A couple of days after news broke of the two recently arrived Covid-infected women driving most of the length of the North Island, National's health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse admitted he was surprised by the level of public anger and frustration at the "catalogue of cock ups".
On the other side of the House, the Government acted like it either hadn't realised the level of anger, or alternatively was fully aware but hoped it would blow over.
Waiting for things to blow over is, quite often, a perfectly plausible strategy, especially with beltway issues more likely to excite the press than the public. But this isn't one of those issues. This breach at the border terrifies many people. To some, Covid's return threatens their lives, to others it threatens the gains from a devastatingly expensive lockdown. Given that fear is one of strongest emotions, this issue was never going to blow over quickly.
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The Government's initial response hints that it did immediately realise the trouble it had on its hands. First, came the appeal directly to the public, bypassing media scrutiny. The evening the news broke, the Prime Minister used a Facebook live event from her office to assure New Zealand her "expectations have not been met". It took less than 60 seconds for the strength of feeling to become obvious to anyone reading the messages ticking up from the bottom of the screen. "They should never have been allowed in", "there is no room for trial and error here Jacinda", "we stayed home for 6 weeks and you let these people in without testing them. Why!!!", "your team dropped the ball".