John (81), Aviation Professional. Wellington, NZ.

In 2019, when the sense of a pandemic began to grow, I recall thinking how unlucky we were to have this disaster in our times. After reflection, however, I felt able to reassure myself and those around me that no pandemic in history has lasted more than three to four years. Accordingly, I waited for scientific evaluation, for calm and thoughtful reasoning and for government reassurance, perhaps along the lines of, be calm, follow these precautions, all things pass, this too will pass. I waited to be reminded by officials that common influenza historically kills some 600 New Zealanders a year, a situation that no one seems to find unusual or frightening.

Instead, the people were told by the Government that “this will be with us for generations to come, tens of thousands of New Zealanders will die.” (PM Ardern from the Podium of Truth).

In the name of those outrageous claims, the government then imposed on its citizens the greatest loss of personal freedoms in our history. Nothing less than national shutdown. Not even during the world wars were such draconian restrictions applied to freedom of movement and of choice. People lost long term jobs and careers; others were ostracised and vilified if they questioned the herd mentality stampeding into vaccine clinics; families were divided; elderly people died alone without comfort. Many were forced to undergo medical treatment against their convictions or better judgement. New Zealanders cowered behind closed doors and began to spy on one other.

Covid19 then behaved predictably, evolving in some three years into a lesser evil, becoming more flu like. Just as did all similar pandemics evolve and diminish.

So now that all is well again, more or less, of course there must be a Royal Commission. Of course, that misinformation, over reaction and failure must be examined and exposed. We must never again allow ourselves to be subject to such loss of basic human rights and exposure to personal mistreatment.