ABSTRACT
The New Zealand government has used public health ordinances to impose restrictions on immigration, movement and social gatherings for managing the pandemic. Yet, this response led to unintended consequences, in particular the stigmatisation of some communities and professions as being ‘diseased’. Such discourse ran contrary to the government's own, and very public assertions, that New Zealand was a ‘team of five million’ who should ‘be kind’ to each other. Here, we position stigma as a form of slow violence, which during the pandemic has exploited existing cracks in social cohesion. We then employ an ethics of care approach to suggest some practical responses to healing the rifts created by COVID‐19. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)