Covid 19 coronavirus: Andrew Dickens – people start to lose patience

COMMENTARY:

Then, once again, the nation crowded around the radio to listen to the pronouncements of our health authorities and Government about the next stage of our battle against the great contagion of 2020, Covid-19.

I say crowded, but I think the 1pm announcement has lost much of its ratings pull. We know they say something. It’s disappointing. More people lose their jobs. Hopefully things will improve little by little. People are not listening as they did now that we have been on the road for six months.

So I looked at nzherald.co.nz. It’s pretty good. You can stop and pause it and then fast forward through the boring bits.

Ashley made her kiaoras and then described five cases. Two imported and you from the cluster already self-isolated.

Then the prime minister came over and began his spiel. He immediately said that we will not go back to level 3. Relatively early he dropped the old “5 million team” and how they had struggled and early both at the beginning of this saga and after the second outbreak.

The slogans were met with an audible groan from everyone in our office. The 5 million team has certainly exhausted its effectiveness after 23 weeks.

He then went on to speak endlessly about all the factors that the Cabinet considered in making its decision. I heard one of my office mates say “she’s in love with her own voice.” Another said, “for the love of God, keep going.”

Meanwhile, Facebook’s comments were relentless. Propaganda. Hurry up. No transparency. The ego went crazy.

Finally he stopped and announced … nothing. No change for another 10 days. He groaned collectively and everyone went back to work.

And I thought about rewinding and finding out how much of my life I will never get back.

Ashley Bloomfield spoke for 7 minutes and 28 seconds.

The media question time lasted almost 30 minutes.

From the moment the Prime Minister began her talk, to the announcement of the levels, she spoke for a total of … 5 minutes. Followed by another 4 minutes of ra ra. You can do it. Be kind. Put on a mask and the police will be in the pub this weekend to keep you out of the way.

Five minutes … 300 seconds … 2 minutes less than the Hotel California. And how quickly we broke up. If you hear someone talk about how the prime minister just beats us over and over with a condescending voice, remember this comes from people without patience.

Patience is a virtue. Impatience is a danger. Impatience led many to say two months ago to open borders and form travel bubbles that, with the benefit of hindsight, would have been disastrous.

This battle has lasted 23 weeks. Almost six months. The fastest vaccine ever found was against mumps. That took four years.

Keep calm and go ahead and be real. We are still at the beginning. If we are lucky, we are at the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.