What does that mean?
…I hope that I’ve made it clear that it wasn’t just the “lockdown” the government was prepared for. It was the ramping up of test/trace/isolation, the alternative home education, its the continuity of cash to businesses and the self-employed to keep people in work.
There is nothing “fascinating” about it. You’ve latched onto a couple of lines from a comprehensive daily briefing and turned it into something it is not. The free market exists, and grocery stores will stock what they want to stock. That many of them have run out has been mitigated by the fact that the government had millions of masks in stockpile and they released many of them a couple of days ago. That will give the grocery stores a chance to catch up. That isn’t an indication that we thought we were “out of the woods.” Its just another sign of how well the government was prepared in the case of a resurgence.
…good question.
At Alert Level 4 you are restricted to interacting with “your bubble”, with the bubble being defined as the people you were with when the Lockdown starts. So that is typically the people in your household, your spouse, kids, immediate family.
At lockdown Level 3 you are allowed to interact with close family/whanau, caregivers, or to support isolated people. Thats called the “extended bubble”, and that extended bubble must remain exclusive. The lockdown levels and what they mean can be seen here:
In the original lockdown we were in Alert Level 4 for five weeks, then we dropped to Alert Level 3 for three weeks, then rolled through the last two alert levels in (from memory) three weeks after that.
This time around Auckland is at Alert Level 3, while the rest of the country has elevated to Alert Level 2, this is scheduled to last for two weeks. The outbreak appears to be “ringfenced”, which means that all the current cases are all linked to the same cluster. So that makes it easier to trace/isolate/stamp the outbreak out, meaning an extension to/elevation of Alert Levels to be unlikely.
Not having stockpiles of masks in the stores was a sign of how well prepared the government was?
…are you aware of how the free market works? Grocery stores will stock what they want to stock. The demand for mask wasn’t high, so they didn’t stock many masks. With the elevation of alert levels all of a sudden people wanted to buy masks. The government stepped in when the “free market failed” and put an additional 8 million masks into circulation. This all happened on the day of the outbreak. Its a non-issue: especially as masks, while important, aren’t seen as the frontline of defense here.
SayTwo
Banquet Bear
SCAdian:
…I’m fascinated that you’ve learnt how to use the quote function, but if you’ve got an actual point to make it would be easier for you to actually spell it out rather than leaving me to try and read your mind.
Questioning the logic of your statement.
His statement was perfectly logical.
…you do realize that you snipped a substantial portion of what I actually said when you quoted my reply? Context is everything, and what you quoted I said and what I actually said are two completely different things. I would appreciate it if you didn’t do that again.
The governments pandemic response was to stockpile masks in the event the free market failed to provide enough masks in the case of a resurgence, and when the outbreak happened the government stepped in and made millions of masks available. Where is the logic fail?
I guess the matter is – or, at least what it looks like to an outside observer – that it’s been at least five days since the second outbreak was noticed and the government evidently couldn’t mandate mask usage right now even if it wanted to. Or something like that.
I am very optimistic that with these impressive efforts this specific flare in New Zealand will be contained. Too early to declare success at doing so but good reason to be optimistic.
And hopefully the same can happen with the next one, and the one after that and the one after that, without fail or fumble or fatigue, possibly forever, even with approval of safe and highly effective vaccines, widely available and accepted by the vast majority of humanity.
South Korea too will hopefully keep their newest flare from taking off, and the ones that will follow as well.
Dear god. I hope you aren’t an American, because we have ZERO standing to snark at any other country’s efforts to control this pandemic.
Well, maybe Bolivia.
@SayTwo is not responsible for the politicized irrational leaderless lack of any plan that has been the American response. Their being or not being American has no bearing on the validity of (or lack of) any criticism of New Zealand’s approach, execution, or predicted long term outcome.
Moderator Note
Let’s avoid snark in this forum.
And, as pointed out, let’s not take remarks out of context.
Colibri
QZ Moderator
RE: the masks -
This also needs context, the population of New Zealand is (entirely from memory) around 5 million,
So 8 million masks is still a hella lot of masks.
My wife has spent the weekend sewing reusable masks, which will be used as and when neccessary.
My workplace has a box of masks on the reception counter - enough supply for all employees to use as needed.
It seems very unfair to lob a grenade into the response about masks, when it seems on the whole a pretty decent job has been done so far.
Read my previous post. SayTwo commented on the lack of masks in the store. You dismissed that as nonsense and started talking about what the government was doing. “Another sign of how well the government was prepared” does not address SayTwo’s comments.
For what it’s worth, that quote about the masks is that the government released five million, three million of which were earmarked for certain organizations or whatnot. I haven’t seen any press about eight million masks, or about any other mention of a government supply of such apart from that one article. And I’ve been following the news surrounding this ‘natural experiment’ of sorts all week long.
…it doesn’t mandate masks because it doesn’t need too. Level 3 protocols appear to be working, voluntary mask uptake by Aucklanders appears to be widespread As the government has done throughout the pandemic, if things change on the ground they will pivot the strategy accordingly. If a couple of new outbreaks unrelated to the current cluster are identified they may well move to mandated masks.
But staying in your own bubble is the most effective defense against Covid-19. We learnt that the first time around. Masks are an effective line of defense, especially in places where the pandemic is essentially out of control. So to an outsider I can understand why the lack of focus on masks might seem strange. But most Aucklanders have slipped back into the behaviour that stamped the virus out the first time. Staying in their bubble, venturing out only to purchase essential supplies and when they do they maintain standard social distancing protocols.
…what “natural experiment” are you referring too?