Lockdowns Are Destructive and Wrong

By Olivia Pierson
​First published on Insight@theBFD 13/08/202

In an extremely prophetic article on the 8th August titled, “What a Hopeless Bunch of Sheep We Are,” Christie, who writes for the BFD, relayed this anecdote:

“I know someone who came out of quarantine in an Auckland hotel a couple of weeks ago. He had the required tests on Day 3 and Day 12 but was intermingling with people at all stages of their quarantine throughout his stay. Just to clarify, on Day 13, he was intermingling with people who were on Day 2 of their quarantine, and were, so far, untested.

Does that sound like a recipe for community transmission to you? Because it certainly does to me.”

Noting that Ashley Bloomfield was telling us to stock up on masks, though there were no cases of community transmission in New Zealand as he gave that advice, Christie reported that mask manufacturers such as Christchurch company Earth Sea Sky were suddenly receiving a lot of orders to the tune of “120 orders per hour.”

There remains no evidence that face masks prevent the spread of COVID-19, and in other countries, most notably the United States, to-mask or not-to-mask has become a viciously divisive issue to many who consider the practise of covering their natural breathing apparatus with cloth to be intrusive and a personal affront to their individual liberty.  They’ve had to suffer being called “murderers” and “killers” as they go about their daily errands to just live.

During our autumn months, New Zealanders got through a six-week level-4 lockdown without mask-wearing even being a thing, except for those who wanted to wear them.  Suddenly the message encouraging us to wear them in public has become a repetitive mantra through our media machine over the last week alone and the astute amongst us were asking what it was exactly that the government might know that we the public do not.

Then, like a bolt out of the blue, another lockdown was imposed on us yesterday via messages from civil defense blaring through our cell phones. 

One month out from our election, and with her face carefully arranged in that unimpeachably sincere expression we all know so well (talk about face masks!), Jacinda Ardern swanned back onto her familiar COVID platform to enact the messianic psychodrama of “protecting New Zealanders,” while those in the opposition party are busy cancelling their campaign meetings so that the virus doesn’t spread. Cynical? You bet.

In her insightful article, Christie went on to explain:

“But the fact is that the government is doing one of two things. Either they are aware of the significant risk of community transmission through inadequate controls at the border, or they are hoping that the physical wearing of masks by more people will put us all back into a state of fear. This is their election winning strategy; let’s face it, they have no other plan.

But if they have in fact allowed community transmission by improper controls at the border, then they deserve the wrath of the people to fall on them. New Zealanders did what they were told and stayed home, observed good hygiene and physical distancing and eliminated the virus. All the government had to do after that was to control the border. By allowing infected people in quarantine to mingle with non-infected people, they may have failed us. This would hardly be a surprise. They have failed at everything else.”

And there you have it. 

This government’s strategy of addressing the Chinese virus with lockdowns whenever it pops up is nothing more than a strategy for national economic suicide.  It’s utterly untenable – and for those who always respond in a frankly puerile fashion by saying, “Ardern is only doing what all government leaders around the world are also doing,”… remember when we were small children caught doing something stupid or plain wrong by our mothers and we defended ourselves by saying, “But so-and-so did it too!” 

You could always bet on the fact that Mum would parse that with, “And if everyone else jumped off the Harbour Bridge, would you do that too?”

Leaders enforcing lockdowns and forcing business owners to kamikaze their livelihoods over the Chinese virus are doing nothing but the moral equivalent of herding lemming-like humans off a precipice. Where are all the sensible Mums out there to tell us that this is not only profoundly wrong but also damn stupid?

Well, I’m here saying exactly that. 

Obeying lockdowns is no way to live and no way to combat a virus.

We have a much clearer view of the science around this virus than we had back in March, when the whole world panicked – except for the more thoughtful leadership in the countries of Sweden and Taiwan.

PM Ardern is a one-trick little pony, and it was a gig that worked for her once on a reeling population full of sheeple.  But now that the virus is again swilling around in our community after 100 days of being undetected, it’s obvious that it must’ve come through our borders and our government’s crappy quarantine process.  That’s 100% Ardern’s fault, as is the decision to lock us down because of it.

Opposition leader Judith Collins said today that she agreed “lockdown is the right thing to do,” but is concerned that the impact will be devastating. 

Indeed.  Devastating it is, and for that reason alone Judith should have better sense to know and say that lockdown is not the right thing to do.
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I will only vote for a political leader who is opposed to lockdowns on principle and would encourage my fellow citizens to do likewise.  This is not a matter for compromise over something so alien – and destructive – to our way of life.

If you enjoyed this article, please buy my book "Western Values Defended: A Primer"

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