Tom Peters
The New Zealand government’s decision to let the highly-infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19 spread across the country
has sparked significant anxiety and anger, including among parents and public transport workers.
Labour Party Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared on Sunday that she expected there would be up to a thousand cases
per day within two weeks. No lockdown has been announced, all businesses remain open and schools are due to resume
classes for the new year on January 31, creating the conditions for an explosion in case numbers.
So far, 56 community infections of Omicron have been identified. The source of the outbreak is not known, with no firm
link to a returned traveller or border worker. There are also more than 400 active community cases of the Delta variant.
The media’s propaganda has gone into overdrive, seeking to sow complacency. The New Zealand Herald ’s editorial today
calls for “cautious optimism,” saying: “Hopes are rising that Covid-19 is beginning to shift from a pandemic to a more
easily manageable endemic illness.”
The Herald cites government advisers from the US and UK, who declare, based on nothing, that the pandemic is about to
end, in order to justify the abandonment of all public health measures. Meanwhile, hospitals are overwhelmed, infections
are at an all-time high and thousands of people are dying every day (see: “What ‘endemic’ COVID-19 really means: Mass
infection and death forever”).
The New Zealand population is largely unprotected. According to Radio NZ, 76 percent of people have received two doses
of the Pfizer vaccine. As of yesterday, only 1,053,055 people, about one in five, had received a third shot, which is
essential to provide significant protection against Omicron. Only one in five children aged 5 to 11 have had their first
dose, meaning schools will be packed with unvaccinated children.
A parent in Auckland told the WSWS: “Schools are breeding grounds for the virus, which is a proven fact. That will
result in more people getting sick, including parents, therefore children will not have healthy adults looking after
them.” This would be “much more stressful than stress caused by children doing online learning.”
In response to claims by Ardern and the media that Omicron is “mild” for “most people,” the mother pointed out that even
so-called mild cases can produce debilitating long-term conditions, including “neurological damage.”
An article published yesterday by Otago University epidemiologist Amanda Kvalsvig and several other experts warned:
“High numbers of child cases have led to extreme pressure on paediatric services in some overseas settings… The great
majority of NZ children are currently immunologically naïve to Covid-19, suggesting that the impact on children may be
even more marked here than in other places.”
Mitigation measures in schools are minimal. The experts pointed to current Ministry of Education advice for “staff to
decide whether the air feels stuffy and to open windows.” They warned that “These protection gaps (together with low
mask uptake) indicate that in the presence of high community transmission, NZ buildings may not be safe settings for
children to congregate.”
The Ministry announced yesterday that 5,000 air purifiers have been ordered for schools, but the New Zealand Herald
reported that “only 500 will be here in March, with the remaining 4,500 not due to arrive until winter [i.e. June]. With
more than 2500 schools in New Zealand, there won’t be enough air cleaners for everyone.”
A Wellington father told the WSWS that his children’s primary school has not warned parents about the risks of
reopening, despite hundreds of cases of Delta in schools in recent months. He was concerned that masks are only required
for children in Year 4 (7 or 8 years old) and above.
“Air filters aren’t turning up until March, which will be just in time for the next wave. What I think is that schools
shouldn’t be open, I support an elimination strategy. They haven’t done anything at all that would mitigate
significantly against disease spread within the classroom.”
He described the response of the unions, who are supporting the reopening, as “shocking,” given the “life-and-death”
situation that people now face.
He noted that New Zealand initially pursued elimination and kept deaths low, but the government has now ditched the
successful strategy. This has caused confusion because people “haven’t had to deal with the kind of carnage that we have
seen overseas.” He is considering not sending his partially vaccinated son, who suffers from a chronic respiratory
condition, back to school.
The government has announced more stringent masking requirements, saying people can no longer use a scarf or a bandana.
However, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told the media yesterday: “We’re not going to be recommending the
use of N95s for the general public… partly because they are expensive and they are harder to get.” Over the past two
years of the pandemic, the government has refused to take steps to secure enough of these more protective masks.
A bus driver employed by NZ Bus in Wellington told the WSWS: “We really need the P2 and the N95 masks because surgical
masks don’t cut it.” Drivers are currently given “inappropriate masks that don’t protect us against COVID” and which are
“labelled as non-medical.”
The driver pointed out that it is difficult to make passengers wear masks, saying “today I had six kids on my bus, over
the age of 12, maskless.” Metlink, the council’s public transport agency, has refused to supply masks for passengers.
The driver said: “This is a health and safety issue in the workplace, and their excuse is it’s going to cost too much
money. But the public health outcome is far more costly if people aren’t wearing masks. Why should we, in our workplace,
be exposed to risks like that?”
She was also “really angry” that drivers were not prioritized for vaccination, meaning many have not yet received their
third shot. She said drivers with vulnerable family members, who have not received a booster and don’t have decent
masks, should not have to work.
In response to the Omicron outbreak, Metlink and NZ Bus have not introduced any additional measures, such as distancing
passengers. Previously, when the country was locked down, buses “only had rear boarding, we didn’t have front boarding,
and we could tape off the front two seats.”
“What the government’s put in place is just so weak,” the driver said. Large numbers of workers could get sick and
“there’s lots of dire warnings about us having to go back to work earlier, when we’re not fully recovered.” This is
already happening in Australia, where millions of people have been infected since mid-December.