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March 24, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 24 March 2020

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MrTips

Saw a great vision of panic supermarket buying yesterday.

Mum and son, hurrying to car carrying…..

One loaf of bread….

Probably 3 dozen pies.

Classy.
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March 24, 2020 8:03am
- Padraig Payne
  
  Yeah I saw that stuff yesterday. No bread. So the elderly folk that go to my local supermarket can’t get any bread. There was a woman wearing a mask rushing down the aisle grabbing canned food. Seemingly any cans at random.
  
  I just went in to grab a couple of things. I figured they could wait, walked out and went home.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:10am
  - alex Masterley
    
    I ducked into the Newmarket countdown yesterday shortly after the announcement to get some dishwash for home.
    You could see the tidal wave forming and almost feel the incipient panic.
    As i said last night the PM expects people to shop normally. All I can say is yea right.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:05am
    - DeepBlue
      
      Jacinda confused her message… Her main message was prepare to stay at home for a four week lockdown. That’s all people heard as they ran out the door to the supermarket.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:10am
- MT_Tinman
  
  Maybe it was the last loaf on the shelves.
  
  Except for Polident, which has been out of stock for a month, I seem to have everything necessary for the first part of the dictatorship.
  
  I do wonder, however, if the lord high priestess, giver of all boons, controller of all lives etc. etc. allows fishing the local river.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:17am
  - SGA
    
    Maybe it was the last loaf on the shelves.
    
    Or there was a one per customer limit, perhaps.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:36am
  - Nermal
    
    Strange how different places run out of different things. Got a new polident this week but not bothering with teeth if I’m not meeting people. My version of braless days
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:48am
- DeepBlue
  
  To put this in context, Briscoes have sold a whole lot more pots, pans and cooking equipment in last month. Some families are learning cooking from a very low base, especially the pie-a-day eaters.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:01am
  - PhilBest
    
    And another problem that I read that is showing up in San Francisco: yuppies who never cook a thing at home, evah, up in arms about restaurants now being closed. They’re “essential”, dammit!
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:10am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    KFC and McDonalds are closing.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:19am
    - Lance
      
      Oh the humanity
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:42am
    - Sacha
      
      I always go to Maccas when I go to the city every few months. It’s a treat that I will miss – not that I plan to travel in the next few weeks. Will have to make my own fillet-of-fish-burger ‘n fries. With mayo.
      Funny how, when you know you can’t have something it becomes a craving.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:06am
      - RW Capitalist
        
        I always go to Maccas when:
        1. It’s my turn to cook
        2. My stomach lining has repaired itself
        etc
        Can you think of any more?
        
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        March 24, 2020 3:54pm
    - Komata
      
      RWC@0919
      
      No doubt there will be large ‘Rumblings of discontent’ in South Auckland and Porirua as the enormity of this ‘deprivation’ sinks in…
      
      Perhaps ‘exceptions’ will be made as a result..?
      
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      March 24, 2020 3:38pm
  - Nermal
    
    A friend working for whiteware retailer (don’t know which) says ppl buying freezers online so fast they can’t keep up. So I guess some retailers will have a little put aside for the hard times ahead
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:50am
- RW Capitalist
  
  On the AM show
  A reporter had an episode of total non self awareness.
  “My husband and I went to the supermarket yesterday, to do a BIG shop”
  Were disgusted to see the 100’s of people panic buying.
  Really deary?
  When you do it it’s a BIG shop (on a Monday)?
  Tell me did you do a weekly shop last weekend too?
  But when others do it, it’s “PANIC BUYING”….
  Like I said, no self awareness.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:18am
  - sooty
    
    Don’t you just love the talking heads and their don’t you know who I am and why are you plebs out shopping, go home. It’s my turn!
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:22am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Was doing a job for Wellington Water.
  A couple of weeks ago.
  The guy was looking at the storage dam, out the window, saying he couldn’t understand why people were panic buying bottled water?
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:40am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  If they were taking three dozen pies wouldn’t they have been waddling, as distinct from hurrying, to their car?
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:56am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I live close to a Pak ‘n Save, and have noticed no panic buying there. Maybe the locals in Lower Hutt are inherently more sensible…
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:12am
  - John Warren
    
    Nah, all bennies. Too poor to panic buy.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:46pm
- Fletch
  
  I read in a community group yesterday a post by a woman saying that she sent her son into Countdown to grab a packet of mince, and some woman in front of him scooped up all six packets that were left …
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:46am
Padraig Payne

To the people who were panic buying petrol at Edgeware in Christchurch yesterday. Please get a grip today.
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March 24, 2020 8:04am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I filled both our work vehicles yesterday, but that was as much because of the low price of fuel at the moment as much as anything.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:18am
Justitia

“On Sunday, lonely as a cloud, I wandered across a windswept moor in County Durham and passed a solitary sandstone rock with a small, round hollow in the top, an old penny glued to the base of the hollow. It is called the Butter Stone and it’s where, during the plague in 1665, coins were left in a pool of vinegar by the inhabitants of nearby towns and villages, to be exchanged with farmers for food. The idea was that the farmer or his customer approached the rock only when the other was at a safe distance.” Matt Ridley, today’s Spectator magazine.
If there is any upside to the current crisis it may be that people will learn again to respect our farmers who have been maligned and demonized by elements of the Coalition over the past three years.
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March 24, 2020 8:05am
- Michael NZ
  
  Justitia
  I suspect not, it is ideology that drives them.
  I hope it might but won’t hold my breath for an apology.
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:30pm
Tony Stuart

Oh really Mr Peters?

https://www.facebook.com/NZFirst/photos/a.654807404574852/2747999428588962/?type=3&theater

Talk about political opportunism…
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March 24, 2020 8:06am
- Padraig Payne
  
  FFS. And I see Cameron Slater “liked” the post.
  
  “Solo activity” means a walk on the beach or a jog in the park. Alone. It doesn’t mean loading the good Ole boys in the truck with a slab of beer, driving a couple of hundred kilometres, going hunting and back slapping, and then driving home again. Buying petrol and pies on the way.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:18am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    “And I see Cameron Slater “liked” the post.”
    
    Of course he did, it’s in the contract.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:30am
- rightoverlabour
  
  I’d support this. The more NZ1st people congregate, the fewer there will be, come September 2020..
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:26am
- Bill felt
  
  There is something odd about this FB post. All the comments are referrals to other people. Its almost as though it is coordinated! Maybe not Russian bots, but close!
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:41am
rightoverlabour

Thank you.

Good site for people who think its just the flu…

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/12/21172040/coronavirus-covid-19-virus-charts

Check out the flu corona comparisons on charts 3 and 4

I wonder how people conducting illicit liaisons are going to cope? Now that “working late” excuse is gone, and movement is far more restricted? Should be interesting seeing the number of families under stress having to be cooped up 24/7. Psychologists are going to have a field day when all this is over. I am lucky, I have 10 acres, so plenty to keep me busy, but I do think this could be very interesting time especially if it goes on for more than a month.
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March 24, 2020 8:07am
- coge
  
  Not to mention those who have other habits that can’t be met.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:39am
  - mara
    
    Why can’t cafes keep afloat by doing takeaways and why can’t supermarkets stock spirits as well as wine and beer? I’m sure bottle stores and takeaway outlets can do crowd control even more effectively than supermarkets if they have to under penalty if required.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:24am
  - Nutta
    
    Like those with a penchant for exquisitely manicured lawns?
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:13pm
- cmm
  
  “Just the flu” is a poor argument to make from either side because there are a large variety of flus out there and they are varied in what they do.
  
  When most people say flu (as in I got the flu), they don’t really mean influenza, they mean a bad cold.
  
  Spanish flu was far worse than this Covid19 is looking to be. It killed people in less than a day. 9000 or so dead in NZ alone.
  
  In 2009 we had Swine flu here. Over 3000 cases in NZ and 19 deaths. Worldwide: 1 billion cases and half a million deaths. Does anyone even remember that?
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:41am
  - MT_Tinman
    
    This is no a “flu”, it is a cold – a bad cold for some.
    
    The world has had other “colds” and no success in developing cures for some, if not most, of them, despite scientists looking for that cure since there have been scientists.
    
    The big, completely stupid, thing about the current dictatorship’s decree is that in four weeks time Covid-19 will still be there, still killing less than motor vehicles, influenza etc. and NZ will be four more weeks away from young people developing natural immunities to the virus.
    
    As an aside I’m betting that the four weeks will be extended time and time again.
    
    When I die (probably from a corona virus) NZ will still be “locked down”, NZers will still be suffering under the dictatorship and Venezuela will look like a rich paradise to NZers.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:04am
    - Mummy
      
      Totally agree with you that this 4 week thing is only the beginning. They’re softening us up to get used to our new way of life and once it becomes the new normal they’ll keep extending it for God knows how long. I’m thinking months not weeks. And I hope I’m wrong.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:56am
      - Evadne
        
        And then there’ll be the climate to save….
        
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        March 24, 2020 12:51pm
      - Michael NZ
        
        I have been working on 3/12 for now.
        
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        March 24, 2020 2:33pm
  - rightoverlabour
    
    What was the Ro of the Spanish Flu? One big difference to note as well is the ability of this virus to affect the immune system . I don’t think influenza does this in the same way.
    
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.25685
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:11am
    - cmm
      
      “What was the Ro of the Spanish Flu?”
      
      The mathematical modelling numbers are not a property of a virus type – though many people treat them this way.
      
      The number varies in different situations (different populations, different weather, different population densities,…).
      
      Influenzas of all types impact on the immune system. Just as with HIV/AIDs nobody dies of flu per se. They die from secondary factors such as pneumonia which are immune system failures.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:15am
      - Jack5
        
        For anyone who like me didn’t know what Rightoverlabour was talking about …
        
        Wikipedia gives this definition of “Ro”:
        
        In epidemiology, the basic reproduction number (sometimes called basic reproductive ratio, or incorrectly basic reproductive rate, and denoted R0, pronounced R nought or R zero of an infection can be thought of as the expected number of cases directly generated by one case in a population where all individuals are susceptible to infection.
        
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        March 24, 2020 10:45am
    - David Garrett
      
      rightover: There were at least TWO major differences between the “spanish flu” (which was also a corona virus BTW) and this one: 1) the 1918 flu targeted people in the prime of life – 20’s to 40s’ – rather than the very young and the elderly; and more scary, 2) it killed people in as few as 10 or 12 hours. there are many documented cases of people turning up for work perfectly well, and being dead before the end of their shift.
      
      Neither of the above is happening here: this flu is targeting the elderly, as all flu’s do, and it takes 10-14 DAYS to kill rather than the same number of hours.
      
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      March 24, 2020 3:47pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    You didn’t mention the nastiest, most severe, debilitating and sympathy-inducing flu of them all…..
    
    Yes, I’m talking about man-flu. Well, whispering it really, the last thing I want to do is summon it by speaking its name (shudder).
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:06am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Panic is really set in. A client informed me that they were not allowed to go from their home in the city to a beach house they have up the coast. The believed Police could intervene.
  NZ, not the way I want it.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:19am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Believing that police would intervene is not a confirmation. He should check, just like you should before putting it online.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:42am
    - cmm
      
      You are right to an extent, but it is also telling that people’s trust in the police etc has fallen so much that they even think the police will intervene.
      
      5 years ago police had massive trust. Now, not so much.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:17am
      - Michael NZ
        
        CMM
        Yes massive loss, the anti smacking advocacy didn’t help.
        
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        March 24, 2020 2:34pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      When the COL and its friendly media put fear into many are the fearing to check with their local Plod Depot before adventuring outdoors? It’s easy for rights to be whittled away.
      When someone has come to believe that the Police have acquired further superior powers it is not right to ask why?
      
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      March 24, 2020 12:23pm
  - Doctor Who
    
    NZ, not the way I want it.
    
    As >70% of old men are climate deniers [Deleted – Mod]
    
    In France the police and gendarmerie are stopping people going to their country homes.
    
    Perhaps you haven’t noticed the pandemic. Or is it just more deny, deny, deny and lie…
    
    [Mod – Willing people to die because of what they believe or don’t is totally unacceptable. Come back when the lockdown is over]
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:51am
    - Tall Man
      
      Tick for the mod.
      
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      March 24, 2020 11:53am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      NZ is not France.
      Pandemics are local except when Cindy keeps the borders open for her Mar 15 photo call.
      
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      March 24, 2020 12:25pm
  - Mummy
    
    Don’t think that’s the case. You can drive around in your family car and if that’s to the bach well ok.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:58am
  - Nermal
    
    I heard a rumour Jaffa’s are flooding Whangarei. Suddenly I feel sympathy for Hone.
    
    Haven’t seen signs of it, just seem to be lots more trucks keeping our supply chains going. Thanks truckies!
    
    It’s all a bit confusing to us lovers of the apocalypse genre of entertainment. None of their scenarios envisioned food supplies and the internet
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:57am
    - sooty
      
      If it wasn’t for the truckies you would starving about now!
      What do you think the shops grow it out the back!
      
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      March 24, 2020 4:09pm
- John Warren
  
  We’re relocating to the rural property for the duration. Have fast broadband there now, plus bush, a boat… can go fishing, all the good stuff. Quite looking forward to it, really.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:49pm
MT_Tinman

Benn interesting this morning reading the foreign press.

Seeing what’s happening in the free world.
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March 24, 2020 8:09am
- MT_Tinman
  
  From that foreign press:
  
  https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/03/23/dissent-in-a-time-of-covid/
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:34am
Happychappy

What 36 cases yesterday did to change our Prime Minister’s attitude and change her opinion on the plan she was following.
PM : More Coronavirus cases coming dispite the Lockdown.
PM : ‘ What we need to see is our numbers start to come away.’
It seems now Jacinda has given up on the slogan ‘Let’s flatten the bump’ and finaly admitted the number of cases will still continue to rise, but Hope’s the numbers will slow down.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12319246
Let’s hope a change of attitude and less arrogance will help let those that know do there job.
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March 24, 2020 8:10am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  If lockdown can be maintained then expect it to rise for next 2 weeks then fall away. Should top out at 1000ish.
  
  Problem will be (likely poorer) communities where they don’t adhere to the lockdown.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:25am
  - MCos
    
    There was a bloke I saw interviewed yesterday in what you might considered a poorer area. That would be West Auckland somewhere.
    There were ten people in his home stretching over three generations.
    He was at the supermarket, which is the most likely place to pick up the bug.
    Next minute.
    There’s the possibility that ten people, including some oldies get sick.
    In my case my daughter has offered to do our shopping so our chances are far better.
    C’est la vie
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:56am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      This lock down will concentrate the distribution of any virus to families. Further, families share similar genetic material so vulnerabilities will be enhanced or diminished accordingly.
      Another affect must be the lengthening of the time for the virus to multiply through a population. At the end of each lock down phase fresh opportunities will be presented to the viruses. That may mean that medical demands are spread out more but there are very high hidden costs to attempt to achieve that curve flattening. Our epidemiologists and health advisers are blind to social and economic costs which can also translate into deaths/100,000.
      Are we on a quick course to a socialist takeover of NZ?
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:33am
      - amospicton
        
        What’s missing in all this is any form of cost/benefit analysis. People dying is bad – that’s inarguable but the economic cost of what’s being imposed will also lead to deaths. If we ban driving we eliminate road deaths – hundreds per annum, but society deems the cost too high. At some point we’re going to have to think about how much is too much with respect to covid-19 as well.
        
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        March 24, 2020 9:53am
      - MCos
        
        If you lose your means of income & the government helps out in some way, you could call that socialism, but if it’s the only way you have of putting sausages on the table you probably won’t care much about what it’s called.
        
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        March 24, 2020 10:04am
      - MCos
        
        If driving was banned for a month a hundred lives might be saved at great cost to the economy.
        After a month the deaths would resume as before.
        
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        March 24, 2020 11:33am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    Well yes, but what then happens when we come back out? Are we going to keep the borders closed until there is not a single case anywhere in the world?
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:14am
    - Melbury
      
      I would suggest at that point we reopen the borders with strict quarantine (not just home isolation) until such time as the disease blows over, which could be two years.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:51am
      - Sacha
        
        It is proposed that the lockdown be lifted as an area shows no new cases after a period of time, but what form it will take has not yet been described. Other areas will remain in lockdown for as long as it takes. It will depend on how dense the population is, and how that population complies with the lockdown.
        Not too difficult to understand –
        
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        March 24, 2020 10:19am
  - Michael Rodent
    
    Agree – and with the lag of 2 to 3 days between doing a test, processing and getting a result, we are realistically way over 102 cases today.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:15am
    - Greg Ettridge
      
      Not is it only a lag of three days, it is a total denial of tests to many people.
      Known Positives are running at doubling every 2.4 days, if this keeps up next Tuesday will show 922 cases in NZ.
      Australia is running at 3.3 days.
      Next real hot spot will be Turkey, doubles almost everyday running at 1.1. Has 1239 confirmed, next Tuesday 340,629 cases, if they don’t contain it will do the whole 80 million by mid April.
      If anyone wants the go the herd route, it won’t take long to achieve it.
      
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      March 24, 2020 1:34pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Yet our positive rate per test is 1-2%. To get to 922 cases will take at least 45,000 tests, and we don’t have the ability to do that.
        
        Or the positive rate per test jumps dramatically. Where cases are increasing rapidly, it is mostly because the number of tests is also ramping up.
        
        We bneed masks for people out in public, and lots of them. Bonus side effect, drastically reduces the normal incidence of non-COVID influenza as well (get to 80% mask wearing and influenza doesn’t replicate well, ie has an R0 < 1).
        
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        March 24, 2020 3:54pm
- Rich Prick
  
  “House arrest”, it sure feels like it. This must be what a fascist dictatorship is like.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:26am
  - BananaLlama
    
    Just wait until we are three weeks in and no one has died from the virus in NZ. People are going to start losing their shit.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:34am
    - peterwn
      
      This is what the health professionals are hoping for. If no one dies and cases do not exceed 99, the whole thing is a success.
      
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      March 24, 2020 8:53am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        The confirmed cases already exceed 99..
        It was 102 yesterday…
        
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        March 24, 2020 10:04am
    - Padraig Payne
      
      WTF? That would be a great outcome. I would expect mass celebration and congratulation.
      
      It is fascinating to observe the vast differences in the way that folk are looking at this thing.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:20am
      - BananaLlama
        
        Non compliance with Curfew is going to be a problem after the first couple of weeks.
        
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        March 24, 2020 9:56am
      - Padraig Payne
        
        Those who do not comply will be detained and taken home. That will send a message.
        
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        March 24, 2020 11:15am
  - Padraig Payne
    
    It is not house arrest. I live alone so it will be a challenge. But I have a garden and there is a park nearby. I can contact loved ones by video.
    
    My grandfather was under “arrest” by the Japanese for 4 years. He made it home but was never the same again. What we are doing now is not hardship.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:23am
    - Rich Prick
      
      That’s what the Herald article called it. Take it up with them, not me.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:32am
      - Michael NZ
        
        no YOU propogated it with NO attribution.
        
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        March 24, 2020 2:42pm
    - Sacha
      
      @ Padraig – No, but we are 2 generations along from the Japanese internment camps, and the 20/30 year olds have no concept of personal denial & so far in their lives, if they wanted something, anything, they could have it.
      Big learning curves ahead for some.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:24am
    - David Garrett
      
      Padraig: Well said Sir/Madam…what we are all having to “endure” here is a walk in the park – a literal one if you like – compared with what our forebears endured in the depression and the World War that followed it.
      
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      March 24, 2020 3:54pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    or Stalinist communism.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:44am
  - Michael NZ
    
    bullshit, rich prick.
    i walked the dog on the beach, did my walk jog at the park, cleared the postbox and had a techie check the routers when I got home. had a zoom meeting with 8 others. bought some paint at bunnings to get jobs done the next month, topped up the weekly shop. bought a coffee.
    that’s not house arrest, get a grip mate.
    
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    March 24, 2020 2:41pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      Lockdown (and store closures) starts tomorrow.
      
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      March 24, 2020 3:55pm
- rouppe
  
  I suspect it was the 2 cases of community spread.
  
  Which occurred despite health authorities only testing people who had overseas travel and thus refused to test for the possibility of community spread
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:42am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    No one know about the “two”. The co-incident release of pics of bodies in Northern Italy has affected minds. The Italian experience has little relevance except as a pointer to an example of a strangely peculiar bad situation. It would be excluded from almost any dataset as being so out of character that it presents as an outlier which in itself needs explanation–something else seems to be going on, a frequent situation in data analysis. Rogues misusing data sometimes present the outlier instead of the mean to make their tilted point.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:45am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Good question. I suspect three things:
  1. Chinese tourists have been all over the country during summer – so potentially spread it to all the tourist places
  2. All the kiwis coming home, bound to bring it back, could be thousands of carriers
  3. First non-negative incidence of community transmission yesterday!
  
  3 is compelling, but don’t lose sight of 1 and 2. This could already be everywhere.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:38am
  - Michael NZ
    
    i think it is, but patchy at present.
    when she said 2 i said 3 but expect 4 sooner.
    rather that than drown in your own juices….
    
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    March 24, 2020 2:44pm
rightoverlabour

hmm hows that global warming coming on?

https://electroverse.net/antarctica-just-set-its-coldest-march-temperature/
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March 24, 2020 8:14am
- peterwn
  
  Someone commented that this episode (assuming a high death rate) will take the pressure off Earth and allow the planet a chance to recover. This would assume that things (apart from the spread of non-indigenous homo sapiens) had stayed the same for millions of years.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:56am
453mm

ODT published a detailed definition of essential services.

https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/government-releases-list-essential-services
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March 24, 2020 8:15am
- rightoverlabour
  
  So bottle stores will be open. Good. What about sex shops? Asking for a friend. And while my mind is in the gutter, what about the oldest profession???? I didn’t see it listed, but it could be argued it is covered under “Emergency Services”. (Just ask those chaps in Europe, newly arrived from “shithole” countries about “sexual emergencies”)
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:31am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Just want to say “Hi” to our resident pervert….
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:02am
  - PhilBest
    
    Remember that when Aunty Hulun established the Oldest Profession as a fully legally sanctioned thing, it was granted total immunity from all the neighborhood planning NIMBY rules. You could object to and block just about any business use of a property next door, except a brothel.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:04am
    - Colville
      
      Happy to be proven wrong but I would think that a “work from home” situation would be allowed and a “brothel” would not.
      
      Same way a work from home accountant/hairdresser/draftsman is allowed.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:18am
      - PhilBest
        
        Yeah, work from home isn’t exactly what I meant; I mean any business that would generate as much traffic and activity as a brothel does. I recall the controversy at the time, over specifically excluding the newly-established industry from planning rules. I also recall that some disgruntled neighbors struck back by posting online footage of all vehicles coming and going.
        
        12 1
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        March 24, 2020 9:28am
      - Mummy
        
        Not sure about a hairdresser working from home or anywhere else is an essential service. Although tell that to my going grey FB group. They’re all panicking because in 4 weeks people are going to know what colour their hair really is.
        
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        March 24, 2020 11:04am
  - HeatherW
    
    Perhaps Winston had a word to Grant because yesterday bottle shops were excluded. Today the list has food and beverage suppliers excluding takeaways rather than previous listing of just supermarkets. Would have thought the 2m distance guideline makes the oldest profession challenging.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:20am
  - Padraig Payne
    
    My neighbour is a high end escort. (She is lovely and a great neighbour.) She told me last night that she is shutting up shop. So to speak.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:25am
    - Tall Man
      
      Can’t work from 1.2 meters away?
      
      11 1
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      March 24, 2020 10:17am
- alex Masterley
  
  I hope farming, orcharding, market gardeing and sup come under production and packaging of food otherwise we are truely screwed.
  The more i read this stuff the more i am convinced the government has absolutley no idea.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:02am
  - Colville
    
    alex.
    I drove thru the Gimblett Gravels area yesterday (its where the rifle range is) … all the premium red grapes on the vines looking great.
    After a near perfect growing season it would be a tragedy to lose all the Syrah!
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:22am
  - Padraig Payne
    
    All those things are on essential services list.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:27am
  - Stephen Russell
    
    Here in Marlborough, the grape harvest is just moving into full swing. We have about 300,000 tonnes of grapes waiting to be picked over the next few weeks. Imagine if that had to stop? It would be like tipping 250m litres of wine down the drain (a couple of billion dollars worth). All the wine companies in NZ would go to the wall. Primary production is supposed to be “essential” though, so I certainly hope that won’t happen.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:32am
    - Tall Man
      
      Getting the pickers may be the problem. I hope not.
      
      11 1
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      March 24, 2020 10:16am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Well separated outdoors Ag work seems like it should be kept going.
        
        11 0
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        March 24, 2020 11:37am
      - Tall Man
        
        Yeah I know but low wages, reduced tourist workers and a free month off on ardern……
        
        5 1
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        March 24, 2020 2:54pm
      - Gravelroad
        
        Have family member who works on vineyard machinery. The workers in vineyards are generally treated worse than dogs. Employers’ only concern is getting the harvest done. Don’t care who does it as long as someone does.
        Workers being transported together packed into vans. Expected to work long hours because of labour shortage,
        No masks or hand sanitiser available for machinery operator changeover.
        Minimum wages.
        Grapes, plonk and the almighty dollar.
        Family member thinking of self isolating tomorrow but is afraid of sanctions resulting.
        The wine making industry leaves a lot to be desired for workers. But great for drinkers, so that’s all right then.
        
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        March 24, 2020 9:04pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Medical statisticians don’t see beyond the wards. Ideologues cannot do reasoned management nor understand it. Hence increasing controls and powers as they attempt to make reality into their vision.
    Dealing with a new virus is a management task.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:06am
    - Pharmachick
      
      I actually kind of think you’ve got a point. We need to take the disease transmission models (Epi models) and see if we can combine with economic models.
      
      I know this is a bit horrifying but the current modeled cost of a human life in QALYs is about $50,000 per year;
      
      http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808049,00.html
      
      Somebody, somewhere must be trying this…
      
      Oh yes, and before somebody else says it… All models are bad, but some models are helpful 😉
      
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      March 24, 2020 1:07pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        I think the number that gets used in decisions about road upgrades is a “social cost” of about $4m/life. Whatever that means ….
        
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        March 24, 2020 5:29pm
- Akarak
  
  Meanwhile the Horrid manages to confuse many Auckland/Waiheke residents about ferry/bus services with this little pearler of communication – “Many Kiwis will soon to be unable to use public transport for essential journeys.
  Public transport will remain open for those working in or accessing essential services, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed yesterday.”
  Yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah!
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:35pm
  - Dazzaman
    
    Indian English…… sounds about right.
    
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    March 24, 2020 5:10pm
Simon

Someone or something panicked the clown show in complete lock down. Someone did a resource assessment that showed that a small anomaly such as the Wuhan virus would crash the system.

Hundreds of billions poured into government health over the years and pissed away would utterly fail with this public health anomaly.

NZ government a chicken shit shell game. The State has gouged itself at the expense of the productive. Too much taxation, over regulated PC nanny state and after all these years all there is show for it is a economic destroying lock down.
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March 24, 2020 8:16am
Lee C

This issue will finish the current Government as their last fallback with the public has always been a reliance on optics.

The feel-good factor.

First their own activists will fall on them, then –

this is one turd even our media will not be able to polish or roll in glitter.
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March 24, 2020 8:20am
- peterwn
  
  I do not share your optimism. The Labour government has an ideal opportunity to dig itself in and is already taking advantage of it.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:00am
  - Sacha
    
    There is a fair bit of water to flow under the Virus bridge before the elections – Election success will depend on how individuals feel the flow was handled.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:31am
    - Tall Man
      
      ardern is gone and nothing will change that.
      
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      March 24, 2020 11:50am
      - Dazzaman
        
        I sincerely hope so.
        
        5 1
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        March 24, 2020 5:12pm
      - curry4me
        
        Tall Man: Yes, the recession the BNZ economist mentioned a few days ago will cause a change of government. They always do.
        
        2 0
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        March 24, 2020 8:15pm
brett68

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Will Bridges still be leader in 4 weeks?
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March 24, 2020 8:20am
- All_on_Red
  
  Will you still be moaning about Bridges in 4 weeks?
  I’d say yes- to both questions.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:25am
  - Tall Man
    
    Be nice to brett, a big boy called Simon stole his school lunch once. He’s never recovered from it.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:33am
- peterwn
  
  What can Crusher Collins do? Promise to crush cars afterwards? I do not mean to ‘rubbish’ her but her options like Simon’s at the moment are very limited. Jacinda and co have most of the microphones.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:03am
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like NZ was exporting the virus to Australia
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/covid-19-cases-acquired-overseas-by-region-or-country-acquired

This pie chart shows the proportion of Australian confirmed cases who acquired COVID-19 overseas by region.

The largest proportion represents Europe. The second largest proportion represents the Americas.

Further significantly smaller proportions represent, in decreasing order:

South-East Asia
New Zealand and the Pacific
North-East Asia (including China)
North Africa and the Middle East
Southern and Central Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
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March 24, 2020 8:21am
- David Garrett
  
  Maggy: I am prepared to bet that the first case of confirmed “community transmission” is shown as coming from the Pacific…would you take that bet??
  
  Actually on second thoughts, that rest home is a better candidate..the worst possible place for community transmission to happen…
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:33am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    No, I won’t take the bet.
    
    I think we have been having community transmission for some time and as some folks fell outside the criteria for testing (hadn’t travelled or been a close contact) they’ve escaped detection.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:44am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Must be relatively recent or the cases would show up in hospital admissions. If the stats we see from overseas are correct, any widespread exposure over 3 weeks ago would be showing noticeably in admissions, and thus be detected.
      
      We may have significant community spread, but it would be pretty recent, just IMHO.
      
      Though it could be that it takes longer for the severe symptoms to appear, but that’s not what I understand from overseas. About 10-15% can develop pneumonia and suffer shortness of breath requiring hospital treatment. Right now, that would get you tested immediately, and we’d be seeing it, or will when the tests come back and the admissions start to increase.
      
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      March 24, 2020 4:04pm
- cmm
  
  I would expect that pattern given the places Aussies travel to and the infection flow through the world.
  
  Sub-Saharan Africa has relatively few infections (though undoubtedly way more than reported, and will have massive numbers when they catch up) and relatively few Aussies travel there.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:20am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Maybe, maybe not. So far anywhere that has a widespread use of anti-malarial drugs “seems” to have very low reported cases. Quinine derivatives may well be a prophylactic for this virus.
    
    At least that’s the theory behind the use of Chloroquinine (plus an antibiotic) to treat COVID-19 infections. Not yet proven as initial studies had some distinct data and methodology issues. Being tested further right now though.
    
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    March 24, 2020 4:08pm
- James Stephenson
  
  Looks like NZ was exporting the virus to Australia
  
  Although that chart is pretty much useless without numbers (wonder why they left them off?) I’d guess that those “NZ and the Pacific” cases are how they’ve categorised people off cruise ships.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:18am
kris

To see how ineptly our government (and the WHO for never once advocating closures) have handled this pandemic, the timeline on Wikipedia is a good read, starting here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_in_November_2019_%E2%80%93_January_2020

Of note, things were well out of control in China January, along with the first cases in other countries. Recall also that on the 4th of February NZ had to a run a repatriation flight to Wuhan. Yet it still took more than a month for our govt to enact *any* real border measures (no, handing out a pamphlet is doesn’t count).

As soon as a repatriation flight was necessary, the govt should have advised all NZers to return home, banned outbound travel of citizens a week later, and set a deadline for NZers to return home a week after that, after which, no inward passenger movements would be allowed, without mandatory quarantine (as per the Wuhan evacuees).

We actually stood a chance of keeping it out (and preserving most of the economy), if decisive action was taken at that point. Instead they dithered while Rome was burning, and now the country is probably going to need 9 years to recover economically…
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March 24, 2020 8:25am
- PhilBest
  
  “Closing borders early” like Russia and Hungary did, looks like a far more effective draconian measure than lockdowns later. Note how progressives make border closure in the early stages, an issue of “waaaacism”!!! That mean, nasty nationalist populist right wing “exploiting a crisis” to “do what they want to do anyway”!
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:15am
- rockape
  
  Now you know all the Government has to do is sit this out. Stop National electioneering then raise taxes to save the economy. The Government will have more controll so no worries. You know the Government is always there to help. sarc.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:29am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Don’t need to close borders, just institute proper 2 week quarantine. Will reduce volumes but allow those that really need to relocate to do so.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:41am
Loddenthinks

Can someone please try this link for me https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120494499/coronavirus-national-party-leader-simon-bridges-suspends-campaign-calls-for-alert-level-4

and tell me if they can get audio of Bridges press conference from the Stuff article?

I’ve tried all combinations and can’t get any sound for that one clip. All other Stuff videos have sound fine, and other apps on my notebook are also fine.

I suspect incompetence rather than sabotage but it’s interesting that one piece of video has no audio with it.
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March 24, 2020 8:30am
- kris
  
  You are correct. No audio in the stream.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:36am
- Tall Man
  
  No sound either.
  
  11 2
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  March 24, 2020 8:38am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yeah,
  it’s a Stuff-up.
  
  They’ve got the sound on for the clip from the celebrities lower down in the article .
  
  Think they will bother fixing it?
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:40am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    @Maggy and kris: thanks for confirming it, I’m good with technology and relieved it wasn’t me being a bit thick.
    
    No, of course they won’t fix it!
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:00am
- 453mm
  
  Can confirm, no audio
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:43am
- Paulus
  
  Stuffed and NZME are trying to take advantage of the new edict to the Commerce Commission to lighten up on their decisions announced quietly yesterday.
  So must be nice to the idiots.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:25am
artemisia

Internet noticeably slower this morning.
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March 24, 2020 8:31am
Maggy Wassilieff

Now I see the MSM in NZ are finally running with stories of how serious this virus is for some younger folks:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120512248/coronavirus-younger-people-critically-ill-in-australian-hospitals

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-kiwi-covid-19-patient-s-warning-for-healthy-people.html

It’s not just the old and the health-compromised that are affected.
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March 24, 2020 8:33am
- brett68
  
  It’s to scare young people into staying home during the lockdown.
  
  I doubt it will work though, everyone will be still going around and seeing their mates.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:39am
- Andrei
  
  Yes Maggie but what are these “young peoples” comorbidities?
  
  I have been following this and getting the data from the WHO website amongst others and honestly if that data is correct it suggests nothing particularly unusal is occuring in terms of population mortality rates
  
  I know you have been more concerned and I know you are an educated woman qualified to offer a reasoned perspctive.
  
  The whole developd world is going into lockdown – Cindy is just following not leading in this regard and that to say the least is a non trivial response which will have a major social and economic impact that will change the world forever.
  
  But to me given the available data the response seems somewhat over the top
  
  Is this just a mass panic or is there something I am a missing
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:20am
  - Evadne
    
    It is not minimizing the seriousness of the virus to suggest that the lockdown, restrictions, economic & social hit could cause much worse health and mortality outcomes in the medium term than just soldiering on with moderate precautions.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:50am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    is there something I am a missing
    
    Andrei…
    my reasoning has been pretty much driven by the opinion of leading infectious epidemiologists.
    
    When the Hong-Kong expert virologist on SARS said he was worried about this Coronovirus outbreak , I thought it was significant.
    When NZ’s expert epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker said this was serious… I took note.
    
    Sure lots of people get influenza each year and die, but with this virus… no-one in the World has immunity, so the entire population has the potential of carrying and transmitting this disease to victims.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:32am
    - Tall Man
      
      But Maggy, aren’t the victims already high risk?
      
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      March 24, 2020 11:49am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I don’t think all those 25 health-workers in China who succumbed early on were ‘high-risk”.
        
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        March 24, 2020 12:12pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Yep but ….. there is a theory that “atomised” transfer is worse and 25 out of how many thousand plus… wasn’t there a few questions about a few of them?
        
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        March 24, 2020 2:56pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Death rates go up from ~1.2% to 5-8% if the hospital system is overwhelmed – and without lockdown at 10x per fortnight increase we have seen everywhere else that would be just 2-3 weeks from now. 1% dead (mostly retirees) would maybe be tolerable, 5% + with 2-3% young adults (ie number who end up in ICU at the moment) is not. This virus is very infectious so we just can’t afford to let it start spreading uncontrollably.
    
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    March 24, 2020 12:06pm
All_on_Red

Are we going to be brave and make any predictions?
Here’s mine.
Cases will continue to rise over the next week, then peak , and then fall away.(Bell curve) ‘Tens of thousands’ will not die.
In about three weeks we should ensure those who are vulnerable stay in place at home, while the rest of us go back to work.
The economic recovery will be strong.
This is not a ‘collapse’ of our economy, merely a pause.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am a positive person.
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March 24, 2020 8:35am
- Tall Man
  
  Unfortunately for those businesses that exist on a tight budget, there will be no recovery. We have one client facing a loss in excess of $200,000 over Field Days and ardern won’t be bailing them out and neither will insurance.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:42am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    There are plenty of businesses that will shut down with work in front of them, they will be relieved of the wage burden and ready to go when the restrictions are lifted. Auckland is probably only a quarter of the way through its new building curve, much infrastructure on the go throughout NZ and farms still working, new jobs are developing because of the shutdown. The thoroughbred may be stabled for the moment but is still ready to run. Kiwis can fly even if watched by a moaning audience.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:59am
    - Tall Man
      
      You haven’t got a fucking clue have you?
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:12am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Firms that want to restart are not relieved of the wage burden. Any major disturbance like we have is going to put off new work initiatives following it.
      What relief is the govt actually giving employers? So far as I can tell from the messy web info is that employers are expected to make do from their own resources first then if they can navigate the bureaucracy they might get money. Working capital? They are expected to call on their bank for that.
      An amateur COL sure knows how to wreck an economy as byproduct of “managment.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:17am
      - rockape
        
        I think a lot of small firms will just question whither its worth the trouble and call it a day. Live on any value they get from selling and look for a job afterwards. Would you rather own a garage or work for the garage owner right now?
        
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        March 24, 2020 11:23am
- Poppa
  
  I am actually in agreement with you on that Red
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:47am
- brett68
  
  Cindy the Saint has saved 10’s of thousands, election win guaranteed.
  
  Bridges won’t or can’t call her on this bullshit either.
  
  I’d be stunned if Labour doesn’t win by a majority in this year’s election if national continues along the same course.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:40am
  - Tall Man
    
    Well, prepare to be stunned mullet.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:11am
- Stephen Russell
  
  Tourism has been New Zealand’s No.1 export earner. Its dead now. It will be many years before it recovers.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:44am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Disagree. If we can eradicate WuFlu now then we could offer a very high-value bolt-hole to high net worths – with a 2week inbound quarantine. Could be a good money spinner.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:59am
    - kowtow
      
      Investors from Wuhan ?
      
      3 0
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      March 24, 2020 6:21pm
- G152
  
  And every worker laid off for the duration of this ’emergency’ are going to owe thousands of dollars in rent or mortgage and food
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:54am
- rockape
  
  I agree with your optimism however I think there will be several peaks.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:18am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  New cases will only peak in 2 weeks time. We should max out at 1000-2000 active cases providing govt enforces lockdown properly, and something like 10-50 dead (depending on who catches it).
  
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  March 24, 2020 12:11pm
Andrew Worth

I guess the reasons we don’t see Jacinda wearing a mask is because it’s important for us to see the faces she pulls
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March 24, 2020 8:35am
- SGA
  
  Don’t worry, Andrew, the virus can’t be transmitted through your TV. It’s not the digital sort.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:41am
- David Garrett
  
  On a serious note, a mask is absolutely useless if you are well (if you are sick they make lots of sense; helping to stop you infecting others)
  
  The analogy I have seen is it is like wearing a mask made of chicken wire to keep out dust.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:06am
  - cmm
    
    Indeed, wearing a mask when you are well might actually be WORSE than no mask.
    
    One of the primary infection routes is from touching something, then touching your face (esp around your mouth and eyes).
    
    People with masks on tend to fiddle with the masks a lot. That means they are touching whatever, then touching their face.
    
    Not good.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:24am
    - sooty
      
      I thought it was more, a mask would not last very long!
      
      6 1
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      March 24, 2020 10:33am
  - Jules99
    
    So why do doctors and nurses want them?
    
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    March 24, 2020 12:38pm
    - cmm
      
      Not all situations are the same.
      
      If you are a dr/nurse dealing with an infected patient spluttering into your face that is very different from a shopper walking along picking up tins of baked beans in a supermarket.
      
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      March 24, 2020 1:16pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    I think the current thinking is that masks are in fact a positive. The apparent primary infection pathway is coughs/whatever from an infected person (and probably with symptoms, asymptomatic spreading seems to be largely discounted though not entirely) and the aerosol droplets fall to a surface that people touch and that is transferred to the face in some way.
    
    Masks have several uses, they significantly reduce aerosols from those infected, and they protect the face (touching the mask is not like touching the face) of those not yet infected. Not perfect but it reduces it measurably. As I noted above, a side effect is that it also cuts down on ordinary flu viruses. If we could get to 80% mask wearing flu would simply not spread.
    
    The health authorities however spread the “misinformation” that masks were useless because there are very few available in NZ (and in fact in most of the world) and they wanted to reserve as many as possible for medical staff and avoid panic buying and hoarding.
    
    If they were available I would recommend wearing one whenever one went out where other people are.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:20pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Bit of dental floss through the teeth, around the ears and one could be forgiven for thinking she is wearing a mask . . .
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:05pm
-D

Let’s just imagine that the impossible happens and the lockdown does successfully stamp out every last Corona virus in New Zealand…then what???

Keep borders locked down indefinitely?

This experiment, however noble, is being presented unrealistically.

Prepare for a crash landing.
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March 24, 2020 8:38am
- kris
  
  Having just the borders locked down is a minor issue compared to forcing everyone to stay at home. With the former, its only the tourism/hospitality sector that will need propping up, with the latter, the whole economy stalls.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:36am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Vaccine arrive eventually, but in mean time we are likely to get increasingly better treatments (Chloraquine seems hopeful), and faster cheaper testing (minutes not days) to let us quickly root out clusters. And learning time to improve other aspects of our WuFlu management. Buying time is super valuable in producing a better outcome.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:02am
Poppa

It will be very interesting to see what happens at supermarkets in a few days time. Surely the panic buyers will have run out of money rather than food & the rest of us can just get on with normal shopping
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March 24, 2020 8:46am
- Paulus
  
  No – those without money will just go to WINZ for more.
  Easy peesy.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:27am
- Brian McDonald
  
  The message will get through no need to panic buy. It won’t be a matter of running out of money but rather working out that throwing out spoilt food or having tins that will never be opened is not so bright. It’s times like this that is good to reflect on tough, resilient forebears who got through everything thrown at them, made bread, grew fruit, and were stoic.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:06am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  10am this morning, Countdown Glenfield has a 30 meter line just to get in.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:26am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    10.30 this morning Pak’ N Save Petone fairly busy but no more than usual. Everyone well behaved and plenty of stuff on the shelves including bread and toilet paper.
    What’s wrong with you Aucklanders?
    
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    March 24, 2020 12:26pm
    - Colville
      
      Pak and Save Napier just now just like a Friday night.
      
      HEAPS of people stocking shelves tho, quite a few cops outside.
      
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      March 24, 2020 1:01pm
    - Peter Lane
      
      10.30 this morning both supermarkets in Warkworth quiet and hardly any queuing.
      
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      March 24, 2020 1:06pm
emmess

The CCP is now spreading fake news that the Wuhan Virus now originated in Italy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KELvvknOKSw
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March 24, 2020 8:49am
dave_c_

I got called to a business phone meeting halfway through Arderns 8:00am interview.
Did she actually know, and answer the question about how many ventilators there are available in NZ?
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March 24, 2020 8:57am
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like the SNP will be doing some soul-searching
Alex Salmond cleared of all sexual assault charges
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-52004285
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March 24, 2020 8:58am
- Graham Sharpe
  
  Alex Salmond. Nicola Sturgeon. Sounds a bit fishy to me.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:13am
  - curry4me
    
    Graham Sharpe: Yeah, two fish with no vinegar, chips, or mushy peas does not a satisfying dinner make. As for the SNP, they want to leave one union, so they can join another. In an ideal world, the UK would throw them out. Result, Tory majority for the forseeable futire.
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:32pm
- peterwn
  
  The ‘not proven’ verdict on one charge is not very helpful for him. This verdict is peculiar to Scotland and has the effect of still leaving the accused under a cloud.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:16am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    peterwn
    
    My late wife was Scottish and I asked her about this. She said it was worse than either a Guilty or Not Guilty plea.
    
    It basically means “We know you did it but the couldn’t prove it”
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:31am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I think not in this case.
    
    Their Parliamentary inquiry will show some things went awry with how evidence was gathered early on.
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:53am
kiwiracer

Here’s hoping there’s a stop to accepting all refugees
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March 24, 2020 9:05am
lastmanstanding

From time to time over the years I have posted my believe that citizens should have to pass an IQ test and a political knowledge test before being able to vote.

I say we have seen the justification for this with the Hoarding Morons who despite being told the supermarkets will remain open and that there is an ample food supply continue their locust like stripping of supermarket shelves.

In addition yesterday my daughters partner witnessed a woman whose ethnicity suggested a large country to the north west coughing in the faces of shoppers seeking to barge her way to the front of the queue.
He remonstrated with her as did others but she merely shrugged her shoulders.
Such behaviour in these times requires strong moves.
I would lock up her for 24/48 hours and read her the riot act.
What say you.
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March 24, 2020 9:12am
- emmess
  
  Why aren’t the supermarkets opening staying open 24/7 so there are fewer people in at once?
  They say it is to take more time to stock the shelves, but surely that could be done while people are shopping.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:15am
  - Padraig Payne
    
    Don’t think it would help much. Also there is only so much panic buying you can do. Within a week, I hope buying patterns come back to normal.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:30am
    - emmess
      
      Agreed, I think it will come back to normal, maybe it will take a bit more than a week though.
      But even so, it would spread the load until after the situation ends.
      
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      March 24, 2020 10:34am
  - 453mm
    
    Not necessarily. My daughter reported the checkout queue where she works was yesterday afternoon right around the inside of the shop. Grocery and Fruit+Vege staff were unable to access the shelves/bins to restock them so were repurposed to pack at checkouts. Meanwhile the doors were locked for a while.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:36am
    - G152
      
      There were about 300 queued at PaknSav this morning.
      Went elsewhere
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:56am
  - Tall Man
    
    Why, they’re open tomorrow FFS.
    
    7 1
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    March 24, 2020 9:43am
  - doggone7
    
    Maybe they’re waiting for good people like yourself to go along and offer to do the 11.00pm to 7.00am shift.
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:27am
    - Tall Man
      
      As an essential industry we are already working on the plan to keep open. Hopefully the supermarket management is doing the same.
      
      6 2
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      March 24, 2020 11:45am
- cmm
  
  I don’t think this is an IQ issue at all.
  
  This is a trust issue. Trust lives in the “Lizard Brain”.
  
  PriNZess says do not hoard then behaves erratically with a the border control semi-lockdown etc, trying to keep the gates open for the 15 March hug-a-thon. This created unnecessary confusion which feeds distrust.
  
  So when PriNZess says “don’t worry, but get prepared”, people will bloody obviously go into hoarding mode.
  
  Then when they introduced the 4 levels that caused confusion. People realised that we’d get to level 4, but when? That causes more distrust and panic.
  
  Thankfully we all now know when level 4 kicks in and people have calmed down a bit.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:34am
  - Tall Man
    
    I think it’s just the new world of “me me me me me” and.. ” fuck you”. I’ve got long arms and can easily develop a bad attitude. Manners are important and it is sometimes necessary to remind others of that’.
    
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    March 24, 2020 9:46am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  2 million households, around 400 supermarkets. For once a week supply to each house each supermarket needs to provide for about 30 households an hour 24hours a day 7 days a week. 60 an hour if only open 80 hours a week.
  
  What is the plan for providing this throughput?
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:50am
- Komata
  
  Lastman@0912
  
  As all members of that ethnic group consider that they are far superior to everyone else, you’d be wasting your time; it would be like water off a duck’s back.
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:05pm
- Dazzaman
  
  I would have tossed her out of the queue.
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:28pm
igm

Bet drug dealers will be kept busy with no pubs and takeaways operating. The Labour-supporting bludgers will be spending their extra taxpayer-provided money with them.
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March 24, 2020 9:15am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think there might be a few cold turkeys running amok in the coming weeks.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:56am
andretti

No 1 basic human right, Freedom of movement.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t isolate but just point out that we have lost the most important of rights.
We should all be vigilant that they don’t take away more basic rights, like freedom of speech. I reckon that’s the next right they will be after.
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March 24, 2020 9:17am
- fernglas
  
  Rubbish. Freedom of movement, like other rights, is subject to justified limitations, which is why criminals can be deprived of it. I can’t think of a better limitation on the right than in a pandemic. How could freedom of speech have any effect on a pandemic? And don’t you think the right to life is the most important right? Perhaps that right outweighs the freedom to move and associate.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:35am
- RW Capitalist
  
  What do you think these “hate speech” laws are?
  Hate speech, is just speech you hate.
  very subjective…….who decides?
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:36am
- Shut the hell up you Fascist!
  
  The internet makes control of speech problematic for dictators.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:38am
- igm
  
  That Little jerk wants this badly, as does Parker want to stuff the farming industry. These are the types of politicians we can well do without.
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:39am
rangitoto

My niece says she went to a supermarket in Upper Hutt. Only people wearing masks were the Mongrel Mob.
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March 24, 2020 9:35am
453mm

Question for any medical professionals reading about the effectiveness of Dettol against covid-19.

Dettol claims to be effective against coronaviruses but has not yet been proven against the covid-19 strain.

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the likelihood it will (or will not) be effective?
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March 24, 2020 9:41am
- 453mm
  
  I’ve done a bit of research on my own question. This from the Spinoff might be of interest.
  
  https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/07-03-2020/how-to-get-rid-of-covid-19-from-surfaces-the-right-way/
  
  (Dettol is not specifically mentioned)
  
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  March 24, 2020 1:22pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Good Question.
  
  Looks like Dettol hasn’t demonstrated anti-viral capabilities
  
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-consumer-products/cleaning-product-makers-race-to-labs-to-bolster-coronavirus-claims-idUSKBN2101W1
  
  However, going by its constituents…
  Chloroxylenol is the active ingredient in Dettol. It comprises 4.8% of Dettol’s total admixture, with the rest made up by pine oil, isopropanol, castor oil, soap and water.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroxylenol
  
  Isopropanol (isopropanyl alcohol) and soap should do some damage to a virus.
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:38pm
Mattb

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Trump said: “Nobody in their wildest dreams would have ever thought that we’d need tens of thousands of ventilators.” The orange baboon is a liar.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/trump-ventilator-shortage-fact-check/index.html
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March 24, 2020 9:50am
- Shut the hell up you Fascist!
  
  Unhelpful comment. Grow up!
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:00am
  - Mattb
    
    So facts aren’t to your liking then?
    
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    March 24, 2020 10:14am
- Tall Man
  
  Perhaps worry about the impact our own baboon is having rather than worry about another country’s issues.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:06am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Well, duh. If he’s talking, he’s lying. That’s the default setting…
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:31am
  - Tall Man
    
    That’s ardern silly boy.
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:26am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  CNN? Really bro? 3 authors that write like 10 year olds.
  TDS by them and you at it’s finest
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:35am
  - Mattb
    
    So you’re saying that Trump didn’t say that? And you’re saying that there weren’t studies conducted that showed the scenario described? Is that what you’re saying? If so then the only TDS is coming from you. Your Messiah is a pathological liar.
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:02am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I did not say that, you did. Tell me the names of those who did say there would be shortages, or are you just repeating opinions like Mike does?
      I’ll help you. “Recent studies have shown ……….”
      Carry on
      
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      March 24, 2020 12:06pm
      - Mattb
        
        So Trump did say that. And there were studies. And there is irrefutable evidence of the above. But because CNN reported it the you disregard it. Got it.
        Here’s the evidence: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/60/suppl_1/S52/356562
        
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        March 24, 2020 1:59pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Btw, there is a World wide shortage of ventilators, not just the US. But you would already know that right? Yet you repeat CNN shit to attack Trump. Do you know how pathetic you are?
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:02am
    - Mattb
      
      The difference is – the other world leaders aren’t spewing lies every day and denying responsibility. His claim is demonstrably false. You can deny all you want but it is. Along with all his other false claims. It’s not CNN shit. It is a fact. You’re the pathetic one with your denial of reality.
      https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/11/politics/fact-check-trump-administration-coronavirus-28-dishonest/index.html
      
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      March 24, 2020 11:13am
- Fletch
  
  Trump has given Ford, General Motors, and Tesla the go-ahead to start mass producing ventilators.
  
  https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1241732681366482944
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:54am
- All_on_Red
  
  Obama didn’t stock up after the last pandemic. Face masks in particular.
  Trumps got Tesla, Ford and GM making all the parts for Ventilators.
  
  Have we found out how many NZ has?
  Have they ordered more?
  When will they be available?
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:30am
- rangitoto
  
  Donald gets rubbished for suggesting fast tracking hydrochloroquine treatment. Nek minute NY mayor Cuomo announces treatment using hydrochloroquine and he’s a hero. Just remember orange man bad to keep your tds at max.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:35am
Local Miller

For someone with a degree in communication Jacinda is a really poor communicator. She has never learned basic things like you don’t say “don’t panic” because all people hear is “blah blah PANIC” and go out and do it. You ask for the behavior you want, as in “carry on as normal”, “keep the same routines”, etc.
You also don’t say things like “if we don’t do this 10,000 people are going to die…” This is a sure way to make everyone panic. She should be saying things like “if we don’t do this we are putting the health of 10,000 people at risk”. I hate politically correct speak, but you at least need to communicate in a way that gives people a level of confidence, not fear.
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March 24, 2020 9:58am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  PTPM is politicising it. Trying to convince NZ that she, and she alone has saved 10000 people form certain death.
  So. Full. Of. Shit
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:38am
  - Mattb
    
    Where did she say that ‘She and she alone has saved 10000 people from certain death’? You’re So. Full. Of. Shit.
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:23am
    - All_on_Red
      
      You agree with her that “tens of thousands could die”?
      
      17 3
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      March 24, 2020 11:32am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Waste of time. Mattb and Mike are just leftie trolls, best ignored
        
        18 5
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        March 24, 2020 12:09pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Without containment, tens of thousands could die in NZ, yes.
        
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        March 24, 2020 12:13pm
      - Mattb
        
        Sure do. Do you agree that Jacinda is trying to convince NZ that she, and she alone has saved 10000 people from certain death?
        
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        March 24, 2020 1:50pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Another example of Labour politicising the pandemic and using council funds to do so. This labour advert was posted on our local Auckland Council library page. It’s a picture of Jacinda in a 1940’s wartime pose saying stay home. With a labour badge logo on her shirt. Should it have a political disclaimer at the bottom. https://www.facebook.com/GlenEdenLibrary/posts/2814790968628291
    
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    March 24, 2020 8:40pm
doggone7

Focus on the craziness of buying a thousand dunny rolls and the other braindead supermarket behaviour could mean the ignoring of other lunacy thereby accepting it as reality.
Like the garbage about living in a dictatorship and ‘house arrest.’
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March 24, 2020 10:00am
- sooty
  
  Just think of all the funny roll cardboard centers mounding up. Where will they go, recycle, hoard or go up in smoke?
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:39am
Tasman Terror

Hugs have been banned….. from the top to the bottom. We should immediately start a give a little page to pay for Jacinda’s counselling as he lack of hugging must be deeply distressing for our great leader.Please be generous.
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March 24, 2020 10:03am
- cmm
  
  She’s already has a give-a-lot page.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:27am
Tauhei Notts

I note that Biden has now achieved favouritism for the November shoot out. Not by much, but still a noticeable difference.
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March 24, 2020 10:09am
- Nermal
  
  But he’s gone missing, just like his son
  
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  March 24, 2020 12:13pm
rangitoto

Italy lockdown looks like it’s starting to work.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8141861/Has-Italy-started-turn-tide-coronavirus.html
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March 24, 2020 10:11am
rockape

Its the right thing to do to keep essential services open for as long as possible. What I haven’t seen mentioned is what happens when supermarket workers for example go down and all their fellow workers have to go into self isolation. Essential services may not be available for as long as the Government would like to think!
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March 24, 2020 10:20am
fernglas

Jacinda asked New Zealand to be kind. If the behaviour which has been described here is correct, then I query whether New Zealanders have the capacity for kindness. Other countries have coped without panic buying and hysteria. It does not speak well for this country. I am particularly concerned because New Zealand has copped this at the start of the winter, rather than halfway through as in the Northern Hemisphere. If it is seasonal, we have 6 months ahead of this. Welcome to Aotearoa NZ.
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March 24, 2020 10:23am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_oWmAs76zE
Mark Dice.
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March 24, 2020 10:38am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aM5lBNI_lQ

Angela Merkel is in isolation due to the presitator virus. She doesn’t have it.
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March 24, 2020 10:39am
curry4me

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/19/its-time-practice-social-economic-distancing-china/
It looks like the WaPo have been listening to Dr Steve Turley.
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March 24, 2020 10:40am
rightoverlabour

OMG How will the Kentucky Fried Chicken/ Maccas demographic cope????

“Restaurants should be takeaway-only until New Zealand moves to alert level 4 and then they will have to shut down.

This means there won’t be any fast food or takeaway options during the lockdown and you will have to cook for your family.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12319204

FFFS The government has to give advice that “YOU MAY HAVE TO COOK FOR YOUR FAMILY”
(Actually this virus may have an upside- enforced dieting).
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March 24, 2020 10:41am
- cmm
  
  “I know my RIGHTS!”
  
  The guvmint must come cook for me. Or otherwise they better give me some compensation.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:17am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Some Commy Bastard doesn’t like us CMM. Probably pissed that he/she/it has to cook for itself now…
    
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    March 24, 2020 11:20am
Fletch

I heard on NewsTalkZb this morning that apparently Jacinda said that some towns would be able to come out of lockdown sooner than others. I think that’s a mistake, from both a social and a health point of view….
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March 24, 2020 10:50am
- cmm
  
  Creating speculation, jealousy and inconsistency is craziness.
  
  This is stuff that a person with a communicashuns degree should understand.
  
  Imagine they say some towns in South Island can come out of lockdown after a week or so (highly plausible). Immediately the “I know my rights” crowd in South Auckland/where ever will flaunt the lockdown there.
  
  She’s mad to have said that.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:22am
- Paulus
  
  Morrinsville I expect she means !
  
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  March 24, 2020 1:57pm
cmm

Warehouse to remain open because it is an essential supplier???

I hope they at least shut down their cafes!

I can understand Mitre 10 etc. People will still need to buy washers and tools to fix leaks etc,

But Warehouse?
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March 24, 2020 10:59am
- greybeard
  
  Lots of union members ?
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:00am
- Fletch
  
  Yep, this is a bit foolish. People will go there just to browse and escape the boredom. A bad idea.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:34am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, trying on clothing that other people have just tried on.
    
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    March 24, 2020 12:19pm
- Inandout
  
  Warehouse has replaced churches as places people meet and chat. Some non workers can actually spend hours floating around aisles. and conversing.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:39am
  - Fletch
    
    Being the only store open, it could end up with more people there than the Boxing Day sales! ?
    Completely irresponsible. Just about everyone is saying the same thing in the comments sections on Stuff and on Facebook.
    
    12 1
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    March 24, 2020 11:57am
- BananaLlama
  
  I heard about the Warehouse managing to weasel a way to stay open at their competitors expense. They should be forcibly closed for an additional week.
  
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  March 24, 2020 12:16pm
- dave_c_
  
  Corruption abounds.
  I’ve been waiting to see what ‘accommodations’ will be made, to benefit ‘sympathetic organisations’.
  This clearly contradicts all we’ve been told to expect during this crisis.
  I’m sure this sort of ‘preferential’ treatment will be the tip of the iceberg as this crisis evolves over time
  
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  March 24, 2020 1:52pm
- Fletch
  
  It seems like it is something The Warehouse decided on their own, and the govt has not given express permission for them to stay open.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120513149/coronavirus-the-warehouse-will-stay-open-during-lockdown
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:34pm
  - fernglas
    
    Let them open as long as they don’t sell items that compete with other closed down retailers. Same with the supermarkets
    
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    March 24, 2020 3:56pm
- Dazzaman
  
  Tindall, always been a big-time Labour donor…… have heard they are now falling into line and shutting…. about time!
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:48pm
KevO'Brien

HELP PLEASE

The Govt’s websites are not very helpful.
I have a contractor who is going to have to terminate work for the next several weeks. Employees will still have to be paid.
Does this lock down automatically qualify each employee for $585/wk subsidy after the appropriate paperwork?
Any authoritative references?
Thanks.
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March 24, 2020 10:59am
- Steve James
  
  Hey Kev, there’s a simple one page on-line form:
  https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/ess/trader_applications/new
  Cheers
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:53am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Thanks. There’s a lot of half baked sites out there.
    
    What’s the tax situation arising out of those subsidies? The Declaration says they are to be passed on in full. Does that mean we have effectively a tax exempt payment? That is not stated anywhere and under what authority is it made? The payment would normally be taxable as personal income.
    
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    March 24, 2020 12:36pm
    - Harriet
      
      I can’t help you in NZ but they did say in Aussie that some payments would be tax free, and that conditions for registering for dole payments etc. such as ‘excessive cash in the bank’ won’t apply. Basically if you have lost your job you will get the dole – which has been doubled to about AU$900 a fortnight, great for teenagers at home with mum and dad!!
      Anyway best of luck.
      
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      March 24, 2020 4:10pm
    - Southern man
      
      It is still subject to PAYE when passed on to the employee. By accepting it you agree to pay your employee 80% of their regular wage
      
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      March 24, 2020 5:31pm
- Jules99
  
  So long as he is paying the minimum wage and all his workers are legally working here, it’s pretty straightforward. Just tell him to fill in the form online.
  
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  March 24, 2020 12:32pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Largest source of infection in Australia has been from the Australian Cruise ship Ruby Princess – now registered at least 48 positives.

It was in NZ waters – Napier on Sunday 15th
(4000 people ashore)
Akaroa on the 13 March
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120490137/coronavirus-passengers-from-virushit-cruise-ship-fanned-out-across-canterbury

Coronavirus: How did Australia’s Ruby Princess cruise debacle happen?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51999845
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March 24, 2020 11:10am
- MT_Tinman
  
  Not too many of those of us who had interactions with those passengers are dead yet.
  
  I do, however, question why only immigrants and not those dealing with said immigrants and visitors were tested?
  
  I know I wasn’t.
  
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  March 24, 2020 11:21am
- Ed Snack
  
  Interesting as there’s only one reported case in Hawke’s Bay, and that was an overseas traveller who self isolated on return before displaying symptoms. No other cases yet detected though I have no idea how many tests have been conducted in the area.
  
  That was 9 days ago, if no new cases by this time next week Napier will have survived that exposure. Maybe far fewer actual infected passengers on the 15th and more from contact on the ship after that.
  
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  March 24, 2020 10:24pm
rightoverlabour

Corona Virus – silver linings

1. Moderation is much faster
2. uhmm?
3.well…
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March 24, 2020 11:41am
Inandout

This morning’s New World checkout experience. Operator takes about 30 seconds to spray and wipe conveyor belt. Items taken out of basket and given to said operator who then places them on packing counter. Customer has reusable bags at ready and packs them. Operator is asked why and she says many bags are unhygienic and they won’t touch them. Comment made that the old supplied plastic bags were so clean and practical; she nodded in approval. Jacinda won’t reconsider even if people die; virtuous pricks.
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March 24, 2020 11:48am
- mara
  
  Supermarket check-out workers are extremely vulnerable to infection so what will happen when they are self quarantined in droves or resign? Will supermarts have to hastily install more self checkout tills that will have to be sterilised after each customer use and otherwise only sell online?
  And yes, immediately ban filthy reusable bags.
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:55pm
- artemisia
  
  Not even necessary to remove the ban on so-called single use plastic bags. Just remove the penalties / fines or reset them to zero. Preferably for ever.
  
  Maybe when covid-19 cases infected by virtuous organic cotton bags start to emerge the old way will become compulsory.
  
  A whole lot of shoppers will stick with their unsanitary bags, knowing there are turtles out there being saved. Soz about the trees.
  
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  March 24, 2020 6:45pm
barnacle bill

An interesting summation of past epidemics over history and the death numbers, from Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics
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March 24, 2020 11:53am
rightoverlabour

To those bitching about the lock down…

https://www.boredpanda.com/doctors-nurses-photos-fighting-coronavirus/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR0jSLIJ9yu3DkCYoNjRwQ_o5VczFywyLAzYeeDL_JEVhkXk2kv3Q0eZfFs
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March 24, 2020 11:55am
cmm

Colorado has their stats presented very clearly, but then they are not run by a person with a communications degree:

https://covid19.colorado.gov/case-data

Why can’t ours be even half as enlightening?
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March 24, 2020 12:04pm
dave_c_

Is this another blatant bald faced lie.
Our benevolent leader quote “All Kiwis will receive financial support from Govt”
Totally misleading and setting expectation levels for many who will be bitterly disappointed.
Bastards
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March 24, 2020 12:08pm
- cmm
  
  Apart from the biggest lie of all – they all get financial support from the 200,000 or so net taxpayers.
  
  Why tighten your belts a bit when the Rich Pricks will just give you stuff??
  
  The financial consequences of this is going to be huge. It will probably last for a decade or more, especially if they continue with other destructive moves like killing off oil & gas.
  
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  March 24, 2020 1:23pm
- Tall Man
  
  Based on current standards we qualify for nothing. Our “drop” will be in 2-4 months time and if it is only 30% I’ll be happy.
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:00pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  What are they going to do to support businesses four months from now. Confidence will reduce fast and is much slower to recover. That could result in a greater number of actual deaths than the virus. The outcome of economic activity or lack of it is expressed in many ways. Contracts get deferred or plans cancelled. It’s like the Olympics, put it off to next year. If we bust our financial largess now,how do we cope going ahead?
  
  Mitigation not mastery may give the best solution.
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:53pm
RW Capitalist

The Mrs found this one, from England
All together now ???
At 1st I was afraid, I was petrified,
There was no loo roll down at Aldi and I nearly cried.
Oh I spent so many nights just thinking how you did me wrong, I used to wipe, And now I’m forced to just drip dry!
No anti-bac!
No bloody soap,
and if you think you’re buying pasta well you’ve got no bloody hope!
I would have bought that box of eggs,
I would have rationed out my bread,
If I’d have known for just one second everyone would lose their head!
Go on now go, walk out the door !
All you bloody stockpilers, You are not welcome any more !
Weren’t you the ones who just bought all the sodding beans?
You selfish gits! I hope you spill them down your jeans!
Oh no not I, I won’t panic buy!
Oh as long as I have alcohol, I know I’ll stay alive, Though I can’t buy my usual cheese, This will not bring me to my knees
And I’ll survive, I will survive, hey, hey!
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart, There was just apples and 1 carrot in my shopping cart,
And I spent hours walking round just feeling sorry for myself,
The empty store, with boxes strewn across the floor
And you’ll see me, somebody who,
Cannot buy anything she came for, and it’s all down to fecking you
And frickin Reg from down the road is such a selfish blimmin git
Because he stockpiled all the loo roll so nobody else can have a s@*t!
(x2) Go on now go, walk out the door!
All you bloody stockpilers, You are not welcome any more!
Weren’t you ones who just bought all the sodding cakes
Can’t you make a crumble, Do you people not know how to bake?
Oh no not I, I won’t panic buy!
Oh as long as I have alcohol, I know I’ll stay alive, Though I can’t buy my usual cheese
This will not bring me to my knees,
And I’ll survive, I will survive!
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March 24, 2020 1:20pm
Maggy Wassilieff

2 days ago we had 66 cases
Today 155. (40 definite… and ?13 probable)

So we have a doubling time of less than 2 days.
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March 24, 2020 1:21pm
- MT_Tinman
  
  No.
  
  A doubling of confirmed and probable cases (almost certainly all of which had the virus two days ago) which is a very different statistic.
  
  155 out of 4,800,000 is a very small sample.
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:06pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    2 X 66 = 132.
    
    we had 66 cases on 22 March
    We had 102 positive cases yesterday
    We have 40 positives today
    So today’s cumulative total of 142 is greater than 132.
    
    Therefore within 2 days our confirmed cases have more than doubled in number.
    
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    March 24, 2020 3:08pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Labour must be panicking with the schools being closed during the lock down. The children are not getting their daily indoctrination dose
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March 24, 2020 1:21pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  I overheard teachers saying “this better not come out of our annual leave”.
  Real empathy, team attitude and professionalism.
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:03pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Just what you’d expect from those unionist bastards.
    
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    March 24, 2020 3:35pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yeah, all 16 weeks of it plus stats
    
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    March 24, 2020 4:04pm
    - sooty
      
      How many kids will be dying, because they are not getting fed two meals at school?
      
      7 1
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      March 24, 2020 4:24pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    How many teachers did you hear?
    
    2 6
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    March 24, 2020 5:08pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Just the voices in his head, probably.
      
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      March 24, 2020 5:53pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Are you related to the Boag prick who ‘taught’ me in Taupo in 1957?
      
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      March 24, 2020 8:54pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Teachers have been on the phone to us to arrange that.
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:44pm
- doggone7
  
  What a lot of utter garbage.
  
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  March 24, 2020 7:00pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Just graphed the data… numbers on log axis…
Looks like we are heading to 1000 positive cases on Monday March 30th.
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March 24, 2020 1:31pm
- cmm
  
  Thanks Maggy
  
  How many points in your graph?
  
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  March 24, 2020 1:47pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    10 points…
    From 1st to 13 March it is just noise (1-5 positives)
    
    But plot data
    13 March – 05
    16March – 08
    19 March – 28
    22 March – 66
    23 March -102
    24 March – 142
    
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    March 24, 2020 2:01pm
    - cmm
      
      Yup with low numbers like these there is a lot of statistical noise. Anything before 22 March is pretty useless and even 22 March is pushing it.
      
      As a statistician you want bugger numbers to play with to reduce the noise, but as a humanist you want the numbers to stay low.
      
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      March 24, 2020 2:18pm
      - cmm
        
        bigger numbers, not bugger numbers.
        
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        March 24, 2020 3:53pm
    - rightoverlabour
      
      This faster than this site predicted https://covid.firrm.de/
      They had us at 95 for today, 120 tomorrow, and 153 on the 26. but only about 500 on March 30. Still not looking good. Glad I live in the bush
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:46pm
- MrTips
  
  Agree. Have modelled til midApril which is crunch time. If the lockdown works should plateau-like between 3500-5000 cases.
  
  If not, 10000 and all hell will break loose. 500 critical cases at that point alone.
  
  The ICU and infectious bods I ran this past just looked at me and nodded.
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:44pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    yep.
    1 million by 19 April if lockdown hasn’t worked.
    
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    March 24, 2020 2:59pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Out of the 102, 100 were attributed directly to overseas carriers arriving in NZ. That is a different population set than those living here playing pass the parcel.
  My concern is the 4 week lock down may cause more harm than good. I am seeing mental health in jeopardy. Life is both absolute and qualitative and each person’s attributes are different.
  
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  March 24, 2020 4:42pm
Happychappy

Can anyone shed any light on why the Government are now including probables in the total of 155 as then say 40 today when it adds up to 53, so what are they trying to hide.
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March 24, 2020 1:48pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  .
  
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  March 24, 2020 2:56pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  No..
  
  It is annoying if you want to graph cumulative data.
  
  (After a few more days if positive numbers keep increasing, it mightn’t make too much difference).
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:02pm
GoVege

Anyone remember the poor young mum of seven and her newborn who died in west Auckland recently?
Apparently she was turfed out of hospital after just a day or 2 despite her family saying she was in so much pain, she had to be carried to their vehicle.
But childbirth is a NATURAL process, ain’t it?
What could possibly go wrong…..
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March 24, 2020 1:53pm
- GoVege
  
  So often the victims of medical misadventure in my experience are gentle little Maori girls who don’t know how to stick up for themselves.
  What happened to patient advocates?
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:50pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Vege I have always discovered there is usually more to the tale than there is in the telling.
    
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    March 24, 2020 5:42pm
    - GoVege
      
      Maybe, TM, but kicking young new mothers out of hospital after a day or even a few hours, is a fairly recent development, designed to tie in with the anti-doctor line promoted by the “birthing” movement.
      30 years ago babies and their mothers stayed in hospital for a couple of weeks to ensure they had immediate medical treatment for any problems.
      The country was not bankrupted by that 2 weeks, and problems such as severe jaundice were picked up and treated before they resulted in permanent brain damage.
      
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      March 24, 2020 9:19pm
Pharmachick

We’ve now been asked to empty out our professional research labs. The national microbio lab needs RNA extraction reagents and Taq for the PCR (SARS-nCOV-2) test.

The local hospitals need gloves, gowns, goggles, face shields etc I am sending 6 cases of gloves and all our safety goggles n = 6 pairs. It will clean me out, but we can buy more when the lab starts up again.
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March 24, 2020 1:55pm
- MrTips
  
  Same here. Plus ESR need to know what’s available right down to small Uni research labs re PCR capable people, instruments (Cobas4800 etc) and reagents. Several of staff incl moi on call if needed over next few weeks.
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:07pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  What part of the World are you in?
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:10pm
- Pharmachick
  
  I’m a kiwi but currently reside in YVR… the national lab is in Ottawa.
  
  Thanks for the update Mr Tips – the Cobas4800 of my collaborator is already sent off for repurposing on “long term loan”. Hope ESR holds up under this, one of my oldest and dearest friends worked for them for years.
  
  I’m primarily human, but extensive animal experience: I’m on call Incas ether Vet techs and vets get sick, I can feed and clean cages –> prevents being put down (including we have Yucatans; Sinclairs; Yorkies; Dorsets; a large colony of NZ whites etc)
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:28pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Just out of professional curiosity:
    
    Maggy you’re a Botanist, yes?
    
    MrTips general field?
    
    Kiwiblog certainly provides an interesting community, though I suspect my age skews younger than most.
    
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    March 24, 2020 4:04pm
    - MrTips
      
      Clin chem with a penchant for CVD/metabolic and acute biomarkers. A significant amount of time is commercial as well with consults to Roche, Abbott, ThermoFisher and other IVD co. Own lab a reference centre for Roche.
      
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      March 24, 2020 4:55pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        MrTips: HEART!
        
        I’m a Pharmacologist and a Full Prof but yet only 42 right now (Yo Maggy, my partner [much more important scientist than me] is 60, so IMHO you’re bloody young!).
        
        I am a DMPK, and now I have well-and-truly doxxed myself (actually I have over the years on KB, but unlike Maggy I haven’t had a stalker to chase down that sort of stuff).
        
        I am grateful for this community of people that DPF enables, and I [often] chafing at the moderation b/c I’ve been around a long time, but yet despite the occasional “crazies” which one gets anywhere, KB seems to centre the ship when needed.
        
        Be well everybody and stay safe.
        
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        March 24, 2020 5:14pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Plant ecologist… NZ forests/ Reserve management/ native forest regeneration…
      
      but I needed to diversify as kids came along…and Hubby’s (better paying) job confined me to Wellington.
      
      so worked in Scientific editing (NZ J Botany & NZ Floras) and Science writing… and I went teaching when my kids entered school system (Physics /science/Horticulture).
      
      I’m 66… so at Uni in the 1970s.
      
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      March 24, 2020 4:56pm
  - barnacle bill
    
    @Pharachick
    With your Animal knowledge I wonder what you make of this.
    A close neighbour has a water well, it is brick lined and at times there is water in it.
    He has stock, and does game shooting where he takes out wealthy Yanks etc. he often brings back animal carcases , takes meat of them and throws the rest down the well.
    He also has sheep, same thing there and at times some die, left to rot until it to hard to put up with the pong, so down the hole they go also.
    but now he cant get any more in the well, it is full to the top.
    What is your opinion about the wisdom of doing this, is there a disease risk ?
    
    I know the local environment council do not agree to this practice at all.
    
    BB
    
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    March 24, 2020 4:50pm
    - Tall Man
      
      If the well is not into the water table you should be fine however I would not be very impressed if he was my neighbour and we would be having a chat. Hopefully for your sake it is an offal pit not a well.
      
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      March 24, 2020 5:40pm
      - barnacle bill
        
        @TM
        That is what concerns the local Enviroment Council. it does have water from time to time, then it has the potential to get into the water table.
        
        We have had talks with the neighbour, he is a very bolshie individual,, you would need to meet him to understand, the pit is only two mtrs over the boundry fence.
        We have a beautiful three quarter acre manicured garden with hundreds of shrubs and trees planted, and we have to put up with this shit.
        We spend a lot of time down there.
        He told my wife he could make her life shit is she complained.
        How he intended to do that, I have know idea.
        
        I have wondered if all that rotten meat has the potential to cause a virus type situation ?
        Maybe it could, maybe that is not so,
        
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        March 24, 2020 7:22pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Even if the carcasses are being dumped into an offal pit.. there are rules on what is permitted.
        
        It’s not just a matter of your local council not agreeing to the practice… they have a duty to enforce their local body rules and the Resource Management Act.
        
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        March 24, 2020 7:41pm
      - Tall Man
        
        What Maggy said. See your council.
        
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        March 24, 2020 8:04pm
Fletch

People going in to Gun City and stocking up on air rifles (for which no license is needed)… Queues outside the store.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120517607/coronavirus-air-rifle-sales-shoot-up-exponentially-before-lockdown
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March 24, 2020 2:36pm
- GoVege
  
  Oh God…depressed as hell already?
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:47pm
  - fernglas
    
    Just a bunch of knuckle dragging half-wits who think they will need to defend their toilet paper stash.
    
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    March 24, 2020 4:00pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Sorry fernglas, fat fingers… I absolutely meant to uptick!
      
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      March 24, 2020 6:56pm
- Pharmachick
  
  Is this what it comes to in NZ, of all places? I’m with GoVege, depressing as hell.
  
  Stay well (and *sane*) everybody
  
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  March 24, 2020 3:56pm
- Tall Man
  
  Any idea why? Ask one for us ?
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:14pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Meh, they are probably looking for activities that they can do at home or in wilderness while in isolation. There would be a reasonable number of intending purchasers who just moved up their plans as a result of lockdown – just like every other retailer. I imagine yesterday and today a lot of retailers have done huge business in anticipation of lockdown.
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:30pm
Fletch

Jacinda in the press conference just now, in response to a question –

“Don’t for instance expect to be able to go to your local Warehouse,” Ardern said when questioned about what is an essential service.

I guess that pretty much puts and end to that.
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March 24, 2020 3:39pm
- Tall Man
  
  I think she lied ?
  
  10 2
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  March 24, 2020 5:13pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    PTPM knows dam well that Warehouse will be open, nut she is trying to keep people at home and not spend money + GST.
    Saw my fucking cock off.
    Nobody can see a blatant lie anymore.
    OK. money money PLUS GST!!!!!! Warehouse just made a 4 year pledge.
    Milk it
    
    5 1
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    March 24, 2020 6:37pm
Manolo

The onus is on the Communist Party of China:
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/rita-panahi/who-and-china-have-failed-the-world/news-story/b277da40a9b0e0d580bf1d071ca0a523

The Chinese regime has through its ineptitude, dishonesty and recklessness, unleashed a virus that will leave tens of thousands dead and likely cause a global recession.
6 1
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March 24, 2020 4:13pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Breaking News! As of tonight CNN reporters are being asked to lie from home
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March 24, 2020 4:34pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/dems-worried-stimulus-package-would-stimulate-economy?fbclid=IwAR2pKXd050ewIQWfRLPWSLFn4Khyl42V0Z_QVlcSpIHNHW1_JZgk5sYsN-s
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March 24, 2020 4:46pm
toby1845

Heather DP has just been talking about an (unnamed) TV fishing show host having claimed solo fishing trips would be permitted during the lockdown period, but the he had been contradicted by official advice. Has anyone else heard a similar claim? And does anyone know who the fishing host is?
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March 24, 2020 4:49pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Not heard who but I can guess. Think of the blow hards
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:15pm
- [email protected]
  
  I don’t know about the fishing show host but the New Zealand Coast Guard has asked people not to take their boats out on the water. They reason that if anyone gets into trouble and needs help the Coast Guard volunteers will be taking extra risks by not self-isolating. The Coast Guard has also asked their units to keep the crew numbers to an absolute minimum and asked their older volunteers to stand down completely for now.
  
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  March 25, 2020 8:50am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U23Sy1QmKVo
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March 24, 2020 4:53pm
Tasman Terror

Out of adversity comes opportunity.For four weeks morbidly obese children at low decile schools won’t get their tax payer funded school breakfasts and taxpayer funded lunches.Nor with they get Carl Junior’s, BK , or KFC. Their parents Blob and Slob will have to heat something nutritious, talk to their children and not watch Sky Spirt for four weeks. Reads like Nirvana.
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March 24, 2020 4:56pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Have you ever visited a decile 1 school? Had a look at the economics of a 1.5 working minimum wage household?
  
  I have. You are simply full of shit.
  
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  March 24, 2020 5:57pm
  - rangitoto
    
    I remember one of the early tv segments, when the media started their pimp the poor campaign but they forgot to edit out the shot of the sky recorder and the huge bin of empty RTD’s
    
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    March 24, 2020 6:42pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Hey morons, this is you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMxUyW61nLE
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March 24, 2020 5:30pm
Monique Watson

This is fucking crazy: People are signing a petition to have the Warehouse closed. What is it with this miserly minded attitude? Part of the reason why The New Zealand way of life doesn’t suit us anymore. Tall poppy syndrome I suspect:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2020/03/coronavirus-lockdown-the-warehouse-urged-to-close-as-thousands-sign-petition-mbie-refutes-essential-claims.html

Wtf? Our Target stores are open, Ace Hardware, mcDonald’s and other fast food drive through. Starbucks for takeaway.
You poor sods! 😉 No Warehouse!
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March 24, 2020 5:59pm
- niggly
  
  Oh dear bad optics closing the likes of the Warehouse as it looks like Jacinda and Labour have no empathy with mothers (and fathers) of new born babies who will be wanting to buy clothing, blankets and heaters for their growing infants. Especially as it is now getting colder.
  
  What will they do now? Perhaps due to their anger and anxiety Labour may have lost a few more voters!
  
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  March 24, 2020 9:08pm
MH

I have isolated myself, at an isobar with a good 5 % proof bottle of scotch
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March 24, 2020 6:20pm
- Tall Man
  
  5%?
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:06pm
Monique Watson

Cindy has her hand out over the other side of the Tasman:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.sbs.com.au/v1/article/jacinda-ardern-asks-scott-morrison-to-give-kiwis-coronavirus-welfare-payments/566afc20-50e2-4151-a74f-d519c9df9cd8%3famp=1
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March 24, 2020 6:26pm
- Paul Marsden
  
  Nothing more than politics. She knows damn well they won’t. I’m still seething over her obscene claim that 10,000’s of NZ lives are at risk, if they don’t follow her proclamations, causing wide-spread panic amongst NZ’rs. Of course, when its all over and things pan out nowhere near as bad as she has suggested, she will grandstand and claim it was because of her governments actions and policies.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:27pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  She has no self-respect. She will probably ask Trump for a favour after she referred to him as a professional arsehole.
  
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  March 24, 2020 8:35pm
ex-golfer

Well – today’s GD has shown just how moronic some New Zealanders are.
I doubt this will get past the mods – but some of you people need to remove the tin foil hats, get a bit realistic about what is happening…..and if you don’t like it feel free to find a boat and fuck off to Italy, or even better for most of you, your utopia the good old U S of A.
Meanwhile I’m done with KB.
It has been systematically destroyed to the level of your nemesis The Standard.
Fair well doomers.
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March 24, 2020 6:26pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  No tin foil hats. You got the last alloy foil, I have some 6mm alloy, want that?. Good thing I got foil for the BBQ
  
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  March 24, 2020 6:41pm
rightoverlabour

I live on a lifestyle block. I see Mitre 10 etc are closed except to trade customers. If I have a major pipe water or similar burst what the fuck am I supposed to do? Call that stupid woman to stick her finger into it? Its bad enough with the drought without having to worry about not having access to emergency supplies.
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March 24, 2020 10:05pm
Fletch

Confirmed that The Warehouse will NOT open…

The Warehouse will close when the nationwide lockdown begins at 11.59pm on Wednesday, Government ministers have confirmed.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12319583
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March 24, 2020 10:10pm
rightoverlabour

Look’s like the liquor stores are going to be swamped tomorrow. Stupid tart.
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March 24, 2020 10:15pm
Rich Prick

Thanks China. Great if you found those bats tasty.
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March 24, 2020 10:22pm

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