![]() The thousands of New Zealand deaths had we not called on the team of 5 million are like the dog that didn’t bark in the night in the Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”. The deaths that we prevented didn’t happen – they are counterfactual. They were prolonged and we have keen and mostly unpleasant memories of them. ![]() Why don’t we feel better about our collective response to the pandemic? The annoyances and sacrifices of vaccine mandates and social distancing were actual. The people who didn’t die and the dog that didn’t bark There are many thousands of New Zealanders here today who would not have been, had we done as Mother England or Uncle Sam did. These are the things we’d remember on Lockdown Day. But one thing that shouldn’t be doubted is the efficacy of the public health response considered as a whole. Experts should debate the efficacy of specific measures in Aotearoa’s response. This compares with a UK death toll of 221,943 and a US figure of 1,120,529. The WHO attributes 2,716 deaths in New Zealand to the pandemic. This is certainly not because New Zealand’s response was exposed as a failure. Politicians, public servants, and academics seem to have suffered the consequences of too close association with Aotearoa’s Covid-19 response. It’s jarring now to look back on the celebratory mindset that accompanied our first lockdown. * Beating the next pandemic without a lockdown The picture of Aotearoa responding to the coronavirus was one of diversity, New Zealanders from all walks of life and different ethnicities. But it felt as if we were all members of the team and we all found ways to pitch in. Perhaps they are the closest analogy for the young men battling the Turkish defenders on the Gallipoli Peninsula. There were front-line medical workers who directly faced the viral enemy. We didn’t do these things cheerfully, but we did them because we believed they were important. Young people prepared to accept vaccines to protect the infirm even when they were confident their vigorous immune systems would easily beat the virus. We kept our distance from others when indoors. We denied our social natures by going into lockdown. New Zealanders made a wide range of painful and irritating sacrifices to protect the vulnerable. I envisioned Lockdown Day as something akin to Anzac Day, expressing collective gratitude for the selfless acts that protected New Zealanders in ways not experienced in other parts of the rich world, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. Opinion: During Aotearoa’s first lockdown, which started in March 2020, I wrote a piece for Newsroom calling for a special day to celebrate the 'team of 5 million' that powered us through our first major engagement with Covid-19. It’s important we think about the lives NZ saved in the pandemic because of our response. A national Lockdown Day would serve as a stark reminder of the human cost of not taking swift action Covid-19 A Lockdown Day would allow us to correctly remember the pandemic
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