\u201cWorst case would be you get a number of infections within some major production facilities, and so there would be a reduction in eggs and chicken meat,\u201d he replied. \u201cYou know, that\u2019s some of the cheapest forms of protein that New Zealanders have available, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve been so adamant on working towards making sure we\u2019ve got plans in place and working with the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, he acknowledged a similar\u00a0risk to native birds \u2013 birds that are\u00a0\u201cimportant to us\u201d \u2013 but indicated that harm would be less costly.\u00a0\u201cEggs, poultry, they\u2019re some of the most cheapest forms of protein that New Zealanders purchase,\u201d he reiterated. \u201cSo we don\u2019t want any supply disruptions there because people are already doing it tough with cost of living. We don\u2019t want to make it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, those two priorities \u2013 saving the lives of endangered wildlife, and saving the livelihoods of our poultry farmers \u2013 are aligned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s a particularly well-aligned economic motivation to stop the virus\u2019 spread\u00a0to dairy cows (as has happened in the US) and potentially to humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to a paper published this year in the scientific journal Nature<\/a>: \u201cThe costs of containing the outbreak now are small when contrasted against the uncertain but potentially catastrophic health and economic costs of the emergence of an H5N1 variant that is transmissible between humans.\u201d<\/p>\n What is more problematic is when, as happened with Covid, the priorities of saving lives and saving the economy are perceived to compete with each other.<\/p>\n Remember, New Zealand had the lowest Covid death rate in the entire OECD. And its economy was the first in the OECD to rebound to pre-Covid GDP levels. Labour was re-elected in 2020 with an unprecedented majority, on the strength of its management of the virus.<\/p>\n But the collapse of trust in the Labour Government could be traced from the protracted Auckland lockdown beginning in August 2021. By the end of October that year, Auckland business leaders had penned an open letter to the prime minister Jacinda Ardern, asking her to ease restrictions to save their businesses.<\/p>\n Auckland Unlimited chief executive Nick Hill reframed the concerns about public health \u2013 no longer about the impact of the virus on the community, but about the impact of the lockdown on business owners and their workers: \u201cEvery day there are stories of individuals who are facing these choices or who have gone under, and beyond that the impact on mental health is certainly reaching levels beyond where we were previously,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n So, will the point come when our community perceives the need to protect our native wildlife as being outweighed by the need to save our primary industries? <\/p>\n That may depend, as it did with Covid, on the global response.<\/p>\n