Knowing the State of Play: Covid

Good democracy and government truly relies on a well informed electorate.

I was very recently in a place of business and someone was telling a small audience that would should never forget Ardern’s/Bloomfield’s/Labour’s success with Covid. The were pretty much re-stating Robertson’s; “The best health response is also the best economic response.”

I have always been one who thinks that you need to back up an opinion and was interested that no one in the room knew the current overall stats.

How many kiwis know that:

– We are now 49th in the world for the most cases in a country (as a small – remote nation I found this astounding).

– We are now 47th in the world for cases per million (we have just pushed ahead of the UK – another little dance?)

– We are now 128th in the world for deaths per million and on the way to being above the world average (Australia now has a lower rate). This is being “achieved” with a high vaccination rate and a less harmful strain that the early ones.

I am not making this up: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

My questions are:
– Where has the opposition been (i.e. Chris Bishop) through all of this?
– Have we been buying and applying the best treatments – e.g. the mono-clonal antibody?
– Have we protected the vulnerable with nuanced approaches – of just the old kiwi one size fits all approach?

We have smashed our education system (my most direct concern) and caused incalculable health (mental and physical), economic, social (in all forms) harm.

The opposition are calling for an inquiry into the economic approach. Surely EVERYTHING should be examined – including the lack of rigorous questions from the opposition (while taking into account the crushing of the oversight committee).