ITALY THEN and NOW
Northern Italy two months ago.
I walked through Venice, went for some good runs in various parts of Veneto, photographed Juliet's balcony in Verona, walked the shores of Largo de Garda, hiked a big 10km in the snow on the high meadow at Alpe de Suisse and explored many places in-between.
I met so many lovely people, artisans, chefs, waiters, winemakers, retailers, admin staff at historic sites.
Corona virus had just started to escape Wuhan. ITALY TODAY : 6,077 people dead from Covid 19 to date. UPDATE 27th March 9,134
LONDON 14th January 2020. Coronavirus was spreading.
THE UK TODAY: 233 people dead from Covid 19 to date.
I love going to London. I've lived there and find it easy to navigate which helps with having a brain injury. Always, the best part is staying with our friends, one of whom has greatly compromised health.
Flying home to NZ on January 31st, the tension at the stop-over in Singapore was palpable.
Arrived home February 1st mindful of what was unfolding in the very places I'd been.
Italy's Covid 19 trajectory has been astonishing and terrifying. The exponential rate of infection, the crippling affect on healthcare, the loss of life, the lockdown of the Italian people and collapse of their economy . . . everything about Italy's situation has been a lesson to other countries.
So what has the New Zealand government learned from the Northern hemisphere?
I re-iterate that I've got very fresh memories of Italy (and London) and of the people I met. I wonder about the owner of Ca Cinel, Asolo, a lovely elderly man who painstakingly restored a centuries old villa into the grand agritourismo that it is today. How is he, I wonder?
I'd expect the PM would've been getting intel coming out of Asia as the Chinese were locking down and thermal testing, testing , testing their many millions of citizens as the virus spread.
What did the PM do with the information she was getting? Did she do anything?
Hard to know but the government's response to Covid 19 has been shamefully slow.
14th of March - Ardern was STILL determined to plough on with the Christchurch memorial. Adamant there was 'no community transmission', thousands of people were to gather. In consideration of the borders still being open, and the virus being asymptomatic for 14 days, how could she prove it? She couldn't. Have a read about the cattle conference underway early March :
Up until 23rd March, medical health professionals screamed at her to shut the country down. There are many articles on this:
In trying to stand her ground the PM chillingly stated that we should only trust the government: 'We will be your single source of truth'. 'Unless you hear to from us it is not the truth'.
Am I supposed to sit here like a doormat, swallow the platitudes and sanctimoniousness and overlook the dishonesty? She said our testing rate was comparable to Korea!
Upon the ridiculousness of expecting scores of tourists to self isolate . . . why should our default be 'only trust the government'?
When people finally broke through her tone deafness (that travellers into NZ could be carrying the virus), she imagined self isolation of tourists would work, even though it was impossible to police, notwithstanding the fact most were needing several modes of transport to get to their destinations. She constantly talked about 10,000 people being in self isolation without any proof. Tourists were openly saying they wouldn't self isolate while others reported slack or non-existent Covid 19 control at borders.
It's been harder to bring in an apple.
March 23rd borders finally closed to all non-NZ residents albeit six weeks late. Sacrificing - and then bailing out the tourism industry and spending money on the quarantine of returning NZ residents would have been better than Covid spiralling out of control and the country in lockdown.
We are a tiny island nation at the bottom of the south pacific, if anyone had a chance to keep Covid 19 at sea, it was us. Our biggest weapon is our borders.
Doctors had to plead for border closure, then for mandatory lockdown. We suddenly went from the announcement of the 'tick-the-box' alert system to full lockdown in four days.
Plenty of people followed the advice of medical professionals rather than 'only trust the government'. That is what empowered people do.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120455106/coronavirus-controls-could-cut-kiwi-deaths-from-60000-to-10000
Many had already self-isolated well before the big announcement where Ardern sat in a fake warlike bunker and tried to be on top of it. She chucked out the headline 'going hard and going early'. She has not. She claimed her measures were the strictest in the world. They are not. She claimed her economic package is the biggest in the world. It is not.
She's dithered and contradicted. One minute a half-baked self quarantine policy next minute a travel ban on every country on Earth. Except the Pacific. . . . .
Why am I writing this?
Democracy demands that we rattle our brains, analyse the chaos and ask why didn't the government act sooner?
Nobody questions the need stay home, keep healthy people safe and make a window for testing, contract tracing and resourcing medical staff.
But it cant be sustained until a vaccine is made so there'll be more periods of lockdown ahead. In the meantime business owners are in huge dilemmas; Do they just shut down? Wages subsidies are great, but how long can you keep paying overheads when trading has stopped?
The other BIG worry is the potentially devastating impact on our health system. The confusion around the supply of medical equipment is diabolical:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412715/not-enough-protective-medical-gear-available-despite-govt-assurances-supplier
I write this because it is not empowering to 'only trust the government'.
Scrutinise it, question it, hold it to account.
There's been some shocking politicisation of the pandemic in handing out $2.8 billion to beneficiaries ( people whose incomes are guaranteed) and $56m to 'Maori Covid 19' - both handouts hugely political. Labour has plastered itself all over its updates and the Greens, my god is anything more tawdry than the Greens seeking donations at a time like this?
Has anyone else noticed? Or has everyone been glued to celebrity-microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles telling everyone to not panic buy? Hello! The alert system clearly states at level 4 there'll be 'rationing of supplies'. Sorry Siouxsie. People heard the word 'rationing' and they're off to fill a trolley. It's human nature Siouxsie. Siouxsie has also chosen this opportune time to reveal her politics, that the government should borrow like there's no tomorrow and splash money around in universal benefits. Siouxsie spends a lot of time peering down a microscope.
Funnily enough, my first career was microbiology which I replaced with a B Com in Economics. Strange how I know the difference between lactobacillus and streptococci. Wonder if Siouxsie understands the difference (and ramifications) between borrowing to 20% and 50% of GDP?
The National government had paid down debt leaving the economy better positioned to withstand a crisis like this. Yet the current PM can't even give clear lucid answers to questions put to her in The House, like how many Covid 19 testing kits are available? Nobody seems to know. Covid 19 testing is an absolute dog's breakfast and people are still walking through the borders. What a total shambles.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/25/1100026/six-day-testing-delay-raises-concerns
Every day I read about Italy. I think about Italy, then and now. People in Europe are very envious of our remote geographic isolation and they'll be shaking their heads with dismay at the NZ government's inertia in not taking immediate advantage of it. So must we.
We are a tiny island nation at the bottom of the south pacific, if anyone had a chance to keep Covid 19 at sea, it was us. Our biggest weapon is our borders.
Doctors had to plead for border closure, then for mandatory lockdown. We suddenly went from the announcement of the 'tick-the-box' alert system to full lockdown in four days.
Plenty of people followed the advice of medical professionals rather than 'only trust the government'. That is what empowered people do.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120455106/coronavirus-controls-could-cut-kiwi-deaths-from-60000-to-10000
Many had already self-isolated well before the big announcement where Ardern sat in a fake warlike bunker and tried to be on top of it. She chucked out the headline 'going hard and going early'. She has not. She claimed her measures were the strictest in the world. They are not. She claimed her economic package is the biggest in the world. It is not.
She's dithered and contradicted. One minute a half-baked self quarantine policy next minute a travel ban on every country on Earth. Except the Pacific. . . . .
Why am I writing this?
Democracy demands that we rattle our brains, analyse the chaos and ask why didn't the government act sooner?
Nobody questions the need stay home, keep healthy people safe and make a window for testing, contract tracing and resourcing medical staff.
But it cant be sustained until a vaccine is made so there'll be more periods of lockdown ahead. In the meantime business owners are in huge dilemmas; Do they just shut down? Wages subsidies are great, but how long can you keep paying overheads when trading has stopped?
The other BIG worry is the potentially devastating impact on our health system. The confusion around the supply of medical equipment is diabolical:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412715/not-enough-protective-medical-gear-available-despite-govt-assurances-supplier
I write this because it is not empowering to 'only trust the government'.
Scrutinise it, question it, hold it to account.
There's been some shocking politicisation of the pandemic in handing out $2.8 billion to beneficiaries ( people whose incomes are guaranteed) and $56m to 'Maori Covid 19' - both handouts hugely political. Labour has plastered itself all over its updates and the Greens, my god is anything more tawdry than the Greens seeking donations at a time like this?
Has anyone else noticed? Or has everyone been glued to celebrity-microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles telling everyone to not panic buy? Hello! The alert system clearly states at level 4 there'll be 'rationing of supplies'. Sorry Siouxsie. People heard the word 'rationing' and they're off to fill a trolley. It's human nature Siouxsie. Siouxsie has also chosen this opportune time to reveal her politics, that the government should borrow like there's no tomorrow and splash money around in universal benefits. Siouxsie spends a lot of time peering down a microscope.
Funnily enough, my first career was microbiology which I replaced with a B Com in Economics. Strange how I know the difference between lactobacillus and streptococci. Wonder if Siouxsie understands the difference (and ramifications) between borrowing to 20% and 50% of GDP?
The National government had paid down debt leaving the economy better positioned to withstand a crisis like this. Yet the current PM can't even give clear lucid answers to questions put to her in The House, like how many Covid 19 testing kits are available? Nobody seems to know. Covid 19 testing is an absolute dog's breakfast and people are still walking through the borders. What a total shambles.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/03/25/1100026/six-day-testing-delay-raises-concerns
Every day I read about Italy. I think about Italy, then and now. People in Europe are very envious of our remote geographic isolation and they'll be shaking their heads with dismay at the NZ government's inertia in not taking immediate advantage of it. So must we.
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