If there’s a stand-out lesson from the last two years in trying to avoid first Covid and then the Delta variety, it’s surely that creating a hermit kingdom was a price too big to pay. We found the hard way that elimination and then minimisation simply were overly optimistic goals.

So observing the rest of the world, obviously Omicron will hit us big, given its phenomenal contagious character. But the good news is its relatively mild effect. In its home country South Africa, it’s resulted in a tenth of the number of hospitalisations of Delta, while for the vast majority of people catching it, the effect has been relatively mild and done with after a few days.

As expected the northern hemisphere has borne the brunt, solely due to winter. It will hit here in our summer which may temper its initial impact. But, when in four or so months in Europe it will be done and dusted, with the onset of winter in New Zealand, we could possibly cop a huge surge.

If so, let’s hope there’s no resurrection of nanny-statism with pointless daily TV babble sessions by the PM and the scout master looking bloke Ashley. Instead we should adopt the Swedish approach and instead of constant futile lockdowns, accept it and get it over with in a short spate of time.

Indicative of its relatively mild effect is an Economist chart showing people 70 and over have the best tolerance of it. That if nothing else should show it’s a short-term nuisance, not to be feared.

According to the Dominion-Post  someone called Steph Dyhrberg whom I’ve never heard of, was the Wellingtonian of the Year in 2018. She was no such thing. Rather she was the fast fading Dominion Post’s Wellingtonian of the Year, a vastly different proposition. The newspaper is perfectly entitled to make such proclamations, but, subject to the qualification that these bogus awards are their pick.

Stuff bragged recently that their web-site has pipped the Herald’s in visitor numbers. That was deceitful. What they didn’t point out was their site is free while the Herald’s has a costly pay-wall.

World-wide the hospitality industry is in crisis as following the lockdown waiting staff reconsidered their lives and opted for more orthodox working hours employment.

This totally redundant treaty, applying to circumstances nearly two centuries ago, has spawned a truly astonishing “industry” in claims as to what it meant, despite never actually saying as much.
The latest and most absurd comes from something called the Health Coalition Aotearoa, specifically, (lie down before reading further) “The burden of obesity has been disproportionately carried by Maori and Pacifica – half of all Maori adults are obese and a third of rangatahi (children) overweight or obese. More than 71% of Pacifica adults and half of children are overweight or obese.”