Covid 19 coronavirus: Heather du Plessis-Allan on Sir Brian Roche's comments

COMMENT:

I was quite surprised by some of the comments Sir Brian Roche made this morning.

Sir Brian is of course the guy called in along with Heather Simpson to fix the Government's testing system.

Basically his position seems to be that we are too hard on the Government for perceived stuff-ups.

He said: "We are the envy of the world. We seem to want to beat ourselves up for every infringement, and as a citizen I find that surprising."

I don't find that surprising.

The strategy we have chosen, which is elimination, doesn't leave room for mistakes.

Any mistake is an extremely high risk to the country, both in terms of heath and the economy. Just take a look at the cost Auckland is paying right now for a mistake: the country's biggest city is in lockdown and one person is in intensive care.

We all understand enough about Covid now to know just how much of a risk to us a single infringement is.

What's more, I don't believe people are beating the Government up because Covid is back. That's not what people are upset about. People are upset because the Government said it was going to do something, then didn't do it. They feel misled.

And furthermore, I don't even think people get upset at "every infringement". Not every escapee from quarantine raises ire that is directed at the Government.

It's the ones where it is plain what should've been done and wasn't done that raises people's anger.

Obviously, Sir Brian is hardly going to come out as a critic of the Government given that he's in their employ. And he is right to point out how hard people are working behind the scenes.

From the Prime Minister down to the people on the ground in the quarantine hotels, there is a lot of hard work being put in on our behalf.

And for that we should be grateful. But we should not be expected to excuse infringements, because infringements are too risky.