What keeps an island community COVID‐19 free in a global pandemic?

The COVID pandemic has offered opportunities for islands and other relatively isolated communities to establish pandemic‐protection boundaries. A July 2020 survey of Waiheke Island residents sought views on how the island had remained COVID‐19 free, despite proximity to a city of 1.6 million (Auckland, NZ). Many attributed that status to ‘pure luck’ or a ‘moat’ effect. However, many also attributed freedom from COVID‐19 to reinforcing high‐level community cohesiveness and shared values. The Waiheke community's response can be seen as a microcosm of New Zealand as an island nation and an exemplar of a response to pandemic threats uniquely possible for small islands.

What keeps an island community COVID-19 free in a global pandemic?

The COVID pandemic has offered opportunities for islands and other relatively isolated communities to establish pandemic-protection boundaries. A July 2020 survey of Waiheke Island residents sought views on how the island had remained COVID-19 free, despite proximity to a city of 1.6 million (Auckland, NZ). Many attributed that status to 'pure luck' or a 'moat' effect. However, many also attributed freedom from COVID-19 to reinforcing high-level community cohesiveness and shared values. The Waiheke community's response can be seen as a microcosm of New Zealand as an island nation and an exemplar of a response to pandemic threats uniquely possible for small islands.

Narrative and metaphors in New Zealand’s efforts to eliminate COVID‐19

This commentary considers the ways in which spatialised metaphors were mobilised within a larger narrative in the quest to eliminate COVID‐19 in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In doing so, it examines the links between language and socio‐political discourse, focusing on tropes that invoke and engage with geographies of everyday life. The foundational contention is that, to a large extent, language constructs our lived reality. After reviewing scholarship linking language and disease, the commentary turns to a case study of New Zealand’s response to COVID‐19. The public health goal was to instil caution and protective practices in the population at large as a defence against transmission. The role of narrative and metaphor in daily press conferences from the Prime Minister and Director General of Health through March and April 2020 is examined by drawing on evidence from media reporting. Three key metaphors are considered: bubbles, levels, and the team, with each metaphor having spatialised implications in the popular imagination. The commentary considers perceptual and behavioural implications of this strategic use of metaphor. I speculate on the ways in which language has an agency such that, until the widespread availability of vaccine, an infectious disease can be restricted through mobilising the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Geographical Research 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 abstract 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 abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Covid-19 in New Zealand and the Pacific: implications for children and families

The experience of Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2020 has been strongly shaped by a narrative emanating from a robust partnership between politicians and public health experts. This narrative, as we illustrate in the sections below, treads a careful line between hard and soft responses. To elaborate, enacting policy such as closing borders and requiring ‘lockdown’ was swift and firm but was accompanied by an attempt to develop a disposition of care and empathy towards the public. While there has been hardship for some families, the soft messaging has, we argue, led to aspects of the response that have been decidedly child-friendly. At the regional scale, border closures have impacted heavily on Pacific Island families, separating families as parents have been unable to return to their home islands and through the loss of economic opportunities associated with seasonal work and in local - often tourism dominated economies. In a COVID-era the future looks uncertain for children both within New Zealand and in the wider Pacific realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Children's Geographies is the property of Routledge 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 abstract 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 abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)