Mike Hosking on coronavirus: If we want to beat Covid-19, shut New Zealand down

COMMENT:

This week is about getting this country shut down. The Government is too slow, and no one is listening.

The numbers are only going one way. Look at the charts, and talk to the epidemiologists. You add cases by ones, then handfuls, then you add them by 10s, then you add them by hundreds.

We are going up in 10s. Look at the charts of those countries in trouble, they all tell the same story. Michael Baker is right, we need to be shutting doors.

Look at Britain. Boris Johnson swore black and blue that herd immunity was right, until it was wrong. He swore keeping schools open was right, until he was wrong. He swore keeping pubs open was right, until he was wrong.

Our Government will be telling you they have community transmission. We have it, that will be proved this week. It hasn't been confirmed officially already simply because we haven't tested enough. The virus is ahead of the Government.

Second problem is that people aren't listening to the Government. Social distancing isn't happening, isolation isn't happening, even panic shopping advice is being ignored. For all the trumpeting of the likes of Singapore and Taiwan, we aren't the same people. They had Sars, and they learned their lessons. They take it seriously.

We aren't taking it seriously. And the Government telling us to simply isn't working. If you're not taking shopping advice from the Prime Minister you're certainly not taking health advice.

Schools are already seeing half-empty classes as parents make their own minds up. Some schools will partially start closing this week off their own bat. They are being threatened by the ministry, and some schools are passing that threat onto parents via emails telling them to get their kids back to school.

For a Government, once people don't listen, like with social distancing, or stop listening regarding panic shopping, you've lost. Invent all the levels you want, tell everyone to be kind over and over again, none of it stops the march of a virus. That we know, for a fact, only reacts to a vaccine or a lockdown. China has proven that.

On the upside, banks, both the Reserve Bank and all the retailers, from an economic point of view get it and are acting brilliantly. Governments, economically, get it and are throwing money at this like we literally have never seen.

I have never been more proud of my beloved Warriors. What they're doing involves sacrifice and hardship. And no, it's not only sport. Sport counts. It's never counted more in a world of very little sport.

The small businesses, the restaurants with innovative new takeout and delivery ideas, the advertisers with clever ways on how you can view their products and services differently, the entrepreneurs who have suspended their businesses and tossed millions into research and expertise to try and help their country.

There is a lot to be proud of and confident of right now.

If only we can get the Government, and believe me there are those in the Government that are pushing hard against their own people to close this place down.