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March 22, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 March 2020

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General Debate

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Steve James

So, China, the epicentre of Coronavirus is land bordered by:

Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

Yet none of these countries are among the top 25 countries most devastated by the virus.

Something smells.
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March 22, 2020 8:01am
- Colville
  
  I am with Steve wearing the tinfoil hats.
  
  I have been surprised that India hasnt been hammered.
  
  India has 300 cases…the USA has 25,000.
  
  Odd.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:56am
  - kowtow
    
    India , at the cutting edge of Big Pharma,can announce;
    Curry cures coro .
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:30pm
    - curry4me
      
      kowtow: Beat me to the draw. -;)
      
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      March 22, 2020 9:35pm
  - GoVege
    
    Helps if you don’t eat wild bat, maybe.
    Indians are mostly vegetarian.
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:34pm
- Than
  
  No it doesn’t.
  
  China is a large country and Hubei is right in the center, about as far from a border as you can get. The Chinese government restricted travel from the province almost immediately after the virus was detected. And frankly, none of the countries on that list are exactly major destinations. None would have had much travel from anywhere in China.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:42am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Than, you are correct, none of the countries on that list are major destinations for Chinese nationals. However, Chinese nationals are behind the outbreaks in Italy (significant population of migratant Chinese workers) and also have significant numbers (resource extraction in sub-Saharan Africa.
    
    The numbers that are dubious are those from Sub-Saharan Africa.
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:28pm
    - NZK3v
      
      I suspect a low median age in Sub-Saharan Africa will keep the numbers lower than some may expect.
      
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      March 22, 2020 3:41pm
  - NZK3v
    
    Slight re-write needed I think.
    “The Chinese government restricted travel from the province almost immediately they realised they couldn’t continue hiding the virus from the rest of the world.“
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:29pm
- Durden
  
  Italy and Iran followed China with infections had the second most highest cases. Spain is rising quickly.
  
  Italy and China happened because of one reason–Chinese immigrants. Here are some articles that explain why. I haven’t researched Spain.
  
  Chinese investment and consequent mass movement of Chinese citizens to these places means there is sizeable migratory populations in both areas.
  
  Italy
  http://www.italy24.ilsole24ore.com/art/business-and-economy/2015-06-19/chinese-investments-italy-are-growing-with-the-acquisition-of-322-companies–152957.php?uuid=ACDU4XD
  
  https://www.ecnmy.org/engage/prato-chinese-stuff-look-around/
  
  Iran
  https://www.geo.tv/latest/247085-in-defiance-of-trump-china-to-invest-280bn-into-energy-sector-in-iran
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/world/middleeast/iran-china-business-ties.html
  
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-strategic-partnership-with-china-lies-at-root-of-its-coronavirus-outbreak-11583940683
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:47am
  - Justitia
    
    https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/104193/notion-new-zealand-running-ahead-curve-no-longer-stands-scrutiny-policy-essentially?
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:59am
  - Harriet
    
    From what I read the city in Italy hardest hit is where the garment industry resides and is now largely all Chinese owned and operated. FIFO workforces.
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:50pm
- Jack5
  
  The countries Steve cites vary greatly. Mongolia is considerably bigger than New Zealand with about half as many people, and many of them live in remote yurts.
  
  North Korea has been in lockdown for decades, the Taliban make visiting and supermarket shopping difficult in Afghanistan.
  
  India introduced a national, but voluntary, curfew from today with confirmed Covid-19 cases reaching 315 by midnight last night, but with so far just four reported deaths.
  
  The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has called on people to remain indoors, and Indian passenger trains have stopped between 4am and 10pm. In the capital, taxis and auto-rickshaws are off the streets from 7am to 9pm.
  
  Vietnam so far has 94 positive cases of Covid-19.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:10am
  - tui47
    
    Hard to remain indoors in India when at least a third of the population do not have a toilet and the males defecate In groups in alley ways!
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:00pm
- Nickc2
  
  Does China provide infrastructure assistance with associated workforce and financial assistance to any or all of these countries by any chance? In addition, how may of them are Communist?
  I wonder if Cindy is taking any this into account? Seriously doubt it, too grown up for her.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:33pm
- DeepBlue
  
  Kazakhstan was actually one of the first countries to Go hard and early.
  
  Immediately they closed borders to all but citizens/permanent residents. For quite a while now those people on arrival have been herded into quarantine premises (repurposed warehouses etc) and had compulsory 14 day quarantine with zero contact.
  
  Jacinda’s Go Hard/Go Early is going to come back and bite her as lies once the evidence gets out.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:44pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Agree Deepblue, she should have started out with the most severe measures first and then walked the levels back as each implemented one was proven to have achieved what it was designed to achieve.
    This is an elementary leadership principle.
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:06pm
- pb
  
  It’s a disease for the well travelled wealthy globalist. Frequent fliers are super spreaders. The rich. Politicians. Bureaucrats flying pointlessly. The interconnected elite.
  
  Garden centre sold out of vegetable seedlings. 3 month+ outlook. The old is new. Church was fuller than ever, before it was closed. Society will be transformed for generations. Fear god.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:08pm
Steve James

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Advice from Steve:

1) Anyone over 69 years, stay at home and avoid contact with anybody. Best thing about that is you will be off the roads. Yippee!
2) Anyone under 50 years, carry on as if nothing is different except stay away from the oldies. You may get Coronavirus which will feel like the flu but you won’t die. In fact you will build immunity from the next time the Chinese Communist government attacks the west with this virus. Once you are immune you won’t get it again so you won’t be a carrier.
3) If you are between 50 and 70, toss the dice. Likely you won’t die or even get terribly sick if you catch it. Again immunity builds up and you will not be sick or a carrier in the future.

Common sense really

Instead, what do we do? Lock down, freak out about nothing in most cases, stuff up the economy of the western world and generate a much, much bigger problem for the near future. Recessions kill.

Remember where this thing started, when it started (into US election year) and note their neighbors including Russia are hardly affected. Arseholes!
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March 22, 2020 8:03am
- mikenmildagain
  
  We are very lucky to have you providing the real information. Without you, we might be tempted to follow the advice from the Ministry of Health.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:27am
  - Steve James
    
    Yes milkenmildagain, you are very lucky to have me?
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:19am
  - burt
    
    It was only just over a week ago we were being told a gathering of 5,000 in Christchurch was fine and would go ahead.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:29am
    - rockape
      
      We were also encouraged to holiday in NZ to support local tourism and restaurant. Not looking like the best advice now.
      
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      March 22, 2020 12:44pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        It’s almost as if the situation was changing…
        
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        March 22, 2020 1:12pm
      - hullkiwi
        
        MMA, yest the situation is changing, but PriNZess is more concerned with doing patronising “address the nation” style promos that telling the whole story.
        
        As has been noted by Prof Michael Baker (RNZ Checkpoint Sat 21/03 noon to 1pm) – that there is probalbly already community transmission and if NZ is to get ahead of the curve, it needs to move to Level 4.
        
        Problem is PriNZess can’t do it. She can’t
        1. shut down schools because of pupils of low decile families being without high speed broadband; and
        2. shut public transport and it can’t be wound back unless the taxpayer picks up the cost to the bus companies and the employees.
        
        So it shows despite all the talk, planning by government has been inadequate and the “truth” about what is happening are in short supply.
        
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        March 22, 2020 1:55pm
  - burt
    
    Oh, and I was recommending one of my kids who had just returned from Vietnam and Hong Kong on the 20th of January get tested. We’ve know this was big since then, but keep making shit up about how well our govt has handled this – you are good at that.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:32am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Good on you.
      You follow Steve James’s advice, and I’ll follow the MoH advice. Ok?
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:14am
      - Steve James
        
        I have some other advice for you mikenmildagain but I’m too polite.
        
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        March 22, 2020 12:11pm
- Monique Watson
  
  That’s terribry lacist. That’s is. If Andrew Rittle gets his hate speech Lraws thru you won’t even be able to call it the Chinese Flu without upsetting some cave dwelling offal scoffing pigmy somewhere in throwing distance. But call a spade a spade you say? We called the Spanish Flu the Spanish Flu. Not good enough. Everything can be traced back to the Chinese Mainland but it’s unkind to point the finger.
  
  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/1/140123-spanish-flu-1918-china-origins-pandemic-science-health/
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:27am
  - Misha Beattie
    
    Just a footnote. Wherever the Spanish flu came from it certainly was not Spain. In WW1 Spain was neutral. So it had a free press and reported the unfolding pandemic. The USA, and the rest of Europe censored the newspapers and suppressed the news. It was just before radio started so newspapers were it.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:58am
  - tf78
    
    I think Spanish flu is racist now – changing the name to the 1918 Flu. Polio is no longer from Poland (haha joke).
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:38am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      1918 flu probably originated in Kansas.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:15am
      - kowtow
        
        Yes , it did originate in the US and then travelled quickly with the troops.
        
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        March 22, 2020 12:32pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I understand that it became known as the Spanish flu as Spain, not being at war, was one of the few countries where the press was free to report the disease.
        
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        March 22, 2020 1:13pm
  - Souvlaki
    
    And speaking of racism…I for one find this news of a ” Maori package “deeply offensive.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120473692/57m-to-be-spent-on-mori-coronavirus-response-package
    In my opinion at least, it promotes division when we are “all in this together”. There is no need to treat Maori in any way differently from the rest of us!
    This is a blatant ,inflammatory pitch for the Maori seats by Labour, and exemplifies once again why this special status is an insulting anachronism for MOST New Zealanders !
    Enough..come on National …defend the average bloke/blokess…call out this shit for what it is.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:12am
    - Tomtoddy
      
      The few fat cats get fatter.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:45am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Haha – stupid Stuff can’t even spell Maori properly in the link – calls it a “mori-coronavirus-response-package”
      
      Also has this gem: “To protect our people, especially our kaumātua and kuia, we can’t solely rely on them engaging with the health system, but instead we must engage with our people, in their neighbourhoods, communities and homes…”
      
      Too lazy to look after yourself? Don’t worry ehau, the gummint will do it all for you. If they don’t, or don’t do it quick enough, it’s because they’re raaaaaacist.
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:03pm
    - Unity
      
      I’m absolutely with you on this one, Souvlaki. I’m totally fed up with the word ‘Maori’. It is long overdue for us all to be treated the same – as human beings – not as people of a specific ethnic group. Actually the word ‘Maori’ should now be deemed to be a health risk – such is the immediate rise in my blood pressure every time it is mentioned!! Let us all now be New Zealanders and stop this racist nonsense because that’s what it is. They all have other ethnicity in their make-up so what’s the problem??!!
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:14pm
    - Jack5
      
      Funding health on a race basis is apartheid. It’s also, shock-horror! – colonialism. The “colonised” turn to the “Crown”.
      
      From the Stuff report:
      
      Associate Health and Whanau Ora Minister Peeni Henare said the government’s $12.1 billion economic package and $500m health fund includes Maori families, workers and businesses but a separate plan was needed because Maori have specific challenges.
      
      And there’s more to come:
      
      Minister of Tourism and Maori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said NZ Maori Tourism and the Federation of Maori Authorities are now working in partnership to provide support and guidance to struggling Maori businesses nationwide.
      
      $1m of funding will be used to develop a resource to assess Maori businesses. A Maori business response plan will then be produced and implemented.
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120473692/57m-to-be-spent-on-mori-coronavirus-response-package
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:17pm
      - Akarak
        
        Do these ‘businesses’ include those iwi ngo’s that don’t pay tax?
        
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        March 22, 2020 2:06pm
    - Hard Cheese
      
      What about the Maori entities that have been granted tax exempt status on the basis that they’re supposed to be charities? Right now The Govt should looking squarely at them saying “if you’re not providing the support to your iwi, you’re losing that status”
      
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      March 22, 2020 2:14pm
    - curry4me
      
      Souvlaki: Where would the ever lovin-ever lying left be if they couldn’t use racist policies to buy votes with OPM?
      
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      March 22, 2020 9:48pm
- Mags
  
  A fascinating read based on data (not hysteria). https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:21am
- rightoverlabour
  
  So what do we have that NY doesn’t?
  
  “New C.D.C. data shows that nearly 40 percent of patients sick enough to be hospitalized were age 20 to 54. But the risk of dying was significantly higher in older people.”
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/health/coronavirus-young-people.html
  
  Really hope you don’t get it with your smart arse approach.
  
  Seen this? https://www.salon.com/2020/02/27/why-covid-19-is-more-insidious-than-other-coronaviruses/
  “notes that the new coronavirus has an “HIV-like mutation” that gives it novel properties.
  
  “Because of this mutation, the packing mechanism of the 2019-nCoV may be changed to being more similar to those of MHV, HIV, Ebola virus (EBoV) and some avian influenza viruses,” the English abstract of the paper states”
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:01am
Justitia

Will there be an international tribunal to try the Chinese Communist regime for its role in the Wuhan Flu disaster? China must be held accountable for the horror and destruction it has inflicted on the world.
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March 22, 2020 8:06am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  No, there won’t. There is no evidence that China has deliberately inflicted this on the world. There is evidence that China has mismanaged this and lied about it, but they are not the only government to do so (looks at the USA).
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:25am
  - Tall Man
    
    If you’re looking for mismanagement you don’t have to leave the country. ardern’s little ides party trumped public safety and we all know it.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:55am
  - Justitia
    
    Have you joined a CCP propaganda unit to spread disinformation milky? Best stick to shagging goats.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:05am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      No, I haven’t. You might have missed my frequent condemnations of CCP money buying off our political parties. But there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that Covid-19 has been deliberately inflicted on the world by the Chinese communists.
      
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      March 22, 2020 12:57pm
  - Harriet
    
    Milky@
    
    They deliberately demanded the Wuflu doctor to retract.
    They deliberately stated they were thinking of not supplying the US and elsewhere with pharmaceuticals.
    They have deliberately stated jointly with Russia that they will now help with doctors and other forms of healthcare in Europe.
    Russia is another place we don’t here about having the ChiCom Virus.
    
    If there continues to be a pattern then it’ll be tweeted as the November Flu. 😎
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:03pm
    - canfel
      
      Chinese Govt. could have closed its borders a lot sooner…
      
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      March 22, 2020 5:15pm
- Misha Beattie
  
  Damn I accidentally up ticked you.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:59am
- Justitia
  
  The smoking gun? Quoted from the Australian Spectator of 21 March:
  “Yet the facts speak for themselves. The WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) was built by a military contractor for the PLA and conducts research into HIV, Ebola, SARS and other coronaviruses that it collects from bats.
  
  The WIV published in the peer-reviewed US Journal of Virology in 2017 that it had genetically engineered a coronavirus found in a horseshoe bat and that it required only a minimal change to the Receptor Binding Domain — amino acids 310 to 518 — to make it infectious to humans. They said they achieved this using an HIV-based pseudovirus system. As it happens, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has a 96 per cent resemblance to a viral nucleic acid sequence from a horseshoe bat and according to an article published in Nature by David Cyranovski the key differences are ‘in the RBD sites.’” Reported by Rebecca Weisser.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:01am
  - Fletch
    
    https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/03/xi-who-must-be-obeyed/
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:40pm
- curry4me
  
  Justitia: You can do something on a personal level. Leave all the ‘Made in China’ stuff on the shelf. Much of it can be replaced with stuff from other countries using non-Chinese drop shippers.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:44am
  - Inandout
    
    curry, I agree starting with Pams food items on New World shelves, they should be ashamed of selling tomato paste and biscuits made in China. I see Trump is trying to encourage Americans to support US made products.
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:53pm
    - curry4me
      
      Inandout: Oh, i didn’t know Pams were selling Chinese manufactured food. thanks for the heads up.
      
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      March 22, 2020 9:55pm
- Interested Party
  
  They need to be shamed big time for a) Keeping it quite for a couple of weeks; b) Still allowing wet market food/animal practices to continue
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:11pm
Humble Capitalist

We know that Ardern likes doing dress ups. If theres ever a day to wear the South American Army General dictator hat then today is that day
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March 22, 2020 8:06am
- John Warren
  
  Yesterday she was all decked out dictator style in her big chair, surrounded by flags. The only thing missing was the military uniform and medals. My God she was fucking patronising.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:37am
  - Misha Beattie
    
    I’m not a big fan. However at some point you need to put away politics. To her credit she gave Simon Bridges a full briefing before her press conference.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:03am
  - tui47
    
    Talking to New Zealanders as if she was the kindy teacher on the mat talking to kindy kids about washing their hands. Seems she thinks we are all pretty thick.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:05am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    She is winning votes bro! That is all it matters. Labour will surge more than 50% in the next opinion poll and a Labour-Green gummit is dead certain.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:19am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      It takes a Twyford to agree to that.
      
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      March 22, 2020 12:39pm
  - Nickc2
    
    She’s a f_ing disgrace!
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:02pm
- pb
  
  Too late general amiso. You looked good in your mirror on the wall, but the bodies are starting to stink.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:11pm
DRHILL

For people of a certain age, we remember up to the late 80’s Sunday was usually a boring day because all the shops were closed and you had nothing to do.
With the Covid-19 virus being in New Zealand, every day now feels like those Sundays.
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March 22, 2020 8:09am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  It’s nostalgic
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:56am
- David Garrett
  
  Dr: what do you mean Sundays?? I recall back in ’79 when the only place in Christchurch that was open on Saturday was New Brighton…other than dairies and burger bars, everything else closed on Friday night…
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:58am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Cindy is bringing back those nostalgic days for you DG bro.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:20am
  - Harriet
    
    Bush Inn had afterhours, in the 80’s. A kid I went through school with had a father who managed it for Lion Breweries. btw for some classes you don’t need to actually go to uni class if you go to a student pub, I never attended uni and just asked old school and rugby mates how class was, and then they proceeded to tell me. Generally helpful stuff bits of law and accounting when your a young apprentice yourself. Lady May kindergarten was across Ricc Rd and just around the corner — I went there with Mr Cosgrove, believe me you wouldn’t drink water with him from the fountain. 😎
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:35am
    - David Garrett
      
      Harriet: Re Cosgrove…There were very few in Labour who you would call thoroughly unpleasant people…Cosgrove, Dyson, and one or two others were the exceptions…and believe it or not, the prick used to make comments on other members’ hair…when he quite clearly had had a hair transplant! Looked like a fucking pine forest…
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:59am
      - Inandout
        
        DG how true of Cosgrove. We used to call him Mr Punch n Grow (if you remember the Yates product).
        
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        March 22, 2020 12:57pm
      - curry4me
        
        David Garrett: AKA the ‘carpet inspector’.
        
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        March 22, 2020 9:59pm
  - david
    
    Yes indeed. Late night Friday shopping was a big thing in them old days.
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:10pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Yep. We need the smell of hogget roasting in the oven and Jim Reeves on the radio and i am there!
  
  Might be a bit older than the 80’s actually, more like the 60’s when shops closed Saturday and Sunday.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:51pm
Captain Mainwaring

Apologies for pasting from last night’s GD.

R.I.P. Kenny Rogers

Written after the 2017 election.

Ode to Grant Robertson
With apologies to Kenny Rogers’ ‘The Gambler’.

On the cozy front benches of a Government bound for stardom
I sat next to the gambler, we were getting up to speed
We looked at those around us and all we saw were numpties
The terror came upon us, and he began to speak
He said: “Cindy, I’ve spent my life as a loyal Labour servant
Knowing how to dodge the knives and aim them in return
If you want to keep this job you’ll need me right behind you
‘Cause our losers’ coalition has heaps of stuff to learn”
I asked him what I need to do to earn the country’s favours
And right on cue he told me that we have to rob the rich
He wants to bet the future on shifting all the money
From those who make it happen to those lying in the ditch
You’ve got to know when to screw ’em
Know when to shaft ‘em
Know when to ream them out
And know when to squeeze
When it’s not your money
You can use it how you want to
There’ll be time enough to dish it out
Or throw it to the breeze
Every lefty knows that the passage to Nirvana
Is knowin’ who to cast aside and knowin’ who to pay
Rich Pricks need to know that we will come a-knocking
‘Cause their money’s really ours at the end of every day
And when he finished burbling on he sat there looking smarmy
I said: “So Grant, are you the key to all the country’s dreams?”
I wasn’t quite prepared for his unexpected answer
“With Winston’s fingers in the pie it’s not quite what it seems.”
You’ve got to know when to screw ‘em
Know when to shaft ‘em
Know when to ream them out
And know when to squeeze
When it’s not your money
You can use it how you want to
There’ll be time enough to dish it out
Or throw it to the breeze

Pretty much came true so far.
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March 22, 2020 8:14am
- freethinker
  
  Absolutely brilliant and oh so true, ACT should use a cover version in their TV advertising.
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:22am
Happychappy

Jacinda Ardernis alwaysgoing on about the misinformation being made out there , but really what would you expect when the PM’s Health Minister can’t even tell you with any certainty how many Coronavirus testing kits we have in the Country, exactly how many kits we have is unknown but we know hundreds of thousands are on order.
Well doesn’t this ring bells that this is not right as you only have to look back on the response over the Meningococcal desease the fact that they were on order ut never arrived in time to stop deaths.and the rhe neglect over the measle vaccine and the deaths in Samoa with the export of measles and not enough vaccines.
So let’s get this right if this is the sort of misinformation that Jacinda Ardern is talking about the Health Minister and the Coalition deserve all this so called misinformation being spoken about as all they showed and now is the arrogance of not wanting to listen so serve the public not wanting to trust the Government or the Health Minister again.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/david-clark-health-minister-unsure-of-number-of-test-kits-in-new-zealand/
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March 22, 2020 8:16am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Only last week she told us that the rumours of shutdown were just rubbish, and we could only trust the Government.
  
  As soon as she said to just shop normally, there was an immediate run on supermarkets.
  
  Surely she has a Super Power!
  
  All that extra truthiness too!
  
  Bwuhahahahaha
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:59am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  He is not expected to know the numbers bro. That is the role of his deputies. Storm in a tea cup. Move on.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:21am
- Old White Loser
  
  They can not get the number of cases right. Number went from 53 to 52 because they counted a Taranaki Case Twice.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:29am
David Garrett

So, to the virus…Italy seems to be getting worse rather than better…apparently they had a very woke “Hug a Chinese” Day a few weeks ago…that worked out well!

I have to say Cindy proved yesterday that her obtaining a degree in “communications” was not a total waste of time…the four level alert system seems very sensible to me…and level 2 – at least as of yesterday – seems entirely appropriate.

However…Countdown limiting everyone to two portions of chicken, and two jars of “Chicken tonight” seems a bit excessive…and it means that people who, unlike me, had not laid in any extra supplies are going to have to go to the supermarket every second day at a time when we are all being told to stay at home as much as possible. That doesn’t seem very sensible to me.
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March 22, 2020 8:24am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  It doesn’t seem very sensible to me that an elderly man can’t cook a single meal without ‘Chicken Tonight’.
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:43am
  - David Garrett
    
    Why don’t you just fuck off you sour prick…You add nothing of value here.
    
    79 12
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    March 22, 2020 9:21am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Make me…
      
      [Mod: Don’t tempt us!]
      
      8 60
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      March 22, 2020 9:22am
      - David Garrett
        
        “Make me”…what a pathetic little man you are Milky…
        
        52 6
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        March 22, 2020 9:52am
      - sam green
        
        Touché
        
        4 14
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        March 22, 2020 9:57am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        Noted tough guy David Garrett lose his cool, again…
        
        5 38
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        March 22, 2020 9:59am
      - JamesP
        
        Keyboard warrior
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKCq_Yzn9AY
        
        Please continue to waste your life.
        
        15 2
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        March 22, 2020 10:34am
      - rightoverlabour
        
        Be tempted, please be tempted,
        
        5 3
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        March 22, 2020 11:04am
    - rightoverlabour
      
      Well said. I would have used slightly stronger language. ( but then moderators would be binning the whole comment)
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:03am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Mike, it appears you often have difficulty discerning the point of posts. With due respect, do you have some sort of mental handicap?
    Just asking.
    
    18 3
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    March 22, 2020 10:40am
- Humble Capitalist
  
  ‘Hug a Chinese’ what a ludicrous concept.
  DG – I thought level 4 would be entirely appropriate now. Press pause for 3 weeks and take the full hit of pain now. The winter is fast approaching and better to deal with this now IMO.
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:45am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Agree. I think we are definitely at stage 3.
    
    7 3
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    March 22, 2020 11:09am
- mara
  
  That won’t stop people with a car and a bit of cash driving to all the supermarkets they want to, buying everything they want in twos and coming home with a shit load of provisions. As ever, poorer people will suffer most.
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:50am
  - Inandout
    
    mara, and those same people will ask the supermarkets to refund items ‘bought in haste’ as is happening now; damn their greed.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:29am
    - David Garrett
      
      Inand: I definitely don’t think the supermarkets should refund anything! If people have been stupid enough to buy two years’ worth of a product made here – toilet paper – that’s their silly lookout!
      
      Even if this thing is over next week – and I don’t think it will be – I will eat my 20 cans of tinned tomatoes and 20 cans of red beans in time…And the frozen chicken will keep for a year.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:43am
      - Lance
        
        Like these halfwits.
        The worst thing is they are proud of it and they say there are thousands in the ‘group’.
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120420838/coronavirus-family-of-12-ready-for-three-months-survival
        Self centered and obnoxious some might say
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:32am
  - Komata
    
    Mara@0850
    
    FWIW: In Victoria, Melbournians are ‘Touring the state’ in a similar manner to what you describe, and are buying-up large at all the smaller towns, cleaning them out of the essentials that are now becoming necessary.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:24am
  - GT Build
    
    I see the ferald has article with the “some Auckland shoppers ignore pm’s shop normal message ” How dare they!!!!
    
    11 1
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    March 22, 2020 11:18am
    - JamesP
      
      Could it be her fake grin through-out was subliminally recognised for the lie it was. Which caused people to mistrust her words, even if they happened to be good advice.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:54am
- emmess
  
  These are the videos here
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNMdg4morQs
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o_uXF9B4KI
  
  From two Chinese state-owned propaganda channels.
  It appears to be a coordinated attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to spread the disease so that the China’s economy was not the only one to be affected by the Wuhan Virus
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:55am
  - sam green
    
    Stop it.
    
    2 7
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    March 22, 2020 10:12am
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    I can’t work out if you’re a raging conspiracy theorist or just an idiot. I’m going with a combination of both.
    
    15 11
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    March 22, 2020 10:14am
    - emmess
      
      Why the downvotes?
      
      I will clarify if there were any misunderstandings, the Chinese government made a calculation that if Coronavirus (neutral name) was going to spread in China, it would be better for it to spread throughout the world as well, so the Chinese economy would not be isolated from the rest of the world. They then used the political correctness of western countries against themselves by accusing westerners of racism when protecting themselves.
      
      If that is not clear, maybe Chris Chapple from China Uncensored puts it better.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGOki3FcqnI&t=18s
      
      I don’t think anything that I said there was particularly controversial apart from with supporters of the CCP.
      
      Please, I am genuinely curious to discuss.
      
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      March 22, 2020 12:16pm
      - emmess
        
        Only downvotes?
        Nobody willing to engage in discussion?
        
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        March 22, 2020 6:23pm
- Nookin
  
  You have chicken tonight every night David?
  That aside, my main purpose in responding is to see if anyone knows why Italy is so badly affected.
  Various explanations include slow reaction , an older population and unrestrained trade or tourism from China. We had plenty of Chinese tourists also but seem to have coped reasonably well (assuming that we can believe the figures as indicative of the situation today and not two weeks ago). Did Italy ignore the signs because of tourism/trade considerations?
  
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  March 22, 2020 8:58am
  - Blackbob
    
    Italy has sold many leather & textile factories to Chinese interests. They staffed those factories with Chinese workers (direct flights from Wuhan to Nth Italy & return even after it started) who travel regularly. They got Chinese made clothes etc with “Made in Italy” labels.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:45am
    - kowtow
      
      Yes , a number of people have posted links (dated prior to the panicdemic) to news stories about what amounted to black market mainland Chinese colonies , for want of a better word , that have existed in northern Italy since the ’90’s.
      
      The other factor in the Italian syndrome is the way they count their mortalities. This is something the media need to emphasise instead of sensationalising and fear mongering.
      
      7 2
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      March 22, 2020 10:25am
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        So, the concept of the “black market Chinese factory” in Italy ironically turned around to bite Italy on the backside.
        No one saw this coming…
        
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        March 22, 2020 5:51pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Nookin: NO!! I tend to be a bit more adventurous, but my teenage son has much more limited culinary preferences: butter chicken and chicken tonight – in its various flavours – are his staples…he’s not very keen on garlic, and the more exotic dishes I eat myself…if I can be bothered to cook them.
    
    The son will also eat sausages – but not “real” meat – but only if accompanied by the various sauces offered by Mr Maggi. He’s fairly fond of green beans though, and I have frozen about 30 bags of them over summer.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:46am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Might be time to extend your son’s culinary preferences..and skills.
      
      First time eldest daughter expressed a desire to eat something other than what I had prepared, she was told she could cook it herself for the next dinner….and so at the age of 11 or thereabouts, she started making meals every now & again.
      
      Youngest daughter at age 7 or 8 told hubby that she was sick of eating takeaway pizzas/hamburgers when I was away .. demanded that he buy a fresh chook.. and she roasted it for their dinner.
      
      Both have turned into good cooks (youngest – professional chef).
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:06pm
  - projectman
    
    Partly, I have read, because the Italian populace doesn’t believe or listen to their government so took no notice of self-isolation requests. [Also, the comment from Blackbob below.]
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:49am
- Raphael
  
  We’re a family of 6, so we’re also going to have to shopping every two or so days.
  But at the same time given how badly the morons have been with their panic buying and how empty the shelves were when I went to get milk and bananas and hot cross buns yesterday, I agree with the two item limit. The supply chain will need a week or two to recover from the stupid people.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:00am
  - David Garrett
    
    Raphael: Are they stupid though? We have two completely conflicting messages from the gummint: on the one hand, it’s Be Prepared; Be Prepared; Be Prepared…for ANY civil emergency, not just this one, with extra supplies … the advice used to be enough for 14 days. On the other hand, it’s “don’t stockpile”…surely, at least to some degree, those messages are polar opposites?
    
    I have been quietly buying extra rice, and cans of beans and tomatoes ever since this began, and now – along with my fortuitous full freezer of homekill meat – have enough to last 30 days if we have to without shopping…although the diet will get a bit boring. But then, not everyone quietly stockpiled…if you have children, and suddenly realise things have turned serious, can people really be blamed for panic buying?
    
    One other thing…supermarket workers are paid minimum wage or a dollar or two above it…Cindy’s Alert 4 envisions supermarkets and pharmacies remaining open…what happens when lowly paid workers at your local Countdown say “fuck that” and hunker down at home rather than going to work??
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:19am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Civil defence advice for any emergency has always been to have three days’ supply of food and water.
      
      8 25
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      March 22, 2020 9:30am
      - kowtow
        
        Very true , for a nation that’s constantly been reminded (and who live with the very real threat of earthquake disruption) we appear to be very unprepared.
        
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        March 22, 2020 10:28am
      - alwyn
        
        All the ones I have seen tell me that I should have seven days not three.
        For example the Wellington Civil Defence says
        “Water – enough water for every person in your household for 7 days.
        Food – ideally, keep your pantry as full as you can – enough food for 7 days.”
        https://getprepared.nz/households/emergency-supplies/
        
        10 1
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        March 22, 2020 10:51am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Alwyn:
        https://getready.govt.nz/prepared/household/supplies/
        
        2 6
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        March 22, 2020 12:39pm
      - alwyn
        
        Did you see this one?
        “Consider stocking a two-week supply of food
        and water for prolonged emergencies such as a
        pandemic. Check and replace food and water
        every twelve months.”
        https://getthru.govt.nz/themes/getthru/templates/vwluResources/Emergency_checklist_10/$file/Emergency_checklist_10.pdf
        
        Or this one?
        “At least a week’s supply of food and water is advised for a prolonged emergency. (It’s worth noting your water supply is unlikely to be affected if you’re in self-isolation due to coronavirus.)”
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/119948067/coronavirus-the-emergency-supplies-you-should-actually-have-at-home
        
        For God’s sake man. Are we singing that song?
        “You like potato and I like potahto. You like tomato and I like tomahto. Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto. Let’s call the whole thing off”.
        
        Let’s just say that more is probably better?
        
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        March 22, 2020 2:07pm
    - artemisia
      
      Countdown is hiring to fulfil delivery orders. My local has no open slots for a week.
      
      What I want to see is none of those fines for places that supply plastic bags to shoppers instead of forcing shoppers to use virtuous bags that have never been washed.
      
      29 0
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      March 22, 2020 9:34am
    - Chris Morgan
      
      Would love a sneak peak at Foodstuffs and Progressives bottom line over the three weeks compared to the previous three weeks.
      
      16 1
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      March 22, 2020 9:41am
      - David Garrett
        
        Chris M: Busier than Christmas week apparently…but as the expert said, they have plenty of time to prepare for that demand…
        
        22 2
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        March 22, 2020 10:04am
      - tui47
        
        I heard it was up 40%. Those New World supermarket owners will be rubbing their hands together with glee. Of course the best thing is that we are still buying food. Perhaps we should be buying NZ produced food first as we all need our farmers and producers to do well. NZ is frequently criticised for putting all our eggs in the primary sector basket. However when times get tough, no one buys cars or manufactured products. They buy food. Ironically we now can ignore the climate change crap and do exactly the opposite of what the preach! No public transport, lots of plastic gloves, Lots of disinfectant, etc.
        
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        March 22, 2020 10:15am
      - Jules99
        
        My own experience in the past of ‘benefiting’ from a crisis (London 7/7 bombings) demonstrated to me that later on the losses kick in. Potentially through supply chain issues or just people going through their stored food. There is a lot of risk to business. I hope they are saving it for those times.
        
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        March 22, 2020 10:25am
      - Harriet
        
        Woolworths boss here in Aussie said they have had 3 Christmas weeks in a row.
        I’d imagine in a month or so supermarkets and maybe everywhere else will be selling at half price to draw them back in. The government is now guaranteeing business loans and staff payments anyway. Business will remain open but with staff sick leave being there main issue for the next 12 months.
        With the amount of power people will use staying at home this winter, I wouldn’t overstock the fridge or freezer.
        
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        March 22, 2020 10:58am
- ldypen
  
  The problem with the 2x only of any items rule is that it actually promotes a sense of there being a shortage, so this then creates doubt resulting in panic buying. I see these restrictions actually creating more uncertainly!
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:08am
  - alwyn
    
    I can’t remember which film it was but I do remember the reply made in response to the claim that the head of a firm was “panicking”.
    “If you are the first out the door when the fire alarm goes that is not panicking”.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:55am
- Simon
  
  The schools should have closed and NZ is in recession with no measures taken.
  
  She is horribly out of her depth. More people will die and the recession will be worse because of her incompetence.
  
  Ardern is now part of the problem.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:08am
  - alwyn
    
    Why should the schools close at all?
    The country I think has been the best with the virus is Singapore. They have been preparing for just this sort of thing since they did poorly with the Sars outbreak.
    So far they have had about 350 cases and NO deaths. Their approach seems to have been “test, test, test” then “follow up, follow, follow up. As far as I am aware the schools have remained open.
    Put everyone infected into Hospital. Self Isolation is rubbish.
    Here is an overview.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120433407/why-singapores-coronavirus-response-worked–and-what-we-can-all-learn
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:02am
    - Durden
      
      Our self isolation monitoring is a hit and miss joke. This is how Singapore does it.
      
      https://imgur.com/KZXqaON
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:12pm
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Not now, has always been.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:43am
- projectman
  
  Agree with your comments except that the 4-level alert system probably was not Cindy’s idea. She did read the autocue well however.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:10am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Whoever’s ‘idea’ it was, it is a good one. Apart from clearly outline how the response can be (and will be) ramped up, if provides and element of reassurance that the authorities have a plan.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:31am
  - Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
    
    amazing performance given how hard it must be to focus on the autocue when her head is flopping all over the show. such a distraction from the message. had to read the transcript get the full message.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:38am
    - David Garrett
      
      Mickey: Yes indeed…the Parkinson’s disease like head movements are a bit disconcerting…the one thing I sneered at during her performance was her adding in “As a mum…”…just to make sure all those soccer mums who think she’s just wooonderful are paying attention.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:11am
      - Biscuit
        
        Ha, yep, David.
        
        Any seemingly-small movement you make is instantly magnified when you do it on the box.
        
        I frequently wonder whether folk who appear often on TV – and news reporters are the worst – ‘review/critique’ their appearances afterwards and think ‘I look so inane flapping my hands about to stress EACH and EVERY word I get TO utter. Must stop that’…
        
        In Jassy’s defence, she probably had a bevy of scriptwriters working through the night to come up with that line.
        
        Remember in ‘The Queen’, Her Madge being told the script for her TV Address to the Nation had had one Government-inspired (Alastair Campbell-inspire, I bet) last addition to make her appear more feeling:
        
        ‘So what I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart’…
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:00am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    When you read the levels.. you can see we are starting to operate at Level 3.
    https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6816380/COVID-Alert-Levels-v2.pdf
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:02am
    - Akarak
      
      I agree. I wonder how much time parents will be given tin order to prepare for schools being closed. The $56m earmarked for Maori is a final nail in the myth that ‘we are all in this together’. Some of us apparently are to be separated into a different category.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:48am
      - rightoverlabour
        
        They should have made a decision to close the schools on Saturday. Teachers over 70, or with underlying health conditions may remain at home on full pay. That’s a huge dent in available relievers, and some schools may find large numbers of teachers acting out on this. The idea is good but the implementation has been abysmal.
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:49am
- freethinker
  
  DG – Unsurprising that our MS Liars have not noticed that earlier in the week Reuters reported that a Fuji subsidiary Kyoto had developed a promising drug for Covid 19 and it was being tested in conjunction with Chinese authorities. Yesterday Reuters reported that the drug in trials with 134 patients I recall it was successful in eliminating the virus in 4 days confirmed by Chinese authorities. Now perhaps the MS Liars consider Reuters a Fake News operator or they do not know of Reuters existence or more likely that good news that does not show up the Coalition of Clowns and its assistant part time PM in a favourable light must not be reported. There are other positive trials of other existing drugs in course albeit some with success but warnings of overdose and I would have expected even a semi competent new media to at least comment on such developments.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:20am
- Jules99
  
  My mum, who is 80, usually does a big monthly shop online. Now she will have to do it weekly, except there are now no slots left. Hmmm…..
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:28am
- Misha Beattie
  
  I didn’t panic buy. I just ensured that I have enough food for 14 days.
  
  It is all very well for the government to say the supermarkets will be open. And they will be. However the closest supermarket to me has a sign on the door “If you are self isolating do not enter”.
  
  There will be elderly folk stuck at home who cannot get supplies or are too scared to go out. You can’t assume they all have family support. If you have elderly neighbours, ask them if they need help.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:11am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Easy bro! Stop eating chicken. You are not going to die without eating chicken. First world problems….
  
  1 13
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  March 22, 2020 10:22am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I’ll never starve as long as I have got a shot gun and those annoying fat noisy neighbours who are beer raised.
    
    Their yappy dog has gone quiet since they sharpened the sun umbrella pole for was looks like a giant souvlaki skewer . . .
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:07pm
- burt
  
  DG
  
  I’ve been quietly stocking up since mid January, a few extra items each weekly shop. We have had weeks and weeks of seeing chaos and empty shelves in other countries – wtf is wrong with you that you are still unprepared, you’re not a f##king millennial you should know better than this.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:38am
  - David Garrett
    
    burt: I don’t where you got that idea…I have been doing exactly the same as you: quietly buying extra for weeks…I am now comfortably set for the long haul…
    
    15 2
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    March 22, 2020 10:46am
    - burt
      
      Apologies DG, I took you comment to mean you just woke up and as you can tell from my tone that shocked and surprised me.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:49am
- madamezucchininz
  
  …..nor did saying …”People need to prepare…..but don’t panic buy”….
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:52am
- namron
  
  David, I think we are going to have to get used to Jacinda’s autocue reading.
  I bet it didn’t say “communidy” “somethink” etc.
  I plan to list all her faulty attempts to speak English
  + the normal pronunciation to aid understanding of
  her messages!!
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:00am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I just checked the ingredients of Chicken Tonight Cacciatore and was pleasantly surprised.
  
  What made me laugh though, is that they give themselves a big tick for being “Suitable for vegetarians and vegans”.
  
  This is for CHICKEN Tonight, and Cacciatore is Italian for Hunter. Although I’m sure it would be lovely with some veges, I can’t imagine their product will be very visible to veggos.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:20pm
Humble Capitalist

Kindergarten mat time midday again today? For story time and fairy tales. Fairy tales like NZ can be like Singapore or Taiwan because we are culturally SO similar.
When Comrade Ardern finally has the opportunity to go full dictator she has bottled it so far. Isnt this what they dreamed of when she ran an NGO – International Socialist Youth President.
Remember she told Hosking thats why she’s so in tune with small business because she ran an NGO
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March 22, 2020 8:28am
oldpark

@C W
Of course aided and abetted by the 74 year old geriatric Peters who has been exempted from being confined to barracks with his special type of virus.
Certainly not the Wuhan Flu . His type of virus has installed the wrong type of person to help NZs in their time of needs as well as emergency essentials.
It is a brave person who tells their boss to stay home .Would be a disaster and the end of the facade as PM . Just Saying .
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March 22, 2020 8:29am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  The flu won’t even touch Winnie with a bargepole because he is so toxic.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:24am
- GT Build
  
  I think she trying kill peters off by allowing him to hang around
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:55am
- alwyn
  
  I have also noted that horse racing still seems to be going on.
  Why? Is this because Winston has to keep his Foundation’s Financiers happy?
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:06am
- Old White Loser
  
  The government should lead by example.
  
  Winston should be working from home, instead they are saying anyone who is special is exempt, and everyone thinks they are special, so will make exceptions for themselves.
  
  Winston should be leading from the front and saying I am staying home and so should all over 70’s
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:42am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Yes the pompous Idalian (Italian in cindyspeek) was going to lead from the front going into the financial black hole known locally as Pike River remember?
    
    I didn’t believe Luigi then, I don’t believe him now and, tomorrow is not looking good either . . .
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:12pm
kowtow

The cure will be worse than the illness.
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March 22, 2020 8:32am
MT_Tinman

Since the end of the Vietnam war the Western world has started to value life.

Prior to this men went to war, to explore, to adventure and died.

Women dropped kids until they wore out and died.

That was nature’s way.

With the advent of modern communications, particularly live television, all of a sudden we could actually see the face those dying outside our own family.

As a consequence we started extending life beyond it’s natural limit, started changing nature.

Now nature is fighting back, targeting particularly those
who would probably have died by now, 50 years ago.

As an old fart, closer to death than life in the natural order of things, I wonder if we shouldn’t just let nature regain her balance.

NB: For those of a religious bent replace “nature” with your god.
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March 22, 2020 8:35am
- kowtow
  
  Could I venture that the generalised valuing of human life started in the mid 18 hundreds .
  
  The Crimean war 1854 saw Florence Nightingale care for the injured ( who never really counted for much before that ,unless you were rich ) and 1859 saw the creation of the red Cross when Dunant was shocked by the 40000 injured just left to die on the battle field.
  ( At Waterloo , 1815, certain injured generals could pay rank and file soldiers to stand guard over them to stop looters/murderers doing their thing till the very inadequate Commissary boys could get to them)Whereas the common soldier would have been at the mercy of devil take the hindmost.
  
  This era was when the modern nation state was finding its feet .
  
  Also that era , the Victorian, saw huge advances in industrial,public housing , education ,political and other reforms etc which brought prosperity and longevity……
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:45am
- Harriet
  
  To suggest the west didn’t value life until the invention of TV is just appalling.
  
  It’s like the civil war without blacks.
  
  WW1 and 2 without Jews.
  
  And the Crusades without Christians.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:36am
JibberJabber

Cop a load of these gibbering idiots,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=146&v=OC7Efb_lWiw&feature=emb_logo

??
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March 22, 2020 8:36am
- David Garrett
  
  G: Your memory is deficient…polio was under control by the 60’s I think…apparently there was a major epidemic in the summer of ’46-47, ten years before I entered the world … It may have still been a threat into the late 50’s
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:31am
  - G152
    
    Yup. I was there.
    A very beautiful young lady who was my aunt and uncles bridesmaid died from polio at age 22.
    Hospitals were filled with ‘Iron Lungs’ until physios worked out how to get victims breathing again.
    And people were in ‘irons’ so they could walk and arms withered and pretty useless.
    Then Dr Salk did his thing and the scourge faded with only fools who rejected inoculation reminding us
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:42am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Polio may be under control in New Zealand, but it is still endemic in two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
    
    Rotary, as part of the End Polio Now project with WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is determined to eradicate polio forever. We’ve even gone as far to get the Taliban to make a statement that there are no products in the polio vaccine that are contrary to the teachings of Islam.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:09am
  - Misha Beattie
    
    Yes you are correct. I grew up in the 60s and I vividly remember the little spoon of polio vaccine. My parents grew up in the 40s and told horror stories about polio. And I don’t recall ANY anti vaxxers. The parents of young kids rightly thought the polio vaccine was a marvel.
    
    I guarantee that when a vaccine for COVID 19 is developed you will have anti vaxxers out in force refusing to have their kids immunised.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:24am
  - alwyn
    
    There were significant epidemics in 1948-49, 1952-53 and 1955-56. I was one of those who got it, seemingly in a very minor way and I recovered with no apparent after-effects.
    I am now discovering that you never actually get over it. If you have Polio when young you are likely to get problems in your later years. Not everyone of course but quite a large percentage are affected. Usually it affects you from about 60 on. The worse your childhood attack the earlier and more bothersome are those effects in your later years.
    https://www.noted.co.nz/health/health-health/polio-late-effects-how-disease-haunts-sufferers-later-life
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:25am
- David Garrett
  
  Jibber: Anointed handkerchiefs…well, to quote Jed Clampett, I’ll be gold-darned! I wonder if that pastor takes up serpents in prescribed Old Testament fashion?
  
  Bishop Brian is apparently planning to hold his usual services attracting hundreds of people today…be interesting to see how the polis plan to respond…of course their response will be exactly the same if any mosque holds or has held similarly large services…
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:34am
- Tall Man
  
  No more stupid than ardern and her adoring fans.
  
  At least we can scorn these idiots without censorship.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:00am
- Misha Beattie
  
  Yes the USA certainly does evangelism weapons grade.
  
  I also see that the anti vaxxers are now already fearing the eventual vaccine more than covid 19. Then there are the folk who claim that the virus is spread by the 5G network. Seriously.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:19am
- Nermal
  
  I saw what they all had in common, and it wasn’t God, it was money.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:06pm
SGA

Fortunately, David, there should be a natural limit to people’s stockpiling, and a degree of normalcy may return once the more excitable have reduced their anxiety.
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March 22, 2020 8:38am
- tf78
  
  So much for the “be KIND” message. How about be sensible or thoughtful. I’ve noticed the be kind message is all these idiots here and overseas can come up with. You have to be cruel to be kind don’t they know that.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:26am
All_on_Red

‘The following article is a systematic overview of COVID-19 driven by data from medical professionals and academic articles that will help you understand what is going on (sources include CDC, WHO, NIH, NHS, University of Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, NEJM, JAMA, and several others). I’m quite experienced at understanding virality, how things grow, and data. In my vocation, I’m most known for popularizing the “growth hacking movement” in Silicon Valley that specializes in driving rapid and viral adoption of technology products. Data is data. Our focus here isn’t treatments but numbers. Numbers are universal’

https://medium.com/six-four-six-nine/evidence-over-hysteria-covid-19-1b767def5894
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March 22, 2020 8:51am
- Doctor Who
  
  Understand? Really?
  
  Like your “understanding” of climate science?
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:06am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Triggered!
    Hey, real funny how Dennis doesn’t ‘understand’ Sea Level rise in this Video!
    LOL
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idMa4a6eA9M
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:59am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Thanks, a good exposition on global data.
  Fear and isolation may be bigger trouble makers.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:07pm
mikenmildagain

Happy World Meteorological Day to you all!
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March 22, 2020 8:51am
- Colville
  
  Great thing about weathermen is they make real estate agents look honest!
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:33am
  - Lance
    
    You do know there is a difference between climatologists and meteorologists?
    Who needs thys medumakation stuff eh?
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:46am
- kloyd0306
  
  Sine when have you and your fellow leftists wanted anyone to be happy?
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:51am
G152

How long will this take?
I remember the polio scares of the 50s and 60s.
We’ve been here before.
All public events closed down.
Schools closed…
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March 22, 2020 8:53am
- David Garrett
  
  G: Your memory is deficient…polio was under control by the 60’s I think…apparently there was a major epidemic in the summer of ’46-47, ten years before I entered the world … It may have still been a threat into the late 50’s
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:29am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The last outbreak in NZ was in the summer of 1955 -56.
    One of my Castlecliff class mates was struck down as a toddler and wore leg calipers thereafter.
    
    Bob Brockie (Ecologist/Science writer/Political cartoonist) caught polio in the 1960s when he was living in Italy.
    https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/archive-listener-nz-2015/brockie-horror-show
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:17am
- MCos
  
  Schools weren’t closed, but they were scary times, especially for parents.
  
  Now the people, like me, who were most susceptible to polio are in the gun again.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:34am
  - G152
    
    Ours was closed and we had correspondence school for months
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:44am
    - MCos
      
      Sorry, I didn’t realized some schools did that.
      I remember when the vaccine came out in the late fifties, thereabouts. We all wandered over to Sacred Heart School and drank the vaccine out of little paper cups. On the way back Christie felt a bit crook so we sat with him for a few minutes until he came right.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:51am
    - Sacha
      
      1940’s: School closed. Children not allowed to go to movies, or summer camps or any crowded places. Couldn’t even go and play with the kids on the next farm – 3 miles away. We lived in the country and I didn’t go to town for over 6 months – it was a special day, that first outing. Dad went to the sheep sales and I got a new pair of shoes. They were very expensive as there was no shoe making factory in NZ & back then they came from England. Correspondence school was a bit of a fizzer, and we were all glad when we could go back to school after the Christmas holidays.
      
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      March 22, 2020 2:21pm
  - BeaB
    
    I remember kids at my primary school in the 50s wearing calipers on their legs.
    There was a lot of ringworm too so shaved heads.
    And all a bit pongy with once-a-week bath and change of clothes.
    Not like the kids today bursting with good health and hygiene.
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:48am
  - Hollyfield
    
    Whenever there’s a conversation in our family about immunisations, my father will talk about polio and all the schools being closed for three months with lessons posted to homes by the Correspondence School. He says his three older sisters diligently did the schoolwork every day, but he and his three brothers spent three months playing on local beaches – being boys in the 40s their games focused on defending their fort from the Japanese.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:23am
  - gravedodger
    
    They were closed, I was due to begin February 1948 (turned five in January) and did some home schooling from the daily paper until things opened in March.
    
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    March 22, 2020 5:59pm
- Inandout
  
  G152, ‘Salk vaccine: Vaccine against poliomyelitis named for Dr. Jonas Salk who developed and introduced it in 1955. It was the first type of polio vaccine to become available. It was made by cultivating three strains of the virus separately in monkey tissue’.
  I think the vaccine became available here very soon after for what was then termed ‘infantile paralysis’.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:40am
All_on_Red

‘New polling Friday showed President Trump’s approval ratings among Americans have soared during the coronavirus crisis, including his handling of the pandemic response and the economy

A new Axios-Harris poll, released Friday, showed the president with an 53 percent overall approval among U.S. adults surveyed March 17 and 18,’
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/trumps-approval-rating-soars-during-handling-coronavirus
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March 22, 2020 8:56am
- SB 2
  
  Rasmusse polling suggests very differently 46% approval and 53% disapproval,
  
  https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/prez_track_mar20
  
  All on Red, we do indeed live in desperate times!
  
  There is a pandemic on is thee not?
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:03am
- Chuck Bird
  
  That is reflected in Sports Australia in their payout for Trump.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:04am
- John Warren
  
  Yet the Guardian et al would have you believe he’s done nothing but fuck things up from the moment the virus was first heard of.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:08am
- Doctor Who
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  So, Americans want to be lead by a gibbering moron.
  
  Nearly everything he says has to be corrected by others around him.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:09am
  - G152
    
    I didn’t know that Cindy was looking to be US President as shes the only gibbering idiot currently gibbering
    
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    March 22, 2020 9:45am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Did you mean ‘lead’ or ‘led’.
    Where did you go to school?
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:01am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      I had a distant cousin (thrice removed) that went to Gibbering Morons Normal School, pretty sure they were classmates.
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:59pm
  - Nermal
    
    You’re obviously talking about Joe Biden
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:08pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Seems to be very much an outlying poll. Polls since have him in the usual 45-47% range.
  I wouldn’t underestimate the chances of his appeal rising in such an emergency, despite his shambolic and incompetent performance so far.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:17am
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘Reeeeeeeeeeeee’
    Orange Man Bad
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:02am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      His ‘leadership’ is disastrous, from:
      “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
      to:
      “I don’t take responsibility at all”
      The guy is a walking shit-show of narcissism, indolence and incompetence.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:31am
- Inandout
  
  Polls are up and down like whore’s drawers, depending on what the day brings. First news of a cure for this virus will see Trump’s approval ratings soar. You must remember people who vote on these polls are the same who strip supermarket shelves.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:46am
- curry4me
  
  All_on__Red: Yeah, thanks for posting. I saw something similar on Prof Turleys’ YT video.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:23pm
Wangas Feral

Remind me again how many people climate change has killed in Europe in the last ten years? How does that compare to CCP Virus deaths? The numbers must be pretty close right?
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March 22, 2020 9:03am
- Inandout
  
  WF, I would ask Greta for her opinion but like our Chloe Swarbrick, she is in isolation.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:48am
  - Biscuit
    
    Inandout, this Virus ain’t all bad.
    
    It’s been days since I had to suffer a sportsperson bemoaning VAR.
    
    And even longer since I saw a newspaper with any tales about The Harry That Used To Be Prince and his bloody wife.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:06am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  This virus is due to climate change bro. That will be the next slogan of the toxic Greens.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:26am
  - kowtow
    
    Some people are telling us it’s due to “poverdy”
    The Chinese can’t afford to eat like the rest of us , so it’s OK to farm wildlife intensively in inhumane conditions…….
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:26am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I’m sure it is now.
    https://www.ehn.org/coronavirus-environment-2645553060.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6
    
    Once the pandemic abates and countries realise they have to invest $$$$$$$Mega Billions into updating/upskilling/reequipping their Medical infrastructure, workforce and research capabilities, the Climate-change troughers will be putting their hands out for MORE $$$$.
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:51pm
- Goon
  
  nope….not even close
  
  Corona 233 deaths in UK as of yesterday vs >3,000 excess deaths per year caused by ‘fuel poverty’ due to idiotic planet saving emissions targets jacking up power prices
  
  https://www.nea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/E3G-NEA-Cold-homes-and-excess-winter-deaths.pdf
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:42am
Tauhei Notts

A locked up Pommy friend texted me. This self isolation is driving him nuts, and he writes having been all over the internet in boredom;
“Did you know that if you place one testicle over the top of an empty beer bottle and if you hold a flame to the bottom of that bottle, your testicle will fall in. Now if you already know that salient fact, and you have tried it, could you please text me immediately, and tell me how you got your’s out.”
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March 22, 2020 9:06am
David Garrett

…and in news just to hand, two remote communities on the East Coast – Te Araroa and Hicks Bay – are stopping other than locals from coming in with illegal “checkpoints” on the access roads (neither community is on the main highway)…It is worth noting that during the 1918 epidemic, Te Araroa – along with Coromandel – were the only two places in the country which kept it out entirely….Back then, vigilantes with shotguns enforced their road blocks…I say good on the people of those two communities; but what’s the bet the Gisborne AOS will be up there quick smart if weapons become involved? Those people have every right to protect themselves in my view. The cops should keep the fuck away and enforce order in Gisborne. I’m pretty sure they’ll be needed there before too long.
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March 22, 2020 9:06am
- Nermal
  
  I’d support those communities if the checkpoints worked both ways, but I suspect they are getting the best of both worlds. NIMBY
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:13am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nermal: Well, if they have read their 1918 history, they will know that if anyone wants OUT they can’t come back IN, local or not…And being rural folk you can bet they don’t need to go shopping every two days…
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:19am
    - alwyn
      
      How dare you say such things about the Metropolis of Te Araroa.
      They have all sorts of mod cons. That even includes a couple of chargers for electric cars. It, or more precisely Hicks Bay, is a great place to visit. I do sympathise with their view that medical services are poor in the area though.
      
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      March 22, 2020 2:30pm
- ross411
  
  We see other countries not enforcing the laws because they don’t want risk the police getting sick or something. The irony is if these two communities are not sick, the police might feel safe to go over there and interfere and probably introduce it.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:35am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Newsflash: Former ‘law and order’ champion now advocates armed vigilante gangs…
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:39am
  - David Garrett
    
    Where did I “advocate” that dickhead?
    
    I merely speculated on the likely police reaction if they did what their great grandparents did in 1918… and said I support remote communities having the right to protect themselves. I suggest you look up the word “advocate”…it’s one I personally am very familiar with, having done it for 25 years professionally.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:23am
- Clyde
  
  And in further news just to hand, there will be separate funding for maori to the tune of multiple amounts of millions because maori are more affected by this virus than anyone else. Says who? Just another example of race-based politics I’m afraid and another step in the journey of separatism.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:21am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  enforce order in Gisborne. I’m pretty sure they’ll be needed there before too long..
  
  It’s not the toilet paper, nappies, chicken breast supplies that will be bothering some around here, but whether their meth supply dries up.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018739155/plea-for-help-as-gisborne-meth-use-problem-grows
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:17am
- kris
  
  They are more than welcome to keep people off their own private property, but state highways and most local roads are owned by the taxpayer, not them. Someone driving through in their 4 wheeled isolation box is not a threat to their health.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:29pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Bet the Countdown and beer truck get through.
  
  Don’t have to worry about the Armour Guard truck getting through because their ‘wages’ are paid directly into their accounts and, there is enough meth to last to Christmas.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:23pm
Justitia

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Where is Simon Bridges? Does National have a Witless Protection Program? Is there a leadership spill in the offing? I certainly hope so for National’s sake.
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March 22, 2020 9:07am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Simon can’t get a look-in when Cindy’s captive media is fawning all over her.
  I’m afraid it’s all over for the poor lad. National hasn’t a hope of winning the next election, and this is the total opposite of what I was saying just 3 weeks ago.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:06am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Yep; and with Parliament in recess for a week, he relies on the media giving him airtime.
    
    I don’t agree with you about the election. Once people lose their jobs and their livelihoods, and once the reality of having to pay back massive debt kicks in, Labour will be out on its ear.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:13am
    - Simon Gotlieb
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Highly unlikely. Unlike what we see in this echo chamber, there is a majority of the population in this country think they’re doing a pretty good job. Not perfect; things are changing so fast that’s impossible. But most people I talk to think they’re making the best of a shitty situation. Trouble with this site is your confirmation bias gives you the wrong message. All I see here day after day is peurile insults of the government, but with little good ideas. Too many nasty spiteful people on this site leading the others down a nasty little path. It’s getting a little boring. I’ve toyed with the idea of pulling apart some of the statement here but honestly, it’s a waste of time – so many here are tone deaf to all but their blighted beliefs. You’re quickly becoming irrelevant.
      
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      March 22, 2020 10:23am
      - Misha Beattie
        
        I agree with you. Mostly. I think the PM was too slow to understand the threat. Only 9 days ago she was saying that the Christchurch memorial could go ahead when it was already clear that would be crazy. The last few days have been much better. I think the multi layer alert system gives people certainty.
        
        On the fiscal package I think giving beneficiaries a permanent increase on the back of this disaster was a very bad move. They should have been given a $500 lump sum with advice about what it might be used for.
        
        I would have liked to see much more urgency in building temporary hospital facilities and acquiring ventilators.
        
        Unless the government starts to totally fuck it up, I think it is time to put away politics on this.
        
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        March 22, 2020 10:35am
      - kloyd0306
        
        It takes an empty vessel to know one.
        …..and you are in your own.
        
        7 3
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        March 22, 2020 11:01am
      - BeaB
        
        Golly. You are one-eyed. Thank god we have an opposition and freedom of speech. Jacinda is certainly as good as most schoolgirls at reading a text and adopting dramatic looks.
        Some of us see her as completely fake and long for authentic leadership.
        Just because you are besotted doesn’t mean the rest of us have to follow your infatuation.
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:16am
      - kowtow
        
        “Unlike what we see in this echo chamber”
        Plenty here are not shills for the Nats , I’m one of them and I disagree with you.
        Once the shit really hits the fan the same folk who called for closed borders and the consequential crashed economy, cos that’s what’s happening, will also be saying ” Cindy , what the fuck did you do to us , our livelihoods , indeed ,our way of life”
        
        And I include here Bojo , Trump , Merkel , the lot of them.
        
        In this day and age one can’t simply shut down the world and hope the nasty virus will go away.
        
        The other approach may have been better that instead of shutting everything down , we say ” Vulnerable folk take care and isolate yourselves” and give them the support they need while the worst of this thing blows over.
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:39am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I think folks will be getting very restless after a week of slowdown/lockdown.
      
      Heaven forbid if electrikery and the internet go on the blink..
      
      21 1
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      March 22, 2020 10:39am
      - Hard Cheese
        
        Salmay, Dalmay, Adomay! Nothing works!
        
        5 1
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        March 22, 2020 11:08am
      - Biscuit
        
        Maggy, NO Internet?
        
        I have just one word:
        
        Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (I can sense a Mod is getting irritated. Better wrap this up!) rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh…
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:09am
    - projectman
      
      As I said in another thread a few days ago, the key question will be who (wich party) you want to lead the country in the recover phase.
      
      Easy answer based on National’s track record.
      
      20 2
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      March 22, 2020 11:10am
    - curry4me
      
      Tony Stuart: You’re right. Recessions always result in an incumbent government losing. They take credit for good times. So the public assumes they must be to blame for the bad times.
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:28pm
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Do you finally agree that I am a visionary?
    
    0 15
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    March 22, 2020 10:27am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    A day is along time in the life of ordure. Who’s going to voter for winnies remnants?
    
    5 2
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    March 22, 2020 1:16pm
Humble Capitalist

To use a cricketing analogy this government appears to be playing their shots as the ball hits the keepers gloves. Its only a matter of time before their stumps get knocked over leaving us stranded at the non strikers end
27 1
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March 22, 2020 9:08am
- alex Masterley
  
  Very apt analogy.
  The government is reactive and not proactive.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:13pm
emmess

Lesson for Jacinda/Grant
This is you correctly provide a temporary stimulus to the economy without using the crisis to push your socialist agenda.
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/03/19/rescue-package/
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March 22, 2020 9:09am
- Tall Man
  
  Even with that the left want to “negotiate” on business assistance.
  
  13 3
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  March 22, 2020 9:33am
- Simon Gotlieb
  
  There’s actually some good in that package. Four weeks ago we would have called it rampant socialism, but things have changed. I can see something similar being discussed in parliament right now. We are going to need one hell of a stimulus package to get back on track.
  Tall Man – of course they do. Everyone has their different ideologies, and they all want the best for their constituents.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:26am
  - kloyd0306
    
    The payment to beneficiaries was a blatant vote buying exercise. When jobs start disappearing, even the minimum wage earners will turn on this pathetic excuse for a chosen-by-Winston government.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:04am
    - Simon Gotlieb
      
      So what do you call Scott Morrison doubling the unemployment benefit in Australia then? Seriously, you’re not just wrong, you’re deluded.
      
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      March 22, 2020 5:49pm
kevn

@emmess… Yes, a very fertile ground just now for the globalist/marxist/socialist agenda.
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March 22, 2020 9:14am
- Simon Gotlieb
  
  Maybe. Maybe not. I wouldn’t bet on it.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:26am
JibberJabber

Toilet paper shortage humour,
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=sMgbL_1584756354
Safe for work : )
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March 22, 2020 9:20am
- Monique Watson
  
  Oh that’s fantastic.
  
  Remember the song My Sharona?
  
  https://youtu.be/ojrtwXqqc6g
  
  7 1
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  March 22, 2020 10:27am
- David Garrett
  
  Jibber: Very amusing…did you note he was eating a donut, presumably one the crack whore gave him…I hope he insisted she use a condom when she gave him the blow job!! (Yep, you can catch an STD from a blowjob…little known fact)
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:05am
- Biscuit
  
  Mary had a little lamb
  It’s fleece was brown with poo.
  With no bog paper close at hand
  What ELSE could Mary do?
  
  11 0
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  March 22, 2020 11:11am
  - David Garrett
    
    biscuit: Very droll…I was regaling the gals at Countdown yesterday with lessons on how to prepare newspaper to substitute…My father told me that’s what they did in the depression…the “Auckland Herald” had TWO major functions back then…apparently the trick is to scrunch the squares of paper up and smooth them out a few times…makes it softer and more absorbent…
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:03pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I recall newspapers being torn up for that.
      For the near future waste computer paper may be useful too.
      
      5 0
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      March 22, 2020 1:20pm
      - Sacha
        
        And we used the tissue papers that apples came in – back when we’d buy a case of Granny Smiths every few weeks. Each apple individually wrapped.
        That was before the paper industry got into gear.
        
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        March 22, 2020 2:32pm
oldpark

Go figure this one . Latest stats from New York on the Wuhan Virus . 10,354 cases . 54% are aged 18 -49 People with the virus . Even more than the aged 50 up plus Sick people . A rethink on aged groups who could be more vunerable, is needed.
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March 22, 2020 9:21am
- MCos
  
  I would suggest the figure represents those that are know about and are way out.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:55am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Without knowing more about the population age structure of NY (median age for the state is 39) and the relative levels of social interaction for the different age groups, I wouldn’t infer anything from these figures.
  
  And what matters here, which you hint at, is not just the rates of infection but the severity of infection for different age groups.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:22am
- Misha Beattie
  
  I think you are misinterpreting the data. Catching the virus is not a big deal for most young people.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:39am
- Joely Doe
  
  Probably more of a snapshot of those who think they bulletproof and ignoring restrictions…
  
  Bondi Beach closed
  
  No indications yet that this group is more vulnerable – Italy shows that having a co-morbidity is detrimental to survival rates. The more co-morbidity’s, the lower the survival odds. One initial, brief, study has outlined that, almost without exception, Italian deaths have had 1 or more co-morbidity.
  99% so far.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:45am
BK Scurfield

Everyone must act with utmost urgency now to get this thing shut down in NZ. British dead is now 233 from a total of 5018 cases. That is a horrible percentage. We cannot let that happen here. Get schools closed now. All people who can should WFH. Take social distancing measures seriously and make sure other people are. Every day matters and we are underestimating the virus. If we do drastic actions now for 4 to 6 weeks we can control it. If we do not we are condemning people to die.
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March 22, 2020 9:23am
- Andrei
  
  Everybody dies BK
  
  This virus is just taking people whose time has come.
  
  We live in a time where the life expectancy is higher than at anytime in history and can maintin quality of life way beyond the wildest dreams of those who came before us.
  
  All those 233 people who have died in GB were sick and the vast majority very old and without all this mass panic nobody who knew them would have been surprised at their deaths and they would have gone unnoticed.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:49am
  - BK Scurfield
    
    You are ignorant about explosive exponential curves. Wise up. British health systems are in a state of war. I know the medical profession here is extremely concerned.
    
    We need to do The Hammer and the Dance. Then we will be free in 4 to 6 weeks. Bring down the hammer now and in 4 to 6 weeks we dance and our businesses and economy come back and much sooner than any other Western country.
    
    https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:41am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      I don’t think it could be 4 to 6 weeks. Our economy can’t revive until we have tourism back and many small businesses will be bankrupt in that time.
      
      Full recovery will be impossible until there is a vaccine, with widespread use.
      
      Kowtow’s approach above would have been a million times better: “The other approach may have been better that instead of shutting everything down , we say “Vulnerable folk take care and isolate yourselves” and give them the support they need while the worst of this thing blows over”
      
      That would have kept most people employed, most businesses surviving, government assistance mainly for people with serious co-morbidity or quite old (many of whom the government already supports). How much cheaper would it be to ask vulnerable people to stay home and give them thousands of dollars worth of support and treats to make it tolerable?
      
      Putting entire countries into lockdown when places like Singapore and Hong Kong are keeping things going is madness.
      
      Two things I think we should have much more of are temperature checks before entering crowded areas and face masks. In many Asian countries it is standard practice to wear face masks for self protection and if sick. If done correctly this can really help prevent spread.
      
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      March 22, 2020 7:15pm
      - Michael NZ
        
        Classic
        Both countries have compliant populations and their govt got testing testing testing as well as track and trace to a fine art.
        
        err, we are a month behind and the PUS for MOH can’t answer how many ICU beds we have, How many Respiritary machines we have etc etc.
        
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        March 23, 2020 12:05am
  - kowtow
    
    Their “time has come” because of globalisation.
    These coronaviruses have been around for a long time but until places like China opened up in the ’90’s they weren’t the huge problem they’ve become.
    
    Until China cleans up its animal and food practises these pandemics will become the new normal .
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:00am
    - BK Scurfield
      
      This will be the last global pandemic. A massive effort is now ramping up that will make the Manhattan project look like a child’s toy. This virus and many others will be toast.
      
      Yes, China must be dealt with. There is a giant to-do there. The CCP must go. It also must be eradicated.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:29am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        How?? We still can’t kill viruses.
        
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        March 22, 2020 7:16pm
- davidp
  
  Over the past three months, around 180,000 people in the UK have died from all causes. 233 of those died from the coronavirus. Keep out of peoples’ space, but don’t ruin your economy over this because recession kills.
  
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  March 22, 2020 9:54am
  - BK Scurfield
    
    Doing the Hammer for 4 to 6 weeks is not ruining the economy. It is saving it. They we do the dance.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:21am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      What dance? Our economy would not be back on its feet without tourism. Because without vaccines, we can’t bring in tourists.
      
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      March 22, 2020 7:18pm
      - Michael NZ
        
        Classic
        Tourism is 10% of our economy not 100%!
        
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        March 23, 2020 12:07am
- brett68
  
  We all got to die at some point.
  Half a million people die each year in the UK, that’s
  1369 people per day.
  
  233 people is 17% of the total who die each day in the UK, pretty much all of them are people who were nearing the end anyway.
  
  People are losing a bit of perspective in all of this
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:04am
- MCos
  
  If/when the shit hits the fan in NZ. It’s clear the biggest problem isn’t going to be the virus itself, but the ability of the healthcare system to cope.
  The system was creaking at the seams down in Ch’ch when all those people were shot and various burns units after White Island.
  Our system isn’t ready for a one in a hundred year pandemic.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:11am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    Our system isn’t ready for a one in a hundred year pandemic
    
    Do you think it should be?
    
    What economic activity are you willing to sacrifice to ensure that medical facilities, equipment and staff sit unused for 99 years?
    
    6 1
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    March 22, 2020 1:33pm
TWEEDSE

A snapshot of aircraft in the air an hour ago. Whilst some of these flights are freight, most are passenger. Still plenty of movement considering the supposed lock down.
https://ibb.co/KFhRF7J
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March 22, 2020 9:52am
- rouppe
  
  Probably looking for a parking spot…
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:21am
lazza

Copy of recent email to Mediawatch. Comments invited.

This morning’s (22/03/2020) Mediawatch came dangerously close to reducing itself to a biased cheerleader for RNZ in its position as a competitor for airtime with private enterprise.

Most of its most strident criticism of the coronavirus media coverage was directed at its principal competitor NewstakZB.

For these most crucial virus-related matters, NewstalkZB in fact did the best job of holding government to account while others, (RNZ mostly) just continually fed the public the Government’s hesitant, defective tardy and as it proved inadequate partyline.

“Defective” for the dithering and porous tactics of its border “controls”

Shame on Mediawatch for its adoption of a political stance when genuine public broadcasters have an obligation to “scrupulously do balanced”.

Try neutrality in future ehh? It is a reliable bedfellow of accuracy and trusted reportage.
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March 22, 2020 9:55am
- BeaB
  
  He hates Mike Hosking. Jealousy? I wait every Sunday for the Hosking rant. Just like others can’t wait to say Trump.
  Our media are so predictable. And dumb.
  
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  March 22, 2020 3:51pm
trout

On a lighter note could someone please bring the Warriors home. If family life is so important to these overpaid jocks they should stick to that and not pretend to be NRL players. Last night’s performance was one of incompetence and capitulation. Enough already.
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March 22, 2020 9:57am
cmm

It is not often I feel ashamed of being a New Zealander.

This week end I was briefly admitted into hospital (seems to have been a false alarm). As many will know, Christchurch hospital – like many other NZ hospitals – is predominantly staffed by people from overseas: Europe, Asia, Americas, Africa. Wonderful people serving us Kiwis.

Many, perhaps most, of these people want to make NZ their home.

I am also an immigrant, came here in 1992. I appreciate what a fabulously valuable jewel it is to have NZ citizenship (or even permanent residence).

Relative to when I immigrated, in 1992, they face a long drawn out immigration process, even though they are high value individuals serving our communities. When I arrived, people with enough points immediately qualified for permanent residence the first time you set foot on NZ soil.

One nurse I spoke to was now 2 and a half years into her immigration process with a long road still to go. A short while after speaking to me she went off the help someone in the infectious isolation room. These people face real danger for us, especially in the Covid-19 era.

We hear calls of “they are us”, well does that extend to high value medical staff?

Imagine the slap in the face these people must have felt when ILG and our PM handed out NZ permanent residence to a drug dealer who just happened to be well connected to her!

You are good enough to work in our hospitals, but we’ll hand out the jewels to the drug dealers because, read between the lines.

That is what made me feel ashamed. While I did not vote for them, they are still “my” government that I enable through tax paying.

I call on the government to expedite the processing of immigration for medical staff. These are really people that we need and are earning special treatment they are not getting.

Clearly we should retain good character requirements etc, but I think this is the least we can do to show our appreciation.
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March 22, 2020 9:58am
- MT_Tinman
  
  I am not an immigrant but I could not agree more.
  
  Many, in fact most, of these people are genuine heroes.
  
  Citizenship should, in their case, be automatic if they seek it, after a short qualifying time.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:13am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Amen, amen and amen. Excellent post cmm.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:15am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Also look at how they have sped up PR for relations f the Chch victims.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:22am
  - David Garrett
    
    Chuck: I stand to be corrected, but I have been told that 400 Muslim relatives of the bereaved in Christchurch have come in without any vetting whatever..Does anyone know if that is true?
    
    Just what we need…400 embittered Muslims, some of them probably already radicalized.
    
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    March 22, 2020 10:28am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Cheer up, maybe your constant ranting about the danger of Muslims will inspire someone to take action.
      
      4 38
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      March 22, 2020 10:36am
      - David Garrett
        
        Milky: Oh they will “take action” eventually, I have no doubt of that…but it will probably take more than one Muslim terror attack here…because clowns like you will solemnly say “Well, we brought it on ourselves”…despite the perpetrator of the Christchurch tragedy being a fucking Australian, and not even a resident.
        
        But after a second one, or a public beheading, I believe people will start to wake up..
        
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        March 22, 2020 11:16am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        The Norman Tebbit cricket test, every time.
        
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        March 22, 2020 1:35pm
- projectman
  
  Agree. Immigration is about getting the right people.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:14am
Happychappy

Does anyone think that Peter’s will reveling in this as it has bought him enough time to be re- elected again if the the Serious Fraud Office doesn’t get the time to do its job right in investigating the NZ First Foundation on the donations saga. This case could end up another couple of years away if they cannot come up with a solution and find a vaccine that can stop Coronavirus in its tracks.
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March 22, 2020 10:02am
- Tony Stuart
  
  If anything, this is worse for Peters. Firstly, he’s totally out of the limelight, which he hates. Secondly, the PM is getting all the accolades. And thirdly, the SFO reportedly visited a person very significant to NZ First on Friday, with a search warrant.
  
  I suspect Mr Peters will be lying low for a little longer yet, even if the PM has given him a come-to-work exemption.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:59pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Thanks Tony I was worried that they wouldn’t get to do there job .
    
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    March 22, 2020 3:42pm
Wired-one

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120473692/57m-to-be-spent-on-mori-coronavirus-response-package

Absolutely unbelievable.
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March 22, 2020 10:26am
- Prince
  
  Lots of dosh for ‘outreach’, communidies and planning.
  Nothing about measuring effectiveness or outcomes of course.
  Not a dollar will make it past the bureaucrats, those special Party apparatchiks who must be rewarded.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:26am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Totally agree, lunacy. But if it turns all the non-Maori voters against Labour it will be a good thing.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:31pm
Simon Gotlieb

Some good comments here today on the health of those dying from COVID-19, and I took wonder about how much as a society we have invested in trying to keep people alive beyond their natural life cycle – you know, the old four score years and ten thing. I’ve been checking out the worldometer info on the cases, and I haven’t been able to find out much statistical information about age and pre-existing conditions, although I assume that in people dying of COVID there are comorbidities.

Another thought that keeps re-occuring is, say we do go to Level 4, what happens then when we have a majority of us have recovered from the virus.

Selfish though, but I’m a musician, and I’ve had gigs cancelled – like everyone else in my situation. So, we end up with a situation where, say, 51% of us have recovered from the virus, but we’re still in lockdown. What’s the danger of hosting a gig where only people who’ve recovered from the virus can come? Same with workplaces. If you’ve all recovered, is there a point to still being isolated due to the risk to those who’ve not yet been infected. I can’t find any protocols online to suggest at what stage we go back to normality.

Any thoughts on all that?
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March 22, 2020 10:35am
- Misha Beattie
  
  AFAIK if you have recovered from the virus you will have immunity. You can’t catch it and cannot transmit it. It would be madness to force this category of people to remain in isolation.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:44am
  - Jules99
    
    In China, some people who recovered and tested negative relapsed. It’s not clear whether they had not actually got rid of the virus, but the tests didn’t pick it up, or that the virus does not produce immunity.
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:23pm
    - Classic Liberal
      
      I understand scientists are saying this was testing errors. Recovering from the virus does make people immune.
      
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      March 22, 2020 7:24pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  If you carefully read through the NZ Influenza Pandemic Plan you will see that there are 2 phases dealing with procedures as the pandemic abates…
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/influenza-pandemic-plan-framework-action-2nd-edn-aug17.pdf
  
  It strikes me that the country will operate in concert whilst there are outbreaks /positives throughout the country…. restrictions will be lifted district by district or across the country at one time.
  
  Without anti-body tests it won’t be possible to be sure that someone has recovered from Corvid-19 and not from a dose of seasonal flu.
  
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  March 22, 2020 10:58am
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    Thanks Maggy. I’ll go have a read of it. Appreciate the helpful post 🙂
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:15am
  - projectman
    
    I think Corvid-19 is something caught from a crow (genus Corvus) 😉
    
    9 1
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    March 22, 2020 11:18am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Good ~~bird-~~ word-spotting there…
      
      my mistake…covid-19.
      
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      March 22, 2020 11:34am
  - MrTips
    
    What the bods are interested in is whether this virus goes alike the common cold and mutates enough to render vaccines impotent. Virulence as per the flu requires consistency in structure, whereas infectiousness doesn’t. Hopefully the former will be the case.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:27am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      But as it mutates and spreads it is also likely to become more benign. Then it will be an endemic seasonal flu and they always infect many people but only kill a few very vulnerable ones.
      
      It’s not to the virus’s benefit to kill hosts.
      
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      March 22, 2020 7:33pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Maggy, in light of what you have said, would it not make sense for the government make flu vacceen available to everyone and encourage everyone to get vacinated?
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:26pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Flu vaccine is already being given ahead of the normal schedule to elderly and vulnerable people.
      
      8 5
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      March 22, 2020 1:03pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I know but it should be free for everyone this year.
        
        5 2
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        March 22, 2020 1:42pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      The 2020 Flu Vaccine is Free to all folks over 65, pregnant mums and a whole host of other folks…
      https://www.fightflu.co.nz/
      
      6 0
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      March 22, 2020 2:40pm
    - Michael NZ
      
      Chuck
      Just had mine yesterday. so it is here.
      
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      March 23, 2020 12:13am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I take it Maggy, that you have not given my excellent suggestion of the Cabinet Manual much thought as a lockdown read then?
    
    I am hardly surprised and, not in the least disappointed . . .
    
    4 1
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    March 22, 2020 1:38pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I’m rather selective in what I read these days…
      and I’ve got a grand list of travel books and Detective fiction to sample over the coming months (thanks folks).
      
      Bit of a bugga that the Gizzy Library is out of action… but I’ll make a call-out to my book-group ladies and see if they have any of them on their book shelves.
      
      (I’d rather read paper print novels, than read them on-line )
      
      7 1
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      March 22, 2020 2:32pm
- Pateke
  
  Simon, some of my friends overseas are streaming music concerts from home with viewers kicking in a few bucks via virtual tip jar. Seems pretty easy to set up. I for one would pay to watch your show.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:05am
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    Yeah, it’s a good idea Pateke. Lots are doing this, so it’s going to mean a small amount of money is available but, hey, that’s life. I’m trying to support as many as I can be buying merchandise and records, etc. Cheers for your thoughts. I have a day job so at the moment I’m okay – I hope 🙂
    
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    March 22, 2020 3:31pm
- Joely Doe
  
  Here you go – it’s in Italian, so hope you’re up to date…
  Report-COVID-2019_17_marzo-v2.pdf
  The interesting bit is Page 3 – 355 deaths / 1772 cases
  0 pathology 3 0.8%
  1 pathology 89 25.1%
  2 pathology 91 25.6%
  3 or more 172 48.5%
  
  99% of those who died had other illnesses
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:08am
- kloyd0306
  
  You’re a socialist yet in a pandemic you want to earn money off others?
  Who knew!
  
  15 1
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  March 22, 2020 11:14am
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    Yeah, well hugs and feels aren’t worth anything at Countdown mate. As for socialism, in some things I am. Some I’m not. Probably not too different from most kiwis. I don’t see capitalism having a lot of answers to the current problem, but socialism does at the moment. Capitalism’s time will come in the rebuild. I don’t have an issue with capitalism as such. Fair pay for fair work and all that. It’s usury, exploitation, and greed I have the issues with.
    
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    March 22, 2020 3:34pm
- MrTips
  
  We will go back to normality when folk say en masse “Stuff it, I’m not being cooped up forever” and economies demand it.
  
  I give it 3-4 months to get to that stage in Europe
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:24am
  - Gravelroad
    
    3 or 4 months??
    I give it 3 or 4 weeks.
    
    8 1
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    March 22, 2020 1:03pm
- toby1845
  
  Simon, your music is sh*t. Those cancellations are a rare silver lining on one of the dark clouds we are facing.
  
  Why don’t you use the time to mow your lawns? They are a disgrace. I’m surprised you haven’t had notes from the neighbours in your letterbox.
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:18pm
  - Simon Gotlieb
    
    Dude, if you really know enough about me to make comment on my music and my lawns, why don’t you pop over and we’ll have a talk about it?
    
    I actually think you’re full of shit because there’s nothing wrong with my lawns. And I doubt you’ve even heard my music.
    
    Go, and I mean this in the nicest and most sincere way, fuck yourself.
    
    5 4
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    March 22, 2020 3:36pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Strange, other people said very similar things to Simon here, but there were far more upticks.
  
  Neither recovered people (and we’d need a quick antibody blood test to check who has actually a had mild case without even knowing and is now immune) nor non-vulnerable people should be in lockdown.
  
  Ruining the entire economy is madness. Far more could be achieved by clearly identifying vulnerable people, asking them to stay isolated, rewarding them generously, and working to get a vaccine asap.
  
  Meanwhile, life could go on for everyone else, with the likelihood of a mild-moderate covid infection accepted.
  
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  March 22, 2020 7:29pm
Maggie Pie

I’ve just got back home with the bread and buns from Bakers Delight for lunch.
Since the Bishop announced that all Mass was to be cancelled till further notice, i nevertheless popped into Church for a quite prayer and reflection.
I’d no sooner sat in a pew by myself when my partner sends this tweet.
Honestly, there are times I really have to wonder….

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETNls74XsAEBuyG?format=jpg&name=900×900
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March 22, 2020 10:36am
- David Garrett
  
  Maggie: Your partner (fuck, does no-one have a “boyfriend” any more??) is obviously a man with a good sense of humour… Should we assume he is not a God botherer??
  
  19 4
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  March 22, 2020 11:19am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    It’s the one area we really differ on DG. He just can’t help himself with his constant snide little digs. More so since I told him we need to practice ‘social distancing’. Mind you, I’m getting a lot more sleep.
    
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    March 22, 2020 11:30am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Maggie, do you tell the Preist at confession your stance on abortion?
  
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  March 22, 2020 12:57pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I have said this before Chuck, but truly you are a horrible person.
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:04pm
    - Chuck Bird
      
      Not as evil as your princess.
      
      12 7
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      March 22, 2020 1:43pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    TBH Chuck, i’ve never found that necessary. Although on more than one occasion, I’ve let them know my stance on pedophilia.
    
    17 1
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    March 22, 2020 1:09pm
  - lifesgood
    
    She is not a Catholic, simply can’t be with her belief in murder. All this talk of going to church is rubbish.
    
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    March 22, 2020 5:29pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      You’ve obviously never studied Numerology then LG?
      68 > 51 are the prime numbers, with more than a third of the 68 professing to be of the Catholic faith. That shows Catholics are quite capable of thinking for themselves – it’s both a health issue and a woman’s right to choose.
      
      ‘Murder’? You quite obviously fall into the category of yet another religious male nutter. Start preparing your corflute signs – it will give you something to occupy your tiny mind.
      
      3 2
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      March 22, 2020 7:38pm
  - kowtow
    
    Chuck
    
    Mags ,IMHO , is not a church goer . She / he is just using religion as an excuse to post humour…….
    
    May not even have a “partner” , he could be a Dr Watson to Mags’ Sherlock Holmes , a literary device.
    
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    March 22, 2020 7:40pm
- Gravelroad
  
  No more Krispie Cremes then?
  Is it Lent, or are you giving them up for the duration of Covid19?
  
  9 1
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  March 22, 2020 1:01pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    TBH, gave the KK’s up a couple of months ago Gravel.
    A while back i bought a new pair of stretchy jeans and when i asked my partner if they made my bum look big, what he said was, “Not as big as your mothers”
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:26pm
- mara
  
  I wonder if the mods would have let that through if it was a depiction of Mohammed.
  
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  March 22, 2020 2:08pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1dDBKbKUg
China May See a 2nd Wave of Infections. Thanks Mr Presitator.
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March 22, 2020 10:39am
- JamesP
  
  Seems likely. As long as a significant proportion of the population has not been infected then they are not immune. This leaves you open to new infections if you drop strict isolation measures. The problem is that economically and psychologically you can’t maintain those measures indefinitely.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:50am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPdgMvKsfvk
Hungary could get kicked out of the Fourth Reich. “You’re fired”. “I quit”.
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March 22, 2020 10:39am
Chuck Bird

I mentioned late yesterday about whether there may have been a breach of the Electorial Act with those police questions? This is banana republic stuff when the police ask questions about which political party someone supports. If it is not a breach it should be.

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/03/inappropriate_questions_from_police.html#comments
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March 22, 2020 10:43am
- Misha Beattie
  
  If the report is correct, there should be an investigation and the police involved disciplined.
  
  24 1
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  March 22, 2020 10:46am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    And the Minister of Police but we know that will not happen with this currupt government.
    
    7 3
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    March 22, 2020 1:45pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  I would be asking them to show their authority for such questions without any other response.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:32pm
Aunty

The coronavirus numbers coming out of Europe are horrific. Nearly 5000 dead in Italy, 1400 in Spain, in a little more than three weeks.

But hey, don’t worry about it folks. If it’s not just a CIA plot to pay off Donald Trump’s golf club debts, and for the UN to set up a world government it’s just another flu. Go about your business as normal, there’s nothing to see here.

They don’t have it in Whereaboutsisitastan, so that is just fucking proof right there!
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March 22, 2020 10:45am
- Andrei
  
  200,000 people die from typhoid every year – do you even notice or care?
  
  650,000 people died in Italy year last in the natural course of events and you didn’t bat an eyelid because people die all the time. Nobody noticed and if it had been reported n the News you would have given a big yawn
  
  Keep things in perspective people
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:36am
  - emmess
    
    Italy are up to about half that number on annuallised basis (800 per day)
    Tell me Andrei, when does it become something to worry about?
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:52pm
    - Andrei
      
      The people who are dying are people who would probably die within 12 months anyway.
      
      In some cases the primary cause of death may have been something other than coronavirus – for example in Iceland a tourist presented at the emergency room with a heart attack and died. It was only after he had died it was discovered that he and his wife had a corona virus infection and neither were displaying any symptoms of that particular malady when he died
      
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      March 22, 2020 1:38pm
      - Harriet
        
        Yeah exactly right Andrei
        
        “….The news is not actually reporting that a lot of these victims have secondary conditions. USA Today ran this headline: “Spanish soccer coach for Atletico Portada Alta dies from coronavirus at age 21.”
        Only when one read the story did one find out that “[a] 21-year-old youth soccer coach in Spain died Sunday from coronavirus while also battling leukemia.”
        Leukemia?! Leukemia affects the immune system, and the treatment also savages immunity. What killed this soccer couch was leukemia. His body was set up to die from any infection.
        
        ********The number of people who die from colds is necessarily underestimated. Those who are elderly or have lung or immunity problems will often pick up a cold, then catch a predatory secondary infection such as pneumonia. It is the secondary infection that is listed as the cause of death or the underlying illnesses — but not the cold that set the process in motion.
        This demarcation will now be reversed, as coronavirus — rather than pneumonia — will be listed as the cause, thus giving a distorted view of the reason for morbidity.**************
        
        I would not be surprised if the death rates from common colds among the elderly are similar to those now credited to the coronavirus. We can make some inferences from rhinoviruses, which are also the causes of many colds…..’
        
        And they wonder why people panic, and look at the damage it’s doing.
        
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        March 22, 2020 6:39pm
  - Aunty
    
    Idiot.
    
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    March 22, 2020 6:43pm
  - GoVege
    
    Its true that thousands of elderly people die of the flu every year and it is hardly reported, because it has been going on for years.
    The main difference this time is that
    there is no vaccine for this virus, as there is for the flu, the hospitals are overwhelmed with the numbers of sick, and medical staff are dying too.
    
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    March 22, 2020 6:50pm
Tauhei Notts

I see on Stuff that a mobile stationary shop in Cambridge is delivering books to people stuck indoors.
A mobile stationary shop! Is that the same as military intelligence?
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March 22, 2020 10:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Hahaha..
  Wonder how many people are going to twig?
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:30am
  - rightoverlabour
    
    Hmmm I was always taught ery with an “e” as in pen and ary with “a” as in stand. Journalists should go back to basics, me thinks.
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:40pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Same, same.
      
      2 3
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      March 22, 2020 1:03pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  No same as Government Intelligence
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:37am
RW Capitalist

Question:
Will Covid 19 impact the world more than the “Social distancing” they are recommending?
Pretty difficult to get pregnant from 2m away.
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March 22, 2020 10:51am
- Maggie Pie
  
  “Social Distancing” clearly working well in Courtney Place last night.
  How long till they close the bars?
  
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EToNlqAUEAEgUXY?format=jpg&name=small
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:40am
  - Monique Watson
    
    They’re not closing them. In Auckland Phil Goff says he doesn’t want to upset anyone.
    Because he’s a goitre on the political scene trying to buy time while the citizens are desperate to know what else they can do.
    Meanwhile in Wellington some shoelace grabber in the Stuff newsroom has produced copy about Ardern going to war. Probably in lieu of releasing the latest Covid-19 figures. The government suppressing info because is Sunday and they can. If this is going to war I hate to think what inaction looks like.
    
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    March 22, 2020 12:58pm
- Steve James
  
  Not for me???
  
  6 2
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  March 22, 2020 12:16pm
Maggie Pie

Worth sharing with the group. Please remember:
1] Hospitals are not the frontline in the war against coronavirus. You are.
2]The virus doesn’t spread itself. You spread it.
3] There is no medical solution yet (and maybe never will be). You are the solution.
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March 22, 2020 11:09am
- rightoverlabour
  
  I would add 4] The government is the last place I would go for advice.
  
  16 1
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  March 22, 2020 12:42pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Can’t trust those pointy-headed bureaucrats at the Ministry of Health. What would those qualified doctors know?
    
    4 16
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    March 22, 2020 1:10pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Your assumption that bureaucrats are doctors is patently ridiculous.
      
      11 2
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      March 22, 2020 2:08pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        You don’t think the MoH staff providing pandemic advice have medical qualifications?
        
        2 3
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        March 22, 2020 4:12pm
    - rightoverlabour
      
      Like the Minister of Health? A qualified doctor…in Theology…
      
      7 1
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      March 22, 2020 2:26pm
rouppe

This is bloody ridiculous.

The medical advice is the same. The resources should go to those that need it, not those with brown skin
36 2
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March 22, 2020 11:10am
- JamesP
  
  Love the type in the URL “mori”. Freudian slip.
  
  12 2
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  March 22, 2020 11:30am
  - kris
    
    Thats the website software avoiding putting special characters (the ‘a’ with a macron in this case) into the URL.
    
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    March 22, 2020 1:38pm
- Clyde
  
  Of course, but that isn’t how it works anymore. It might amaze the likes of racists like Willy Jackson and the rest of the maori caucus, but this virus is colour blind as well as being lethal. But calling out racists is apparently not welcome anywhere anymore.
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:53am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    ‘ But calling out racists is apparently not welcome anywhere anymore.’
    
    ‘Not if youse a whitey boy, never has been’ said Willie Jackson
    
    8 1
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    March 22, 2020 1:48pm
- Aunty
  
  No. According to Labour the money must be spent on our most vulnerable (read their voters).
  
  Don’t forget 1/3 to 1/2 of the Labour caucus is Maori and Pacific Islander. Hardly representative of New Zealand as a whole is it? Any risk of racial bias in favour of certain groups in there do you think?
  
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  March 22, 2020 11:54am
  - david
    
    They have obviously believed what Winnie told them about Maori originating in Taiwan. Put that together with rumours about particular racial susceptibility of people of Chinese origin, couple it with Phil (everything turns to shit) Twyford and you have the perfect storm.
    Of course New Zealand’s indigenous people will suffer more than their colonialist oppressors, this is Class War brother, roll up and see how it should be done.
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:21pm
- emmess
  
  Leftists are incapable of adjusting their rhetoric to the situation.
  The most vulnerable in this situation are the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions but that doesn’t suit the narrative.
  
  Imagine if there was a disease that specifically killed 100% of middle-aged, straight, white cis-gendered men and left everyone else untouched, They would never in a million years refer to us as vulnerable.
  Wokeness trumps all.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:01pm
  - Batman
    
    Oh piffle!
    
    4 21
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    March 22, 2020 1:05pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120473692/57m-to-be-spent-on-mori-coronavirus-response-package

Well, words fail me.
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March 22, 2020 11:22am
- kevn
  
  @grey… Maybe the money could be doled out according to the percentage of maori bloodline?
  That would thin out most wannabe recipients.
  
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  March 22, 2020 4:12pm
Lance

I see they wheeled out Fran O’Sullivan to be the balancing voice of the right on Q+A.

That program is a joke

Left and lefter praising the Unicorn Princess and denouncing any voice of opposition.
How dare Simon point out the CoL shouldn’t play politics. They unanimously labelled Simon’s opposition as “playing politics”.
How to shut down any non-consenting voice 101.
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March 22, 2020 11:53am
- MrTips
  
  Fran isn’t right wing. She’s part of the Cindy fan club.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:34pm
SB 2

Derek Thompson
@DKThomp

There are no libertarians in a pandemic.
Quote Tweet

Matt Fuller
@MEPFuller
· Mar 4

Truly stunning to hear some Republicans advocate for free Coronavirus testing and treatment for the uninsured.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), one of the most anti-ACA members:

“You can look at it as socialized medicine, but in the face of an outbreak, a pandemic, what’s your options?”

LOL!
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March 22, 2020 12:07pm
Barry Brill

The present Government is slavishly following the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan, which was published on 4 August 2017.

https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/new-zealand-influenza-pandemic-plan-framework-action

Who was the (National) Minister of Health when all this planning was being undertaken and approved?
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March 22, 2020 1:12pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  OMG, what a scandal!
  The government is using the government’s pandemic plan!
  
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  March 22, 2020 4:14pm
rightoverlabour

67
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March 22, 2020 1:15pm
pb

Will schools teach exponentials in the post China bat virus generation? That to be paranoid is ok when your society is threatened. The banks are guilty. The debt is not recoverable. Independence and local reliance is everything.
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March 22, 2020 1:23pm
Nickc2

It would appear that the passenger vessel RUBY PRINCESS was in Auckland post Sydney without being disinfected prior to departure from Sydney where known carriers of COVID-19 were released into Australia. Read about it here:
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/03/coronavirus-cruise-ship-ruby-princess-now-at-anchor-offshore-sydney.html
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March 22, 2020 1:26pm
David Garrett

The latest from the generally impressive Dr Ashley Bloomfield: no new cases since yesterday…but we need to remember the incubation period is up to 12 days apparently…and we have had a shitload of people arrive back in the country in the past week…It would be pretty surprising if there were no new cases from that lot…
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March 22, 2020 1:31pm
- MrTips
  
  Um it says on the news sites that we have 14 more? And what’s with the media not being able to count. 52 +14 = 66, not 67.
  
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  March 22, 2020 1:33pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    seems to have been an adjustment somewhere…
    
    This brings the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Zealand to a total of 66 – note, this differs from the number listed in this stand up. The correct total is 66 confirmed cases. See Current cases for more information.
    
    https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/covid-19-livestream-media-update-22-march
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:03pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    There’s a suggestion that one case has been double-counted. However he definitely said 67 in the 1pm briefing.
    
    Also, I see another two cases in Taranaki, with “travel” connections. Given the number of performers, crew etc from overseas for the WOMAD festival last weekend, I’m still staggered that it was allowed to go on. A friend and her family spent last week in lockdown after the daughter developed symptoms after attending WOMAD. Fortunately for them, her test came back negative on Friday. But that doesn’t negate the possibility of community transmission last weekend, which make take another week to ten days to manifest itself.
    
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    March 22, 2020 2:07pm
Tasman Terror

Two things made me really happy yesterday: 1 Jacinderella can count to four; and 2 She has eight fingers, two thumbs, and ten toes.
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March 22, 2020 1:57pm
Mummy

OK so apologies if someone has already picked up on this but I see a retirement home worker in Auckland has just tested positive. Note the timeline. She returns from Zimbabwe 10 March. No symptoms. Works until 6.30 am 17 March. Shows first symptoms 18 March. Now my maths might be out but 14 days from 10 March is next Tuesday. Why wasn’t she self isolating, given her type of work? Even if it was technically before the government decree that everyone returning from overseas had to self isolate. Who let her come back to work? This is where the wheels are going to fall off. People like her and her employers too.
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March 22, 2020 2:17pm
- MCos
  
  She returned on 10-March from Zimbabwe where there were no known infected cases until a couple of days ago.
  Sho returned to work on 15-March, which is more than fourteen days later.
  She felt crook the next day with a headache, had a test & hey presto.
  Make of that what you will, but bear in mind some people have only very mild symptoms.
  
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  March 22, 2020 4:30pm
  - Tall Man
    
    You may want to review those numbers.
    
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    March 22, 2020 5:00pm
  - cmm
    
    The Zim “health system” is so screwed it might as well not be there. In fact it is probably worse than nothing.
    
    Anyone who thinks there were no cases in Zimbabwe is deliberately lying to themselves and is probably some idiot trying to pretend that the Zim Comrades are running things well.
    
    10th March to 15th March looks to me like 5 days. Yup, just verified on my toes… 5 days.
    
    How is 5 days more than 14 days?
    
    11 0
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    March 22, 2020 6:09pm
    - MCos
      
      I’ve double checked my sums and you’re right!
      As for their healthcare system. I suspected their claim of one case was dubious, which was why I wrote know cases.
      
      6 0
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      March 22, 2020 6:30pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Obviously, being a South African by birth you don’t have as many toes as a real Kiwi born in Timaru ?
      
      4 1
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      March 22, 2020 6:32pm
    - cmm
      
      MCos: The criteria should not be “no known cases” it should be “no known cases, and we trust the data”.
      
      Even still, people should be self-isolating for 4 weeks due to the extra concerns around working in a rest home.
      
      0 0
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      March 23, 2020 7:55am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Is there a Tax that I can pay to stop Covid-19, or does that only work for ‘climate change’?
21 2
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March 22, 2020 3:28pm
- Simon Gotlieb
  
  That will come later, when we have to pay back what the government borrowed on our behalf to get us through this. Seems inevitable that there will be either deferred tax cuts, or GST increase, or tax % changes in our future.
  
  10 2
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  March 22, 2020 3:41pm
- JibberJabber
  
  Oh yes, there`ll be a tax you can pay, if this clown show gets back in it`s all back on the table, gst rise, capital gains, death duties, stamp duties and a plethora of taxes they haven`t even dreamt up yet to make your wallet bleed.
  All in the name of fairness, of course, they wouldn`t those who have to pay it think they are getting bent over and reamed again.
  
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  March 22, 2020 5:16pm
Pheobe

Our daughter is in charge of a school in Auckland, most of the teachers have advised that due to medical issues they wont be in, who is going to look after the kids. According to her the minister of Health wants to close the schools, but the minister of education doesn’t.
11 1
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March 22, 2020 3:42pm
- Tall Man
  
  Confusion and stupidity in the coalition, I find that hard to believe 😉
  
  9 1
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  March 22, 2020 4:57pm
Simon Gotlieb

So, Scott Morrison has just announced, amongst other things, that the jobseeker benefit (dole) in Australia is to double. Puts our $25 in perspective doesn’t it?

And they’re a conservative government.
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March 22, 2020 3:52pm
- MrTips
  
  Aussie has 3.6m casual contract workers. Not to mention tourism and hospo/service FTers.
  They won’t be able to afford that for long.
  
  8 1
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  March 22, 2020 3:59pm
  - Tall Man
    
    He has it wrong.
    
    2 2
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    March 22, 2020 4:45pm
- Tall Man
  
  Not quite the truth…..
  
  “Up to half a million Australian workers who lose their jobs because of coronavirus set to be given Centrelink payments higher than the dole”
  
  Close enough for a lefty though I suppose.
  
  14 2
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  March 22, 2020 4:18pm
  - Tall Man
    
    So why the downtick? Truth hurts does it?
    
    If you want to spout bullshit on this blog you need to do a better job.
    
    Telling half the story like ardern doesn’t cut the mustard.
    
    11 1
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    March 22, 2020 5:08pm
    - Simon Gotlieb
      
      I didn’t downtick you dude. I already told you I don’t give a shit about the ticks. You need to go find something that makes you happy. You’ll end up with a serious illness if you hold on to so many negative thoughts.
      
      1 6
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      March 22, 2020 9:25pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I’m looking forward to the Kiwiblog explanations of how that is different from our move.
  
  3 14
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  March 22, 2020 4:19pm
  - Tall Man
    
    https://theunionjournal.com/australians-who-lose-their-jobs-during-the-coronavirus-crisis-have-centrelink-payments-doubled/
    
    Does that work mikey?
    
    Easier than actually finding out the full story eh?
    
    9 1
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    March 22, 2020 4:54pm
  - toby1845
    
    It’s very different. It’s entirely appropriate for someone who has lost their job to be paid more than a bludger who doesn’t want to work.
    
    0 1
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    March 22, 2020 11:16pm
- Harriet
  
  20,000 qantas workers got laid off.
  
  And I’d guess 60% of casual baristas and food service workers in Sydney, Melbourne……would at least have hours cut. House auctions will be down.
  
  8 2
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  March 22, 2020 4:47pm
MrTips

Random thought.

If the govt is serious about stopping hoarding, why don’t they give everyone a number. Have 7 numbers 1-7: 1= Monday etc. You shop on your numbered day and prove it with your sticker at the cashier. Wrong day, no service.

Yes, carless days v2 but it worked.
8 1
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March 22, 2020 4:01pm
- DeepBlue
  
  Photo ID and surname letters by day would work. No need for pesky stickers. Remember how many families with two cars chose different carless days.
  
  5 1
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  March 22, 2020 6:15pm
- Prince
  
  Use the market. Buy one item of X = $5,
  buy 2 items = $20.
  Buy 3 items = $40 etc.
  
  Profits to go direct to local hospitals.
  
  4 1
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  March 22, 2020 9:10pm
Harriet

If your borders have been shut down and you have what looks likely — most known cases — then it’s now a case of the public doing what is right, and time.

Systems are working if most cases are known, and it suggests they are as there are no signs of ‘pandemic spread’ in NZ itself – that’s an uneducated opinion, but national borders have been long shut in NZ than they were in China itself, no cases have really spread in NZ – let alone left NZ.
Tourism will be the hardest hit – quarantine that from the rest of your economy in some way and the effects may be far less. The only way I know is to contain the virus by doing the right thing daily and support domestic tourism, and that curve may work itself out. Less is better than nothing when it’s an entire Provence like the west coast.
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March 22, 2020 4:38pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Yes. Where are our leaders with common sense? Is NZ to be shut down fully for the next 12 months to great mental health detriment too? Every new visitor is a cause for risk–are we just to keep on shutting them out?
  
  5 1
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  March 22, 2020 6:51pm
JibberJabber

Just had a call from a CoronaVirus survey, but I told them “no thanks we`ve already got some”.
9 0
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March 22, 2020 5:26pm
MrTips

To the Horrid: stop spreading fear and bullshit.
Went onto this website: https://c19check.com/start
that the Horrid paraded as some online covid19 checker.

Don’t bother. It’s bloody useless. It basically triages you on jurisdiction and recommends you seek urgent medical help with just a headache and dizziness, which are totally nonspecific for covid19.

Annoying shitty clickbait to a shitty website.
7 2
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March 22, 2020 6:21pm
MrTips

I have lived in both countries. This does not surprise me . The Finn’s are very much like us, except better overall skiers.

They have 530 cases of Covid19 and a 30 something female PM.

They also have 1500 tests a day and no idea of the real prevalence rate.
4 1
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March 22, 2020 7:12pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Scary article….
  but their PM is so pretty, and she cares about the Planet..
  https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/03/02/finnish-prime-minister-sanna-marin/
  
  6 1
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  March 22, 2020 9:54pm
  - toby1845
    
    Yep, quite a cutie (unlike the people’s princess), but still as dumb as our version.
    So,how’s that European Green Deal thingy looking now, Missy?
    
    Betcha Finland wishes it had an adult PM now.
    
    1 1
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    March 22, 2020 11:23pm

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