Au revoir Dr Ashley Bloomfield

The 30th of July is your last day as Director-General of Health, officially.

Apparently you have done 307 covid updates on the podium. But I bet most of your work was done out of the spotlight. So was the toll it took on you, your family, your friends. You must have an extremely supportive, understanding, strong wife. I believe you've said your youngest child is leaving home so they may have been impacted less.

You are extremely competent, and without a doubt your input in the covid-19 response has been colossal. You are one of the main reasons NZ has been, until now (as we can't predict the future), one of the few places with less impact directly from covid and by extension, its consequences.

You are not just facts and figures and knowledge, you have a certain charisma which helps when you need a population to react. You know what can persuade people, hence your presence and behaviour at Super Saturday and publicity when you got vaccinated.

You are confident but humble and thank those that should be thanked, you don't base your thanks on how important and/or relevant one may be. You know names.

You are honest, straightforward but diplomatic at the same time.

You make an effort with the Māori language.

You totally deserve a break and you shouldn't feel any negativity in resigning. You have protected Aotearoa extremely well. It also means you know your limits.

I wonder if you realize that many in the NZ general population will always have you in their mind and so you'll always be followed by a soft spotlight.

You can be super proud of the decisions you've made.

Take care, stay safe and look after yourself.

-A.M.

Covid-19 RATs and PCR tests calls

It kind of feels weird saying this, but I never thought I'd be contributing in a small way to contain the spread of covid-19, if it can be considered that. I am taking calls to place orders to send out one or more RAT(s) and one or more PCR test(s) or DTS test(s) to the relevant address.

I am fully aware it's not frontline work or advising any government or being part of any government decisions whose goal is trying to keep up with and contain covid.

However I am having an effect on a human and/or emotional level and possibly decreasing the workload on all frontline workers who have been going full tilt. It is strange to think what I say could have a real impact on a human life but I suppose in a way you get used to it; even though I just started. It brings covid to me on more of a realistic and tangible level when I'm talking to people and placing orders to send out tests to them.

So far none of the callers have sounded extremely concerned about their health and most if not all are living with others.

I don't know how long I will be receiving these calls but it is definitely a bit surreal and a shock to the system. I never really doubted covid was real, I actually know two people who have been infected with it and they're close to me. But the simple act of speech from someone who is infected is another level and this is the first time I have directly heard it. My close friends didn't speak to me, they messaged me. I feel comfortable saying I have never had covid unless I have without realizing so I have no personal experience (to draw on).

It feels a bit like an out-of-body experience but for me I'm not that surprised - I always seem to be connected to 'big' events or places or situations or I myself seem to impress: the Christchurch earthquake, I was in NZ for the Rugby World Cup 2011 and 2015, I was at Heathrow when they had tanks there (I think it was soon after 9/11), I saw Adele live, I've been on an A380, I was in Hong Kong and Viet Nam during SARS, I've been to the Auckland Lantern Festival (Auckland’s largest annual festival and New Zealand’s largest Chinese cultural festival), I've been on the TGV several times and the bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai, I have a connection to France and so the 2015 attacks and when Notre-Dame was on fire in 2019 it hit me, hard; among other 'big' events or places or situations or I myself am interesting.

I'm tired mentally too because you're 'waiting' for the call and when/if it does you spring into action. And my normal routine has been 'scuppered' and I think the word discombobulated, which Chris Hipkins used, applies here.

- A.M.

Happy Valentine's Day New Zealand ... again

One year on from my last post on the same date and in two days, 365 days, one calendar year, my first ever post was published here at highonlifeandtravel.com . Whoop whoop.

New Zealand is trying to contain the covid-19 variant of Omicron, and had pretty much just got through Delta. On an international scale, it has been pretty unscathed compared to the US, France, Italy, Fiji among others. It's also highly vaccinated and immunized and the government wants as many people as possible to get their booster. A very different practical and mental living from most of 2021 (and most definitely 2020).

At the same time, a protest on the Parliament grounds in Wellington will have been there for a week tomorrow.

One media person who is generally present for the post-cabinet update has had a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) return a positive result.

New Zealand will be going into phase two of the omicron covid strategy at 23 hours 59 on Tuesday the 15th, tomorrow. This is not a change in the covid protection framework which remains at red.

I predict the 15th February media covid release will have over 1 000 community cases. Not only is it covid, it is omicron. The only thing the general population can do is protect themselves as much as possible and the governments chase as hard as they can. There is no getting ahead of omicron, you just need to bring out as many big guns as you can to isolate and contain.

Even I have a problem typing "fight" because you're really trying to catch up with covid. 'Contain' is ok, I don't think the definition indicates time at all.

Kia kaha.

- A.M.