2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

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#2845911 9-Jan-2022 21:31

Don't forget that there is another kind of Kiwi.

The ones living here whose families live overseas. There are many of us with elderly relatives, siblings marrying etc who cannot leave to participate or visit on the basis we might not get back in. No get back in, no pay mortgages or bills.....

My wife missed her mother's 80th last week. I suppose she could rant against the system but of course she isn't "an influencer".....

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#2845916 9-Jan-2022 21:44

The last 3000 release had people interviewed missing out that were due to go either direction for relative weddings

You know, super important things that deserve a story when travel isn't as free as it was 3years ago, and we've all been warned of.

Reanalyse

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#2845917 9-Jan-2022 21:47

Geektastic: Don't forget that there is another kind of Kiwi.

The ones living here whose families live overseas. There are many of us with elderly relatives, siblings marrying etc who cannot leave to participate or visit on the basis we might not get back in. No get back in, no pay mortgages or bills.....

My wife missed her mother's 80th last week. I suppose she could rant against the system but of course she isn't "an influencer".....

Your wife is bound to be a far better influencer than any of the "yabbering look at me " crowd. I have met many who in their quiet way have been a better influencer than most to others.

Especially teachers, mothers and wives.

You would see that in your family and many others.

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#2845920 9-Jan-2022 21:51

Well she influences me for the better if nobody else! 😁

ajobbins

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#2845925 9-Jan-2022 22:04

alexx:

There were spare rooms in MIQ during the Nov/Dec room releases, that people didn't take up, so I'm not sure what problem some of these things would solve for Jaime Ridge.

Two things here. One is dates - you may get through the lobby but the dates available don't work for you. Maybe there isn't a flight that day from where you are, or maybe you can't travel that date because or work or something.

But the main issue is you only get about an hour, maybe two from the room release before the MIQ system cuts off and any un booked rooms are gone, even if there are some left. That was a complaint of the previous room releases - some people missed out because they were not able to be available at the time of the release (which is often the middle of the night in some parts of the world). If you're working and you're rostered on, or maybe you have a meeting during that 1-2 hour window then you're out of luck. I tried to participate in a couple of the lobbies late last year but had meetings overlapping that I couldn't move without significant inconvenience including to customers, so I just missed out on even having a chance. If there were rooms left over later that day and were available to book, I may well have taken one. I had the site up anyway before my meeting and got out at the 2 hour mark of the lobby opening and there was a message saying the allocation had finished.

The strange thing is, when it's a DJ or sometimes even a returning NZ musician, there are people complaining about how those DJs/musicians are preventing tens (or hundreds) of thousands of Kiwi's from returning home. But when there is a visiting cricket team, those same people don't say a word.

Maybe it depends what your hobbies are. My personal view is that if you're not a NZ citizen/resident, you should be back of the queue unless there are genuinely spare rooms that no overseas kiwi wants to book.

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#2845947 10-Jan-2022 07:28

I wonder if eventually the protesters will decide they have better things to do with their lives and move on to something else. All these protests every. single. Saturday. are absolutely pointless, IMO.

I bet if half of them actually caught coronavirus they would revisit what they're wasting their free time doing.

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#2845948 10-Jan-2022 07:34

ajobbins:

There is lots that could be done

...

Require pre-payment of spots, or at least a deposit. I know if at least one case of someone booking a room and securing it against refundable flights because they weren't sure if they really wanted to travel at that point. They subsequently cancelled a few days before they were due to travel, and the room likley went empty. Requiring a deposit would weed out any of this plus make the likelihood of cost recovery higher. This also covers people 'grabbing' a voucher at release time then not subsequently booking the fight required to use it. In those cases, and I understand there are some each release, again mean that spot is lost as it does not get reallocated to the pool.
Expand the capacity. Available spots are at some of their lowest levels in pandemic. Rooms are going empty all the time because of the cohorting changes and the fact relinquished rooms are not put back into the pool. The prior release also saw a number of rooms not taken but as soon as the 'release' ends, they are no longer available. These rooms would have certainly be filled if they were available to book beyond the short release window of a few hours - which was again in the middle of the night for some of the world.

Aspects of this were identified in the report into MIQ earlier in 2021 and haven't yet been acted on.

The disconnect between airlines and hotel rooms was identified as a major issue. The MIQ report said they should look at outsourcing this to the private sector, but MBIE and the govt thought they knew better than the experts they called in to write a review so kept trying bandaid fixes to the current system.

While no approach is perfect the approach Australia took where airlines were allocated hotel rooms to sell with flights solves some of the problems. It created others (airlines at one point happy to give you a hotel room in Aussie if you booked business class but wouldn't give you one if you booked economy) but overall people only needing to deal with one provider (the airline) to book both their flights and room solves the biggest drama that people have had getting to NZ where they can often get one of the other but not both.

The one big problem is does solve is that it easily offers the ability to maximise room usage and allows last minute bookings. If others cancel days out as an example then both a flight and a hotel room are available, whereas it's pretty common here for rooms to go empty with the cohorting system because last minute bookings are impossible because people can't easily get flights and a room sorted.

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#2845952 10-Jan-2022 08:21

sbiddle:

While no approach is perfect the approach Australia took where airlines were allocated hotel rooms to sell with flights solves some of the problems.

Then you are back to people sitting on their computers/phones all day long waiting for flights to become available. That was the situation that people complained about before the lobby system was introduced.

Also the increase of MIQ stays from 7 to 10 days would have screwed up an airline based booking system.

Having been a user of the MIQ booking system (my wife got a place for the end of January and is currently in the UK) IMO the most useful change would be to give a weighting to entrants to the lobby so that the more times you are unsuccessful the better the chance you have of getting a room.

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#2845956 10-Jan-2022 08:40

quickymart:
I wonder if eventually the protesters will decide they have better things to do with their lives and move on to something else. All these protests every. single. Saturday. are absolutely pointless, IMO.

I bet if half of them actually caught coronavirus they would revisit what they're wasting their free time doing.

There's always 6G.

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#2845961 10-Jan-2022 08:57

For context (referring to my friend a couple of pages back) this was how the conversation ended (apologies for the language):

What does that read like? 😮

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#2845965 10-Jan-2022 09:05

quickymart:

I wonder if eventually the protesters will decide they have better things to do with their lives and move on to something else. All these protests every. single. Saturday. are absolutely pointless, IMO.

I bet if half of them actually caught coronavirus they would revisit what they're wasting their free time doing.

The fact that one was held right outside where I live.

I legitimately do not want to hear Tamaki's god damn anti government rhetoric outside right where I exercise on a daily basis.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

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#2845983 10-Jan-2022 09:57

Tell them you're pro-Satanists. The BBQs are usually better.

Oblivian

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#2846014 10-Jan-2022 11:06

oosh

They'll take a bit to settle the trend. RaT figures are suddenly included since I think Fri/Sat when they previously were PCR only.

And QLD is up there now with 18K yest.

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#2846021 10-Jan-2022 11:45

A number of experts predicted the peak just after NYE and into the first week of 2022 for NSW. Way too early to tell just yet based off the last few days but fingers crossed it could well be the case.

Oblivian

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#2846042 10-Jan-2022 12:09

I have associations now switching sides :( . Forgetting the timeline of development, distribution and subsequent mutation into Omicron. Using the new tactic many are pushing and convincing - 'it infects anyone whos jabbed anyway so why are they not letting unjabbed people with a valid negative test into bars etc but allow those who are likely carrying it and don't know'. That it's all been a scam etc etc.

'Ever since they got these injections and booster it's infecting more....'

Sad state of affairs.

In other news.. the american doctor out here that paddy gower found... Struck off.

It is understood that investigation is ongoing.

However today the Medical Council confirmed Girouard cannot practise medicine at all in New Zealand.

"Council can confirm that Jonie Girouard is no longer listed as registered and able to practise in New Zealand," said council chair Dr Curtis Walker.

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