Having been tested for COVID-19 (throat, and eye-watering nostril swabs) and isolated in a hospital room, I was feeling pretty good. I was confident I didn't have the virus, and also confident the medical mishap which put me in hospital during a pandemic had stabilised.

The Dunstan Hospital staff I was in contact with were, without exception, exceptional.

Friendly, efficient, and reassuring, they apologised for having to keep their distance, only entering my room when it was necessary, and always wearing full personal protective equipment (mask, gloves, gown). Their side of the conversation was conducted from the doorway, which was firmly closed when they left (when I would hear them thoroughly washing their hands in the ante-room).

If I needed a nurse, it was best if I telephoned them from my cell phone, the staff said, and I should try to think of everything I needed so as to reduce the number of trips to my room. I didn't have to take my own blood pressure, but the staff told me this was an option.

It took just a few hours of isolation to give me a sense of the loneliness a COVID-19 patient must feel, but it was almost 24 hours before my test results came back – negative.

When the nurse came to tell me the news, there was an appreciable shift. “We can open the door now,” she announced with a smile.

With the door open, I could hear other people moving around and talking, and felt part of the hospital community. Staff could enter my room without wearing masks or other protective gear. I had social contact – and I could see people's faces again.

Some of us will be aware of that closed door more strongly than others. The 'closed door' of lockdown gives me, someone in the “at risk” category, a sense of protection.

But I'm interested to read the arguments of those who want the door opened now – frankly, suggesting people like me shouldn't stand in the way of economic recovery. 

Microbiologist Dr Siouxie Wiles said in The Spinoff this week that argument reminds her of a line by Lord Farquaad from the movie Shrek: “Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make”. (A friend in the health sector suggested that if COVID-19 preferentially killed white middle-class men aged between 20 and 50-years-old there may be fewer of those arguments published.)

My first job, fresh out of university, was with the Ministry of Health and I had an influential mentor with a master's degree in public health: I tend to trust public health experts. So when two esteemed public health professors conclude that, to the best of their knowledge, New Zealand is choosing the “least bad option” for the sake of the economy and public health, I believe them.

I also believe their assessment that the world we knew three weeks ago has gone for good. 

The “rethink” of tourism, so significant for our local economy, will be just one aspect of a far-reaching rethink of life after COVID-19. The role of our airport, projected tourism numbers, assumptions about growth - debates which have raged during the past year or so - look very different through this new lens. 

And when the door opens again I hope we will all be here to take part in our community’s planning for a new, post-pandemic world.