Sudhir, Business Lecturer. Auckland, NZ.

The first lock down on March 26th 2020 was way too severe, done too quickly and without any proper thought and planning .Only two days notice was given. Food supplies bought by food outlets all went to waste and they suffered terrible losses.Nothing was allowed to be sold even by home delivery except for food and medicines.

Even the more traditionally authoritarian nations in the world gave more notice, In fact UN regulations do state that 14 days notice needs to given before a lock down is imposed by a nation. Even then, most other nations, including authoritarian ones stopped at the Level 3 lock down level, unlike the draconian Level 4 lock down level which NZ enforced.

The worst part was that even all the take-aways and restaurants were forced to close and click and collect was not allowed. Only supermarkets and grocery shops were allowed to open. Many people do not know how to cook and they suffered.

This resulted in long queues at supermarkets defeating the purpose of isolating people in lock downs. In addition, the supermarket food home delivery systems could not cope with the extremely high demand for home delivery of food. Many people went hungry.

My elderly parents suffered. Luckily I was staying with them and was able to go out and buy supermarket food for them and me. Otherwise, I do not know what would have happened to my parents. As it is they were feeling very depressed as they could not go out to see even one friend. Is that the right way to treat our elders? They should have been allowed to go out say twice a week under strict controlled conditions. This would greatly have improved their mental wellbeing.

Many elderly people died in the elderly care homes and nobody, not even one approved person was allowed to visit them in their last days. This is terribly cruel.

My 88 year old father was diagnosed with covid by the parademics who came to our home. We called the ambulance as my father was not eating, not able to get up at all and sleeping all the time.

The parademic staff took my father away in the ambulance to Middlemore Hospital Auckland. We were told nobody could visit him, not even one family member. My poor father really suffered in hospital for 8 days. He was very confused, depressed, and disorientated. He was not well enough to use a mobile phone to call us. So, we called him and spoke to him on the hospital ward phone at least twice a day to calm him down. He desperately wanted to come back home and be treated. He felt like a prisoner in jail.

This is extreme cruelty to elderly people and a definite breach of human rights. It is like how the Gestapo operated in Nazi Germany, that is by taking people away and locking them up not allowing anyone to visit them.

In addition, me (caregiver to my parents) and my elderly 78 year old mother were told that we must isolate in separate rooms at home for at least 7 days. This really is a stupid rule as both me and my elderly mother were covid negative and never ever got covid.

Another issue which annoyed me was the enforcement of mask wearing. It is illegal to force everyone, even people who are well to wear masks the whole day. Wearing masks is unhealthy . It can cause excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask-wearers, oxygen deprivation, respiratory failure, dizziness, headaches and confusion. Also, there is no evidence of asymptomatic transmission of covid19. Only those with genuine flu like symptoms should be wearing masks if they have to go out.

In addition, those who did not fully vaccinate like myself were treated almost as pariahs.We were demonised, ridiculed and treated as sub human. We were even called “bio -terrorists. We were unable to enter restaurants, unable to enter many other places, meetings and conferences. We could not even get a hair cut and many doctors did not even want to see us when we were ill. Even the ruling Labour party and opposition National Party( whom I was a member of) at that time insisted that all must be vaccinated to attend their meetings.

Worse of all, as rate payers, we were banned from using all council facilities like libraries, swimming pools, gymnasiums and so on.I was not even allowed to use the toilet at the Botanical Gardens due to not been vaccinated. We have yet to be given any refunds for being banned from using council facilities even though we are rate payers.

Many were also forced to vaccinate if they wanted to keep their jobs. In my case, my work contract was not renewed as I refused to vaccinate.

My sister who works as a specialist doctor in Sydney was banned from entry into New Zealand for more than 2 years. Our parents are elderly and in poor health.My sister was very upset that she may not be able to see them again.

The heartless government caused so much sadness, trauma and grief for my family as it prevented family members for reuniting for more than 2 years. What is the point of being a kiwi then if you cannot return back to your own nation?

a. It is illegal and draconian to lock down a whole population. Only the old and the vulnerable need to be segregated as is the practice for normal flus normal flus. Also, only those who have flu like symptoms confirmed by a thermometer should stay at home and not go to work. Covid 19 is just a variant in the coronavirus category of flus and colds. For most people, Covid19 is not a deadly illness like the Ebola Virus and should just be treated as a type of flu. You do not close down a whole nation for just a type of flu.

b. It should your own personal choice whether you take a vaccine or not. My body, my choice This is a basic human right. People including myself have lost jobs and their livelihoods for not vaccinating.

c. Worse still, the Covid19 vaccine is new and not fully tested. Yet people were coerced into getting it or lose their jobs and access to many places and gatherings. The New Zealand government seemed to collude with Pfizer to help them increase their profits. As a result there has been excessive vaccine related deaths and injuries in New Zealand and all over the world. Although the New Zealand government has yet to front up on this matter, many other nations have admitted this. A government should always stand up for the interests and welfare of its own people and not be bought by multinational corporations like Pfizer. I thought this was common sense.

d. It is a severe breach of basic international human rights when kiwis overseas are not allowed to return home due to the so called pandemic for more than 2 years.What is the point of being a citizen of New Zealand then? No other nation in the world did this except for Australia.

e. Masks should only be worn by those who have genuine covid/flu like symptoms. Making everyone wear masks is very unhealthy as mentioned above in Question 1.

f. The government should have promoted healthy lifestyles like exercise, dieting, eating nutritious foods like vegetables, fruits and fibres. In addition, lots of exposure to sunlight, taking vitamin C & D, magnesium and zinc supplements and regular usage of mouth and throat antiseptic gargles. All these steps would have greatly helped reduce the risk of getting covid or a flu, apart from greatly reducing its severity also.