Auckland’s coronavirus outbreak, and online abuse — what we have learnt from this latest outbreak.
It’s not just community transmission, or economic damage that is the problem — people not obeying the self isolation rules after testing positive, along with regional profiling and online abuse is also a problem, which needs to be addressed.
WARNING: This article covers serious and real life issues such as online bullying, racism and hate speech, harassment, mental health, and also makes a mention of a suicide case. Some of these topics can be triggering to some. The topic of lockdowns can also be upsetting for some people. Please exercise caution while reading this article.
Valentines Day, February 2021. A day in which people were expected to spend time with their partners in love. A day in which I expected myself to search for a potential future date. But, instead of that, instead of the romance I expected this Valentines Day — we got a three day lockdown instead, due to three members in South Auckland testing positive for coronavirus of the UK variant, without a clear link to the border.
We came out of lockdown three days later. Then, shortly, after the lifted lockdown, it happened again, this time for a week. This lockdown impacted people’s livelihoods and mental health — and the economy as well. And it destroyed quite a lot of businesses. Now that we are out of lockdown, we need to learn from this. To move forward, we need to learn how to avoid another one, and hold people to account when they are not doing the right thing.
And this is just some of the stuff that we’ve learned from this latest Valentines Day cluster, and are issues that we need to address.
People refusing to obey the rules after testing positive for COVID-19
Unfortunately, it was because of the behavior of some of the cases in South Auckland that has brought the region into lockdown, due to some of the close and casual contacts of the cases - who did not self isolate - going on to test positive for Covid-19 as well. These cases — and their close and casual contacts have not been fully honest with who they have been in contact with, and some have also flouted the rules around the requirements to self isolate if the person has tested positive for COVID — or if the person is a close or a casual contact.
People blaming Aucklanders avoiding lockdown for “being racist”.
Guess what? It’s not a race thing. It’s about people who disobeyed the requirements to self isolate. The reason the previous clusters did not expand fast, is because those people who tested positive acted quickly, got a test and self isolated or went into quarantine. It’s not a white versus Maori or Pacific Islander case. And it should never be, either. It just happens to be that cases in an multi cultural area tested positive refused to obey the isolation requirements. Rest assured that if a white person refused to self isolate after testing positive for COVID-19, I will also be very angry too. So please don’t make this about race.
Also, there are regions that are far worse in terms of colonialization and racism than Auckland in New Zealand. Canterbury, is, by far the region that known to have the most racist city, Christchurch. Also not including the fact the attacks against two mosques occurred there. Waikato, while rich in Maori culture, fails to deal with the issue on racism, Nazism and terrorism. An example of this is the regional council failing to respond to the issue about parks and forests in the Waikato district being used as a recruitment ground for Nazis, such as Action Zealandia using the Mt Pirongia park for promotional causes, while in the same breath, the Auckland council responding with a promise to investigate and take action against the same group who used the Hunua ranges for recruitment purposes. I am not discounting racism in Auckland — of course, there is racism in Auckland, it’s just not on the level of some of the more extreme regions (Waikato in the north, Canterbury and, to a lesser extent, parts of Otago — notably Dunedin — in the south).
Healthy Aucklanders who evaded the lockdown face online abuse, while the actual cases infected with the virus — and their close contacts — who refused to get a test and self isolate — were not held to account by the government, and were even met with sympathy by some.
It was because of the behavior of these cases, and their close contacts, who failed to comply with the requirements and the rules, that brought Auckland back into lockdown — and many healthy people left because for some, the mental health impacts of another one could be devastating. Many people felt that it was unfair for them to be a part of the lockdown, when they haven’t been sick or have come in contact with these cases. Lockdowns can be very mentally challenging for some people, and can have serious consequences for some. And in one case, a young boy took his own life because of the mentally challenging impacts of lockdown. So in some cases, lockdowns can have lethal consequences, especially if domestic violence, rape, or suicide is involved.
When we blame healthy people for leaving an area, but not blaming those who were actually supposed or required to self isolate due to them being a contact, sick, or positive for COVID-19, we are also responsible for not holding those who broke the actual rules to account. We are blaming others for the actions of those who actually broke the rules relating to self isolation. We are also encouraging people to not take responsibility for failing to self isolate when they are sick.
Online abuse
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, Aucklanders have become the subject of verbal abuse, as well as online abuse. There have been a lot of calls to keep Auckland locked down — even as there were no community transmission cases from the Valentine’s Day cluster for a week now. There have been quite a lot of nasty comments about Aucklanders, notably from people outside of the Auckland region. One example of this is an individual referring to Aucklanders as “C**ts” on social media. Another comment refers to Aucklanders as a “Jafa” on Facebook.
Terrorist threats
Unsurprisingly, and unfortunately, the stereotypes of Auckland and the hatred against the region have lead to online threats, one of which we have screenshotted and reported to Facebook, out of fear that someone may act on it. We have also reported the threat that was made on Facebook to the police. We won’t show the screenshot of this one, as we don’t want to air the comment further, for public safety concerns, especially having learnt from the Christchurch Mosque attacks.
People failing to realize a part of North Waikato is part of the lockdown
When people bash Auckland, they think they are bashing Auckland only. But, they clearly aren’t the brightest group out there. They fail to realize that parts of the Waikato district is included in the lockdown. Areas like Pokeno, Tuakau and now, Port Waikato are now included. And these are all areas that fall under the Waikato region. But we can also admit that emotion and anger can cause a person to lose logic and reason, which could explain why people are not thinking straight — and are narrowing it down to Aucklanders. But still, people should know better that Pokeno and Tuakau is not in Auckland, but is in the North Waikato, and should think twice before harassing Aucklanders, because they are abusing more than just Aucklanders — they are harassing North Waikato residents too.
Bear in mind that North Waikato — Auckland bubble excludes the area considered to be North Eastern Waikato — Miranda, Kaiaua, Mangatangi and the Coromandel Peninsula— all of which is in Alert Level 2 at that time, along with the other parts of the region, including Hamilton, Taupo, and Thames.
How could we learn from this outbreak?
There are many ways of trying to avoid another outbreak, and there are ways of dealing with the consequences of it. If there are proper measures in place, in addition to enforcement, most of this can be avoided.
Measures can be implemented, such as:
- Requiring close and casual contacts to self isolate for 2 weeks and get tested
- Moving all covid confirmed cases to mandatory quarantine
- Making contact tracing mandatory
- Have the law come down hard on those who refuse to get tested and self isolate if they are a close or a casual contact
We all play a part in dealing with an outbreak. We need to be responsible people and not engage in finger pointing or mob behavior against an irrelevant group of people. We could learn from examples such as:
- Holding cases and close/casual contacts who refuse to self isolate and get tested to account
- Not blaming healthy and non infectious people who avoid lockdowns, as some do it for their mental health. Instead, blame the behavior of the cases who refused to obey the requirements that leads to another lockdown.
- Not blaming a region for failing to prevent or control an outbreak.
Hate speech, regional profiling, xenophobia and other abuse, be it online or offline is a major problem. And it’s not acceptable under any circumstance. Because of the pandemic, hate speech can be more unpleasant and problematic.
Here’s a list of things that can be done to address this issue:
- Include in the reporting breaches section, an option to report regional profiling and other abusive content relating to the pandemic or an outbreak
- Remind people about the Harmful Digital Communications act
- Having social media giants update their hateful conduct policy to include regional profiling
- Taking action against people who make threats towards a region associated with an outbreak
- Update the Harmful Digital Communications Act to include harmful and abusive online behavior associated with this, or future pandemics. This includes misinformation, anti vaccination propaganda, harmful cures, and abusive behavior such as regional profiling and threatening behavior.
This outbreak may be over by now, but we should learn from the consequences of this outbreak, and what lead to the lockdowns — and what we should do to try to avoid another one in the future. We should also learn from this outbreak when it comes to online abuse, because regional profiling is not OK, and can lead to further abuse on and offline. Once we learn from all of this, hopefully we can avoid further lockdowns — and resulting abuse that will potentially come with it, or at least minimize abusive behavior if ever there is another one (and hopefully never).
