Yeah, I never was an Ardern hater. I felt like she came off as fake, but that's not a political issue. She seemed scared of interacting with actual people who might disagree with her, so she seemed to prefer photos with schoolchildren, and to control who got to ask her questions. Again, that's a personality issue, not a political issue... well, it is, it was the supression of a free press.

As for vaccines, I got it and I got boosted twice. But even as I did and as I followed the research, I already knew it was pretty iffy. I was against lose-your-job mandates from the start because I had already read the research showing the vaccines did not stop transmission. So what was the point? But the populous was very afraid and had swallowed a lie about the vaccines. Anyhow, I became friends with a lot of anti-vaxxers because I showed support for their position (once it is clearly not stopping the pandemic, it becomes a personal decision). What I learned more than anything else is that governments move very slow.. nowhere close to the speed of science.