Covid traffic lights are concerning

We’re double jabbed but I fear the impact of the new traffic light scheme if it extends beyond the short term. The social and cultural damage could be severe.

The scheme sharply distinguishes between the vaxxed and unvaxxed.

Vaccination should be encouraged but an apartheid system is not the way. Vaccination rates among Māori, particularly young Māori are low. Some Pasifika are also hesitant.

The traffic lights will force splits among these groups and undermine community gatherings and outreach.

Those on the wrong side of the digital divide will struggle with the new protocols.

For day-to-day interactions, our supposedly diverse society will be reduced to those who are compliant and those who are not, with the disadvantaged and non-Pākehā concentrated on one side.

Our police will be left to enforce the divide against those annoying people who doubt the Government or who can’t keep up.

Another island country – Taiwan – has managed Covid quite successfully with a low vaccination rate and less stringent lockdowns than here. Our leaders should think again.

Dr Simon Smelt, Manakau