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Moving On
Like a lot of countries, New Zealand is "moving on" from the pandemic.
Moving on. What does that mean, anyway? A virus doesn't obligingly disappear just because people are sick of caring about it. What it mostly seems to mean is that we're supposed to close our eyes and wish really hard that the whole thing is over.
As a result, the vast majority of our Covid restrictions were lifted today. Masking's still compulsory in care homes and in medical settings. That's it.
This to me is insane. Granted, NZ has done reasonably well at limiting Covid fatalities thus far. Just under 2,000 people have died, a deaths per million rate of 382, compared to 3,118 deaths per million in the US and 3,057 in the UK. And we still have negative excess mortality: in other words, fewer New Zealanders have died during the pandemic than would have been expected to in normal years.
This isn't a motive for complacency, however. The reason our fatality figures are so low is because during the first two years of the pandemic, we had hardly any Covid at all. Our closed borders meant that months and months went by with no Covid in the community. It wasn't until Omicron arrived that we were forced to shift our approach. Because we were able to delay it so long, this meant that by the time Covid really hit us, more than 90% of the eligible population were vaccinated. Nevertheless, the vast majority of our Covid cases, and of course fatalities, have occurred since then. And it's not as if Covid has gone away. Reported daily cases (a huge undercount) are still at around 2,000 per day.
Last week when I went to the supermarket everyone was masked (as they were required to be). Today, the day before restrictions were lifted, the only people wearing masks were older people. Yes, compliance does inevitably drop off over time, but it's clear the lifting of restrictions is also changing people's behaviour. And that's going to kill more people. I do not like it.
On a personal level, nothing I've heard or observed about having Covid has made me any more willing to get it. Forget my newfound freedom: I'll be over here with my N95 on, thanks.
Moving on. What does that mean, anyway? A virus doesn't obligingly disappear just because people are sick of caring about it. What it mostly seems to mean is that we're supposed to close our eyes and wish really hard that the whole thing is over.
As a result, the vast majority of our Covid restrictions were lifted today. Masking's still compulsory in care homes and in medical settings. That's it.
This to me is insane. Granted, NZ has done reasonably well at limiting Covid fatalities thus far. Just under 2,000 people have died, a deaths per million rate of 382, compared to 3,118 deaths per million in the US and 3,057 in the UK. And we still have negative excess mortality: in other words, fewer New Zealanders have died during the pandemic than would have been expected to in normal years.
This isn't a motive for complacency, however. The reason our fatality figures are so low is because during the first two years of the pandemic, we had hardly any Covid at all. Our closed borders meant that months and months went by with no Covid in the community. It wasn't until Omicron arrived that we were forced to shift our approach. Because we were able to delay it so long, this meant that by the time Covid really hit us, more than 90% of the eligible population were vaccinated. Nevertheless, the vast majority of our Covid cases, and of course fatalities, have occurred since then. And it's not as if Covid has gone away. Reported daily cases (a huge undercount) are still at around 2,000 per day.
Last week when I went to the supermarket everyone was masked (as they were required to be). Today, the day before restrictions were lifted, the only people wearing masks were older people. Yes, compliance does inevitably drop off over time, but it's clear the lifting of restrictions is also changing people's behaviour. And that's going to kill more people. I do not like it.
On a personal level, nothing I've heard or observed about having Covid has made me any more willing to get it. Forget my newfound freedom: I'll be over here with my N95 on, thanks.
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The reported infection rate from Chicon 8 is much higher than the Illinois average, but I think that's probably because Chicon members were much better at testing; however, there were also clearly people who were being sloppy. I spent a distressingly long amount of time around people who later tested positive, but somehow managed to avoid getting infected.
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I don't hang out with people. At All. Nothing to do with Covid, I just don't do people. But I do go to the store with hugely high ceilings and great air flow and I walk every day on a path where I pass people. But I don't ever wear a mask any longer. I did wear one when I got my latest vaccine as the sign said you had to and in a medical setting we're still wearing them, for the most part.
So far, it has worked. And if I get Covid, I'll get it. Or the flu. Or whatever. I'm fatalistic about it but happy to have the social distance excuse. My wife will bring it home one day. She's around people more.
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This just really surprises me!
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Yes, we've had a bad flu year too - a warning for the Northern Hemisphere winter! I hope you all get your flu jabs.
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Yes, we will get flu shots and then wait and get Covid boosters, they say 3 months after a person has it.