Alright, I’ll admit it: I haven’t slogged through all 716 pages of the you-know-what inquiry phase-one report. Nausea has overwhelmed and defeated me and I’ve settled for merely reading some of the summaries.
I firmly believe that the information in the report must contain vital clues that we need to be aware of about what they are planning to do to us next. If anyone here has read the entire thing, please let me know in the comments. Meanwhile, allow me to attempt an analysis of the summaries.
If you’ve read any of the report, you may have shared the dream-like feeling of unreality that comes over me every time I try to get through it. “Lessons Learned”...really? With the mountains of research and evidence now available showing that the entire worldwide ‘response’ was completely meaningless and had no effect whatsoever on outcomes, they have somehow still been able to “learn” – and I quote – that “Aotearoa New Zealand’s elimination strategy, and the use of public health and social measures to support it, were highly effective” (Consolidated Lessons and Recommendations, p 5), that “lockdowns…worked” (p 7), that the “measures undoubtedly saved lives” (p 11)...but I won’t go on. It’s like listening to a fairy tale being read out loud by someone who believes it really happened.
The overall message of the report is that New Zealand’s ‘pandemic response’ was absolutely wonderful but it was hampered by a lack of preparedness and coordination. The need for an “all-of-government approach” is repeatedly emphasised. Nowhere does it question whether the unprecedented nightmare we lived through was a necessary and reasonable response to a serious biological threat. Or that it will all need to be done again. It’s as if pandemics is a new game that we’ve learned to play and now we’re all going to keep on playing it, whether it makes any sense or not.
The inquiry’s recommendations are basically that the government should spend a trillion dollars on useless nonsense while strengthening the economy. There is room to doubt whether the combined resources of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy could give them everything they’re calling for. But let’s just note a few things:
- They want the government to establish a “central agency function” to plan and strategise for future pandemics and other national risks. That would include, say, anything. Remember: the WHO can now declare a health emergency whether or not anybody is sick.
- They want the health system to be ready with efficient and pleasant systems for quarantine, contact tracing, testing and jabbing. Remember: there doesn’t have to be a pandemic.
- They want all ‘sectors’ to have pandemic plans and strategies for working remotely, implementing mandates and so on. Remember: there doesn’t have to be an actual health emergency.
- They want legislation to be reviewed to ensure that it can “provide sufficient powers for an initial response to a pandemic”.
Overall, it’s more or less what we expected – a plan to do it all again whenever they want to, while making it more pleasant and comfortable so that people can be guilt tripped into not complaining about it. And to have enough legislation in place, or planned for and ready to be put together, so that they can do it without breaking the law next time.
It was predictable, yes, but many of us are beginning to feel that it’s not so inevitable any more: that the tide of opinion and the mood of society are turning against these power-crazed psychopaths. I’ll be back to comment more on it all, but, meantime, let’s hope the optimists are right.
