The first Question Time and sitting of the House in lockdown this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The first Question Time and sitting of the House in lockdown this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
I smiled at Emmerson's cartoon (Opinion, September 1).
He illustrates perfectly, in my view, the sense of entitlement and arrogance of the National and Act parties insist upon Parliament being held physically opposed to virtually, under level 4 conditions.
Congratulations to the Greens and Māori Party for their opposition.
PrimeMinister Jacinda Ardern is to be applauded for her stance. Rather than railing at the decision, she describes it as "disappointing".
The cartoon from September 1. Photo / Rod Emmerson
Social responsibility needs to be adopted
I agree with Alister Blair (Letters, August 31) that criticism of the virus response is unhelpful, not only by the unaccountable experts but also by regular columnists.
Other countries and our government have been guided by a wide variety of scientific expertise and public health experts. Our combination of scientific input has provided fast and efficient information enabling prompt actions, which resulted in the elimination of covid early last year and the present current decline in covid cases.
It is cheering to note the current lockdown is buying time for the New Zealand population to be vaccinated. When I worked in Public Health (University of Auckland), it was regarded that a 75 per cent vaccination rate in the population would be optimal and result in herd immunity, in order to break the chain of infection.
However, with the highly contagious Delta variant, this percentage may well appear to be insufficient to achieve this.
Iceland has had success with an almost 100 per cent vaccination rate. However, this gives no room for those concerned about their civil liberties and individual freedoms by declining a vaccination.
Perhaps they should instead adopt an attitude of social responsibility and civic duty which is now becoming part of our community and wider social culture.
Dr Meg Butler Mount Maunganui
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