Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

The public health experts knew it was coming. Senior ministers knew it was coming. Were they as prepared as they might have been? No. But then, who in New Zealand was back at the end of February 2020?And then it came through. A woman fresh back from Iran. Quite possibly not our first case, but our first confirmed case of Covid-19.That was a year ago.In that time, we have objectively enjoyed a much better life than most other people on Earth. Sure, we’ve had lockdowns. We’ve had community outbreaks. We’ve had deaths. People have lost jobs. Businesses have gone under. At an individual level, if you’ve suffered a dramatic change in your life, or lost a loved one to Covid-19, these words won’t be much comfort. But the can be no disputing the fact... the overall standard of living in New Zealand in the year since our first case, has been so much better than pretty much anywhere else. While Europe and America have been hunkered down in months-long lockdowns, and refrigerated trucks have been turned into overflow mo