Kate Hawkesby: The Wellington echo chamber seems to think staying in red isn't a big deal
Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Newstalk ZB
April 5, 20223m 2s
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Show Notes
I thought Ashley Bloomfield said something quite revealing on Mike’s show yesterday about where the hospital system is at.
We know there are more than 700 people in hospital with Covid related illnesses but that’s not in hospital because of Covid – that’s in hospital with Covid related illnesses. Unfortunately, Bloomfield said they don’t know specifically the breakdown on how many of those are in which category, but he said roughly about 30 to 40 percent of people across the Auckland-Waikato region are in hospital not because of Covid, but with it. In other words, it’s incidental to their sickness.
On top of that, hospital numbers are actually coming down. And yes, we can ask the obvious questions around why on earth they didn’t fix the health system over the past two years, and why they didn’t staff the health sector properly, and it’s not just this government, it’s a cumulative problem. But here’s the key. It’s not under pressure exclusively due to Covid.
Bloomfield admitted it’s under huge pressure even without an Omicron outbreak. He said there’s 'a lot of need out there due to a backlog of both preventive care and planned care', so what he’s saying is, there’s pressure there anyway.
So, we find ourselves in the invidious position of having 400-500 people in hospital with Covid, and that suddenly appears to be tipping over our health system, or close to it.
There are other factors at play Bloomfield admitted, the modellers got it wrong. The peak of people in hospital is going longer than the modellers predicted. But here’s the other thing, just like we were told “two jabs for summer”, which turned out to be false, we were also told that once we’d peaked, we’d be heading out of the woods, and closer to the easing of restrictions. But Bloomfield said yesterday that in fact they’re waiting for the peak to pass.
So, which is it? Seeing a peak? Or getting to the end of the peak? And everywhere? Or just some regions? Bloomfield said they want to “get to the other end and see it through.” The goal posts keep changing.
Worst of all though I reckon is the lack of any real understanding of the impact of this on events, hospitality, indoor sports, all the people held back by the red light. Regrettably, Bloomfield when he had this put to him, said, “we’re not holding the country back from anything.” And that’s the saddest part of all. That this Wellington echo chamber actually believes that. That they think a red light has no impact on people’s lives.
That’s just so dismissive of every single person and business struggling and hemorrhaging right now. Bloomfield argued “a lot was happening for business out there,” he said, “it’s just an indoor cap in red,” as though an indoor cap is just no big deal at all. I’d love him to go into a nightclub unable to make money, or an orchestral group unable to hold events or any number of indoor sporting fixtures, and tell them to their faces that it’s no big deal.
I know there’s been a disconnect between the government and it’s lackies, and the rest of us for a while now, but this sort of condescending rejection of a red light having no impact, is not only naïve, it’s cruel.
We know there are more than 700 people in hospital with Covid related illnesses but that’s not in hospital because of Covid – that’s in hospital with Covid related illnesses. Unfortunately, Bloomfield said they don’t know specifically the breakdown on how many of those are in which category, but he said roughly about 30 to 40 percent of people across the Auckland-Waikato region are in hospital not because of Covid, but with it. In other words, it’s incidental to their sickness.
On top of that, hospital numbers are actually coming down. And yes, we can ask the obvious questions around why on earth they didn’t fix the health system over the past two years, and why they didn’t staff the health sector properly, and it’s not just this government, it’s a cumulative problem. But here’s the key. It’s not under pressure exclusively due to Covid.
Bloomfield admitted it’s under huge pressure even without an Omicron outbreak. He said there’s 'a lot of need out there due to a backlog of both preventive care and planned care', so what he’s saying is, there’s pressure there anyway.
So, we find ourselves in the invidious position of having 400-500 people in hospital with Covid, and that suddenly appears to be tipping over our health system, or close to it.
There are other factors at play Bloomfield admitted, the modellers got it wrong. The peak of people in hospital is going longer than the modellers predicted. But here’s the other thing, just like we were told “two jabs for summer”, which turned out to be false, we were also told that once we’d peaked, we’d be heading out of the woods, and closer to the easing of restrictions. But Bloomfield said yesterday that in fact they’re waiting for the peak to pass.
So, which is it? Seeing a peak? Or getting to the end of the peak? And everywhere? Or just some regions? Bloomfield said they want to “get to the other end and see it through.” The goal posts keep changing.
Worst of all though I reckon is the lack of any real understanding of the impact of this on events, hospitality, indoor sports, all the people held back by the red light. Regrettably, Bloomfield when he had this put to him, said, “we’re not holding the country back from anything.” And that’s the saddest part of all. That this Wellington echo chamber actually believes that. That they think a red light has no impact on people’s lives.
That’s just so dismissive of every single person and business struggling and hemorrhaging right now. Bloomfield argued “a lot was happening for business out there,” he said, “it’s just an indoor cap in red,” as though an indoor cap is just no big deal at all. I’d love him to go into a nightclub unable to make money, or an orchestral group unable to hold events or any number of indoor sporting fixtures, and tell them to their faces that it’s no big deal.
I know there’s been a disconnect between the government and it’s lackies, and the rest of us for a while now, but this sort of condescending rejection of a red light having no impact, is not only naïve, it’s cruel.
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