Teuila Fuatai: Alarming Covid case numbers didn't need to be this bad

Cars queue at a pop-up Covid testing station in Clover Park, south Auckland on September 21, 2021. Photo / Dean Purcell

As we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome in 2022, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our audience loved the most. Today it's the top five from Teuila Fuatai.

Alarming Covid case numbers didn't need to be this bad - August 25

It wasn't the return to work I'd anticipated post-holiday. After self-diagnosing a "gross head cold", I spent the first two days of the week wrapped up in bed willing the germs away. When I did resurface, the announcement of a Covid community case made my head feel even fuzzier. Yikes, I thought. Better get in for a test ASAP.

It meant the next time out of the house was a trip to the doctor's for a swab, on day one of alert level 4. The unusually empty roads, long queue outside the local Pak'nSave and distinctive alarm-tolling sounds signalling Government ads for a community outbreak - it all mashed into a weird sense of deja vu. Didn't think it'd come to this again, I thought glumly while waiting to have my brain prodded.

Now, seven days in, the familiarity of knowing what life will likely look like in the next few weeks seems equal parts unsettling and reassuring. Of course, this is Delta so the stakes are significantly different than at the beginning of the pandemic. Despite that, the realities of life under "go hard, go early" are something we're all too familiar with.

Perhaps, that's what made the shift to level 4 seem almost robotic this time. There were no grand farewells and running through hastily made checklists of everything I thought was needed for home confinement. Even reports of supermarket panic-buying didn't surprise me.

Read the full story here.

Auckland's CBD on September 13, 2021. Photo / Dean Purcell

Doing a runner on my jogging dreams - May 26

About three weeks into my new "training regime", I made an all-too-real confession. "Guys, I still haven't done a run where I haven't felt like I'm going to s*** myself."

It was the beginning of a three-month build-up to my first half marathon. When the idea was raised last year, committing to a weekend away for a running event sounded like loads of fun. Comments were thrown round about how 21km was "totally achievable with training", and that doing "the half is so much cooler" than the 10km option.

I also thought it would make me a better person. I had visions of stepping outside my door a couple of times a week to seamlessly knock off a pleasant 10km. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for that dream to come crashing down. To be honest, the warning signs were there long before the excitable race registration period.

First, there's my intense disdain for running. It's a sport I've never taken to, nor am designed for. Gliding smoothly along the footpath is not a thing for me. I'd say the descriptor "pounding the pavement" is far more apt. The level of misery that comes with attempting to do that over a prolonged period is also significant.

Read the full story here.

Photo / Dulcey Lima, Unsplash

MIQ bosses need a reality check - July 21

It's official. MIQ's booking system has become so impenetrable the Ombudsman may get called in.

On Monday, the Herald reported telecommunications engineer Jonathan Brewer complained to the watchdog after declaring the booking system unusable for regular folks. Brewer splits his time between Singapore and New Zealand and is currently on a mission to make it back before Christmas. A video he made of 100 unsuccessful consecutive attempts at getting a MIQ spot is particularly painful viewing. Unavailable, refresh, unavailable, refresh. On a near-perfect loop.

For many like Brewer, the most practical answer is to download software which effectively automates the booking process - meaning you're faster than anyone trying to do it manually. Alternatively, people can pay for a service that monitors spots so they're first-in.

But, as Brewer and a raft of other ethically minded people are pointing out, why should this be an acceptable practice for MIQ? More to the point, how is a government-run system allowed to be cannibalised by internet bots and third-party services?

Read the full story here.

An MIQ facility in central Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

Keeping calm and Karen on up Queen Charlotte Track - April 7

It's about now I start to really miss summer. Not too long ago, I was panicking over whether a couch-to-72km adventure was a smart way to celebrate the New Year. The multi-day walk, booked some time in the mess of 2020, crept up quickly. It meant by Christmas, none of the "longer walks" I'd scheduled to do throughout December had eventuated.

That led neatly to a briefing for the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds in early January. As I listened to what was planned for the next four days, I congratulated myself for buying an excessive amount of snacks. It seemed apart from a lack of actual hiking, I was well prepared for this little foray into nature.

Things started well on day one. In addition to the abundance of muesli bars and fruit, someone produced a chiller bag for a bottle of wine and beers at the day's end. "It's all good - it goes on the boat with our luggage," I heard my friend say. Fortunately, our group had opted to just carry day packs while walking. The rest of our stuff was dropped by boat between overnight spots. That made packing things like a chiller bag with ice packs completely plausible.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before my boots started to lose face. By the time the allotted 17km were up on the first day, the soles had faded drastically. In proverbial terms, they'd started to talk. The other options I'd brought were jandals and netball shoes so I made saving the boots top priority.

Read the full story here.

The view over Deep Bay in Endeavour Inlet from a privately owned section of the Queen Charlotte Track. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Can my boss make me get vaccinated? - September 22

Delta has forced us to (finally) sharpen our vaccination response. In workplaces, that's led to questions around health and safety requirements and
obligations. Can my employer make me get vaccinated? What about my anti-vax co-worker - can they make them get vaccinated? What if I don't have my shots yet? Can I get time off to get them?

In jobs deemed most at-risk of Covid infection and transmission, like MIQ staff and port workers, the Government has already made vaccinations mandatory. That requirement came at the end of April after an unvaccinated security guard caught the virus in an MIQ facility. The full details, which break down how roles can be categorised as being performed by an "affected person", are in the public health vaccinations order. Its purpose: "To prevent, and limit the risk of, the outbreak or spread of Covid-19 by requiring certain work to be carried out by affected persons who are vaccinated".

That legislation is important risk-management for the Government. It centres on the fundamentals of vaccination healthcare, which rely on the premise of "the greater good" by minimising risk to individuals. It also acknowledges that under Delta - where information about the virus is limited and constantly evolving - that statement has a lot of layers.

It covers potential harm to individuals, or workers around contracting the virus. That extends to transmission risk and the implications of infected workers spreading the virus outside of workplaces, in the community.

Read the full story here.

A woman is vaccinated in Flaxmere, Hastings on October 26, 2021. Photo / Warren Buckland