Kerre Woodham: Isolation periods; keep them in place, or rely on common sense?

You might have heard Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on the Newstalk ZB this morning saying the Government will be making a carefully balanced decision on whether to scrap the mandatory seven-day isolation period for people who test positive for Covid.

Cabinet will be reviewing Covid rules with an announcement expected sometime this in the near future.

They're going to be basing their decision on the latest public health advice and the state of the health system heading into winter. Well, we can tell them that it's buggered, isn't it? I mean, it's pretty much stuffed.

The Prime Minister told Tim Dower this morning it's a careful balancing act between the impact of people being unable to go to work and the impact of Covid spreading.

The public health professionals, who we all saw rather too much of throughout Covid, have been urging the Government over the weekend to keep the few remaining restrictions in place.

These being the seven-day isolation period and the wearing of masks in many spaces to protect against not only Covid, but the other dangerous respiratory illnesses doing the rounds including flu and whooping cough.

And all of them were preaching the abundance of caution message, which I suppose is their job. This is what they're trained to do. To warn people about infectious diseases and try to prevent any deaths at all. I get it.

I guess when it comes to the mandatory stand down period, what that did was give people who don't have flexibility or autonomy with their employers the ability to take time off. They had to. They had no choice in the matter.

So many people during those awful years rang me and said they would be going to work regardless of whether or not they tested positive, because they simply could not afford to stay home. So where do you stand on this one?

I imagine it will depend on whether you're an employee with a good boss and you'll say, yes, well, get rid of the mandatory period. You have somewhere where you can rest where you're not surrounded by ten other people. You've got the ability to get yourself better.

But if you're someone and your income is the difference between having a roof over your head or not, and you are told to stand down for seven days. You're not going to do it, are you?

You're going to drag yourself out of bed; no matter how sick you're feeling and go to work because that is what you have to do.

So what's right in your opinion?

Keep the mandatory stand down period for those who simply haven't got the luxury of taking time off, it has to be enforced before they can do it. Or rely on common sense?

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