Six months ago this week, Covid 19 landed in New Zealand.

Since then we’ve been fighting it with plans that have been regularly modified and challenged. As Auckland joins the rest of New Zealand in Level 2 tomorrow, we enter the next phase in this on-going saga: the mask-wearing phase

So, we get it, it’s been discovered the virus was spread between two bus passengers. Growing evidence from around the world – and let’s remember, the rest of the world is also debating who should and shouldn’t be wearing masks – shows that wearing a mask slows the rate of transmission.

So why not use every tool in the tool box, right?

When it comes to dealing with Covid 19, changing our approach is good, as long as the changes are progressively making the situation better, not worse.

But changes to the way we do things are getting harder to accept, which isn’t helped when there is disagreement as to best practice.

Masks are just the most recent example.

Dunedin pathologist Dr Ling Chan says studies showed children over the age of 10 have the same Covid-19 transmission rates as adults, and that they should wear masks in confined indoor spaces like school. Epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker, who has always backed mask use, wants high school students to wear masks to school from tomorrow too.

But you don’t have to look far to find another epidemiologist, such as Auckland University’s Dr Simon Thornley, who believes masks should not even be compulsory on buses and trains. He believes the only place where there is strong evidence they work is on planes.

Whether you send your kids or teenagers to school tomorrow wearing a mask, or decide to put on a mask for a work meeting, it’s up to you. There has been plenty of rational decision making being done up to now, I’m sure people will look at their own situation and make the right decision for them.

It’s just another change that reminds us this is a marathon, not a sprint. Another changes that makes us wonder - are on the right path? Another change that undermines our certainty.

And we all like certainty - people like certainly, businesses like certainty, and governments like certainly. And one of the things Covid 19 doesn’t give us is certainly.

Setbacks, like lockdowns, are tough and cruel both mentally and financially, but if we look back over the last six months, I don’t think we could have done things significantly differently and be where we are today.

Sure, we now know the government could have acted better and faster, and that we all got complacent; but few of us have dealt with something as massive as this, something that requires us to learn so much as we go.

The Government talks about finding the balance between doing what’s best from a health and economic point of view. But the reality is, they also make decisions based on what they believe we will tolerate. 

It’s our job to keep demanding better solutions and processes and to be vocal about what we’re prepared to tolerate.

But at the same time, we have to accept there’s no perfect response to Covid 19, and things will keep on changing for a long time yet. It feels like it’s time to just get on with it, and learn to live with change and uncertainty.