Time to drop the sourpuss act, New Zealand – and get used to the new rules – Stuff.co.nz

OPINION: Until now, it's more likely than not, you've never met anyone who's had Covid-19.

Our two-year elimination strategy has meant Kiwis with family and friends in far-off parts of the world have watched in agony as their loved ones became infected; but in this part of the world, it's been a rare thing.

That's about to change. For anyone with whnau in Australia, it probably already has. A few weeks ago our cousins to the west accepted they would, sooner or later, likely be infected with the Omicron variant and have an uncomfortable but survivable illness (provided they were vaccinated and boosted and not immunocompromised). Now, its about to be our turn.

It's not easy to hear the modellers' predictions without a twinge of anxiety; the goal here, right from the beginning of Covid, has been no cases. Its a massive shift to get your head around the idea of potentially millions of infections.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the border will start re-opening in phases, starting with self-isolation requirements for fully vaccinated citizens returning from Australia on February 27.

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Set that alongside this week's announcements on a staged border-opening - which inherently accepts that Omicron is spreading here and will continue to spread - and the result is a counter-intuitive challenge. How do our brains, primed for caution for the past 24 months, put those two things together?

The numbers we'll see over the next few months will come as a shock no matter how well we've been advised and prepared. But prepared, we must be. While we were well across the rules in 2020 and 2021, there are new 'rules and they're not as prescriptive - which means using your noggin, and making sensible decisions.

Chris McKeen/Stuff

Eating out? Eat outside if you can.

For example, if you want to eat out, or gather with people other than those in your family bubble, it's sensible to do that outside. Masking up whenever you leave the house is a given, but aspects of the advice on masks have changed in the past days, too.

The fabric mask-as-fashion-statement is on the way out (bad news for those manufacturers who pivoted to mask-making earlier in the pandemic) and the humble surgical mask is now the recommended form of protection if you can't find, or afford, the even-more-effective KN95. They're not fashionable, and frankly sometimes they smell a bit weird (advice on how to tackle this abounds on the internet) but surgical masks are hardier and more versatile than we knew. You can wash them, for example, up to 10 times without compromising their effectiveness. According to New Zealand research, even after multiple washes they're better than a triple-layer cloth mask.

Choosing a mask, washing, deodorising, and heck, remembering a mask - all these micro-decisions are becoming embedded in our daily life.

RYAN ANDERSON/Stuff

Changes in advice around mask wearing is just one of the new decisions were facing every day.

Then there's the latest addition to the Covid lexicon - the "shadow lockdown" - where some are choosing to plot a more cautious course for themselves and their community than is officially required - by avoiding high-risk outings and activities. A self-imposed lockdown, if you like.

That's now your choice rather than a mandate. And soon your choices will broaden to include travel.

Ah, travel. Tourism. Remember it? No, me neither, hardly.

It will not be like it used to be, but if we need to leave New Zealand with plans to come back again, that will increasingly become possible from the end of this month. Just writing those words, feels extraordinary.

The five-stage plan for the border announced on Thursday will, eventually, see the end of an MIQ system that in some circles has become shorthand for misery. I don't think that reputation is entirely deserved - although there have been failures, high-profile missteps and yes, thousands of disappointed New Zealanders unable to secure a place, the MIQ system has worked without issue for hundreds of thousands of others since 2020.

I'm not discounting the pain experienced in those cases, but there's been more unreported plain sailing in MIQ than there has been pain. And sometimes you've had to wonder about the privilege and expectations of those who've done the complaining - I'm thinking of the woman who shut herself in the hotel bathroom and posted breathlessly on social media when she realised her two young children would have to share a double bed. That level of privilege drew understandable derision.

Glenn McConnell/Stuff

Ardern announces a five-stage reopening of the New Zealand border at a press conference on Thursday.

The best part of the prime minister's rather overblown speech announcing the border plan on Thursday, was the bit where she acknowledged and thanked the hundreds of MIQ staff who've done their best in very trying circumstances for the past two years.

That was something that genuinely needed to be said. Those workers deserve our thoughts and our thanks (and a living wage, which some may lose when the hotels pivot back to normal operations).

We'll all have different reactions to the idea of opening up to the world again. Most will be formed by personal circumstances - I, for example, am thrilled I'll be able to collect my kids together to celebrate my son's 21st birthday. There's no amount of jabs I wouldn't have and masks I wouldn't wear, to reunite my little family again. And we must not forget the people who haven't been able to breathe that sigh of relief knowing reuniting with their mum, dad, gran or koro is just weeks away. For those Kiwis who missed the chance to say goodbye before a loved one passed away, this week's announcement might feel like a dagger to the heart.

Whatever your own take on it, the change in entry restrictions means it's time to drop the sourpuss act we've seen directed at Kiwis stuck overseas. With Omicron in the community, those returnees are no longer any more dangerous to you, than the person filling up at the next petrol pump. If you're one of the venom-spitters, perhaps your behaviour was driven by fear? Get vaccinated, get boosted, and then drop that too; while your fears may have been understandable, there's no call to be stupid.

I know it's a word worn as thin as your gran's souvenir tea-towels, but what we need now, is a return to kindness.

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Time to drop the sourpuss act, New Zealand - and get used to the new rules - Stuff.co.nz