New Zealand Prime Jacinda Ardern smiled during an interview late last week when saying that she was effectively creating two different classes of people in her country that have different levels of freedom depending on whether they are vaccinated.
The New Zealand Herald reported last week that Ardern had “announced the country would move into the new traffic light system when each District Health Board has 90 per cent of its population with both doses of the vaccine.”
“So, you’ve basically said, this is gonna be like, well it’s almost like, and you probably don’t see it like this, [inaudible] two different classes of people, if you’re vaccinated or if you’re unvaccinated,” an interviewer said to Ardern. “You have all these rights if you are vaccinated–”
“That it is what it is,” Ardern quickly responded as she smiled. “So, yep. Yep.”
Ardern claimed that the new moves to use certificates was “not just a tool to drive up vaccines,” but “a tool for confidence.”
“People who have been vaccinated will want to know that they’re around other vaccinated people, they’ll want to know that they’re in a safe environment,” she claimed. “It is a way that we can give confidence to those who are going back into hospitality or events. And so, that is something that I think we should offer to people who have been vaccinated, that confidence that we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe, and that they can come back out and start enjoying those things safely.”
WATCH:
When the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked by a reporter if she was creating two classes of people, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, Ardern confirmed stating, "That is what it is, yep". pic.twitter.com/mY6cQBCFzX
— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) October 24, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
INTERVIEWER: So, you’ve basically said, this is gonna be like, well it’s almost like, and you probably don’t see it like this, [inaudible] two different classes of people, if you’re vaccinated or if you’re unvaccinated. You have all these rights if you are vaccinated–
JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: That it is what it is. So, yep. Yep.
INTERVIEWER: Can you describe, because you’ve previously were hoping not to have to do that, I guess when we still looked like we could maintain elimination across the whole country, but I guess that has now changed, because–
ARDERN: I think it was less because [inaudible] the elimination determining that and more because we, of course, maintained, and actually we have managed very high vaccination rates, generally, without the use of certificates. But actually, what it’s become clear to me is that they’re not just a tool to drive up vaccines. They’re a tool for confidence. People who have been vaccinated, will want to know that they’re around other vaccinated people, they’ll want to know that they’re in a safe environment. It is a way that we can give confidence to those who are going back into hospitality or events. And so, that is something that I think we should offer to people who have been vaccinated, that confidence that we’re doing everything we can to keep them safe, and that they can come back out and start enjoying those things safely.