The impending Omicron tsunami: a reflection

We await the promised ‘Omicron Tsunami’ and unmanageable levels of hospitalization! As we know, at a red light setting, controls in our country are still tight – we are required to wear masks, gatherings of more than 100 are not allowed, vaccination mandates need to be produced to enter cafes... And yet we see on our TV screens other countries abandoning masks and restrictions, and getting on with life!

Has the work of our government over the past two years been a waste of time, with the economic disruption we have experienced, been needless? I think we, in Aotearoa New Zealand, do not appreciate how well off we are. We have had about 60 deaths to Covid 19 – vastly less than almost any other country. The USA has had three quarters of a million people die and countries like the United Kingdom, France and Germany have all had many tens of thousands of deaths. We have been hearing about Denmark in the past few days; Denmark has a compliant population that is almost entirely triple-vaccinated; its government is in the process of dismantling covid restrictions, but over the past two years nearly 4000 residents have died, and that includes most of the most vulnerable, such as the very old.

One of our major achievements during the pandemic has been to keep rest homes virtually Covid-free. I would not want to decide as government, just how many lives a smoothly-running economy is worth!

There should be ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for our country, as vaccination levels gradually climb towards levels at which Omicron could be tolerated because vaccination-derived immunity would mean that most infections would not be serious. It seems to me that this is what our health authorities are working towards.

But, we have a significant minority of people who are not compliant, who refuse vaccination, who believe wrong information fed through social media, and who are becoming militant and aggressive. The protest gathering in Parliament grounds of unmasked, unvaccinated people crowded into tents etc, will almost certainly be a ‘super-spreader event for omicron!! What many of these people seem to believe is almost beyond understanding – I watched a young man shout into a TV camera a couple of days ago: ‘What about masks causing lung cancer?!’ Someone had planted that notion in his mind and there it sits, immune to reason!

While we feel sorry for Wellingtonians with blocked streets and closed shops, and as we hope the police will defuse the situation, all most of us can do is sit tight and ride out ‘the storm of invective and misinformation, in the hope that sense and sensibility will eventually prevail.

Bob Eyles
Worship Leader and retired minister