The Government is being accused of putting politics before science amid New Zealand's latest wave of COVID-19.
That critique came from epidemiologist Michael Baker, who said on Thursday he was disappointed masks weren't made compulsory in schools when the Government unveiled multiple new strategies to tackle skyrocketing COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
"Unfortunately, we've politicised this issue too much and politics is starting to take over from science," Prof Baker told RNZ.
However, speaking to AM on Thursday, Labour minister Kiri Allan said "I don't think that's quite the case".
"What I do think is that we've been in the pandemic for two years… Two years on - I think that New Zealanders are pretty familiar with the environment that we're in."
Allan said Thursday's announcement was "a bit of a wake-up call" for Kiwis.
She told AM host Ryan Bridge now was the time for Kiwis to lift their games and mask up.
Allan said New Zealanders didn't "need to be treated like kids".
"We're pretty good at knowing what we've got to do so, yesterday, a bit of a rallying cry; 'Hey team, we need us all on board' and that's where I think we landed.
"Now that we've been in this situation for the past two years… We know how to mitigate and limit the spread now so yesterday, when we were looking at those numbers, we're seeing that spike: 'Hey team [of] 5 million, chuck those masks back on, use those RATs, do what you've got to do to keep each other safe.'"
National Party Health spokesperson Shane Reti said Thursday's announcement was a pragmatic approach.
"I think there's a pragmatic reality between the perfect science and what New Zealanders will tolerate, and there's a lot of COVID fatigue out there at the moment," said Dr Reti, appearing on AM alongside Allan.
"The risk is if we push too hard on one part of the response, we might lose support to other important parts like boosters [and] isolation - so we've got to be a little bit pragmatic here around what New Zealanders will tolerate."
