A reminder of just how close to the surface the carnage of our Covid response is.

I am standing Friday in a retail outlet, when the owner comes to me and says look what I have just received. It's a text from his friend who is inside the government and tells him there is an announcement coming Monday, as in today, moving us back into the red traffic light setting.

He said he wanted to cry. In that moment, it all comes flooding back.

As much as we want to move on, as much as many of us have moved on and tried to return to a sense of normality, there are many who make a living out of confidence, out of people feeling good about themselves and about life. Any sort of news like that kills it, and when that goes so does your business.

It's hard to know what to say in circumstances like that, other than what I did, which was to tell him it wasn't happening, given the Government are desperate for the school holidays to be a case number breaker so therefore they are not announcing red on the first day of the holidays.

One of the most destructive aspects of the past two years has been the astonishing jungle drum obsession that has emerged. It's people who know people, people who are on the inside. The classic line "I heard a mate tell me and he knows a bloke." And so it goes.

Everyone has the scoop; everyone knows what's next, and how and why it's going to unfold. I am sure there are psychologists who could give us all an insight into what drives it and what sort of person revels in it.

But at least some of it is driven by fear and uncertainty. People like to be in control, they like a direction and instruction and they like clarity. What has been delivered with Covid, and clearly as this next wave takes hold continues to be delivered, is the exact opposite.

This Government has pedalled fear. Its toll is heart-breaking. We are a nation of second guessers, whisperers, and rumour peddlers. We are people on edge, worried, and scared not knowing.

The legacy of this Government will be one of control freaks who scared the bejesus out of the population for their own political advantage.

Make no mistake, the push back is now on and the anger is growing. But there remain too many who are still in a state of mind they should never have found themselves in.

It's a virus, not a bombing raid. It's health, not a war. And yet look at the outworkings and look at the power of fear.