Govt lack of front line testing lashed by experts

The Herald reports:

Auckland University Professor of Medicine Des Gorman rated the Government’s response as “somewhere between two and three” out of 10.

“I’ve seen health systems manage medical emergencies worse than this but it takes some doing,” Gorman told Hosking. “It’s like we’re living in a parallel universe.”

He was particularly astounded that only a third of border workers had been tested up until this week. “I thought someone was pulling my leg.”

The failure to test two thirds of border and isolation staff is beyond belief.

On Radio NZ, Sir David Skegg said:

• The lack of testing was “extraordinary”
• Was shocked to hear DG say aiming to test every two or three weeks as even that would be inadequate but turns out most have never been tested.
• There was a report recommending weekly testing and it was not implemented.

And so why has the Government not been testing frontline border and isolation staff. Stuff reports:

Moving to mandatory testing of staff at the border was a relatively heavy handed thing for a government to do, Hipkins said.

My God.

Mandatory testing of front line staff is not heavy handed.

Closing down almost every business in auckland is heavy handed.

Closing down the schools is heavy handed.

Banning groups of more than ten is heavy handed.

All of these heavy handed things could probably have been avoided if the Government was testing frontline staff weekly – which they were told they should be doing.

They made a deliberate decision not to test all front line staff. It was the wrong decision, and now businesses and families are paying the price.