not paying into the country, not running a business in New Zealand, not paying a mortgage in New Zealand, and he is on National Radio saying don’t lift the lockdown. Why him?

We have little news about domestic violence figures or injured children or murders. We know these things will be taking place, but they are not being widely reported.

There are some good aspects of lockdown – time to slow down, spend time with family, relax a bit, reassess parts of your life, do things you have been meaning to do but haven’t got around to. The peace when you step outside is lovely. No traffic noise, no pollution. All lovely.

But not everyone is finding it easy; so many people are suffering terribly. And the politicians’ behaviour, along with the mainstream media (MSM) fawning over Ardern bother me.

Ardern is talking about extending lockdown. I write to her to tell her I don’t want her to do that. I also write to Simon Bridges, leader of the Opposition with the same message.

Tuesday 14 April 2020

News this morning, Ardern on the AM Show says ‘Take nothing as a given. We have made no decision about our movements but what I can tell you is that we won’t jump levels. We will transition through them when we come to move through them.’ She says that New Zealanders should not look at the falling numbers of cases and simply assume that lockdown measures will be lifted.

This sounds pretty bad. When will New Zealanders stand up and say, ‘enough is enough’? For the past five days we have more recoveries than new cases, which means that the number of people with the virus is dropping. Business is suffering, people are suffering. Compassion and economics must be part of the equation, rather than just looking at infection numbers.

A large taxi company and Burger King have gone into receivership and there is talk of unemployment hitting 26% if the lockdown is extended. Meanwhile, Ardern posts a photo on Facebook of a plastic lunch box with food in it and a reusable coffee cup. She writes that her mum made her breakfast and she, Ardern, is surrounded by kindness. Just imagine if the Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges were to post on Facebook that his mum made him his breakfast this morning, he would be the laughing stock of the day. How does she get away with it? Everyone seems to think that she is wonderful and doing a great job. I feel so frustrated and angry and helpless.

At last, some MPs are starting to question the lockdown, as Australia, with much lighter restrictions is having the same infection rates per capita as we are having in New Zealand. Some academics are questioning also. But David Skegg in Dunedin has the ear of the PM and he says lockdown must not be lifted.

Wednesday 15 April 2020

Twenty new confirmed and probable cases, and 100 recoveries. We come to the end of the third week of lockdown; tomorrow we start our fourth and final week of Level Four lockdown and our fourth week of national state of emergency which gives Ardern unbridled powers and control.

The lockdown is presented as a single event to ‘flatten the curve’, allowing the medical profession to prepare for the onslaught of thousands that Ardern says were going to get sick. We have less than 1400 confirmed and probable cases in total. We have nine deaths in total, all very old people with other health problems. About half of them are people who were in full time care in a dementia unit.

The ‘flatten the curve’ mantra has quietly changed to ‘eliminate’. People are so frightened that they are accepting it all, and many don’t even notice. Meanwhile, the economy and mental well-being of the country is deteriorating.

Thursday 16 April 2020

Fifteen new confirmed and probable cases and many recoveries. We now have more recovered than still with the virus.

Fourth week of lockdown starts, and the national state of emergency is extended for yet a fourth week. Why is no-one fussing about this? In fact, many people seem to be approving of the extension. Is it because they are afraid or because they are very comfortable having a holiday while being paid by the Government?

Dr Simon Thornley, an epidemiologist and a senior epidemiology lecturer at the University of Auckland, and five other experts all say the Alert Level Four response to COVID-19 has proven to be ‘an overreaction’ and can now be scaled back. They put up a website called www.covidplanb.co.nz They are methodical, calm, and have facts to back up what they say. MSM sneers at them.

Dr Siouxie Wiles, who is not an epidemiologist, but a microbiologist specialising in bioluminescence, disagrees with them. She goes through some of their points, one by one and gives generalisations in response, in an attempt to discredit them. She gets plenty of airtime to air her views.

This afternoon Ardern announces what Alert Level Three will mean. Many businesses are at breaking point. I desperately want businesses to be able to trade.

Level Three is very strict. It’s roughly similar or on the stricter side of what other countries call ‘complete lockdown’. It means a continuation of lockdown with a few areas of easing up. Shops and malls still closed, restaurants and cafes still closed, hairdressers and beauty salons still closed. Schools partially open up to Year 10. Travel in your own region allowed for special things. No ferries, no domestic air travel, no trains or intercity coaches. The easing up is: takeaways allowed, building industry can go back to work if observing two-metre space around each person, online shopping can happen, you can go for a swim, and you fish from the shore .

We will find out next Monday if we will be allowed to go to this level or if we will stay at Level Four. We also might find out what how long it might last. Ardern says she will not rush to get the country back to normality. Oh dear.

It is feeling like Ardern is a control freak. She is a good communicator; she is a PR machine. She comes out to the podium and reads a speech. She looks great! Who wrote the speech? I don’t know. All I know is that I feel very unsafe and very concerned for the future.

One thing that bothers me is the car and caravan stuck in Blenheim. How long before the ferries can run and we have permission to go and bring the car and caravan home? It’s hard to have so much uncertainty.

We are fortunate: we are comfortable, we are not in financial difficulty, we are in good health, and we share our bubble with five other family members. Life is not too hard at all. But lockdown is hard. Knowing that you can’t go out is hard. And lockdown must be so hard for poor people, for the vulnerable, for the ones in overcrowded or unfit accommodation, for the children in unhappy homes, for the battered women who will be trying to protect their children. I weep when I think about these people.

Friday 17 April 2020

Eight new confirmed and probable cases reported today. Two deaths, both very old with pre-existing conditions. One in his eighties has dementia. Both die without their family being allowed to be near them. That is very sad and cruel. It’s more sad than the deaths. To die when you are very old and have dementia is to be expected, but to die alone is cruel.

Saturday 18 April 2020

Thirteen confirmed and suspected new cases. 867 people have recovered and 544 people in New Zealand today have the virus or might have the virus.

I am comparing to Sweden where they have done social distancing, restricting large gatherings and closed tertiary institutions. People are still allowed to go to shops, restaurants and cafes, and to meet each other. They are allowed to make their own decisions about those things, and they are being encouraged to work at home if they can. I like the freedom they have and the way the Swedish population is being treated as responsible and capable of deciding for themselves.

On the other hand, our PM infantilises us. She speaks to us as though she is a teacher or parent reprimanding wayward teenagers and threatening to ground us if we are disobedient. She is being praised for her dealing with the crisis; but I am furious with her for the control she is wielding, furious with the media for toeing the party line and not asking any hard questions as I would expect them to do as the fourth estate, and furious with New Zealanders who are very frightened and are being so compliant with very little objection.

Sweden is ahead of us in days with the virus. They also have over double the population of New Zealand. We are on Day 50 since the first case in New Zealand. We have 1422 confirmed and probable cases, this is with the extremely strict, costly lockdown. Let’s look at Day 50 of Sweden with its freedoms. If we are to believe the modelling the New Zealand Government has used to persuade the population of New Zealand to accept a ferociously strict lockdown, we can expect to see many tens of thousands of cases in Sweden.

On Day 50 Sweden has 6131 cases. This is not tens of thousands, in fact it is just over double the number of cases per capita for New Zealand with the lockdown. It is still within the bounds of coping with the numbers. Just thinking about the numbers that Shaun Hendy projected and Ardern listened to – if we projected these numbers to Sweden, we could expect somewhere in the region of at least 80,000 cases and tens of thousands of deaths in Sweden. But this hasn’t happened there so why would it have happened in New Zealand?

It’s so important to protect the vulnerable, but the rest of the population needs to have freedom to live a reasonably normal life with social distancing, and this will also keep the economy and mental health of the population intact.

People often look at the death numbers which is a bad way to argue as it is hard to ascertain the exact numbers and it has many variables which are not considered. For example, to date we have 11 coronavirus deaths, all very old people with underlying health issues. We can expect 11 deaths on the roads over the Easter break, mainly younger people.

Another example; in South Africa they have a negative death rate because the murder numbers have gone down and the number dying of Covid-19 is less than the murder deaths. So Covid-19 isn’t causing the terribly high number of deaths predicted.

It’s also worth considering how many people will die from cancer or heart disease or some other non-communicable disease because they are not getting the hospital treatment they need because they have been sent home to keep the hospitals clear, in readiness for the coronavirus patients. And by the way, there are a grand total of 15 coronavirus patients in hospital in New Zealand and many empty beds.

I move from anger to guilt. I feel guilty for being so comfortable in our home during lockdown. I feel guilty for enjoying the peace and quiet, and I worry about the people who are suffering financially or physically because of the lockdown. But there! I have said it! I am enjoying lockdown. We are powering through house jobs, and I am loving not having to go and see people or invite them here. I could always arrange to do this for myself (no visitors, no going out and power through some house jobs) without lockdown.

Sunday 19 April 2020

Nine new confirmed and probable cases today. Four cases confirmed and five others (these are probably flu but are included in the numbers each day. Why? Is it to boost the numbers and to scare people?) A few hundred random tests at supermarket carparks around New Zealand have turn up zero cases.

Tomorrow at 4 pm the country will be told whether we will move to a very strict Level Three or whether we will stay at Level Four. Some people want to stay at Level Four. I struggle to understand this, until I remember that they are terrified of catching the virus if we ease up and have takeaways and online shopping. I think that they must also be comfortable in lockdown and they are being paid to stay at home by the Government, so no need to move. Everyone is trying to guess what will happen. I believe that Ashley Bloomfield, Chief Medical Officer will be very instrumental in the decision and I think he will want to put off Level Three for a week. OTOH, Winston Peters has come out saying that mental health and wellbeing and the economy need to be considered and we should come out of Level Four soon and then out of Level Three too. This is the first time I have heard a voice going against Ardern. Is this finally some dissension in the Government? David Seymour, ACT MP is speaking out in favour of a speedy return to normal. Ardern says normal is a very long way off. My hope today is that it won’t be that far away – a few weeks more to get back to Level One.

We also need to see Parliament back very soon, so that the Government can be brought to account on all this. The opposition needs to speak up and speak strongly and loudly.

Lockdown Extended, Secrecy from Government

Monday 20 April 2020

Things are looking pretty good; we have no new deaths; all the deaths so far have been very old or sick people. We have new ‘cases’ in single figures and the numbers of recovered increasing by dozens each day. It has been a hard lockdown for so many people. Much harsher than most countries, and our cases and death rate were hugely lower per capita before we even started lockdown.

Then after the sacrifice of 28 days of difficulty we hear that lockdown will not end as planned on Wednesday midnight. Instead, lockdown will be extended to midnight next Monday. At which point we move to Level Three for two weeks minimum. A new Level Three, not the Level Three we have before going into lockdown.

The new Level Three has been described as Level Four with KFC. Basically it is the same as Level Four plus online shopping and takeaways and building industry allowed to do some work. Also, people can go for a walk on the beach or in a park.

This coming weekend will be Anzac weekend. The last long weekend of the summer. At Level Three people would be able to walk on the beach, buy a takeaway coffee, get fish and chips, generally enjoy the weekend while staying in their bubbles and keeping social distancing. But this has been denied them, and there will be no let up before next Tuesday morning. What a pity.

We also hear that there is a lot of secrecy, refusal by Labour MPs to give info on various aspects of the lockdown, such as what is in a report about tracing, how is tracing done, etc. NZ Herald has applied to the Ombudsman to try and get info released. RNZ News is being stonewalled when they ask questions. But then, here is the rub – the mainstream press tonight is praising the Government and saying what a good decision it is to keep the lockdown going.

We need strong opposition and a robust press to challenge the Government, get parliament back, and contest the decisions being made.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

P’s birthday. We improvise with presents and it feels good. We have a lovely family dinner with birthday cake and candles, and it is fun. Life feels quite normal.

I am horrified to read that about two thirds of the population are glad to have lockdown extended. It beggars belief if you look at the facts. However, Ardern and the Chief Medical Officer, Ashley Bloomfield are a formidable PR team. They are glossy and beautifully presented and somehow people trust them because of this and without digging deep at all. We need to look at the ‘content’ and not just at the ‘book cover’.

Simon Bridges makes a response to the announcement, saying that waiting another week is too much. He is pilloried on Facebook- because people don’t like the sound of his voice. Would you believe it? People judge him on how his voice sounds, rather than what he is saying. He is being called tone deaf and out of touch because of his voice. He is very much not these things. He doesn’t have the charisma and charm that Ardern is displaying, but he is asking the right questions.

Wednesday 22 April 2020

Trying to look for positives at this time. We are hearing a few stories of families eating dinner together at home for the first time in year, and of women learning and enjoying the art of homemaking. Some people reassessing what is important in their lives and reconsidering the fast-paced rush they used to live in. We are hearing about the air and atmosphere benefitting from no cars – pollution is going down. Wildlife is enjoying a break from human activity. Globalism is being called into question; maybe we will get more countries going back to manufacturing in their own country, rather than relying on China.

We are also hearing of people who are too afraid to go back to work, even with precautions in place. Many schools are resisting opening next week as instructed by the Government. One high-school principal says that it is too dangerous to open schools and that children will die if schools are opened – this in a country where we have 13 deaths, every single one of them are very old people who were already sick. This school principal says children will die if schools are opened.

The Swedish Government gives a press conference: they say that Sweden has safety restrictions in place, things are hard as in other countries, unemployment is rising, people are working from home and are practising social distancing. The difference between Sweden and other countries is that they allow citizens to have responsibility for themselves, rather than enforcing lockdown. I would prefer that way. I can decide for myself what I want to do to protect myself. Young, healthy people can have some freedom and many people would still have jobs. I believe it will be better in the long run. Time will tell. The whole thing is an experiment.

We are wondering how we can get our caravan and car back home if we are not allowed to fly or go on the ferry. P enquires and finds out that we can send an email to a Government department and ask for a letter of permission to travel. I never would have thought that I would ever have to get a letter of permission to travel in New Zealand. Extraordinary times indeed. We get our letter of permission, but now there are no flights into Blenheim. If we can’t get into Blenheim, then we can’t collect the car and caravan. So we continue to wait.

A Pandemic of Fear

Thursday 23 April 2020

Three new confirmed and probable cases today and three yesterday. Dozens are recovered each day. People are getting excited about planning online shopping. We can also do click-and-collect. The rigmarole to collect at the shop sounds quite extreme. This is how it works: I order and pay online and reserve a time to collect. I get a half hour slot. I have to give my name, address, phone number, vehicle registration number and nominated person collecting. Then I turn up at the appointed time at the carpark, but I DO NOT get out of my car. Instead I phone them, and they will then give me instructions for getting my order into my car. This is ridiculous. We are talking about a respiratory illness, not a violent disease with 100% mortality rate within 24 hours.

People are so frightened, it is foolish. Talking on the phone to a friend today she is incredulous that anyone would break a lockdown rule, and she is angry with the rulebreakers. I wonder if she would dob someone in. So much for kindness!

I tell her that I have something to give her next week when we move to Level Three and she wonders if she is allowed to receive it. I speak to another friend on the phone who believes that Ardern has been sent by God for this very time and that Ardern is doing sterling job. Sadly, that’s what my friends think. I secretly disagree with them, and suddenly I feel alone. I feel out on a limb, swimming against the tide like I have never known before.

Friday 24 April 2020

Five new confirmed and possible cases today. Thirty more recovered. One more death which is a possible but not confirmed Covid-19. We now have seventeen deaths from suspected or confirmed Covid-19, all older people, ten of them from a dementia unit in Christchurch.

I discover that it was agreed earlier this week to have Parliament start again next week, but not all MPs to be there, and only for passing laws on Covid-19. It appears that Simon Bridges is really not popular with voters at the moment; there is a wave of patriotism sweeping the country and the general opinion is that Ardern is doing a wonderful job. This makes me sad and angry. I believe she is not doing a wonderful job; she not even doing a good job. She is doing a stellar job of massaging the public opinion and a poor job of handling the virus response. And no-one is allowed to seriously question her, because those who do are called ‘tone deaf’ and treated as unpatriotic.

Professor Karol Sikora, a consultant oncologist with the NHS in UK, estimates that there could be up to 50,000 more UK deaths from cancer with a six-month lockdown.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8247141/If-goes-six-months-50-000-people-die-cancer.html

Saturday 25 April 2020

Five new and possible cases today. Another old person dies in hospital. Thankfully the powers-that-be allow her family to visit her on her deathbed. We have 315 people still with the virus, and the number is dropping daily. The numbers are so low, I wonder why we have to wait for a little bit more freedom in lockdown. I wonder why we even have lockdown now.

We discover a new drama series called The Chosen. Telling the story of the New Testament through the eyes of the followers of Jesus. We watch the first episode and we are captivated. Then we learn some more about the series. It is paid for by 16,000 people. They crowd-fund and break the record for crowd funding by raising US$10 million. This means that they are able to put the series online, on their own website and on YouTube in high definition format and all free. They start the project a couple of years ago and it is ready just in time to encourage people at the time of worldwide lockdown and fear.

It is as if the evil one has cast a net of fear around the planet. The fear is worse than the illness. The ‘medicine’ is worse than the sickness. And in the midst of all this, God has provided technology to allow families to stay in touch, a remarkable drama series to encourage and inspire, church-on-line to uplift and reassure us. Thank you, Lord.

Sunday 26 April 2020

I discover that there is a name to describe me, I am a lockdown sceptic. All graphs and research I have seen show no difference in casualties between after-lockdown or no-lockdown. The difference happens when there is careful hygiene – handwashing and no face touching, and also with closing the borders. Seeing things like people wearing gloves to eat a packet of chippies or touch their faces, or removing their mask to sneeze and then replacing it, indicate that people haven’t really understood how the virus is transmitted. Clear ‘education’ and quarantining overseas arrivals is a lot more economical than nationwide lockdown, and I think it’s more effective too.

Monday 27 April 2020

A report in The Financial Times yesterday references an internal British Government estimate that 150,000 people in the UK could die prematurely from other conditions because of the lockdown that put on hold huge numbers of screenings and operations. This Government estimate is not discussed widely at all.

I am fed up of company mailouts where they sign off with ‘stay safe’. Do not tell me to ‘stay safe’. Do not tell me that we’re all in this together. I have been told these things too many times. I am confronted with these silly statements at every turn; on the radio, on the internet, on television, in every newsletter and email mailout. DON’T tell me to stay safe! I am not afraid of the virus, and I will take adequate sensible precautions to protect myself from catching the virus. But we don’t need a whole country to be in lockdown for a handful of new cases a day and a few hundred people in quarantine with the disease.

Lockdown Level Three

Tuesday 28 April 2020

After nearly six weeks at Level Four lockdown we move to Alert Level Three. The means that we move from extreme lockdown to continued lockdown but now with takeaways, online shopping, and some more businesses able to go back to work.

There is a lot of talk about ‘coming out of lockdown’. We are not out coming out of lockdown; we are just given some relaxation of rules. Radio hosts keep telling us how long it is until 11.59 pm, ‘when we come out of lockdown’. People are getting very excited. It is quite bizarre. And then this morning the fun begins. Queues start forming outside MacDonald’s hours before they open at 5 am. And during the day there are long queues snaking across carparks and out onto the road and around the block at various fast-food places. People are obviously excited and happy to be able to grab a takeaway and so that’s what they do to celebrate.

I go to collect my order from Mitre 10 Takanini. The roads are busy, and the order collection is careful to the point of silliness while Mitre 10 obeys all the Government rules for trading.

P goes to a client which is a school. They have been given excessive, complicated instructions for ‘keeping safe’. It’s a small, Decile One school of 80 children, with 3 teachers, 3 teacher aids, a secretary and a principal. Tuesday 28 April is designated a teacher-only day with children in on Wednesday. Only children who couldn’t stay at home are going to school. The teachers estimate that they will have about two children at this school. Two children. The rest are to have online school with their teachers, and those who have no computer at home are given computers from school by the Ministry of Education. I can’t imagine the school will see those computers again.

Businesses that want to open have to complete lots of forms, obey lots of rules and jump through lots of hoops. For example, there are 57 pages of rules for forestry industry alone.

More shocking news – the national state of emergency has been extended for the fifth time.

Wednesday 29 April 2020

David Clark, Minister of Health, has not been in Wellington throughout this crisis and he has in fact, broken the Level Four lockdown rules THREE times. Still he stays in place as the Minister, and it appears to be well understood that the reason for that is because Ardern has absolutely no-one better in the cabinet to replace him.

A Labour MP very rudely says that if a small business is failing it’s their own fault for not having enough financial reserves. People are horrified at this and she has to apologise. Questions are asked about what the PM says about it. Publicly, Ardern says that it isn’t very good of the MP to say that. The MP is asked if the PM has spoken to her. She says yes, the PM has phoned her and comforted her and told her not to worry, that it would all blow over. No ticking off, no reprimand.

Why are people enamoured of Ardern with these sorts of things happening, and after a month of disgraceful damage to the economy and to the welfare of the people of New Zealand? Why do people say that she and Ashley Bloomfield are wonderful when they do their daily press conference? Don’t people realise that the theatre of the daily 1pm press conferences is just that – theatre. Do they not notice that Ardern chooses who is allowed to ask her a question and if she gets surprised with a question she doesn’t want to answer, she bats it away quickly? She is a master of charm and spin. She is a failure as a Prime Minister. She is naïve about businesses.

There is a huge hoo-ha about people breaking social distancing rules and standing too close to each other while queuing for Burger Fuel in Glenfield. Ardern scolds the people involved. Police are called in.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield talking to Duncan Garner on the AM Show this morning says, ‘The key ingredient for us to get to Alert Level Two as soon as possible… is how people behave under Alert Level Three’. It’s not about containing or controlling the virus then, it’s about people control, rather than about virus control. This beggars belief. And this guy gets a torrent of online adoration. I just don’t know why.

A report from a mental health organisation says that people start to suffer after just one week in isolation, so after five weeks in isolation many people will find it hard to come out of isolation and hard to get back to work. A study shows that ‘80% of New Zealanders feel psychologically distressed as a result of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic’ – which in New Zealand is lockdown.

But I am hopeful that the tide will turn. People must start questioning the Government’s response to the virus. People must start questioning Ardern’s ability as PM.

A couple of articles appear in mainstream media (MSM) questioning the Government’s response, pointing out Ardern’s affiliation to the communist party, the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. It is well publicised that the Director of the WHO is a communist who is helped into the role by Chinese Communist Party interference. And Ardern thinks he is a good guy.

Today we have two new cases – one is a person who has come back to New Zealand recently and is in quarantine, and the other is only a possible case. So no cases in the general population. And there are only active 226 confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand today, this is over 80% recovery so far. And for this we have a continued strict lockdown with businesses suffering, unemployment rising, and mental health being seriously compromised.

There is talk of being a ‘team of five million’ and we all must play our part – an advert says that if we break social distancing we will prevent this girl going to university, and stop that person from something or other, and cause the other person to die. I hate it. Manipulative nonsense and lies to control the population.

No passengers arrive into New Zealand at all today. None. That’s hard to get my head around. But more than 200 people board flights heading overseas.

Thursday 30 April 2020

Three new confirmed and probable cases and 216 people still testing positive. Five days ago it is 315 people still testing positive, so people are recovering at a good rate, and that can only be good news for everyone. Hoping and praying that the numbers continue to fall.

This morning I go to Countdown, arriving at 8.15 am. I take S with me. We are not stopped going into the supermarket for being more than one person in the household. We are offered the opportunity to disinfect our own trolley. There is no queue to get into the shop. The shop isn’t too busy, and no-one appears too worried about the two-metre distance between each other. I don’t see anyone wearing gloves or a mask. There are plenty of most things but no yeast or baking powder and only a tiny bit of flour. We have to pack our own bags because checkout operators are not allowed to pack bags at the moment. But the checkout operator tells me that they would pack bags again when they get back to ‘normal’. The gap between the customer and checkout operator (not wearing gloves or mask) is quite small. (Compare this with what Mitre 10 has to do to be able to trade.) The roads are about as busy as they would be in school holiday time – busy but no school traffic. Everything feels very normal.

People are still dobbing each other in, I hate it. In the past 24 hours there have been 1035 complaints about businesses breaching Level Three rules – most of these are about physical distancing. The dobbing in disgusts me. These poor businesses doing everything they can to obey the huge list of rules and at the same time provide a service and bring in an income. We even have the CEO of one fast food company complaining and finger pointing about another fast-food company having lax distancing rules. For goodness’ sake!

The WHO is praising New Zealand’s response to the virus. Unfortunately, it looks like Level Three is going to last longer than a fortnight; Ardern says that if New Zealand moved too quickly though Level Three, there would be a higher risk of a second wave and ‘This would be horrific for our economy.’ Funny that she now refers to the economy.

The Government Lies!

Friday 1 May 2020

Three new cases and nine newly recovered today. So that gives us 210 currently infected. I believe it is very wrong to keep the country in lockdown when we are getting new cases in single figures for the last fortnight. The Government is talking about eliminating the virus. I don’t know how this can happen when the virus is all over the world.

A rogue journalist describes the Government as a circus run by clowns.

A leaked poll shows the Government with 55% approval, Ardern at 65% approval. Simon Bridges at 7% for preferred PM. Funnily enough this is a poll organised and paid for by Labour. I am beginning to think that Simon might be a good leader – he has stuck through some awful times and terrible name calling these past few weeks. He has had verbal and online attacks and even death threats to his family. Not easy at all, but he has stuck to it. That has to be admirable.

Saturday 2 May 2020

Six new cases – that is four probable cases and two actual cases. There is one more death – a man in his eighties with underlying health conditions, from a dementia unit, and a probable Covid case. Is this really a coronavirus death?

No media conference today, Saturday. The next media conference is scheduled for Monday 4 May. The media is told that the new figures would be released at 1pm. At ten past one they are told that the figures would be released some time this afternoon.

There is no doubt that the Government is obfuscating and evading any attempt to get a genuine picture of what is going on. We only know what they want to tell us. Some very important questions are not being answered. This is absolutely wrong and needs to be addressed by those who are in a position to address it. I see a photo of the theatrette in the Beehive during a daily news conference. The little theatre has a sprinkle of journalists – I can count 13 of them. Why so few? And these journalists don’t ask probing questions. Why not? And I notice that Ardern is on first name terms with them all. Are they her mates? She addresses them by name at question time, when she chooses who to allow to ask a question by pointing to the journalist and saying his/her name, with a beaming smile. Very friendly and pleasant, but it makes me feel like there is no accountability.

We have a new term today – lockdown fatigue. People around the world are fed up of staying in and are starting to travel around their cities. People who break lockdown are called covidiots. At the same time we now have something called coronaphobia, and that is people who have been so frightened by the press stories and the Government that they are terrified of catching the virus and so don’t want to go back to work or regular life. I find it hard to believe or understand, but it would appear that the majority of the population wants to stay in lockdown longer and come out slower. Who are these people? What are their jobs? How are they surviving that they are happy for lockdown to continue?

Monday 4 May 2020

No new cases today. Lockdown Level Three is due to end next Monday. Today we learn that we will be told what Level Two means on Thursday this week, and we will hear next Monday when we will be allowed to move to Level Two. There are lots of calls to move out of lockdown immediately.

A Newshub online poll shows about 25% want lockdown extended past next week. I truly don’t know why. But that also means that a large majority want lockdown to end immediately or next Monday. Neither of those two dates will happen. I predict that lockdown will go from Level Three to Level Two next Wednesday 13 May, which will mean seven weeks in lockdown. I also predict that Level Two will be stricter than most people will expect.

Listening to talkback radio, those who are comfortable in lockdown are happy for it to continue. Those who are paying the price of lockdown want it to end.

There were some lockdown breaches over the weekend with people wanting to party a bit. Lots of warnings and hundreds of prosecutions. Lots of threats from Ardern, and from the (unelected) Chief Medical Officer (advisor to the Government, not decision maker), Ashley Bloomfield that if people don’t behave then lockdown will be delayed.

Talkback radio is interesting – one guy phones up, he is enjoying lockdown – then we discover that he isn’t suffering from job loss or reduced income because he is retired. He says that radio host, Mike Hosking, is a bad guy for asking probing questions of the ‘wonderful’ PM. He is so angry with Mike Hosking for this that he thinks that Mike Hosking should be taken outside and beaten up.

I read some articles which are close to, but not quite, questioning the Government’s behaviour.

I do some online shopping for fancy tea, for coffee, hair product and clothes. It’s fun to get the parcels. Delivery is a bit slower than usual.

The number of passengers leaving and arriving in the country reaches the lowest level on record today. Seventeen people land and twenty-five leave New Zealand.

People Suffer – Is It Lockdown or Is It Covid Causing Pain?

Tuesday 5 May 2020

No new cases today again. Four people are in hospital, none in intensive care. 88% of all cases are recovered. The PM tells us that she is pleased (oh good) but she is a perfectionist (oh no!), and she wants to see what happens later this week when we will see if Level Three has caused any more cases, before she will consider moving the country out of Level Three. Meanwhile thousands of jobs a day are being lost. Obviously not Ardern’s job, or anyone close to her.

The ECC (Early Childhood Centres) don’t want to open again. (Are the teachers there being paid by the Government, so don’t need to worry about loss of income?)

The tourist sector is desperate to see domestic travel open up in New Zealand in Level Two. P and I are very keen to see that too, because then we can go for the car and caravan. We are both hanging out to get them home. P is seething about it, and he is missing his car.

We hear today that people arriving from overseas to be with a dying relative are denied early release from quarantine to be with their loved one. They are not showing symptoms, but still they not allowed to go. They request a test to show that they are not infected, but that is denied them because they don’t have any symptoms. It is illogical and unfair.

When confronted, Bloomfield tells us that people within New Zealand are not allowed to travel across country to a dying relative, either.

Contrast that with the fact that a rugby team is allowed to travel to Australia to play rugby. Contrast it also with a health minister who breaks lockdown three times and keeps his job and doesn’t get fined. And contrast that with the over-70-year-olds who are told to stay at home completely while 75-year-old Winston Peters is allowed to go fishing when he is over 70 years old, and fishing is not allowed. And he is also allowed to go to work in the Beehive whenever he likes, but others are not allowed to travel to funerals or deathbeds. It’s scandalous.

New Zealanders are suffering, some are suffering terribly. For example, we have a woman having a miscarriage alone inside the hospital while her husband sits in the car park wanting to be with her and not allowed. We have women giving birth alone, or worse: women in Queenstown are expected to give birth in an old dental clinic and then walk outside on the side of the road to a Porta-Loo type building which has a shower with a trickle of warm water to shower after birth, and the overnight temperatures are down to 3 degrees at times.

We have cancer patients not getting treatment, or going for treatment with a support person, but the support person is not allowed to go in with them. Two thousand people have died in New Zealand (from other causes) since lockdown started and many of them died alone. People are not allowed to go to the deathbed of a loved one, and people dying are calling out for family and are all alone. How terrible. How awful.

I could go on – the lack of compassion reduces me to tears. Totally inhumane and unreasonable. And yet Ardern looks so good from a distance and is getting praise overseas. She is not good; she is cunning.

In Parliament Simon Bridges asks some very pertinent questions during PMQs and gets some very snappish, verging on rude, answers from the PM. She is feeling pretty arrogant and confident these days.

We must surely be near the end of lockdown now. Lockdown itself hasn’t been too painful for me. I have lots of people to socialise with because my ‘bubble’ is large. But my concern for the country as a whole grows. We must move out of lockdown as soon as we can.

Wednesday 6 May 2020

Two cases – one probable in a hospital that has a cluster, and one confirmed case from Marist College cluster. And one death – an old lady from the Rosewood Rest Home cluster. Opposition leader, Simon Bridges is calling for an end to lockdown. Ardern is saying that she doesn’t have the ‘luxury’ of making a wrong decision and they have to be certain on this. We now have just 150 people in the country still with the virus. It looks like we are highly unlikely to have tens of thousands dying, as she predicted six weeks ago to convince people to agree to going into lockdown.

Microsoft announce that they will be opening a new data centre in New Zealand. This has been planned for a long time and Microsoft says that is because New Zealand is seen as high in the list of digital development and evolution. It has nothing to do with Ardern or with Covid. Ardern claims this announcement as a personal victory, that Microsoft chose New Zealand because of how she is doing with the lockdown stuff. The Minister for Government Digital Services, Kris Faafoi, echoes her sentiments: ‘Our Government took quick and decisive action responding to Covid-19 and that is being recognised globally, with the likes of this decision by Microsoft.’ Spectacular arrogance and lies.

France announces that they have a confirmed case of Covid from December 2019. It is a guy who is in hospital with pneumonia, and a sample taken from him at that time, which is recently tested and comes back positive. This means that Covid is in France a month before they have their first official case, and before China admits their first case in Wuhan.

So what does that mean in the bigger picture? Maybe Covid is not a new virus and it’s been around for a while and is probably SARS. The SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the disease known as Covid-19. And SARS-CoV is the virus that causes the disease known as SARS.

Ten days after China first announces a new virus they release the entire genetic sequencing of the virus, even though it’s known that there is no way to get an entire genetic sequencing in ten days> This indicates that they were familiar with this virus already, so they had it in a lab. And the day after they announce their first case of Covid, China files a patent for a drug that treats Covid.

There are newspaper articles which report that China bought PPE (personal protective equipment) from around the world and shipped it all to China. Now China is selling it back to the rest of the world (at a profit?) The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, in a worldwide effort, a Chinese Government-backed global property giant, ‘Greenland Group’ is instructed to put its normal work on hold and source bulk supplies of essential medical items to ship back to China.

These things sound like conspiracy theories. I check online and see newspaper articles from MSM overseas, saying these very things. So maybe not conspiracy theory, but little-reported facts? Particularly in New Zealand.

More Spin From Ardern and Her Team of Five

Thursday 7 May 2020

One new case today, from an established cluster. Sixteen more recovered. No new deaths. Only 136 people with the virus now.

The PM describes New Zealand as the ‘team of five million’. I am not a willing member of that team. She gives a long talk at the press conference, explaining what Level Two will look like. It includes inter-regional travel, which is hugely important to us because we are waiting to bring home our car and caravan. Shops will open with all the rules that go with the social distancing. Small gatherings will be allowed with social distancing in place.

Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges, asks if the PM can confirm that she won’t be increasing taxes to pay for all the handouts. PM, using a shocked, plaintive voice, says that she thinks it is ‘bizarre’ that she is being questioned on this when she and her Government are doing everything they can to look after New Zealanders at this terrible time.

I speak to a friend on the phone; she says that at the start of lockdown she was absolutely convinced that she would die of Covid. That’s how powerful and effective the ‘be afraid’ message is.

Friday 8 May 2020

One new case today from an established cluster, and more people recovered.

We hear that the reason for the full two weeks of Level Three is so that we can see if moving to Level Three increases the case numbers. We have kept the low numbers through to today, which indicates that moving to Level Three has not increased the case numbers and we still don’t have the virus being spread in the community. That’s good. We need to move to Level Two as soon as possible. 1000 people a day are signing up for unemployment – every day. We need to stop that pain and heartbreak.

This afternoon the Government releases some old papers about the Government’s response to the virus. Released late in the day, too late for the evening television news, too late for journalists who work Monday to Friday to look at closely and write about. Sneaky.

A memo is leaked from Cabinet that has Ardern telling all members that they must not speak to journalists, and if asked for interviews they must decline. They can give a written statement, but any statement must be passed through Ardern’s office first. This is a gag on Cabinet members, and more secrecy.

This is the Government that promised to be the most transparent Government in New Zealand history. Not only is the Government not transparent, they are not even honest, and in fact, arrogance is ruling; the email says ‘There’s no real need to defend because the public have confidence in what has been achieved and what the Govt is doing. Instead we can dismiss.’ Shocking arrogance. The meek New Zealand press needs to push back against this secretive, arrogant Government.

Despite this, it looks like most people are still buying into the extreme-lockdown-is-needed story. Listening to talkback radio – people are still raving about wonderful Ardern, and they are complaining about Simon Bridges for doing his job as Opposition Leader and any radio host who asks Ardern a probing question. They do not want her to be challenged.

A Newshub online poll asks if you will go to a restaurant or bar when we move to Level Two (which allows careful opening for restaurants and bars). A surprising 51% say no they won’t go.

For some reason, Air New Zealand announces that they are cancelling all booked flights and will be giving people money back, and people can book later when we move to Level Two. I am thinking that this could be one of two reasons. Either they have been given the heads up on Level Two being weeks away, or they want to charge more for all their flights, so they are returning our money and asking us to pay a higher price for rebooking.

Saturday 9 May 2020

Two cases today; one probable and one confirmed, both from established clusters. Another 21 people recovered now, bringing the recovery total up to 92%. We should have been out of lockdown weeks ago.

Today is the 75^th anniversary of VE Day. The planned celebrations cannot take place now because of the virus lockdowns. So people work out all sorts of creative ways of celebrating and marking the occasion. The Queen gives a speech, encouraging everyone at this difficult time. She says, ‘Never give up, never despair – that is the message of VE Day.’ This is encouraging.

It appears that the Government may have behaved illegally when they put the country into lockdown and prosecuted people breaking the lockdown rules. Simon Bridges asks the Government for details of the legal advice they received to proceed with lockdown and the Government won’t give it. Why not? Why the smokescreen? Why the secrecy? Why so much effort being put into controlling the narrative? What’s going on behind the scenes?

USA is suffering very high numbers of cases and deaths. European countries are announcing that they will be opening up after lockdown over the next few weeks. They also have high numbers of active cases, deaths and new daily cases. Maybe they see that lockdown can’t go on forever. I personally don’t think lockdown is what protects people. I believe it’s hygiene, social distancing, and possibly even closed borders that make the difference. But these days we are all experts, all scientists and epidemiologists. We all know it all. In reality, epidemiologists and scientists all disagree with each other, no-one knows what the future holds, no-one knows how the virus will play out around the world.

The Guardian reports that there have been 6,546 more non-Covid deaths at homes across Britain compared with the seasonal five-year average. The suggestion is that sick people are afraid of going to hospital because they are afraid of Covid so they are staying at home and dying.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/08/more-people-dying-at-home-during-covid-19-pandemic-uk-analysis

Incompetence on the Testing and Isolation

Sunday 10 May 2020

Two new confirmed and probable cases today – one is from a known cluster. The other is someone who arrived in the country on 25 April and is in quarantine for a fortnight. The result of her test isn’t available until 9 May, which is day 15 after she returned. We don’t know if this person stayed in quarantine until the test result came back, if she is tested earlier and tested negative, if she is tested because she had symptoms, if she is in the early stages or tail end of her infection. NZ Herald asks for details and so far, have not received any info.

At 4 pm tomorrow, the PM is to tell us if we are moving to Level Two, and when. We are told that the decision will be made the Cabinet meeting. As New Zealand First is in Cabinet, and they are keen for Level Two, it will likely be a robust discussion.

Ardern is being advised by Prof Shaun Hendy – the guy who predicts tens of thousands of New Zealanders would die if we don’t have lockdown. We can see now that his modelling is not good. When he is asked about moving to Level Two, he says, ‘My gut reaction is we should go a bit longer in Level Three. Probably add another week. And then I think at that point we’re going to have to back our contact tracing operation and other measures.’ Why trust this guy? Why believe him? He has been incorrect in his previous advice, why would that change now? And what makes him think that New Zealand can stop the virus completely in this country and still be part of the world?

A radio talkback host is shocked that there have been 500 reports of lockdown breach incidents. He is shocked that there are 500 people who broke the rules. I am shocked that 500 people dobbed someone in for minor offences.

Monday 11 May 2020

Three new confirmed and probable cases today. Two are nurses who have been nursing some Covid patients. Neither of them has symptoms, but they have tested positive and they are in isolation. The third case is someone in quarantine from overseas. Again, we have no community cases.

We find out that the person who tested positive yesterday is someone who refused to be tested when she arrived on 25 April from USA, so she is put in prison. Eventually, she agrees to a test and is tested positive. But she is allowed out of quarantine and prison before the result of her test is known. The mind boggles.

The 4 pm announcement from PM tells us that we will gradually move down to Level Two, starting on Thursday and going for a week. So down to Level Two on 21 May. There is a feeling of ‘The country has done its work and now lockdown needs to ease up’. I feel enormous relief to know that we are going to be able to go and get our car and caravan. Working hard on the phone we get our flights booked on Tuesday afternoon and sailing on Thursday. Yay! So pleased about that. Can’t wait for that to happen. We want to get them back here before anything else can happen and in case we have to go back into lockdown.

Level Two means shops, cafes, restaurants open (with lots of provisos and rules). Regional travel, cinemas etc open – as long as there is a two-metre space between people. (Not sure how that might work.) Gatherings of no more than ten people allowed for church and funerals, but cinemas, theatres and other places can have up to 100 as long as there is social distancing. Is this right? Is this fair? It doesn’t look right and fair to me.

Tuesday 12 May 2020

No new cases today. We have our flight to Blenheim booked for next Tuesday, and our sailing from Picton to Wellington booked for next Thursday. I am very relieved. I feel like I have been holding my breath for six weeks.

We find out that the Government is planning legislation giving the PM enormous powers under Alert Level Two. The nationwide state of emergency will be lifted and this law will take its place. The Government has been working on the plan for this new law for weeks, and they give the Opposition and the public just 48 hours’ notice. The bill is being debated in the House today under urgency, and it passes two readings today.

Can We Trust This Top Civil Servant?

Wednesday 13 May 2020

No new cases today again. But we are warned to be vigilant and careful. Vigilant and careful for what? I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t like the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield. He has a mild manner, speaks clearly and confidently, and generally looks inoffensive and good. He looks like a safe, competent person in charge. People like him. He gets a good press. He has a lot of power but he is not elected. Ardern should not be giving him so much power. Or maybe she is hiding behind him. He could be a fall guy if things go wrong.

The COVID-19 Public Health Response Bill has its third reading today. It passes, 57 against, 63 for. If four MPs had voted the other way, the bill would not have passed. I wonder why it is necessary. We have enforcement officers now, rather than police. We have many freedoms curtailed. This Bill appears to replace the National State of Emergency, which is itself used appallingly by a shameless Government. National says that the Bill gives too much power to the PM. All the power goes to that office and the PM doesn’t need to take advice before making important decisions. The PM wants the law to last for two years. National fights that and it will be reviewed every 90 days for the next two years. I am horrified that this woman can pass a law which makes her dictator for the next two years.

The ACT leader, David Seymour, says the new law fails to balance the rights and freedoms and overall welfare of all New Zealanders with the Government’s effort to control COVID-19. He votes against it on the third reading.

In Parliament a National MP, Simon O’Connor calls the bill anti-democratic, and says that it puts enormous powers into the hands of one person. He says that the country is being prevented from practising their faith – which is unconstitutional, and the bill is taking away New Zealand’s freedom of religion. He says we need to be treated as responsible adults. He says people are surrendering their freedom because of fear. We hear a Labour MP say that this is a very dangerous virus, and that the bill is to keep New Zealanders safe. I would like to see the facts that support the Labour MP’s assertions.

The Human Rights Commission says that the rushed process is ‘a great failure of our democratic process’.

We know that the virus is not as contagious as measles, and we have less deaths from Covid than we had from measles last year. However, I am wondering how many suicides we have had during lockdown. I read that there were 61 suicides in the last week of April. And how many deaths have occurred because truly sick people have not been able to get the treatment they need, as hospitals are closed in order to keep space available for Covid patients. We currently have two people in hospital, neither of them in ICU.

People are upset that only ten people are allowed at a funeral or church service, but 100 people allowed in a cinema. Strip clubs are open but churches are closed. Prostitutes can work, but churches are closed. New Zealand is now a country where it is illegal to practise your faith in public.

Lots of pressure on the Government, so this afternoon, churches stay closed but funeral directors hear that they will be able to submit a form that registers for an exemption to allow up to 50 people to attend a funeral, as long as the Ministry of Health is satisfied that the director can meet their criteria for health measures including physical distancing and hand hygiene, with no food and drink able to be served afterwards.

The death of loved ones is the biggest thing ever, and people will not be allowed to grieve without these awful restrictions. And then we are told that funerals are so dangerous that at one funeral in the United States, which had 100 people, it led to 30 deaths. The details on this are not revealed but one can guess that there is fudging of figures here. In New Zealand we have no community transmission. Why are we being told worse case stories from overseas? Is it to keep everyone afraid?

I hear a few more murmurs and signs of unsettledness. Mike Hosking on NewsTalk ZB, and Matthew Hooten at the NZ Herald have spoken up a little bit. One or two others have asked a question or two. But in general, people are still conforming, still seeing Ardern as a saviour, still accepting her many lies as fact, and not questioning the secrecy of her office.

Overseas Chaos

Thursday 14 May 2020

No new cases in NZ today for the third day running. Just 65 people in New Zealand currently with the virus.

I am feeling so sad today for all the broken lives and pain caused by a lockdown that I think was never necessary.

I hear that in the UK there are currently 0.24% of people with the virus, and that low percentage of people is too low for it to be called an epidemic in the UK. So they say that the UK should not be in lockdown and should not officially say that it has an epidemic on its hands today.

0.24% of 4,800,000 people in New Zealand is 9,743 people. We have nowhere near that number. We have about 70 people with the virus today. In total, about 1,500 people in New Zealand or coming into New Zealand have had the virus or have had virus symptoms but tested negative to virus pathogens. 1500 is nowhere near 9,743. So why have we had six weeks of lockdown? After two weeks of lockdown Ardern’s predictions of thousands did not occur. This indicates that the predictions were wrong and that we could come of out lockdown and practise social distancing to keep the economy intact and keep the virus under reasonable control.

How did Ardern and her advisors manage to scare the population into obeying lockdown rules? Cruel rules that mean thousands of people die and give birth without someone to hold their hand and support them; people are persuaded to dob in rule breakers; police are given shockingly unprecedented, wide-sweeping powers; suicides rocket but the numbers are kept hidden by the Government; cancer patients are missing out on treatment; families are forbidden to see each other; old people are locked away in loneliness. I think people have cooperated because of fear. Absolutely terror, in fact. How horrible. How cruel. How foolish.

Controversial Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church fame says that he will not obey the rule that forbids church services of more than ten people in Level Two lockdown. The rules are that a cinema can have 100 people, a mall can have 100 people, a large shop or supermarket can have 100 people, contact team sports can be played. But churches can’t meet. Even if they observe all social distancing rules, they can’t meet. I agree with this controversial figure today. The ‘no more than ten’ rule is for house parties and for churches. I am glad he is standing up against this foolish and inconsistent rule which is a clear attack on religious freedom. I believe he is right to do so, and I hope other churches stand up with him against this unrighteous rule.

Bob Jones, committed atheist, says that Brian Tamaki is the only true Christian and other church leaders are hypocrites.

Talkback radio – a woman phones in and says that she hopes the police go to Brian Tamaki’s church on Sunday morning and nab him and ‘take him down’ and get all the people who go to his church and prosecute them for breaking the law. The radio host (Jim Snedden) agrees with her. I turn the radio off.

Newshub poll: ‘Will you miss lockdown?’ Over 60% say yes. They must lead miserable lives if they prefer lockdown to everyday life.

Level Two Lockdown

Friday 15 May 2020

One case is claimed today – in fact it’s an old ‘probable’ case, dating back to late March, and involves someone who is not sick and no longer has symptoms.

We are now in Level Two of lockdown. People are excited to be out. I go to Pukekohe to shop with C. Some shops just allow us to walk in and walk round the shop. They want a name and phone number when you buy. But Paper Plus and Whitcoulls have people guarding the door, allowing one person go in when one person comes out, using sanitiser and insisting on your contact details for you to enter the shop. We decide not to enter those shops. Hairdressers look busy. One hairdressing salon has the hairdressers wearing masks. Another has no masks for anyone. Shops have signs saying that you must sign in and must use sanitiser, but it’s not being enforced. Stationery Warehouse stinks of sanitiser. I think the sanitiser is not that good for you to be using so frequently.

Saturday 16 May 2020

No new cases today. Only 49 people in the country still have the virus.

We have another new word – safetyism. An American guy called Matthew Crawford writes an article about this very thing. He says, ‘Safetyism is a disposition that has been gaining strength for decades and is having a triumphal moment just now because of the virus. Public health, one of many institutions that speak on behalf of safety, has claimed authority to sweep aside whole domains of human activity as reckless, and therefore illegitimate. I suspect the ease with which we have lately accepted the authority of health experts to reshape the contours of our common life is due to the fact that safetyism has largely displaced other moral sensibilities that might offer some resistance. At the level of sentiment, there appears to be a feedback loop wherein the safer we become, the more intolerable any remaining risk appears. At the level of bureaucratic grasping, we can note that emergency powers are seldom relinquished once the emergency has passed. Together, these dynamics make up a kind of ratchet mechanism that moves in only one direction, tightening against the human spirit.’

Lockdown comes at a cost. We know that Covid is dangerous. But so is lockdown — lockdown kills people. And lockdown is having a very real effect on the happiness, health and wellbeing of many people. It is also causing joblessness, loneliness and a myriad of knock-on effects. So which is worse, the virus or the lockdown? We don’t know. Nobody knows. Most people believe that the virus is worse than lockdown. We will probably know the truth at some stage in the future, but today, nobody knows. It could be that the virus is less deadly than most people think, which means that the impact of the lockdown is worse than the disease it’s meant to combat. Or the lockdown could be worth it, even at the high cost it comes with. Today, I continue to think the treatment is worse than the illness.

Sunday 17 May 2020

One new case today in a care home cluster – the pre-schooler of a carer. No new deaths, more people are recovered. Now we just have 45 people with the virus, nationwide.

Brian Tamaki has his church service – negotiates with police first, has 100 people in church with social distancing and the rest in the carpark in their cars with windows wound up and tuning in to a radio frequency. All goes smoothly – no sensational scenes for the media to point to and scoff at. And even some Christians from other churches go. Has the Church leadership let the side down by caving in to the wrong demands of Ardern and her crowd? Are they looking like hypocrites? Are they are bowing to the Government rather than to the Lord God Almighty? Or are they simply obeying the law of the land. I don’t know.

A problem is beginning to emerge as lockdowns are eased around the world. Some people are nervous about coming out of lockdown; they are afraid of the virus and of being around other people. Government officials here, and in the UK, are trying to reassure people that it’s safe to go back to work and to send children to school.

We are getting excited about going back for our car and caravan. It’s been hard for P for two reasons – first he really loves this car. I think it’s the first car he has had that he chose just to please himself. He likes the colour, the motor, and just about everything about it really. Secondly, he is a lockdown-sceptic. He does not believe it is a good idea or a wise move or a useful virus-fighting tool. He believes that closed borders, careful hygiene, and social distancing are what works. So for him, lockdown has been a waste of time and money.

Monday 18 May 2020

No new cases today. Still 45 people with the virus. 96% recovery rate so far.

I go to the supermarket this morning. There is a traffic queue going into Pukekohe for first time in two months. It’s because schools are back in. That’s good. For once I am happy about a traffic queue.

There is no queue to get into the supermarket, although there is all the paraphernalia for queues – tents to keep people dry while they queue; tapes and markers showing us where to queue; signs telling us how to queue; signs telling us that only one person in the family should come into the supermarket, that we must not bring our own shopping bags into the supermarket for packing our shopping, that we must stay two metres from everyone else in the shop, that we must not touch stuff unless we intend to buy it.

In the supermarket I see a couple of people wearing masks, most people are not fussing about the distancing, but a couple of people are holding back and walking in big circles around other shoppers. The supermarket has most stuff in stock, although a popular brand of cheese that they usually have masses of, and some cuts of bacon are not there. There’s a sign telling shoppers that they are having difficulty with some suppliers.

Last night on talkback radio, one caller says that she thinks New Zealand media is extremely biased and right wing and they are out to get poor ‘Jacinda’. Another caller says that he thinks the election should be postponed for two years, and the opposition shouldn’t ask tricky questions of the Government. Another caller says that we should stay in Alert Level Two for two years when we will have a vaccine. I don’t know how he knows we will have a vaccine in two years.

YouTube and Facebook are censoring and removing what they call ‘conspiracy theory’ postings.

Sixty-two countries are backing Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. New Zealand is one of these countries. But when Ardern is asked about it she says that she is ‘not interested’ in placing blame or joining a ‘witch hunt’ in getting answers from China. She says that New Zealand is ‘part of a sensible call’ to ‘learn what we can’ from the pandemic. She will say nothing against China or WHO. She says that she thinks most New Zealanders would agree with her. I don’t agree with her.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says that an International Covid-19 Resolution will ensure that vaccine (when it arrives) will be shared fairly, and an inquiry will be called for. He mentions what is happening with churches not being allowed to congregate in groups of more than ten. He says that Cabinet will consider this next Monday. I find it interesting that a civil servant tells the public what the Government will be doing next week.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster reports that there are less breaches in Level Two than there were in Level Three. There are now 200-250 reports per day, as opposed to 700-1000 per day during Level Three.

That’s hundreds of people are still dobbing in businesses and fellow Kiwis. What a nation we have become. Spying, policing, checking, reporting. Very sad. There are many complaints about retail businesses not having contact tracing, but this is not a requirement for customers. I wonder why people are so keen for everyone to be forced to give their contact details – give up privacy and freedom of movement. It looks like they are not about keeping people safe, they are about keeping rules – at any price.

We Fly to Blenheim

Tuesday 19 May 2020

No cases today. Four cases of New Zealanders returning from Uruguay with the virus but fully recovered now are added to New Zealand numbers and then added to recovered numbers also.

We fly to Blenheim via Wellington to collect our car and caravan and bring them home. The airport is very quiet, all the shops and cafes are closed, bar one. There is a voice over announcement regularly; a man’s deep and very serious voice, sounding like he is in a science fiction film. ‘Covid-19 is still out there!’. And then instructions about washing your hands and keeping distance. No mention about not touching your face. The water fountains are turned off and every other seat in the airport has a cross on it, indicating that you must not sit there.

The flight to Blenheim is in a A330. Six seats across in two sets of three. Every middle seat must be kept empty to allow social distancing. The air hostesses have no masks, but they have gloves. Wellington airport is deserted, we see no shops open. The Bombardier has two seats on each side of the aisle. Many people are travelling alone, so one person on each double seat. The air hostess on this flight is bossy and showing off. She has a mask and gloves. When we arrive in Blenheim she won’t let people stand up and leave the plane until she has pointed to them and given permission. If anyone tries to stand up out of order, she instructs them to sit down.

No-one is allowed into the airport to greet arrivals, so A waits for us in his car and then comes to the door to help us carry our luggage.

Wednesday 20 May 2020

No new cases today. 35 actives confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand now. We go out to a café for lunch. All cafes have you sign in with contact details when you arrive, even if you only want to look at the cabinet. Half the tables in the café are closed off. We are supposed to have only one server, but three people actually come to our table. One surprise visit is someone offering a toy for the little one to play with.

Thursday 21 May 2020

No cases today. 30 active cases in New Zealand now.

We get the ferry from Picton to Wellington. The ferry is running 1½ hours late. It is very quiet; half the seats have got crosses on them to stop you sitting on them. Lots of signs around, and instructions to keep social distance. Very few passengers to be seen in public areas.

Friday 22 May 2020

One new case today – from an existing care home cluster. No more deaths.

The National Party has got a new leader – Todd Muller. A guy with business experience. He is confident that National can win the election in September. We need someone to replace the current PM, communist J A. The media say that Ardern is the most popular PM in 100 years, but opinion polls didn’t start until the mid-seventies, which is only 40 odd years. And the polls are Labour ordered and the way the questions are asked will get the answer you want to have. However, I have yet to personally meet someone who approves of J A. J A has become very arrogant and almost despotic. All done with a big beaming smile and a condescending manner.

Today we are travelling home with our caravan and stay near Bulls at Mt Lees. We meet a German couple who are trapped by lockdown and no flights. I ask them about the German repatriation that happened. They say that they couldn’t go with that because they are seniors and it didn’t extend to them. They are worried about health insurance because their insurance has run out and they are trying to renew it. They are living in their motorhome. They want to be home in Germany.

There is ‘happy hour’ in the summerhouse at the campground. I see the warden shake hands with the German couple and I see another New Zealand couple (locals) as well, all being closer to each other than two metres. A little bit of chat and we see that they are wondering why the whole country is in lockdown, why all the countries go into lockdown, why countries follow China. They are certainly not worried about transmitting or catching the virus from each other. And, truth be said, why on earth would they be worried?

Saturday 23 May 2020

No new cases today. 28 people with the virus. No more deaths. Since we moved to Level Two nine days ago, we have three confirmed and probable cases from established clusters. Why are we still in Level Two? Shaun Hendy says ‘I think we can feel pretty good about this week. The thing we could have seen this week was a bump in numbers but we’ve continued to see zeros, no new cases or single cases… it is not something we can relax completely about; there’s relatively few cases but if we want to go for this elimination goal in Level One then we do have to leave it for just a little while longer.’

There’s that word again – elimination. Shaun Hendy is the one Ardern is listening to as she makes her decisions. He is the one who says, ‘up to 80,000 deaths without lockdown’. We don’t have ‘relatively few cases’, we have definitely few cases. And Level Two is not easy. Yes, you can go to most shops, but there are still queues outside the shops with limited entries. You must sign your name and contact details in most shops and all cafes and restaurants. Many restaurants are opening only for takeaways because it is too costly and complicated to open for diners. Cafés have got fewer customers because of the restrictions. Lots of places are still closed. To what avail?

Just thinking about the ’80,000 deaths without lockdown’ story, let’s look at Sweden where they have restrictions and social distancing without lockdown. Today they have just under 4000 deaths, mainly very old people. Let’s halve this to get a rough number per capita. That’s 2000 deaths. Not 80,000 deaths. It’s very high, and very sad, but not the horror story that Ardern fed New Zealand to get compliance.

Let’s look at Australia with much gentler lockdown. They have 4 deaths per million, which is the same as New Zealand. New Zealand also has 4 deaths per million. So a gentler, kinder lockdown may not have caused more deaths.

Sunday 24 May 2020

No cases today. Two more recovered. No more deaths. Just one person in hospital.

Monday 25 May 2020

No cases today. No more recovered. No more deaths. Still one person in hospital. Ardern tells us some more easing of restrictions. From midday on Friday, gathering maximum size is increased to 100, with all the usual social distancing rules around it. I wonder what happens at midday Friday that makes it safe then, but not at 11 am Friday. Or today, even. Why are we waiting until Friday?

Level One is a long way off. Ardern talks about 20 days of no cases at all before going to Level One. Meanwhile businesses continue to struggle under the burden of reduced interaction and extra rules.

P visits a client; a few weeks ago he drove past a dairy with queues outside the door. Today he drives past, and it is closing down. Another casualty – another heartbreak, another dream smashed.

C tells me some horror stories of how very old, frail people in nursing homes are deserted by their caregivers and then they suffer and die. In Italy, a lot of nursing home caregivers are Eastern European, and they go home when the virus hits Italy. So the old people are taken to hospital. Any person who dies in a hospital where there is coronavirus is added to the coronavirus death numbers. Some people think that the actual death rate in Italy is about 12% of the official number.

In New York a doctor (fearful of saying so publicly because the person might lose their job) asks a friend to report that many people are being put on ventilators to prevent them from breathing Covid germs into the room, and the ventilators hasten death. If the patient doesn’t die, the lungs are usually damaged anyway. So we get reports of Covid damaging lungs in those who recover. The doctor’s message is that the ventilators are contributing to the very high death toll in New York.

I am hearing lots of rumblings like this, but MSM calls any dissension ‘conspiracy theories’, even if it’s documented facts that don’t match the hysteria they are spreading.

Several Days Without Cases – Where is Level One?

Tuesday 26 May 2020

No new cases today. Five more recovered, so now there are only 22 people in New Zealand with the virus. We have only two confirmed and probable cases reported in the past two weeks. However, we are getting many reports a day of many people losing their jobs and many businesses closing.

I go to the supermarket. All the tents and gear for protecting and controlling those queuing outside the shop is there, but there are no queues this morning. I ask the trolley guy if they have any queues at all now and he says short queues at busy times in the afternoon and maybe Friday, but not really.

Inside the shop we have signs and announcements telling us to keep our distance from each other, to shop alone, to pack our shopping at the car and not in the shop, to only touch what we are going to buy. All the shelf stacking staff are wearing hi-viz vests with instructions on them for shoppers to keep their distance from staff. I notice that people are not fussing too much about the distancing; I suspect that they are more doing it for the other person’s comfort than their own.

I see one face mask among shoppers and staff. It’s a lady who has the face mask covering her mouth but not her nose. I see one set of disposable gloves – the checkout girl I go to. Other checkout operators don’t have gloves.

I see the postie as I set off. He is one hour later than usual, and he is down the road still. His van is packed to the roof with parcels. Lots of online shopping happening. All parcels are delayed at the moment.

One News has a poll; in answer to the question, Do you think the New Zealand Government has responded appropriately to the coronavirus outbreak? 92% of people respond with ‘yes’ and only 7.5% say no. The rest say, ‘don’t know’. I find that very disappointing and discouraging. I believe the response has been overly dramatic, over-controlling, and with the wrong emphasis.

I hear on the radio that Japan’s second outbreak isn’t as big as expected, and nothing like Europe and USA. Wondering why, the presenter talks about obesity; Japan has a much lower level of obesity per capita than Europe, UK and USA.

Wednesday 27 May 2020

No new cases. No-one in hospital. 21 people still with the virus in New Zealand. Several newspaper articles about job losses in various industries.

Winston Peters, Deputy PM, leader of the New Zealand First party, says that we have been in lockdown for ‘far too long’ and we need to be operating at Level One and have borders open to Australia. He says, ‘every hour, every week we delay, we put back our recovery.’ Ardern says publicly that we will be in Level Two for at least another month. Then this morning, Winston Peters is asked on the radio if we have already been in Level Two for too long. Winston replies: ‘My party made it very clear we thought that. And the Prime Minister has actually admitted that at the Cabinet meeting – she said it.’

This is remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, Winston has broken the firm rule of not discussing what is said in Cabinet, outside of Cabinet. Secondly, Ardern is caught in another lie. Also, we see that Winston is no longer working on pleasing Labour, but he is electioneering.

I listen to talkback radio this morning. There are rumblings and complaints starting. One caller says that if anyone else tells her to ‘stay safe’ she will be sick. She is pretty angry about lockdown Level Two continuing in our current situation.

I am put off going into some places because of having to follow silly precautions like distancing and giving contact details. I am waiting as long as possible to go to the library, for example. And I won’t be choosing to go to places where they fuss. When they fuss, they also state it proudly, but they don’t call it fussing; they call it following all the Ministry of Health Guidelines. In actual fact, they are often doing more than the MoH Guidelines call for.

I meet with half a dozen friends. A couple are ready to give a quick hug. I visit a friend who wants us to touch feet instead of hugging. It looks and feels ridiculous. I conform.

The Government is using the distraction of the Covid drama to rush through some bills. Fortunately, the ACT party draws attention to this unscrupulous behaviour and they issue a press release spilling the beans. David Seymour says: The Government has put Parliament into urgency this evening and asked it to consider 15 pieces of legislation tonight and tomorrow. That makes a mockery of our democracy. The Government is asking Parliament to debate legislation dealing with welfare, foreign investment, smoking in cars, building regulations, planning laws, the Bill of Rights Act, mental health, infrastructure, APEC, veterans support, privacy issues and a raft of other matters in less than a day. Most MPs will not be familiar with the detail of the legislation and no member of Parliament can in good conscience vote for 15 bills in less than 24 hours. There’s simply no way to properly read or understand the implications for New Zealanders. ACT believes rushed law-making is bad law-making. A few weeks ago, Parliament passed the wrong law as the Government rushed its economic response to Covid-19. The gun legislation passed by 119 parliamentarians in just nine days had a raft of unintended consequences, including fostering distrust for Police and forcing thousands of firearms underground. For context, Parliament would usually set aside at least double this amount of time to consider 15 bills. If it’s worth making these changes, it’s worth doing them well. Parliament must do the job New Zealanders elected us for and scrutinise the Government’s legislation properly.

Thursday 28 May 2020

No cases today. 12 recovered. Only eight people in New Zealand with the virus, and none in hospital. And still we are in Level Two with the costly procedures in place for businesses and jobs being lost every day.

I think people are starting to finally get fed up of the restrictions; Ryan Bridge has an opinion piece out today saying we should already be out of Level Two. Paper Plus and Whitcoulls no longer have guards on their doors with people being restricted from going in and out. In Paper Plus they have a sign saying ‘in’ and another saying ‘out’. You must walk along a special path in a one-way-system around the shop. Extreme, and silly, I know, but even these silly shops are starting to relax restrictions.

I go into a shoe shop to get some new laces and there is no restriction, no mention of social distancing. The lady who serves me is just standing next to me as if everything were normal, and I am happy with that.

I go into Farmers and again things feel relaxed. There is a sign telling me to put my shopping on the counter and then step back behind a line. I do this, but then the assistant tells me to swipe my Farmers Card, so I step forward and stay there, ready to pay. No rebuke from her.

I pop into the supermarket and although there are tapes up indicating the route I must take to get into the shop, there is no guard, no queue, no-one fussing in the shop and the checkout girl is very relaxed and smiley.

Because of our geographical isolation, New Zealand has had an outbreak of Covid-19, not an epidemic or a pandemic. Our hospitals have never been overloaded. We should never have suffered five weeks of Level Four lockdown. We should have had strict border controls in February. And with this and no lockdown, or possibly short lockdown, our economy would have continued to function. Just as Australia and Taiwan are doing.

But the Government using faulty data from overseas, helped by MSM, were able to terrify the people of New Zealand into submission, and even into believing that they were doing a stellar job.

In an average year in New Zealand we can expect 200,000 people to get flu, and 400 – 500 people to die from flu-related illness, even with flu vaccines. We have had just over 1100 confirmed cases in New Zealand, and 22 confirmed and suspected deaths from Covid-19. To have lockdown and continued restrictions is lunacy or criminal.

Why is Ardern resisting a move into Level One or even out of all levels? Why has she gone so slowly through the levels, despite the pain inflicted on the population, and the calls for sanity and compassion to rule? I suspect it is because the closer to the election she can get with the crisis, the better her chances of succeeding – a government is always popular in a crisis. And Ardern is not one to let a good crisis go to waste.

Friday 29 May 2020

No cases today. Only one person in the whole country now has the virus. Seven more have recovered since yesterday.

And yet, with these remarkably low numbers, Ardern says she will wait until 8 June to decide if we can move to Level One. That’s another ten days, when we should have returned to normal a week ago, at least. And the earliest we would move to Level One would be 22 June. That’s an extra 14 days. So a total of 24 days before we can go to Level One. That’s too long. Meanwhile, businesses continue to struggle, and people are being laid off every day. A few more people are questioning what is happening and wondering why we still have such strict rules in place when it is looking like we really don’t need them. But generally, it would appear that the majority of the population is okay with this, and no-one challenges her.

I hope Ardern comes to her senses or is shamed into moving quickly to Level One in the next day or two.

Today the social gathering limit lifts to 100 at midday. Why that time? Why announce on Monday that it would be safe on Friday lunch time to increase the size of the gatherings? It sounds like an arbitrary figure, and a time plucked out of the ether.

So weddings, funerals, church services, community sports, bars, restaurants can all have 100 people. There’s a catch of course. Everyone must be seated, all social distancing (two metres between people) must be observed, no dancing allowed, contact details of everyone present must be recorded, and no mingling is allowed at all.

An Australian journalist says that, despite the global praise for Ardern, she is not doing as well as people say. He says, ‘She is an extraordinarily successful woman and she is very likeable, that is so clear, but I just worry that that likeability means people ignore the actual policies the Government is pursuing.’ He is shocked that New Zealand GDP will go from 19% GDP to 50% GDP. This is worse than other countries, in particular, Australia. He also points out bad decisions and results with fossil fuel ban, child poverty figures, housing, debt, the law giving so much power to the police and to the PM, etc. He comments that if he had written an article praising Ardern then no one would have noticed, but because he questioned Ardern’s Government, he is himself questioned and makes headline news and has to explain himself and his point of view.

Saturday 30 May 2020

No cases today. One person in her fifties in Auckland is the only person in New Zealand with the virus.

The borders are closed, so no new cases can enter the country without being caught during the quarantine period. Thousands of tests are being done every day.

We remain in Level Two lockdown.

In Level Two churches can open for up to 100 people. St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Pukekohe is a large church, with hundreds of people at Mass on Sunday mornings. They have a system where you have to book online. And there are five Masses on Sundays for you to choose from.

The BBC publishes an article by Zaria Gorvett saying that most COVID-19 deaths will be not from the virus but from the collateral damage inflicted by lockdown measures. She writes ‘Across the globe, patients have reported being denied cancer care, kidney dialysis and urgent transplant surgeries, with sometimes fatal results’. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200528-why-most-covid-19-deaths-wont-be-from-the-virus

The Spectator publishes an article written by Fraser Nelson about a report from Norway. Using observed data – hospital figures, infection numbers etc, they make a picture of what is happening in March. At the time, officials think that the virus is rampant, and that each person would infect two or three others, so lockdown is necessary to stop this growth rate. But now the Norwegian public health authority publishes a report concluding that the virus was never spreading as fast as had been feared and is already on the way out when lockdown is ordered. They say, ’It looks as if the effective reproduction rate had already dropped to around 1.1 when the most comprehensive measures were implemented on 12 March, and that there would not be much to push it down below one… We have seen in retrospect that the infection was on its way down.’

In many ways, it’s a terrible thought – that lockdown has never been necessary. This awful, dreadful, worldwide experiment of locking people away from each other and denying social contact, was never necessary in the first place.

On the same day that this article is published, the NZ Herald publishes an article saying how bad it is for Sweden, and how necessary lockdown is. Propaganda to encourage the masses in New Zealand who are in lockdown.

Sunday 31 May 2020

No cases today. One person with the virus.

I get emails from family in UK and a friend in Canada. Both tell me that they have heard nothing but praise for the New Zealand PM. I am outraged at the lies being told overseas about how well Ardern is doing, with no mention of the hubris, lies, controlling, mishandling…

We remain in Level Two lockdown with another couple of opinion pieces from MSM complaining about this, and a couple of articles quoting Ardern’s numpty advisors who say that those who want to go down to Level One are ignorant. I don’t agree that they are ignorant, but the advisor could very well be ignorant.

Winston Peters is firmly in electioneering mode. He is distancing himself from Labour and says we should have been out of Level Two a while ago.