It appears that trying to figure what’s really happening in our quarantining system is like trying to herd cats.  There’s so many moving parts that I’m not sure there’s any one person who really knows all the moving parts.

And that is why the interviews with the Prime Minister on a Monday morning are devolving into high farce.  This morning, we ended out in an extended game of “yes we do, no you don’t” that helped no-one figure out what’s happening.

If the Prime Minister is touted as the great communicator, why are we hearing this sort of thing?

I’ve listened back to the interview a couple of times to try and figure out what the disconnect between the two is.  Why the Prime Minister can’t answer a question to Mike’s satisfaction and why Mike can’t see any truth in the Prime Minister’s answer.

What I’ve come to is this.

The question that can’t be answered is how many people have left quarantine without being tested.  The Health wonks don’t have the number yet even though they’ve had four days to figure it out.

The Prime Minister seems to be saying that it really doesn’t matter because if they made it through 14 days then they’ve completed the programme so they should be good to go even if they’re not tested.

That may scientifically be correct but there’s still a small risk involved.  Primarily from catching the infection from new arrivals to the quarantine hotels.  I’m quite worried about that.  Are the quarantined cohorts being kept separate.  You wouldn’t want to be on Day 11 and then catch an infection from a Day 2 guy, would you?

Now, Mike’s point is that the Prime Minister said for a week they were being tested when it seems they weren’t.

So Mike wins that one hands down.  The Prime Minister has always promised a testing regime and if it hasn’t happened in some cases then that’s a failure of keeping your word and imposing protocols and a system that actually works. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small matter with low repercussions.  Just own it already.

So what about this. 

I learnt today that some of the hotels have their own routines for testing.  It’s Tuesdays and Thursdays. Bit like a buffet. Mondays and Wednesday it’s chicken. Tuesday and Thursday it’s Covid Testing.  

But hold on. The promise is now Day 3 and Day 12. Which for most arrivals will not fall on Tuesday or Thursday. Another variation between the policy and the practice.

There seems to be a disconnect between the top of the chain and the frontline.  Between Ashley and Jacinda and the managers of the hotel is a vast swathe of Ministry of health workers and DHB people who seem to be making it up as they go along. And then they pass up and down contradictory information which makes everyone look bad.

The devil they say is always in the details and it’s fair to say details have been missing in the fight for our survival in a Covid world.  Our return to some sort of activity under Level 2 was marred by indecision over details, along with confusion and flip flops. Looks like it’s still happening.