I see that Kennedy's remark after the shambles that was The Bay of Pigs is equally true in New Zealand.
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan"
It would seem that Dr Caroline McElnay was stuck with announcing that there were 71 cases of Covid 19 today. Where was the PM? Where was Hipkins? Where was Bloomfield?
This tiresome thought in post 1 has surfaced on another board I frequent. Apart from being rubbish it is so obvious that they are not original spontaneous thoughts occurring across the nation.. Almost as if the Nats or whoevers have sent out talking points.
Who cares who fronts? As long as they are competent and Hipkins and Robertson mostly certainly are competent. Bloomfield and McElnay similarly.
I noticed that JC was very scathing that the PM did not front over this past weekend, as if she was having a zzzzz somewhere or just decided not to to walk down from Premier House. JC seemed to forget that the PM was in places like Murupara and the East Coast being part of a drive to up the vaccination rates in those areas.
I know the work I feel is most important and it is not fronting a a weekend Beehive session that could be competently fronted by others
It intrigues me that there seems to be a deliberate policy of not explaining why govt policy has failed to contain the Delta spread whereas it succeeded with the original contagion last year. I'm aware Delta is way more infectious, but we have a tendency in the public to try and blame boundary runners for the spread. I haven't noticed any effort by the authorities to either confirm or deny whether they're guilty.
Could be govt is clueless & prefers not to let on. Human nature. But the idea of transparent governance is that you inform the public when it's in the public interest. I reckon people like to connect cause & effect, so if they don't get official explanations they just make it up as they go along. Semi-plausible narratives will get traction. Dunno if it's wise of officialdom to turn a blind eye to those.
1.case numbers spread out a lot in the initial period, so it took a month to shut the clusters down.
2. to then eliminate would have required weeks more at Level 4 (tough but doable – the government now likes to say, there was no guarantee it would have worked as reason to give up on elimination this year).
2a – they were complacent under elimination and did not have rapid testing at essential workplaces (such as a 15 minute test before entry into a hospital).
3. the plan to open up – including a trial of business workers in home isolation (some risk) before opening up next year with vaccination rolled out.
The dichotomy between 2 and 3 was too much.
So they moved to Level 3 and committed to never going back to Level 4. Instead they had a plan to go down towards level 2 via Level 3 lite.
Now we have community spread that will go over 100 a day by the end of the month. It'll go higher in November and modellers will call for a Level 4 period to take numbers back down again – at some point this is likely (if only for a week or two).
We'll cope provided
1. we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
2. we get boosters to those vaxxed earlier in the year to prevent breakthrough infections in health workers and the medically vulnerable (oldies before Christmas).
we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
Even giving you the first part of that proviso; SPC (which seems optimistic), where do you propose that we get the health workers to transfer into Auckland? NZNO members in particular are unlikely to do so simply because the current Minister of Health asks them to! Which leaves Immigration or Conscription – both problematic to my mind.
6 more weeks containment in Auckland till we get to the second dose plus 2 weeks for full immunity is what is wanted/needed
Staff have already gone to one Auckland hospital to help out, and given our increased ICU capacity consists of local nurses recently trained up (and with no experience in this work) or more experienced staff who have managed few pandemic cases they might well volunteer for such secondment – either as completion of their training or preparation for their 2022 jobs locally.
My understanding is that this is basically due to investigations taking more time than the speed of the news cycle. We have in some cases been made aware of how inter regional transmission might have started such as the guy from Auckland district courts going to outside Auckland (and apparently catching it off his transport). I also doubt the media would do much with comprehensive case notes anyway because these would necessarily be days to weeks out of date and the focus is going to be on whats just happened today.
As usual Alwyn I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes, sayings and especially the prior promises and eventual failures of our (more left leaning) elected representatives.
Can you let us in on your secret. Do you keep a database of things Jacinda said, or that Grant put his hand in the pocket for? Do you have a revision schedule for keeping up to date with the latest let down?
My only comment here about Ms Ardern was that she didn't appear to be at today's briefing. That is the only thing I said. How does that become something to cause you to decide that you should come out with " I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes," etc?
that's not all you said. You also said via implication that Ardern, Hipkins and Bloomfield should have fronted announcing 71 cases instead of leaving it to McElnay.
Your right it wasn't your most insightful comment on here. Still I have no doubt you will lift your game again and could instantaneously roll out 3 election promises Labour have broken, two social justice memes involving Chloe Swarbric and one confidence and supply agreement clause which Winston never honoured. That just seems to be the calabre your in so I was inquiring about your training regemine.
Ardern tends to only to come out for def' in media on Mondays these days, unless it is certain questioners who ask difficult questions, then for the rest of the week, it depends on how bad the news is.
Purely a guess from me, but they might have a 1-5 scale.
3-5 bad send someone else out.
1-2 Ardern fronts.
Which though is probably completely bollocks, would be kind of sad given how well she fronted with Chch. Might be a dropping a fair bit in the old polls since the election thing.
Ardern's most recent approval rating is 60%. Up slightly. This was from polling after last week's events, when the pundit chatter simply assumed that she had lost support, with no evidence.
Bollocks. She's in the regions encouraging people to get "jabbed", I think Tauranga or somewhere central NI?
Side note, my 13 year old & I got our 2nd dose today, absolutely no side effects, I don't even have a sore arm this time. It's really remarkable how individualistic people's reactions to the vaccination are. My kid is fine too.
Fantasists seem to think that each day there's a meeting of the cabal (what time? 9 am? 12?) and they decide what the PM is going to do that day, based on the case numbers.
Alwyn last time it was Jacinda hogging the lime light now your complaining because Jacinda is going to areas of low vaccination to encourage more vaccinations that's what you call a leader doing the right thing.
Looking at Nationals support base what's left of it .All this whinging is getting you no where.
Chris T – you demonstrably have internet access. Why would you need to physically go to a uni library? Lots of usually paywalled data is freely available for the duration, try this for starters:
You might want to wait until after tomorrow before being too certain about having "absolutely no side effects". I was certainly a bit wiped out for a couple of days there!
Had my second a couple of weeks ago. Had nothing that time.
First one.
Wake up in morning. Walk to kitchen. Start to make cup of tea. Vomit.
From that morning for about 36 hours on couch with bucket. Couldn't even hold water down.
Mentioned it on another article. As I said then. I may just be a weirdo or it happened to co-incide with a bug or something. Never had anything that bad though. I haven't even had the flu before
Oh jeebus, wish I hadn't read that, was quite happy in my blissful ignorance! Fingers crossed I (& my kid) are one of the lucky ones. 
First time I got flu jab years ago I was sick for a couple weeks, & I’d never had flu before (I didn’t even know there was a difference to the cold & the flu).
Should have probably added it was at least for me the weirdo, literally 36 hrs odd and then fine. It wasn't one of those things where it drags on after.
I was just by then insanely hungry and thirsty pretty quickly and probably would have disemboweled any stopping me getting to the fridge with my glass of chilled water and sandwich my wife kindly prepped for me.
She didn't have jack happen by the way. Pommy bitch! . Just looked at me the whole time sliding between pity and "You bloody wimp". She made some funny jokes about it to cheer me up though
alwyn Mr Russell is a talking head along with Hoskings,the grave yard shift and sometimes spins old day music for those types that yearn for the old times.
Just so the 'sillies' can't make up any theories or rave on about the PM not attending 1.00pm briefings, MOH has announced that the weekend's updates will be via its mailouts/website.
Probably so everyone who can be, is working on the Vaxathon.
I wonder what the anti PM/Govt talking points will be in the coming week?
One Nat supporter on the board where the talking points about the PM & attendance were also raised around the same time as Alwyn's, was moved to write that she did not know which was worse, having to combat Covid misinformation, or political weirdness about who fronts the 1.00pm briefings made as if it was relevant to Covid/ Health/vaccinations.
One of the weird things of the age. Ardern is on the covid conferences a lot and people complain. Apparently she's turning the saga into a PR exercise.
And she comes on and she's all waffle and talking to us as if we're kids we’re told.
Then she's not there and people wet their nappies. What the hell is that all about?
It's the political equivalent of searching through the TV channels to find the sex and violence so they can complain about all the sex and violence on TV … with a little too much enthusiasm.
My thought is that is simply projection from the critic's own worldview. So when say; Collins, claims that Ardern is milking 1pm briefings for favorable publicity, what she really means is that if she was in Ardern's position, that's what she'd do herself.
Sometimes lies tell you more than truths – at least about the person speaking.
I actually think the govt did a good job with the initial shutdowns and it saved us some grief last year, though at the same time the roll out of the vaccine and the slowness nearly cancels it out in shitty work.
I have continued to have mixed feelings about the whole elimination thing.
Probably just me
Can't help feeling it was an extremely expensive and damaging way to delay the inevitable for the entire country. god knows how many small businesses are going to go bust, (don't get me started on why butchers, hair dressers, etc etc can't, eating in outside areas are blocked).
I also noticed in amongst medical and education being compulsarirally vaccinated. Where is the prostitutes? I kind of think they shoud kind of be mentioned.
On the other hand it did give us time to build up a, if not ideal, decent vaxed number
Sorry about the ranting ramble there. Was just thinking about stuff, feel free to ignore
See, without modern medicine I probably would have died years ago. Even today my doctor and I play a little game where I live the life I like and he prescribes the best cocktail of meds that will keep me alive a bit longer.
Why is this relevant? Because life is about delaying the inevitable.
If everything goes tits up and we have 7k, 14k, 80k covid deaths, that's still a couple of years more life than those folks would have had under the "live with it in March 2020" crowd.
Fuck businesses. We're talking about actual life, not livelihoods.
So you have given up on the whole trying to reduce poverty thing?
If businesses go under, the owner goes under, and alll the owners workers lose their jobs.
When the owner loses their job they may not be able to pay their mortgage and they lose their house. They may have more than one and are renting one or two. They lose aa well. The bank takes them and says forced sell. Families renting them are kicked out and have no where to live.
The said owners laid off workers have now got no wage so they can't pay their mortgage. The bank takes their house and they have no where to live.
Depending on their wage they may be renting out a flat. The bank takes this also and sells it and the renters are forced to move out with no where to live, because there is nothing cheap enough in the covid bordered area, so they hang out in a car.
Or the only place the workers can find is some shit hole in no where to rent on the dole. So they have to move their kids to that place and their kids have to go to a new school and no longer can see their friends.
But as you say 10s of thousands of people will probably go through this, but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease for a few months
If businesses need people to die in order to stay in existence, we're doing it the wrong way around.
Maybe the tourism industry has to go the way of the asbestos industry. Maybe not. But killing people so some small businesses can continue operating without adapting is as callous as it is stupid.
but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease thousands of loved family members alive for a few months
How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer fiscreening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?
Or are they not as important as people who chose not to be vaccinated, and have underlying health conditions?
Are you aware that governments and health planners and modellers actually took into consideration things like delayed health care, and came to understand that more people would die and become disabled if covid was left to run free?
It's not a chance of an onslaught of covid. That's a bizarre statement given what's happened in so many other countries in teh world in the past 18 months. Why would NZ be any different?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
And you appear to be suggesting that we have a bunch of people die from covid in addition to those road and flu deaths. Besides, we do what we can to prevent those deaths, it's not like we go, oh can't spend money on making roads safer.
Yes, but we don't destroy small businesses like butchers, hairdressers, and thousands the hospitality industry when they could be open, as they are no different from going to the pub, dentist or doctor because a car might hit a power pole
car accidents aren't infectious diseases. Really not following your argument here. We do a lot to prevent road deaths, it's not really anything to do with small businesses other than pubs etc, and we do prevention work there too.
We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit.
“How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer screening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?”
You have this the wrong way round – delays for the possibility of covid is nothing like the massive demand on hospitals due to actual covid when a 'live with it' strategy was used. For example, from the British Medical Journal:
Why have waiting times increased so much? Solid evidence is not yet available, but several contributors are likely. Operating theatres and outpatient clinics were closed as they became needed to treat patients with covid-19 during the first wave in 2020. Surgical staff, particularly junior surgical and nursing staff, were redeployed to provide cover for extra beds occupied by patients with covid-19 and for staff unable to work because they had covid-19 or were isolating …
Predictive modelling suggests that around 28 million operations were cancelled or postponed globally during the peak 12 weeks of the first wave; this number will surely increase as the pandemic progresses …
In the US, one study estimated that a backlog of at least one million orthopaedic surgical cases would remain two years after elective surgery stopped being deferred because of covid-19
With all due respect. You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago when piss all people were vaccinated (I think they are still sitting on less than 75% first vaccunation even now) and use it as a model for how it will play out here.
Even at a 95/95/95 assumption (95% vaxxed, 95% no infection in vaxxed, 95% no hospitalisation of infected vaxxed person), that leaves:
750k 0-12yo to spread or get the disease
250k 12+ who are unvaccinated
In addition to those million people, there are another 200k vaxxed people who do not have full protection.
So about a fifth of our population will still be vulnerable to delta. With a vulnerable group that large, what do you think the transmission numbers will be?
Well, assuming even none of them actually get symptoms, there are almost half a million people they can give it to (after trading it to each other at school).
Yeah, but it is just going to happen. As I said earlier. It is a delay to the inevitable. Holding a crucifix up to stop an avalanche hitting you.
I mean a kid under 12 gets it and they inevitably will and spread it, it ain't like you can stop them play fighting, cuddling, with each other, or make them keep masks on. It spreads exponentially.
It is what it is
I would pity parents who tried to though. While also I think I would find it funny watching them try to 🙂
Just need to make sure enough people are vaccinated as possible. And I won't bring up lack of ICU prep, but will probably do on another day
No, it'll never happen. Because that was 95/95/95.
At 90/95/95, that's ~750k kids to spread it, ~430k unvaxxed >=12yo, and ~190k vaxxed but it didn't take.
The longer we put it off, the higher the vax number is and the fewer unvaxxed adults are out there – even if you think child covid won't really happen (it does, but that's another argument).
Sure, ICU beds are an issue, and general health equity, and shit housing (especially emergency housing for poor people). These are the systemic issues over decades that have sown what we reap.
But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, they aren't reasons to just let covid run free as soon as possible. The way to victory here is constant delaying. Cunctator-stylez.
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
"Saying everything should open up"
That isn't what I said but feel free to quote me saying it.
I said places like butchers and hairdressers. Because you know. How dumb arse it I can't get cheap steaks wrapped in paper from a dude in a butcher only he touched with plastic gloves, while then walk to a super market and fart around with a trolley 20 people have used.
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
Well, it's not like you've presented any others. You don't like my numbers, you don't like Hendy's numbers, how many people do you think will die when we go to level 2 permanently? To keep hairdressers and independent butcheries open so you can have a nice steak?
And going all Palpatine with "it is inevitable" ignores the fact that the longer we wait, the higher our vax level. Where do you think diminishing returns come in? When half a million 12+ are unvaxxed? 750k? 250k? You reject Hendy's numbers, fair enough. Whose numbers do you figure are reasonable? As you say, from a couple thousand cases in a largely vaxxed population we've had two dead and currently 617 active cases and 26 in hospital.
How many cases will occur to make you put up with a supermarket steak (and they should have sanitising wipes for the trolley, complain if they don't)?
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Are the brothels still open? How does one "close" an itinerant sex worker? If indeed those rumours are true, rather than just dodgy assumptions.
Actually, the businesses with regular accounts probably qualify for the wage relief. In lieu of providing other relief. And, like hairdressing, I suspect that the business value is in the skills and practitioner reputation rather than capital investment, so would be easier to start up again if things go tits-up.
I didn't mean child covid won't happen. I meant as they play together the vast vast vast majority will be fine while then giving it to adults who may not be.
Now parks are open. it is just going to happen.
Agree health lack of infrestucture is a decades old issue and there are two certain PM's who spent 18 years between them in charge who basically fucked it. Same with housing, but another discussion.
"But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, "
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
The wage subsidy cover exactly that. Not rent. Power. GST. Insurance. ACC. Food spoilage and throwing away because the govt demands we have to wait till a certain time on a monday afternoon to say any actual shit and they have to be prepared at any time to try to open.
And even that has a limit of 600 bucks a week I think and is taxed, so the small business owner has to top that up so their staff can pay shit like their mortgage when they are normally on about 2 k a week And you have to justify it every 2 weeks
I know Labour don't get it as they think all businesses are the size of Microsoft as and all the business owners are evil, none have had to run one, but they need to to start sourcing advice from the business community rather than tight arsed, probably still living with mum stats dude from Wellington.
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
No they're not dying. They're looking at losing money and winding up their business.
I'm involved with a peekaboo (lol pcbu in the osh parlance) that is in the shit right now. We will probably be able to keep operating, but yeah, it's tough.
You know what's more tough? Actually dying.
Saying everything should open up and disease should walk the land so I can keep my business profitable would be almost sociopathic. But there's this affliction amongst many SMEs where their owner-operators care more about their bottom line than literally the lives of other people.
So yeah, we can still minimise the spread until as many people are vaccinated who can be. Some kids in parks might spread it around a bit more than everyone adhering to L4 standards, but full classrooms definitely will. Same with malls.
I never aid Auckland should go to level 2. It is fairly obvious it won't for a while.
I just said small businesses like butchers and hairdressers etc etc should be allowed to open.
I have tried to be diplomatic but frankly I am beginning to run out of patience, The govts qualification for who can open and can't with risk at level 3 in Auckland is fucking shit.
OK Let me put it this way as the other isn;t working. Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Some possibilities come to mind:
Lower numbers of people going to work lowers the spead.
Supermarkets are open anyway (although not sure their meat counters were attended under L3? My local just had the refridgerated shelves, no actual butcher measuring stuff out). Having supermarkets and butchers open is redundant – at least hairdressers provide a different service.
Limited venues means controlled access easier to monitor by wandering cops/inspectors.
Lower number of queues for contagious person to stand in while shopping that day means lower number of places of interest in a couple of days time.
I'm pretty sure that sex workers shouldn't actually be operating under L3, so not sure what power a vaccine mandate would hold over the ones currently operating.
But also I'm not sure all of them operate as registered businesses with appropriate ACC levy registration (which would probably be slightly more accurate than companies or gst documentation – for the ones that do their full paperwork).
I mean, stunning idea for people in the privileged classes I know, but not all financial transactions or operations are duly reported to the government.
You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago
Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy. The most likely scenario for delays in non-covid treatment, is covid itself, not some strategy of bed and appointment blocking 'just in case' (in fact NZ did clear space for the worst happening but we never had to implement that plan in any major way).
We can't use NZ as an example of what happens when we open up now – because it the covid pandemic didn't happen, we're not starting with a covid-induced backlog. We'll find out more in our vaccinated future shortly.
As weka suggests, they plan for this stuff. That's the question – do you trust the planning or not?
Depends who is doing the planning. I certainly don't trust that hendy dude's who was basically just given millions bt labour with no proper best of practice on who to use.
"Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy."
This is a fair point.
I did say it was a rambling rant, but I should have been more clear in the difference status of countries situations vax verse infection wise, sorry.
How? That's what would have happened if the business uber alles crowd had gotten their way a year and a half ago. Look at… damned near every other nation on the planet.
And the impact on other medical care is a valid, quantifiable question to ask (with reasonable data and reporting) – but it's a lot different to removing disease controls so we can preserve the cashflows of "just cutz" or "try hair".
But then you'd also be factoring in ICU occupancy during a pandemic and other outbreak-related impacts on the healthcare system, right? Right?
As for vaccination, it's a tool in the box. But it's not 100%, and some people will still die when this thing is endemic. That happens. And the predicted math of dead in that circumstances should be balanced against any dead you happen to be able to think of when you are reminded why we have these allegedly business-destroying lockdowns (although our GDP seems to suggest that a healthy population has fewer lockdowns and more economic activity than a plagueland).
But the business sector should not be a consideration in any "opening up" decision.
Now do the costs associated with hundreds of people likely not working, or working reduced hours, for months post infection.
How will this play out for the working population?
Using UK data to inform assumptions around vaccination effectiveness at stopping infections and lowering the likelihood of hospitalisation if infected, we have projected numbers of cases, hospitalisations, ICU and ‘long COVID’
for Australian workers consistent with the Doherty modelling.
In summary, our projections result in just over 100,000 COVID-19 infections in workers leading to around 10,000 hospitalisations, of which 700 are admitted to ICU. Up to (or perhaps even exceeding) 7,000 long COVID cases may develop who are fully off work, and twice as many again will still be on reduced work, 7 months later.
Vaccination changes the risk of infection and hospitalisation significantly. 42,000 COVID-19 cases are projected from the vaccinated workforce of 7.2 million workers. 64,000 COVID-19 cases are projected to come from unvaccinated workers (1.8 million workers).
Andrew little said on the radio tonight that 95% of infections will not have to go to hospital and can be looked after with visits to home for food etc.
Has he not read you 10% hospitalisation modelling?
Also. You can't model long covid. They are still not sure what it is.
long covid rates are estimated to be between 10% and something like 30%. That rate should be lower in fully vaccinated people, but, we don't know yet how that will play out, and we don't know if new variants will be worse.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
Hospitalisations aside, anywhere between an estimated 25% and 80% of infected patients will be saddled with one or more long-term symptom/s. Should those numbers come to pass, good luck accessing anything resembling timely medical care in a health system that's near on it's knees today.
I think one of the things on our side. (Well apart from Auckland maybe. Sorry guys!), is the fact we have a pretty impressive amount of space to people ratio outside the big cities.
We may end up with Omega Man like cities and loads of farmers turning them into dairy farms. Moaning that Aucklanders only left them one bridge to get them to the milking sheds.
Apparently rural areas in the US are getting hit hard now – not just because of maga vax hesitancy.
Sure, one can spend all one's time on the farm, but one eventually goes into towd – the supply store, the bar, the church, the parts store, the vet supply store. And they see everyone in the area who eventually comes into town. The node with many edges comes into play again.
And then the farmers die in greater number because they're further from help.
Hairdressers have been going gangbusters around lockdown restrictions, it's not something most people can generally do themselves, & you seem to not have noticed that butcher shops are probably at 10% of the numbers they once were at but not due to covid or any restrictions. They started to become a thing of the past due to supermarkets. Other businesses have modified how they do things in a meaningful way since the 2020 lockdown – local garage ie operates 4 days a week now not 5 with no reduction in anyone's wages or the volume of service they provide. They've condensed it to less down time over the week. There are valuable things to learn from operating more effectively, when done well it also benefits retail along the line as well
Nearly; AFdeV, but something is off with the second line of your limerick. I think it needs another syllable in the second triplet (or at least a comma) eg With grave and most deadly persistance. Also There's & there is, would work better swapped between the fourth and fifth lines (or maybe On instead of Upon). Plus it's not obscene at all! Though I guess that could be implied in the threatened existence.
Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
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Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor in Honiara Solomon Islands’ incumbent prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has been re-elected in the East Choiseul constituency. It is the opening move in the political chess match to form the country’s next government. Returning officer Christopher Makoni made the declaration late last night after ...
Headline: The moment of friction. – 36th Parallel Assessments In strategic studies “friction” is a term that it is used to describe the moment when military action encounters adversary resistance. “Friction” is one of four (along with an unofficial fifth) “F’s” in military strategy, which includes force (kinetic mass), ...
The Fast-track Bill, if passed, would allow three Ministers, unchallenged and unchecked, to approve the immediate extraction and exhaustion of one-off resources. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne iamharin/Shutterstock For many people, the term “bulk billed” refers to a GP visit they don’t have to pay ...
Emmas Hislop, Sidnam and Wehipeihana discuss what’s in a name. Emma Sidnam: Hello Emmas! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me. My first question for you is related to what’s been on my mind for a while. It’s very important. You see we’ve recently had some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
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I see that Kennedy's remark after the shambles that was The Bay of Pigs is equally true in New Zealand.
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan"
It would seem that Dr Caroline McElnay was stuck with announcing that there were 71 cases of Covid 19 today. Where was the PM? Where was Hipkins? Where was Bloomfield?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300430651/covid19-outbreak-situation-report-what-happened-today-october-14
This got old over a year ago. It's bad if they're there, it's bad if they're not, toss a coin for the tiresome.
Different people on different days. As always. And decided in advance. But you know all this already.
This tiresome thought in post 1 has surfaced on another board I frequent. Apart from being rubbish it is so obvious that they are not original spontaneous thoughts occurring across the nation.. Almost as if the Nats or whoevers have sent out talking points.
Who cares who fronts? As long as they are competent and Hipkins and Robertson mostly certainly are competent. Bloomfield and McElnay similarly.
I noticed that JC was very scathing that the PM did not front over this past weekend, as if she was having a zzzzz somewhere or just decided not to to walk down from Premier House. JC seemed to forget that the PM was in places like Murupara and the East Coast being part of a drive to up the vaccination rates in those areas.
I know the work I feel is most important and it is not fronting a a weekend Beehive session that could be competently fronted by others
It intrigues me that there seems to be a deliberate policy of not explaining why govt policy has failed to contain the Delta spread whereas it succeeded with the original contagion last year. I'm aware Delta is way more infectious, but we have a tendency in the public to try and blame boundary runners for the spread. I haven't noticed any effort by the authorities to either confirm or deny whether they're guilty.
Could be govt is clueless & prefers not to let on. Human nature. But the idea of transparent governance is that you inform the public when it's in the public interest. I reckon people like to connect cause & effect, so if they don't get official explanations they just make it up as they go along. Semi-plausible narratives will get traction. Dunno if it's wise of officialdom to turn a blind eye to those.
It's pretty obvious
1.case numbers spread out a lot in the initial period, so it took a month to shut the clusters down.
2. to then eliminate would have required weeks more at Level 4 (tough but doable – the government now likes to say, there was no guarantee it would have worked as reason to give up on elimination this year).
2a – they were complacent under elimination and did not have rapid testing at essential workplaces (such as a 15 minute test before entry into a hospital).
3. the plan to open up – including a trial of business workers in home isolation (some risk) before opening up next year with vaccination rolled out.
The dichotomy between 2 and 3 was too much.
So they moved to Level 3 and committed to never going back to Level 4. Instead they had a plan to go down towards level 2 via Level 3 lite.
Now we have community spread that will go over 100 a day by the end of the month. It'll go higher in November and modellers will call for a Level 4 period to take numbers back down again – at some point this is likely (if only for a week or two).
We'll cope provided
1. we contain it in Auckland – then we can transfer health workers into Auckland as need be.
2. we get boosters to those vaxxed earlier in the year to prevent breakthrough infections in health workers and the medically vulnerable (oldies before Christmas).
Even giving you the first part of that proviso; SPC (which seems optimistic), where do you propose that we get the health workers to transfer into Auckland? NZNO members in particular are unlikely to do so simply because the current Minister of Health asks them to! Which leaves Immigration or Conscription – both problematic to my mind.
6 more weeks containment in Auckland till we get to the second dose plus 2 weeks for full immunity is what is wanted/needed
Staff have already gone to one Auckland hospital to help out, and given our increased ICU capacity consists of local nurses recently trained up (and with no experience in this work) or more experienced staff who have managed few pandemic cases they might well volunteer for such secondment – either as completion of their training or preparation for their 2022 jobs locally.
what's the fully vaxxed rate for Auckland currently? Had a look before and couldn't find it.
Auckland is c65% double vaxxed, and over 85% single dose.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data#group
Just scroll the page to the DHB per 1000 stat.
thanks! The words in that chart didn't turn up on a keyword search.
are you thinking in 6 weeks Auckland will be at 90% double?
Yes.
Other areas will get there by the end of the year, but not all.
Oz and world data.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/covid-19-global-vaccine-tracker-and-data-centre-20210128-p56xht.html
My understanding is that this is basically due to investigations taking more time than the speed of the news cycle. We have in some cases been made aware of how inter regional transmission might have started such as the guy from Auckland district courts going to outside Auckland (and apparently catching it off his transport). I also doubt the media would do much with comprehensive case notes anyway because these would necessarily be days to weeks out of date and the focus is going to be on whats just happened today.
As usual Alwyn I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes, sayings and especially the prior promises and eventual failures of our (more left leaning) elected representatives.
Can you let us in on your secret. Do you keep a database of things Jacinda said, or that Grant put his hand in the pocket for? Do you have a revision schedule for keeping up to date with the latest let down?
My only comment here about Ms Ardern was that she didn't appear to be at today's briefing. That is the only thing I said. How does that become something to cause you to decide that you should come out with " I am astounded by your encyclopedic knowledge of memes," etc?
that's not all you said. You also said via implication that Ardern, Hipkins and Bloomfield should have fronted announcing 71 cases instead of leaving it to McElnay.
Your right it wasn't your most insightful comment on here. Still I have no doubt you will lift your game again and could instantaneously roll out 3 election promises Labour have broken, two social justice memes involving Chloe Swarbric and one confidence and supply agreement clause which Winston never honoured. That just seems to be the calabre your in so I was inquiring about your training regemine.
For an older "gentleman" you sure make a lot of childish noises.
Ardern tends to only to come out for def' in media on Mondays these days, unless it is certain questioners who ask difficult questions, then for the rest of the week, it depends on how bad the news is.
Purely a guess from me, but they might have a 1-5 scale.
3-5 bad send someone else out.
1-2 Ardern fronts.
Which though is probably completely bollocks, would be kind of sad given how well she fronted with Chch. Might be a dropping a fair bit in the old polls since the election thing.
Ardern's most recent approval rating is 60%. Up slightly. This was from polling after last week's events, when the pundit chatter simply assumed that she had lost support, with no evidence.
https://twitter.com/oneforthedr/status/1448457378370703367/photo/1
Bollocks. She's in the regions encouraging people to get "jabbed", I think Tauranga or somewhere central NI?
Side note, my 13 year old & I got our 2nd dose today, absolutely no side effects, I don't even have a sore arm this time. It's really remarkable how individualistic people's reactions to the vaccination are. My kid is fine too.
Fantasists seem to think that each day there's a meeting of the cabal (what time? 9 am? 12?) and they decide what the PM is going to do that day, based on the case numbers.
A moment's thought shows how absurd that is.
Alwyn last time it was Jacinda hogging the lime light now your complaining because Jacinda is going to areas of low vaccination to encourage more vaccinations that's what you call a leader doing the right thing.
Looking at Nationals support base what's left of it .All this whinging is getting you no where.
Can you please show me where I claimed that "it was Jacinda hogging the lime light"?
Know what you mean.
It is an interesting thing eh?
Must just be a differing immune system balance or something, Or a genes thing.
Almost makes me want to rock up to the uni library and do some reading.
Chris T – you demonstrably have internet access. Why would you need to physically go to a uni library? Lots of usually paywalled data is freely available for the duration, try this for starters:
https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus/collection?startPage=¤tPage=&ContentItemCategory=Articles
IFL
You might want to wait until after tomorrow before being too certain about having "absolutely no side effects". I was certainly a bit wiped out for a couple of days there!
Had my second a couple of weeks ago. Had nothing that time.
First one.
Wake up in morning. Walk to kitchen. Start to make cup of tea. Vomit.
From that morning for about 36 hours on couch with bucket. Couldn't even hold water down.
Mentioned it on another article. As I said then. I may just be a weirdo or it happened to co-incide with a bug or something. Never had anything that bad though. I haven't even had the flu before
Oh jeebus, wish I hadn't read that, was quite happy in my blissful ignorance! Fingers crossed I (& my kid) are one of the lucky ones. 
First time I got flu jab years ago I was sick for a couple weeks, & I’d never had flu before (I didn’t even know there was a difference to the cold & the flu).
I wouldn't worry about it. As I say, I may just be a weirdo or I happened to have a bug at the same time.
I work in a big department. 90% I spoke to basically said sore arm for a bit, either slightly sorer the first or second.
Couple of others felt a little nausea.
Only one other had the nausea hitting throwing up level thing, and theirs was just half a day or so.
Don't let it put anyone off. Everyone needs to do it, And the slim chance of a little discomfort is frankly a small price to pay for the greater good.
If it helps the second jab I made sure was Friday afternoon so if it happened again I had the weekend.
Should have probably added it was at least for me the weirdo, literally 36 hrs odd and then fine. It wasn't one of those things where it drags on after.
I was just by then insanely hungry and thirsty pretty quickly and probably would have disemboweled any stopping me getting to the fridge with my glass of chilled water and sandwich my wife kindly prepped for me.
She didn't have jack happen by the way. Pommy bitch! . Just looked at me the whole time sliding between pity and "You bloody wimp". She made some funny jokes about it to cheer me up though
@alwyn are you Bruce Russell in a closed orbit.
Since I haven't the faintest idea who this friend of yours(?) named Bruce Russell is I couldn't possibly comment.
alwyn Mr Russell is a talking head along with Hoskings,the grave yard shift and sometimes spins old day music for those types that yearn for the old times.
Just so the 'sillies' can't make up any theories or rave on about the PM not attending 1.00pm briefings, MOH has announced that the weekend's updates will be via its mailouts/website.
Probably so everyone who can be, is working on the Vaxathon.
I wonder what the anti PM/Govt talking points will be in the coming week?
One Nat supporter on the board where the talking points about the PM & attendance were also raised around the same time as Alwyn's, was moved to write that she did not know which was worse, having to combat Covid misinformation, or political weirdness about who fronts the 1.00pm briefings made as if it was relevant to Covid/ Health/vaccinations.
One of the weird things of the age. Ardern is on the covid conferences a lot and people complain. Apparently she's turning the saga into a PR exercise.
And she comes on and she's all waffle and talking to us as if we're kids we’re told.
Then she's not there and people wet their nappies. What the hell is that all about?
It's the political equivalent of searching through the TV channels to find the sex and violence so they can complain about all the sex and violence on TV … with a little too much enthusiasm.
My thought is that is simply projection from the critic's own worldview. So when say; Collins, claims that Ardern is milking 1pm briefings for favorable publicity, what she really means is that if she was in Ardern's position, that's what she'd do herself.
Sometimes lies tell you more than truths – at least about the person speaking.
I actually think the govt did a good job with the initial shutdowns and it saved us some grief last year, though at the same time the roll out of the vaccine and the slowness nearly cancels it out in shitty work.
I have continued to have mixed feelings about the whole elimination thing.
Probably just me
Can't help feeling it was an extremely expensive and damaging way to delay the inevitable for the entire country. god knows how many small businesses are going to go bust, (don't get me started on why butchers, hair dressers, etc etc can't, eating in outside areas are blocked).
I also noticed in amongst medical and education being compulsarirally vaccinated. Where is the prostitutes? I kind of think they shoud kind of be mentioned.
On the other hand it did give us time to build up a, if not ideal, decent vaxed number
Sorry about the ranting ramble there. Was just thinking about stuff, feel free to ignore
See, without modern medicine I probably would have died years ago. Even today my doctor and I play a little game where I live the life I like and he prescribes the best cocktail of meds that will keep me alive a bit longer.
Why is this relevant? Because life is about delaying the inevitable.
If everything goes tits up and we have 7k, 14k, 80k covid deaths, that's still a couple of years more life than those folks would have had under the "live with it in March 2020" crowd.
Fuck businesses. We're talking about actual life, not livelihoods.
So you have given up on the whole trying to reduce poverty thing?
If businesses go under, the owner goes under, and alll the owners workers lose their jobs.
When the owner loses their job they may not be able to pay their mortgage and they lose their house. They may have more than one and are renting one or two. They lose aa well. The bank takes them and says forced sell. Families renting them are kicked out and have no where to live.
The said owners laid off workers have now got no wage so they can't pay their mortgage. The bank takes their house and they have no where to live.
Depending on their wage they may be renting out a flat. The bank takes this also and sells it and the renters are forced to move out with no where to live, because there is nothing cheap enough in the covid bordered area, so they hang out in a car.
Or the only place the workers can find is some shit hole in no where to rent on the dole. So they have to move their kids to that place and their kids have to go to a new school and no longer can see their friends.
But as you say 10s of thousands of people will probably go through this, but at least we kept out an inevitable get here disease for a few months
If businesses need people to die in order to stay in existence, we're doing it the wrong way around.
Maybe the tourism industry has to go the way of the asbestos industry. Maybe not. But killing people so some small businesses can continue operating without adapting is as callous as it is stupid.
Fixed it for you.
How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?
Just out of interest you do know 650 odd people die from car accidents and fku a year?
How many people are YOU willing to let die because their cancer fiscreening/treatment and heart surgeries are being delayed by weeks because of the chance their might be an onslaught of covid people?
Or are they not as important as people who chose not to be vaccinated, and have underlying health conditions?
Are you aware that governments and health planners and modellers actually took into consideration things like delayed health care, and came to understand that more people would die and become disabled if covid was left to run free?
It's not a chance of an onslaught of covid. That's a bizarre statement given what's happened in so many other countries in teh world in the past 18 months. Why would NZ be any different?
And you appear to be suggesting that we have a bunch of people die from covid in addition to those road and flu deaths. Besides, we do what we can to prevent those deaths, it's not like we go, oh can't spend money on making roads safer.
Yes, but we don't destroy small businesses like butchers, hairdressers, and thousands the hospitality industry when they could be open, as they are no different from going to the pub, dentist or doctor because a car might hit a power pole
car accidents aren't infectious diseases. Really not following your argument here. We do a lot to prevent road deaths, it's not really anything to do with small businesses other than pubs etc, and we do prevention work there too.
We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit.
"We also ban drinking and driving, mandate people wear seatbelts, and have a speed limit."
Not sure how banning drink drivers relates to stopping small business open, when others with even more danger can.
Again. Why are prostitutes/sex workers not named with education and medical as have to be vaxed?
Edit: Actually why are they not told they can’t operate. They are a legitimate business now.
"How exactly are you killing people if they are vaxed?"
Death rate is lower in vaxxed people, not non-existent.
Yeah I know. Looked after I posted that sorry.
It is actually not reassuringly low really, vut a shedload better than not being vaxxed.
Kind of like playing russian roullette.
100 shooter pistol.
You get 5 bullets in it if just sit around. Or 1 if you ram this needle in your arm.
Sorry. Sick analogy
Edit: Bad math.
1000 bullet gun
50 bullets sit around
5 get wounded and have to go to hospital
1/2ish bullet if you jab this needle in arm twice
Probably bad math. Bit late and just about to go to bed
You have this the wrong way round – delays for the possibility of covid is nothing like the massive demand on hospitals due to actual covid when a 'live with it' strategy was used. For example, from the British Medical Journal:
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n339
With all due respect. You can't just pluck that from the UK from 8 months ago when piss all people were vaccinated (I think they are still sitting on less than 75% first vaccunation even now) and use it as a model for how it will play out here.
are you suggesting that the modelling for NZ, once we are at 90% vax rate is wrong or can't be trusted?
Putting aside I wouldn't trust that Hendy dudes (or whatever his name is) not at all.
I was just pointing out the linmiravox posted with the quote was from Feb when piss all people in the UK were vaccinated.
I wouldn't trust that Hendy dudes, not at all.
Of course not – a professional actually competent to model outbreaks? He debunks all your reckons without breaking a sweat.
Even at a 95/95/95 assumption (95% vaxxed, 95% no infection in vaxxed, 95% no hospitalisation of infected vaxxed person), that leaves:
750k 0-12yo to spread or get the disease
250k 12+ who are unvaccinated
In addition to those million people, there are another 200k vaxxed people who do not have full protection.
So about a fifth of our population will still be vulnerable to delta. With a vulnerable group that large, what do you think the transmission numbers will be?
The vast vast vast vast vaster daylight vast ratio of (Not sure about babies) under 12s wouldn't even know they had it, let alone take long to lose it
Well, assuming even none of them actually get symptoms, there are almost half a million people they can give it to (after trading it to each other at school).
Sorry. Reply button gone
Yeah, but it is just going to happen. As I said earlier. It is a delay to the inevitable. Holding a crucifix up to stop an avalanche hitting you.
I mean a kid under 12 gets it and they inevitably will and spread it, it ain't like you can stop them play fighting, cuddling, with each other, or make them keep masks on. It spreads exponentially.
It is what it is
I would pity parents who tried to though. While also I think I would find it funny watching them try to 🙂
Just need to make sure enough people are vaccinated as possible. And I won't bring up lack of ICU prep, but will probably do on another day
No, it'll never happen. Because that was 95/95/95.
At 90/95/95, that's ~750k kids to spread it, ~430k unvaxxed >=12yo, and ~190k vaxxed but it didn't take.
The longer we put it off, the higher the vax number is and the fewer unvaxxed adults are out there – even if you think child covid won't really happen (it does, but that's another argument).
Sure, ICU beds are an issue, and general health equity, and shit housing (especially emergency housing for poor people). These are the systemic issues over decades that have sown what we reap.
But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, they aren't reasons to just let covid run free as soon as possible. The way to victory here is constant delaying. Cunctator-stylez.
"You know what's more tough? Actually dying."
Currently in NZ we have had 2 die and a fairly high inoculation rate and climbing now, so please don't quote shit unvaccinated countries from months ago
"Saying everything should open up"
That isn't what I said but feel free to quote me saying it.
I said places like butchers and hairdressers. Because you know. How dumb arse it I can't get cheap steaks wrapped in paper from a dude in a butcher only he touched with plastic gloves, while then walk to a super market and fart around with a trolley 20 people have used.
And again why are sex workers not closed and forced to vax as it is apparently a ligitamate businesses from labour.
It can't be hard. They contact them through their tax returns and GST claims to vonfirm it
Well, it's not like you've presented any others. You don't like my numbers, you don't like Hendy's numbers, how many people do you think will die when we go to level 2 permanently? To keep hairdressers and independent butcheries open so you can have a nice steak?
And going all Palpatine with "it is inevitable" ignores the fact that the longer we wait, the higher our vax level. Where do you think diminishing returns come in? When half a million 12+ are unvaxxed? 750k? 250k? You reject Hendy's numbers, fair enough. Whose numbers do you figure are reasonable? As you say, from a couple thousand cases in a largely vaxxed population we've had two dead and currently 617 active cases and 26 in hospital.
How many cases will occur to make you put up with a supermarket steak (and they should have sanitising wipes for the trolley, complain if they don't)?
Are the brothels still open? How does one "close" an itinerant sex worker? If indeed those rumours are true, rather than just dodgy assumptions.
Actually, the businesses with regular accounts probably qualify for the wage relief. In lieu of providing other relief. And, like hairdressing, I suspect that the business value is in the skills and practitioner reputation rather than capital investment, so would be easier to start up again if things go tits-up.
I didn't mean child covid won't happen. I meant as they play together the vast vast vast majority will be fine while then giving it to adults who may not be.
Now parks are open. it is just going to happen.
Agree health lack of infrestucture is a decades old issue and there are two certain PM's who spent 18 years between them in charge who basically fucked it. Same with housing, but another discussion.
"But like whinging hairdressers and restauranteurs, "
They are dying and looking at having to tell their staff they are sacked. How hard is this to get?
The wage subsidy cover exactly that. Not rent. Power. GST. Insurance. ACC. Food spoilage and throwing away because the govt demands we have to wait till a certain time on a monday afternoon to say any actual shit and they have to be prepared at any time to try to open.
And even that has a limit of 600 bucks a week I think and is taxed, so the small business owner has to top that up so their staff can pay shit like their mortgage when they are normally on about 2 k a week And you have to justify it every 2 weeks
I know Labour don't get it as they think all businesses are the size of Microsoft as and all the business owners are evil, none have had to run one, but they need to to start sourcing advice from the business community rather than tight arsed, probably still living with mum stats dude from Wellington.
No they're not dying. They're looking at losing money and winding up their business.
I'm involved with a peekaboo (lol pcbu in the osh parlance) that is in the shit right now. We will probably be able to keep operating, but yeah, it's tough.
You know what's more tough? Actually dying.
Saying everything should open up and disease should walk the land so I can keep my business profitable would be almost sociopathic. But there's this affliction amongst many SMEs where their owner-operators care more about their bottom line than literally the lives of other people.
So yeah, we can still minimise the spread until as many people are vaccinated who can be. Some kids in parks might spread it around a bit more than everyone adhering to L4 standards, but full classrooms definitely will. Same with malls.
I never aid Auckland should go to level 2. It is fairly obvious it won't for a while.
I just said small businesses like butchers and hairdressers etc etc should be allowed to open.
I have tried to be diplomatic but frankly I am beginning to run out of patience, The govts qualification for who can open and can't with risk at level 3 in Auckland is fucking shit.
OK Let me put it this way as the other isn;t working. Why can't butchers be open with proper shop access?
Some possibilities come to mind:
And you never answered why sex workers don't have to be vaccinated and why they are open when butchers aren't
Edit: And please don’t say anonymity given they would have done the GST and tax things.
I'm pretty sure that sex workers shouldn't actually be operating under L3, so not sure what power a vaccine mandate would hold over the ones currently operating.
But also I'm not sure all of them operate as registered businesses with appropriate ACC levy registration (which would probably be slightly more accurate than companies or gst documentation – for the ones that do their full paperwork).
I mean, stunning idea for people in the privileged classes I know, but not all financial transactions or operations are duly reported to the government.
I was being a bit tongue and check there to be fair.
I just saw the two head up north and was wondering if/how they could claim it.
They are probably in the in the shit business group.
But then it has always slightly annoyed by they are now being treated as a proper job they never have to pay tax.
(legitamate brothel establishments excluded)
And I know I have a weird sense of humour. (Dusclaimer)
But I was wondering if they were covered now by ACC work wise if they got injured by using props in their workplace
Edit: Kind of cut hand while clients girls school skirt belt swished too much. He was ok, type thing.
ACC: “Sweet as. We will pay this for the hand therapist”
oh, they wouldn't be the only trades offering cheaper jobs for cash payments.
Almost certainly not. But then ACC would have probably written off their RSI as a pre-existing injury anyway lol
Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy. The most likely scenario for delays in non-covid treatment, is covid itself, not some strategy of bed and appointment blocking 'just in case' (in fact NZ did clear space for the worst happening but we never had to implement that plan in any major way).
We can't use NZ as an example of what happens when we open up now – because it the covid pandemic didn't happen, we're not starting with a covid-induced backlog. We'll find out more in our vaccinated future shortly.
As weka suggests, they plan for this stuff. That's the question – do you trust the planning or not?
Depends who is doing the planning. I certainly don't trust that hendy dude's who was basically just given millions bt labour with no proper best of practice on who to use.
"Your whole thread went back to the beginning of the pandemic and your mixed feelings on the elimination strategy."
This is a fair point.
I did say it was a rambling rant, but I should have been more clear in the difference status of countries situations vax verse infection wise, sorry.
I am also going to hold you to that thousands estimate of deaths
How? That's what would have happened if the business uber alles crowd had gotten their way a year and a half ago. Look at… damned near every other nation on the planet.
And the impact on other medical care is a valid, quantifiable question to ask (with reasonable data and reporting) – but it's a lot different to removing disease controls so we can preserve the cashflows of "just cutz" or "try hair".
But then you'd also be factoring in ICU occupancy during a pandemic and other outbreak-related impacts on the healthcare system, right? Right?
As for vaccination, it's a tool in the box. But it's not 100%, and some people will still die when this thing is endemic. That happens. And the predicted math of dead in that circumstances should be balanced against any dead you happen to be able to think of when you are reminded why we have these allegedly business-destroying lockdowns (although our GDP seems to suggest that a healthy population has fewer lockdowns and more economic activity than a plagueland).
But the business sector should not be a consideration in any "opening up" decision.
Now do the costs associated with hundreds of people likely not working, or working reduced hours, for months post infection.
How will this play out for the working population?
Using UK data to inform assumptions around vaccination effectiveness at stopping infections and lowering the likelihood of hospitalisation if infected, we have projected numbers of cases, hospitalisations, ICU and ‘long COVID’
for Australian workers consistent with the Doherty modelling.
In summary, our projections result in just over 100,000 COVID-19 infections in workers leading to around 10,000 hospitalisations, of which 700 are admitted to ICU. Up to (or perhaps even exceeding) 7,000 long COVID cases may develop who are fully off work, and twice as many again will still be on reduced work, 7 months later.
Vaccination changes the risk of infection and hospitalisation significantly. 42,000 COVID-19 cases are projected from the vaccinated workforce of 7.2 million workers. 64,000 COVID-19 cases are projected to come from unvaccinated workers (1.8 million workers).
https://www.finity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WC_COVID-19_dfinitive_Oct_2021.pdf
Andrew little said on the radio tonight that 95% of infections will not have to go to hospital and can be looked after with visits to home for food etc.
Has he not read you 10% hospitalisation modelling?
Also. You can't model long covid. They are still not sure what it is.
long covid rates are estimated to be between 10% and something like 30%. That rate should be lower in fully vaccinated people, but, we don't know yet how that will play out, and we don't know if new variants will be worse.
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
Hospitalisations aside, anywhere between an estimated 25% and 80% of infected patients will be saddled with one or more long-term symptom/s. Should those numbers come to pass, good luck accessing anything resembling timely medical care in a health system that's near on it's knees today.
5%. 10%. It's still a significant number when we aren't doing lockdowns for each and every community case.
Yeah, fair point.
I think one of the things on our side. (Well apart from Auckland maybe. Sorry guys!), is the fact we have a pretty impressive amount of space to people ratio outside the big cities.
We may end up with Omega Man like cities and loads of farmers turning them into dairy farms. Moaning that Aucklanders only left them one bridge to get them to the milking sheds.
(Sorry. That was a bad joke)
Apparently rural areas in the US are getting hit hard now – not just because of maga vax hesitancy.
Sure, one can spend all one's time on the farm, but one eventually goes into towd – the supply store, the bar, the church, the parts store, the vet supply store. And they see everyone in the area who eventually comes into town. The node with many edges comes into play again.
And then the farmers die in greater number because they're further from help.
It ain't the endtimes, but fuck it's depressing.
Hairdressers have been going gangbusters around lockdown restrictions, it's not something most people can generally do themselves, & you seem to not have noticed that butcher shops are probably at 10% of the numbers they once were at but not due to covid or any restrictions. They started to become a thing of the past due to supermarkets. Other businesses have modified how they do things in a meaningful way since the 2020 lockdown – local garage ie operates 4 days a week now not 5 with no reduction in anyone's wages or the volume of service they provide. They've condensed it to less down time over the week. There are valuable things to learn from operating more effectively, when done well it also benefits retail along the line as well
Virus
Threatening our very existence
With grave and deadly persistence;
Get the vaccine today
There’s no other way –
Upon this there is widespread insistence.
Nearly; AFdeV, but something is off with the second line of your limerick. I think it needs another syllable in the second triplet (or at least a comma) eg With grave and most deadly persistance. Also There's & there is, would work better swapped between the fourth and fifth lines (or maybe On instead of Upon). Plus it's not obscene at all! Though I guess that could be implied in the threatened existence.
Who's a clever killing machine?
https://twitter.com/AbraxasSpa/status/1447850751787773956
Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42717/robot-dogs-can-now-have-6-5mm-assault-rifles-mounted-on-their-backs
Can it shoot Pfizer darts?
Two grand nieces with covid were at home in outer Sydney, had home monitoring including oxygen monitoring via the finger. Both are fine but they were already vaccinated.
What’s the public supposed to do with this? IT expert says the vax app has medium security flaws, MoH IT dude says trust us it’s safe.
https://twitter.com/radionz/status/1448404427841228803?s=21