Traffic Light System

This week has seen the introduction of the Traffic Light System to replace the COVID lockdown levels currently in place. This will take effect once all of the country's DHB's achieve a 90% fully vaccinated rate for their populations.

It's the government essentially using an incentive programme to give those vaccinated a chance to return to somewhat normal life, and preventing those who remain unvaccinated from doing so.

While we have painted those who refuse the vaccine as anti-vaxxers, the situation is more complicated than that. There's some real resistance to vaccination especially in Maori and Pasifika communities, and it's not exclusively driven by misinformation.

The government has to work in the political environment and there's certainly been a lot of pressure from those on the right of the political spectrum to loosen restrictions early. There's unlikely to ever be a perfect plan.

One worrying aspect is that the 90% target is only those who are eligible to be vaccinated, which still excludes a vast swath of our population - those under 12. While it's acknowledged that children are the least likely to suffer badly from COVID there's still unknown long-term side effects from long COVID. We should certainly worry about the consequences of burdening our young children with a lifetime of suffering.

It's promising that it looks like children 5 - 12 will soon be able to be vaccinated, and that the vaccines are very effective, but we can only hope that that happens soon.