for the first few weeks we didn’t even have online shopping of any kind, nor food delivery, curbside pickups or drive-throughs. you had to purchase everything at one of the few essential retail locations and make your meals at home (when fast food opened again for the first time, cars were lined up around the block).
under new zealand’s lockdowns, schools were closed, playgrounds were shut, there were no religious gatherings and funerals were unable to take place. this created a lot of heated and emotional discussions in the news, as people wanted to visit dying relatives or properly mourn those who had passed. the government was sympathetic, but didn’t budge.
what we learned in new zealand is that while it might feel like freedoms are being taken away during a lockdown, this is a once-in-100-year pandemic and these measures are temporary. we’re not creating a new nanny state, we’re saving lives and trying to quickly earn back normalcy. so we all watched the daily briefings on tv with the hope that the ongoing psychological beating was worth it. thankfully, it was.
covid-19 just simply doesn’t care who you are or why you’re gathering, and this is why many so-called lockdowns around the world aren’t working. policymakers can have incredibly strict measures in place, and people will follow them, but if those measures only go 90 per cent of the way, then the virus will still rage on with that 10 per cent of wiggle room. it’s frustrating seeing governments stretch out the pandemic longer than needed despite the clear evidence telling them how to fight it properly.
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