I think Soon is right - the pandemic revealed people.
As a scientist doomscrolling the scientific literature I was aware of the pandemic a couple of months before it really hit us here. It revealed my own low tolerance for folks who were ignoring the coming problem or pretending they personally didn t need to do anything about it. I sent some terse and probably career limiting e-mails during that time.
As it became clear that NZ wasn t magically immune to the virus spreading, it revealed a health system that was remarkably underprepared. Who knew that a couple of decades of underfunding would make us particularly vulnerable.