 While the impact of the pandemic was undoubtedly amplified by the Samoan cultural response to illness, which requires the fono (family) to gather around a sick person, the New Zealand administrative response to the pandemic was certainly at least inept.Much more could have been done to reduce the impact on the population, such as prohibiting travel within and between islands.The original decision to allow the "Talune"s passengers to land, along with other events during New Zealand's administration of Samoa, was the subject of an apology from the New Zealand Government delivered at a state luncheon in Apia in June 2002.