The 90% Project: Bryce Heard: We are at war and the vaccine is our next line of defence

OPINION

Covid-19 is the new influenza – only a whole lot more deadly.

There is no doubt that Covid is here to stay. And there is little doubt that it will continue to mutate with new strains, symptoms and health effects far into the future.

When Covid first came to our country, our first instinct was to "exterminate" it from our society.

The only tool that we had to fight it with in early 2020, was lockdown.

By locking us all away from one another we could prevent it spreading and – and over - time starve it of chances to spread and grow.

Lockdown was the right response at the time, and we were all proud of how Kiwis were able to lead relatively normal lives, for a time.

But this year, Delta slipped in the back door before we were adequately prepared for it.

I do not believe that repetitive lockdowns are sustainable over time. In a short time, the economy and job losses would be so severe that people will lose tolerance.

We are at war with Covid, and the battle will likely last for decades.

An analogy would be the German invasion of Europe in 1939. The British were facing the probability of being overrun.

However, the courageous British Royal Air Force (RAF) had other ideas. Brave pilots and air crews fought a battle in the sky that delayed the German invasion and bought the Brits some precious time.

That time enabled Britain to develop the next lines of defence - the ground forces, weapons, and allies, to eventually, throw the invader back.

Lockdown 2020 was our RAF, buying us time to develop our next line of defence to fight off the invader.

That 16 precious months of time was just enough to develop the next line of defence.

The vaccine.

Now it's time to ramp it up. We have about one-third of our total population fully vaccinated, and we now lag well behind the rest of the world.

- Bryce Heard is the chief executive officer for the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce.