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@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Uh oh, the sky isnt falling!!
Due in part to the vaxxing, boostering and restrictions as explained in the article.
Much of the previous modelling was a case of 'if we don't do this then this will happen'. We have done things so the result will be different (lower)
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I agree the media have been very easy on St Cindy. A lot of the coverage has been cringeworthy. I also hate the way she is so chummy with them. It is a very small press gallery and I posit that when the PM addresses you live on TV by your first name and makes jokes about your weekend some of your neutrality is eroded. Just human nature. It also seems that the same handful are called on. Quite masterful manipulation of the media.
However I don't agree with your implication that NZ has been in lockdown after lockdown. Speaking of media this appears to me to be a case of northern hemisphere media behaving in exactly the same manner as their counterparts in NZ are but from the opposite position. Just as NZ media are falling over themselves to say how great NZ's pandemic response has been so too are overseas outlets running very biased reporting on how bad it has been. Anything to discredit it.
There is a myth being perpetuated that NZ has suffered through hellish lockdowns whereas the opposite is true. Apart from the external border life has continued on as normal for most of NZ apart from around 10 weeks of the last 2 years. Even Akl has only had a hard lockdown for about 4 months. This would make us one of the least locked down countries, but that's not what I read from overseas.
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@crucial was more a refreshing change from the doom and gloom articles, and also makes it seem that some of the modelling was simply take overseas City X per captia infections and extrapolate the data to NZ per capita, without the other variables.
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@taniwharugby It's all about the R rate. I had a polite discourse with a lunatic on another forum who had a very detailed and competent spreadsheet showing a ginormous number of cases and deaths that he used to justify the beatification of the Blessed Saint Cindy.
I can't remember who had developed the spreadsheet but it was a credible outfit. The screaming moron had inputted an R rate of eight!!!! When I tried to point out the idiocy of this he called me Trump supporter who cared nothing for peoples lives He totally failed to see that his argument was vacuous as a result of his input.
NZ has loads of uninhabited islands Couldn't we ship all the doom n gloomer henny penny's to one and the flat earth anti vaxers to another and leave the rest of us to just get on with our lives?
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@crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@taniwharugby said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Uh oh, the sky isnt falling!!
Due in part to the vaxxing, boostering and restrictions as explained in the article.
Much of the previous modelling was a case of 'if we don't do this then this will happen'. We have done things so the result will be different (lower)
Yeah that’s why Cindy is getting world wide wraps, our govts response is consistently used as best practice example. You might not like her politics, but she is an excellent communicator and has held together the nation pretty well. Obvs we’ve now got pretty much to the end goal, and once this Omicron wave has passed things will have to ramp down. In fact they already are
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@machpants
"Businesses will self-assess against criteria to join the scheme."Fuck sake. Does this government never learn? Are they too afraid to define what industries or too incompetent? Or both?
Might as well do away with self-isolation all together coz every business is suddenly going to meet the required self-assessment threshold....
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@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@machpants
"Businesses will self-assess against criteria to join the scheme."Fuck sake. Does this government never learn? Are they too afraid to define what industries or too incompetent? Or both?
Might as well do away with self-isolation all together coz every business is suddenly going to meet the required self-assessment threshold....
Perhaps they're just smart enough to implement a system that does exactly that? That way they can blame business for the increase in cases...
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@antipodean oooh Is cynicism your super power
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@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@antipodean oooh Is cynicism your super power
Well I think you are both right, defining a loose framework for people to self assess means you can take credit if they do it right and blame the business if they get it wrong. This is then publicised without ever blaming their own original framework which may have also only been defined that way because they were afraid and incompetent to make a decision.
This is a common political strategy now, its about staying in power
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@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@antipodean oooh Is cynicism your super power
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@hooroo said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Someone just got arrested wearing white socks and sandals! I hope that was the reason alone! Dickhead
EDIT: Cheers @Duluth I didn't realise I was posting in wrong thread!
I thought that arrests were being made for filming in portrait.
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@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
I agree the media have been very easy on St Cindy. A lot of the coverage has been cringeworthy. I also hate the way she is so chummy with them. It is a very small press gallery and I posit that when the PM addresses you live on TV by your first name and makes jokes about your weekend some of your neutrality is eroded. Just human nature. It also seems that the same handful are called on. Quite masterful manipulation of the media.
Indeed. Cindy is phenomenal at PR, no doubt about that.
However I don't agree with your implication that NZ has been in lockdown after lockdown. Speaking of media this appears to me to be a case of northern hemisphere media behaving in exactly the same manner as their counterparts in NZ are but from the opposite position. Just as NZ media are falling over themselves to say how great NZ's pandemic response has been so too are overseas outlets running very biased reporting on how bad it has been. Anything to discredit it.
Not quite. You seem to think this is the blanket approach from the NH, but it's simply not the case. All the way through 2020, they couldn't get enough of her. It was everywhere and it was ALL positive. I remember the 2021 New Years when they showed NZ out 'n about celebrating whilst most of Europe was locked down. It was all about St Jacinda. The whole lot.
Nowadays it's still about 60% positive, but there is a lot more negativity. Alot of it for the reasons I've been upset about it, but also a lot of it because that's what you get when you consistently behave like smug fuckwits. This isn't directed at you/ferners or anybody in particular, but there is such a massive radiance of supreme smugness rolling out of NZ, that people who have really had to battle the last 2 years, and I mean really fucking battle, have had a gutsful of it & are looking for any opportunity to smear. To quote yourself, just human nature.
I had a conversation today with somebody who said NZ seems a a bit like a cult these days. I'm not sure I agree with that, but it is with somebody I respect who is quite level headed too.
There is a myth being perpetuated that NZ has suffered through hellish lockdowns whereas the opposite is true. Apart from the external border life has continued on as normal for most of NZ apart from around 10 weeks of the last 2 years. Even Akl has only had a hard lockdown for about 4 months. This would make us one of the least locked down countries, but that's not what I read from overseas.
Where do you read that? Most people here are more taking the piss out of shutting down entire cities over a single case. Something that has happened a few times.
I think you've been reading a bit too much of Dan Wootton, myself. He's a bit angry, but like me, he has real skin in the game. And he writes for the Daily Mail. So pretty much so as you'd expect.
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Three resources for businesses about todays news have just landed in my inbox if they are of use to some of you out there:
https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/close-contact-exemption-scheme/
https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/rapid-antigen-testing/
https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/managing-the-impact-of-covid-19-cases-at-your-business/
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@crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
What the media have been doing is pointing out fact AND calling out misinformation. That's not political. That's doing their job.
Horsefeathers. Media has not been adversarial, they’ve not informed, they’ve spoonfed their audiences pharmaganda and smeared everybody who dissents as racists that must be silenced. Since Day One. Then acted like victims and wondering why substantial sections of the public doesn’t trust them.
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@majorrage Fair points. I certainly agree that the media coverage was in the main very positive through until NH Summer 2021 - then it slowly seemed to have turned. More in opeds TBF by agendaists who wanted to discredit a left wing government. I can't quote any of these as it's just a building impression. Maybe more social media than mainstream - although I don't really follow the twitterati.
I certainly would be incandescent at the smugness you correctly observe. Particularly in light of the fact that I think @Frank is wrong. The governments main strategy hasn't been around lockdowns. It has been 'be lucky'.
Fortunately for NZ (I hope) it looks likely the luck will continue to hold.
The government in NZ did do a lot right, but fuck haven't they dined out on it for two years. they've also done a shit load wrong and gotten away with it. Covid has been manna from heaven in terms of distracting the electorate from their many abject failures to deliver across all the other portfolios as well.
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@crucial I have been impressed with Stuff recently in the fact that they are presenting a lot information on vaccines and giving a voice to moderates, especially in the opinion pieces. Previously it was very "Guardian-like".
But they still stick up fear-mongering COVID-19 articles along with photos of people with full protective gear on. Apologizing for past mistakes (misrepresenting Maori/ Pasifica etc) and then doing the same old thing (misrepresentation/sensationalism, etc) but in a different modern context smacks of virtue signaling without any substance. -
@old-samurai-jack said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@crucial I have been impressed with Stuff recently in the fact that they are presenting a lot information on vaccines and giving a voice to moderates, especially in the opinion pieces. Previously it was very "Guardian-like".
But they still stick up fear-mongering COVID-19 articles along with photos of people with full protective gear on. Apologizing for past mistakes (misrepresenting Maori/ Pasifica etc) and then doing the same old thing (misrepresentation/sensationalism, etc) but in a different modern context smacks of virtue signaling without any substance.Photos of people in PPE? That's scaremongering? PPE is simply risk control. No different to other PPE like wearing safety boot.
Anyway, I went looking for this scaremongering stuff and sucking up to govt. It wasn't a deep or scientific search by any means but hear are some examples that confuse me when I hear those statements made.
Quote: The pandemic is in a somewhat mind-bending space. An individual’s risk (assuming they’ve been fully vaccinated) of dying with Covid is the lowest it’s been. As new treatments come online those risks fall even further.
Then we have articles critical of the govt and MIQ. This one includes links to other articles also critical
Then we have this one suggesting people 'on both sides' pull their heads in and stop being dicks.
and this one criticising making school kids wear masks..
I'm not going in to bat for Stuff and of course they can be guilty of having an editorial slant but the examples above seem to me to fly in the face of the accusations
Coronavirus - New Zealand