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Heather Du Plessis-Allan: Ministry of Health is overreacting to Pakistani isolation breach

Author
Heather Du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Nov 2020, 3:53PM

Heather Du Plessis-Allan: Ministry of Health is overreacting to Pakistani isolation breach

Author
Heather Du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Fri, 27 Nov 2020, 3:53PM

Isn’t it a bit rich of the Ministry of Health to be so indignant over members of the Pakistani cricket team mixing with each other in the corridors?

The way Ashley Bloomfield and quite frankly members of the public are reacting, you’d think it’s the crime of the century.

These guys posed no threat to the public.

Even Grant Robertson the sports minister’s admitted that .

These guys are in isolation.

Sure, they shouldn’t break the rules, but it’s not like Covid’s escaped the building because they chatted in the corridor.

What’s more, the ministry of health is hardly an example of best practice at the border is it?

It took until yesterday before the Ministry finally agreed to give all MIQ workers the proper n-95 face masks that’ll keep them safe. Meanwhile at least 3 nurses, one maintenance worker and a defence staffer got sick from MIQ facilities, probably because they didn’t have the right face masks.

It took months before the Ministry started testing all border workers despite all of us being under the impression something as obvious as that would be done.

For goodness knows how long they just batted away concerns over people in MIQ mixing in the lobbies and mixing in the smoking areas and we even going on a walking bus right past groups of people in central Auckland.

And then only two weeks ago we had people from the Vincent Residences apartments mixing with people from the MIQ facility nearly after a fire alarm

That I would’ve thought is a greater risk to New Zealand than cricket players mixing with each other while in isolation.

Now as far as I can see, the Ministry of Health tends to take a pretty relaxed view of its own questionable protocols and behaviours in the border facilities… so forgive me for finding it a little rich that they’re suddenly so angry at a bunch of cricket players for having a chat and a munch in the corridor.

Putting them on a final warning? Give me a break. These cricketers are adults. They don’t need to be patronised like this.

You know what the ministry of health says every time we get upset at one of their boneheaded oversights? They say: the system is working

So to them with their complete overreaction at the cricket players, I’d like to say the same: the system is working.

Chill out.

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