The vaccination rollout now does appear to be in trouble – a self fulfilling tidal wave of unrelenting and hyper negative media coverage and false information on social media is leading to a lot of hesitancy. The media coverage in particular has been a master class in boomer bitching and every negative nelly with an axe to grind having the ear of the media.
The failure is entirely in comms – apart from a feeble dribble of ads on TV that quickly spluttered out the DHBs, MOH and government have utterly failed to run a counter narrative to what should have been utterly predictable MSM and social media attacks on the rollout of the vaccine program.
The DHBs should never have been put in charge of the vaccination program. They have miserably failed at every step of the pandemic response – in preparation, in the management of MIQ, and now the vaccination program (slow, badly communicated, over complicated) they've been worse than useless. The army should have managed the vaccination program in conjunction with the MoH, and government – who so admirably handled the comms around the lockdowns – is responsible for allowing the bozos at the DHBs and MoH to cock up the comms around the vaccination program.
As for vaccine shy people etc, who cares. Open the vaccinations now to all who want it, and vaccinated those that show up rather then cry after those that still have reasons or make up reasons.
But i doubt that the DHB is solely reasonable for the vaccine roll out, last i checked it is the Governments duty and responsibility to buy and distribute the vaccinations, the different Groups to receive Vaccinations was also set by government and so on. I understand that some may need a convenient scape goat for the misery that the vaccine rollout has been, but as far as i understand, the DHB is not Government. Even if some like to pretend it is.
I think it is "open for all" in Aug. In some parts of the US they're making vax mandatory for some jobs. While there are unvaxed ppl it'll keep mutating, but like you've said before, this thing ain't going away, ever probably.
For those of us that haven’t been following, how is it in trouble? I see people on Twitter talking about confusion over who is eligible when but find the level of angst confusing given we have no community transmission and time on our side. Is that what you are referring to?
I totally agree. Time is only on our side until delta gets here and we have community transmission.
The Australian man with Delta waltzing around Wellington for 3 days should have been a massive warning, and was also luckiest miss we have had. That demonstrated how vulnerable we currently are, and probably will be for the next 12 months.
It's not in trouble Weka, it's like what the US has now, with the RW politicians & media (+ RNZ here!) undermining constantly, then having to do an about turn to encourage ppl to get vaxxed, mixed messages. We're on schedule, just ppl are hesitant & discouraged, because bozo misinformation.
Hesitant because conspiracy theories, because they think they are healthy & won't catch covid, believe covid isn't that bad, believe Chris Bishop. We're complacent because we've never really had it here, "what's the rush".
My hesitant friend (who’s been eligible for months because she’s a caregiver) didn’t want the vax because “I have a good immune system & I don’t want the vax to make me sick”. My jaw dropped, she’s a bright person, but faaaaark.
Everyone i speak to wants it and is still waiting on invites etc.
But i guess it is easier writing something about someone – undefined and far far away – who may or may not refuse, rather then talk about hte many things that have not worked out well in regards to the vaccine roll out.
The math is simple. Delta variant has R0 of 5 or greater. At best, the Pfizer vaccine has efficacy against symptomatic infection by Delta of 90%, possibly a lot less.
So that means absolute best case is that community immunity* is just barely achieved when over 89% of the population is vaccinated. But under 12s are around 15% of the population, and there is no vaccine authorised yet for under 12s.
What that means for the unvaccinated, after the vaccinated voting majority no longer tolerate closed borders and lockdowns, is that the virus will find them.
In terms of risk analysis, that means the vaccine hesitant will have to weigh the risk of the vaccine (which really is tiny – think struck by lightning, die in plane crash, eaten by shark etc order of magnitude) versus the very real risk of some sort of long-term disability (I'd guess 20% or higher) or even death (1% looks like a fairly reasonable round number guess on average) from the actual disease. There is no world in which they won't have to choose between the vaccine and the disease.
*Note that community immunity does not mean nobody will get infected. It just means that outbreaks tend to naturally die down, rather than naturally exponentially spread.
yeah, nah. As the MoH rolls out the vaccine programme, sorts out the cultural barriers to access, most people will choose vaccination. Those that are *hesitant, can then be encouraged not by shaming and ostracising but by calling in.
The issue I have with your general scenario is that we don't yet know how/if the current vaccine will hold up long term. Lots of assumptions being made along the lines of 'this will all work out well if the nasty anti-vaxxers don't fuck it up'. But we don't actually know that.
Also, the position of 'open the borders and let unvaccinated people die or be damned' doesn't appear to take into account people that can't be vaccinated (children, people with health conditions).
Trials are underway for the under-12s. Pfizer expects to submit the data in September. So there's a good chance that by the time the Group 4 rollout in NZ reaches the youngest age groups, there will be an authorised vaccine for children.
When it comes to medical reasons to not get the vaccine, that's been covered here many times before. But just to go over it yet again, the only general contraindication for the Pfizer vaccine is to do with the very few people at risk of allergic reaction to one of the ingredients of the vaccine. There is also a very very small additional risk of a temporary episode of post-vaccination cardiomyopathy in young males that hasn't risen to the level of contraindication (yet).
Immunocompromised people (the most common reason for contraindication for other vaccines) can get the vaccine, but it's just unlikely to do them much good. Because their when someone's immune system is low-functioning or not working at all, there's simply not much there for the vaccine to train to recognise and fight the invading virus.
I have not seen any reports of any other reason for contraindication for the Pfizer vaccine.
They've been listening to the naysayers both on social media and among their friends and associates weka. The government, imo, has been far too soft on the element within society who have been spreading misinformation. This talk of being kind and gentle with them was never going to work. They are so full of the shit they have been absorbing, the only thing you can do is remove said shit from all social media sites and make it a sackable offence to spread misinformation in the workplace. Something along those lines anyway.
At a recent family function, I discovered one of my nieces is refusing to get vaccinated. She's a cop in her early thirties and she's far from dumb but – as I told her – she is being stupid. 😐 She won't like me for it but sooner or later I expect her to see sense.
I'm still a bit confused. Don't really know what Sanctuary was referring to, but that aside, can you please give me a state of play? Would this be fair?:
the programme is progressing
there have been some problems with bookings and access, which is frustrating some people
the MSM have been focused on sensationalism and clickbait
National are being National
there may or may not be an issue with the numbers of people refusing vaccination, but we simply don't know because no-one's measuring that yet (this last one is my own guess)
5? According to a media item I saw one or two days ago, only 20% of Category 3 are fully vaccinated. [I don't have the time to trawl through the sites to find it.] There will be plenty of people who have future bookings for their second dose and I'm one of them. Even so, I doubt that would take the percentage total much above 50%.
If that proves correct, then up to 50% non-vaccination rate among Cat 3 is not a good state of affairs. More work needs to be done to provide easier access and to allay the fears that still exist out there.
The weak take-up for the Manukau mass-vaccination event points to a lack of enthusiasm. It will be interesting to see what reasons the follow-up comes up with for that weak response.
I'm not seeing the evidence that this is mostly a vaccine hesitancy or anti-vax issue.
The head of the rollout for the DHBs, Alex Pimm, said his teams would work with the community to understand why the take-up was so slow.
…
South Auckland general practitioner Dr Api Talemaitoga said the mass rollout was a great initiative but Friday's event lacked Māori and Pasifika input.
The invitation was boring for event-loving South Aucklanders, he said.
"I think the organisers should have thought about making it a celebration or an event that is like a festival where people come along with their friends, can listen to a bit of music, or watch a bit of entertainment or dancing. Have a bit of food and then get vaccinated."
Talemaitoga said restricting vaccination access to a particular date and time was not practical for some families.
"It's over a weekend. They'll have to take kids to rugby. There's only one car in the family, so it'll be when that is available, so they can't actually make an appointment because they don't know when the car will be free, so we need to make it available for people to be able to walk in," he said.
More should be done to get GP practices online quicker as many people wouldn't be willing to get it anywhere else, he said.
This makes more sense to me. We already know that cultural sensitivity is a barrier issue in accessing health care.
which fits with pre-covid vax issues. It's not primarily an issue of anti-vax activism or belief, but more about some communities needing better access. We should be less worried about anti-vax and more concerned that the MoH doesn't know how to design culturally appropriate access.
I think different parts of the country may be experiencing different problems. In Auckland, there has been sufficient evidence, both anecdotal and media reports, that suggest vaccine hesitancy is a significant problem. I suspect some of it is the result of influence from peripheral religious groups. You will recall Auckland had to go back into lockdown 3 in August last year because of one such cluster in Mt Roskill. We have a number of these church groups in Auckland. That could be just one of the causes.
The Auckland region, by and large, has well spread and easy access clinics but some other regions don't seem to be so well serviced. I think we need to take these differing situations into account. What scenario fits one region may be different to another. Sooner or later (later probably) we will know the main underlying causes of the slow uptake thus far.
As Sanctuary says and I paraphrase… there is a hell of a lot of hesitancy out there. I agree with him that the media also have a lot to answer – the hyper negativemedia coverage has made it worse. Nor does the constant barrage of largely unwarranted criticism from National help. Together, they have scared many people and I am sure this is what is behind the huge numbers in Category 3 who have not even had their first jab yet.
Edit: I see Sabine has suggested lack of easy access is a hindrance and she will be right of course – particularly in rural areas. But overall I still think hesitancy caused by the hyper negativity surrounding the vaccine is causing a bigger problem.
Never mind the fact that for the better part of the this year, we only had enough vaccinations to actually vaccinated the as per the link, due to low numbers of vaccine doses in the country.
Nothing to do with 'Anti vax' or 'vaccine shy' people.
But all to do with the fact that we DON"T have enough doses in the country even now to vaccinated everyone who wants to be vaccinated.
I don't actually care who is at fault for the drip feeding type deliveries that we have in NZ, or why we don't emergency grant other vaccines, but fact is that we still don't have enough doses to vaccinated all of the country. The million + doses that have arrived this month will be good for about 500.000 people at two jabs. The rest will wait until the next delivery comes etc etc etc.
The rest will wait until the next delivery comes etc etc etc.
Patience would indeed be advisable, imho, although not mandatory.
Nothing to do with 'Anti vax' or 'vaccine shy' people.
@Sabine (10:44 am) – as NZ's vaccine rollout (currently 3% ahead of schedule) continues, it's possible that the influence of the 'anti-vax' movement, and specifically 'anti-Comirnaty' communications (as opposed to Government and public health service pro-Comirnaty communications), will become a more apparent.
A key question is to what extent do anti-vax movements compromise the effectiveness of public health vaccination programs?
Fwiw, I don't believe that the anti-vax movement is growing (as a proportion of the population) in NZ, but I have no evidence for this. Only time will tell the extent to which anti-vax communications influence the uptake of the Pfizer vaccine, but the anti-vaccine leaflets in my letterbox failed to dampen the enthusiasm of this fully-vaccinated Kiwi – hooray!
The World Health Organization recognized vaccine hesitancy as a top threat to global health before the pandemic.
…
I experienced sinking feelings during our Zoom calls. Although certainly worthwhile, I knew that messaging alone would be inadequate. We’d already seen this inadequacy in our efforts to prevent measles from returning to the United States and Europe in 2019, and to bolster vaccination rates for human papillomavirus to prevent cervical and other cancers. With COVID-19, our pro-vaccine messages would be drops in a vast sea of misinformation, much of it poured in deliberately by anti-vaccine forces.
Anti-vaxxers Think This Is Their Moment[Dec.2020] The misleading claims Americans will soon hear about the newly released COVID-19 vaccines are nearly identical to claims made about smallpox immunizations 120 years ago: The ingredients are toxic and unnatural; the vaccines are insufficiently tested; the scientists who produce them are quacks and profiteers; the cell cultures involved in some shots are an affront to the religious; the authorities working to protect public health are guilty of tyrannical overreach. In the British Medical Journal in that period, a Dr. Francis T. Bond frets about what to do about his era’s anti-vaxxers and their arguments, which have since become well-trod canards because they are effective in frightening people.
Vaccine Rejection and Hesitancy: A Review and Call to Action [July 2017] Vaccine refusal has been a recurring story in the media for well over a decade. Although there is scant evidence that refusal is genuinely increasing in the population, multiple studies have demonstrated concerning patterns of decline of confidence in vaccines, the medical professionals who administer vaccines, and the scientists who study and develop vaccines. As specialists in microbiology, immunology, and infectious diseases, scientists are content experts but often lack the direct contact with individuals considering vaccination for themselves or their children that healthcare professionals have daily. This review examines the arguments and players in the US antivaccination scene, and it discusses ways that experts in infectious diseases can become more active in promoting vaccination to friends, family, and the public at large.
The first documented anti-vaccine group called the National Anti-Vaccination League appeared in 1866 after Britain's government tried to mandate smallpox vaccinations for its constituents.
All sorts of messaging emerged from the group, including religious stances arguing that getting sick is part of God's plan, and libertarian points of view that proclaimed the government can't tell individuals what to do.
I am in Group 3 and booked as soon as I received an invitation some 7 weeks ago. The vaccination date I was given was 9 August ; I think availability of vaccines was the problem then.
The roll out is a bit of a mess for quite a few. My wife for example has been contacted 3 times when she tried to book she is told is not eligible. This turned out to be due to a privacy breach on behalf of a Dhb where she was formally employed.
My parents although now vaccinated were given a right running around in terms of booking then getting sent away to re book because they didnt have anyone to deliver the shots… didnt tell them prior to leaving home of course…
A good freind has been trying to get his very elderly and frail mum vaccinated they booked at the local clinic but were then contacted to be told they couldnt do it on the day for various reasons but told he could drive to Mount Wellington (about 45min drive) to get it done. They did that and were turned away there because the booking wasnt transferred.
Things like the above will drastically lower uptake.
Same Tony, I got a txt, surprised I was in that group (yet didn't bleat on Twitter "wtf? Why did they txt me, waaaaaah"), checked the hyper link they sent, booked my 2 dates (plenty of options, dates & times & venues, I chose the one next suburb over), & am ready to go. Fucking simple.
Was not contacted despite being in Group 2. Rang to enquire, told that I was Group 3, booked in for first jab six weeks after. (Still meet Group 2 criteria when I checked MoH Covid website.)
Went in. Took two hours. 1 and a half hours in queue. About 80-90 in queue.
Son got random text on weekend. Thought it might be a scam, knowing how I had to wait. By the time he discovered it wasn't, booking had been rescinded. No follow up available.
I am actually typing this as I sit in waiting area after the jab (hence having the free time for the site). No waiting at all before, seats are slightly crammed together for wait after- but that's not much of a complaint.
Though the way the site railroads you into 3 week interval is a bit of an issue. I am planning on canceling my second appointment now I have had my first jab, and reschedule the 2nd for 8-12 weeks away. 12 weeks was the original recommended interdose interval, but 10 weeks seems equivalent, 3 weeks is absolute minimum & may not produce as robust an immune response.
On mobile, so not so easy to link sources. Mainly the UK PITCH study – long preprint pdf.
Out the door now. Less than half an hour total and most of that was waiting around afterwards.
On a proper computer, so can paste those links now for the; "Protective Immunity from T cells to Covid-19 in Health workers" (PITCH) study (they were really stretching for that acronym!).
BNT162b2 is for BioNTech producer (ie Pfizer vaccine). It's prepublication, so the diagrams are in a seperate file – Supplementary Figure 3 (on page 12) is clearest of these, to me:
My observation is that the main problem appears to be an over-reliance on internet capability (an increasing problem when dealing with Gov, depts)….I booked online for my mother and the system appeared to operate very smoothly albeit the dates were sometime out in the future but if you try to book via phone I can see there are potentially multiple issues.
That is what i have encountered in my discussion with clients of all ages. For some it went swimmingly well, others over 70 like my in laws still waiting? And they live rural, so internet and phone can be sketchy. But yeah, accessing atm i think is a far greater problem then refusniks.
Your faith in the Army is a bit misguided, there are only a few thousand to call on in the armed forces and only a limited number of them are available to do the sort of work required. Yes, there is a logistics problem and the main one of them is the 20 minute wait-time post injection to check for adverse reactions, real or imagined. This requires the attendance of trained nurses and quite a few of them. Keep in mind that the injection takes less than a minute, give or take, but twenty times that for the observation period. So in a large one site effort of say 20 trained vaccinators, within 20 minutes you have a rolling, well, sitting anyway, maul of 400 post vaccinated people and that would require quite a lot of trained nurses. Trained REGISTERED nurses are essential for this part of the operation, definitely not someone who has done a half day First Aid course, adverse reactions, of any kind, can get critical very, very quickly and highly experienced staff are essential. Medical people are also very aware of how "contagious " reaction panic can get after one genuine case happens in a crowded enviroment. A badly handled reaction involving non-registered medics or God forbid an 18 year old army private could derail the entire safe roll-out quicker than a Boris or a Judith.
So that is why the job is being done by the DHB's, not Rotary, or the Lions or the well-meaning, and certainly not the Army. DHBs know the medical protocols and the staffing requirements and the huge complications around finding enough suitable people to do the job properly while still running a full health service in winter mode.
This will also explain the slow uptake of GP surgeries to do the job, most don't have the sitting, parking and other space available to do the job, not to mention the fact that most are working to capacity on their normal work anyway.
I well remember the howling chaos on vaccination day in the 50s at school, an era when TV cameras and "Karens " were a long way in the future, even the Olympics would be pushed off the first item of the 6 oçlock news if a shit-fight of those proportions was to break out anywhere.
It starts with the message from the top. The message from the top is we don’t have COVID so we don’t need to rush. We can be 125th in the world and the messaging from the top still maintains that’s okay. No rush. So no one is rushing.
Sanctuary….I believe you are buying into the Seymour meme when you say the vaccination roll out is in trouble. It seems to be ramping up nicely with the best vaccine on the planet.
I'm in Darwin at the moment and the news is full of how crap the roll out is over here and how scumo is suffering in the polls because of it. But my guess is that by the time of the Oz election next May 90 per cent will be vaccinated and scumo will portray the Vax rollout as a success and get re-elected.
But my guess is that by the time of the Oz election next May 90 per cent will be vaccinated and scumo will portray the Vax rollout as a success and get re-elected.
Managing a vaccination programme within their boundaries should entirely be within the remit and capability of DHBs. That it turned out it wasn't is a failure of DHBs and also the ongoing monitoring/auditing.
Please don’t bore us with your good news, you sniveling show-off! We want bad news and drama, the worse it is, the better. If you’re photogenic, we’ll post a photo of you here. We could really do with more good bad stories because that’s what the TS readership likes.
Yes and we can lay the blame directly at the feet of third way Labour members and most MSM liberal press including The Guardian, who as we all know now, mobilized to destroy Corbyn and his progressive Socialist project…as it turns out those people and their supporters would rather have Boris than real progressive change, would rather defend their free market liberal centrist ideology and see the world burn than give change of any sort a chance…turns out centrist liberals are just as dangerous to the planet as the the extreme right…because the centrist ideology is extremist.
Why do people always blame the media when a politician fails. Corbyn was never going to be a PM. Blind Freddy could see that from the day he became leader.
The Tories could have put up a poodle against Corbyn and they would have won. In fact they put up something less qualified than a poodle in the form of Boris, and they still won.
Some people just don't have it depsite their loyal supporters thinking they do. For example try this on for size rgarding Judith Collins:
Yes and we can lay the blame directly at the feet of most MSM liberal press including Stuff, the Herald and TVNZ , who as we all know now, mobilized to destroy Collins and her consevative project.
That statement is a load of BS, but its what Judith's supporters think. The reality is she, just like Corbyn, were never going to be elected because they are shit.
"In fact they put up something less qualified than a poodle in the form of Boris, and they still won"
You're talking about 2019. It was much closer in 2017 – so you need an explanation for why Corbyn was shit in 2019, but not really shit in 2017. Did he become substantially shittier over the course of two years? Was Theresa May even less qualified than someone already less qualified than a poodle? Or was Brexit important in some way, or the antisemitism campaign/beatup, or a media landscape that is far more partisan than in NZ? Did the surprise of Corbyn's 2017 result mobilise all reactionary forces against him in a sort of frenzy? Did the fact that he is almost absurdly principled but also rather dull and anti-charismatic matter? Why did polling indicate that Labour's policies were popular but Corbyn was not? Should he have told the second referendum advocates within Labour to boil their heads and protect the Red Wall with a "Brexit for the many not the few" campaign? It's all history now anyway and only tragics still care. But single-dimensional, categorical explanations won't help us understand it
Particularly since Labour votes didn't really move that much – the bigger change was the right wing coalescing around the Tories rather than splitting between the Tories and UKIP.
Why did polling indicate that Labour's policies were popular but Corbyn was not?
I think that is the key for both elections and again is just a feature of political parties. Some people are loved, some are not and that is where it begins and ends.
A perfect example is New Zealand in 2017. What core policies did Jacinda change when she bacame leader of Labour? What were the big annoucnements that resulted in such a jump in popularity for her party over such a short period of time.?The answer is nothing. The Labour party, and its policy platform that went to the election, was the same Labour party that Andrew Little had lead. The only difference was we got rid of someone who was never going to be PM with someone who was always going to be a PM.
Thankfully Morrissey you are nowhere near anything to do with UK Labour.
It doesn't take much for either Corbyn or Starmer to pick up the phone to the LibDems and sweep the field, as they have before.
In the 2010 general election, the Tories won 36.1% of the vote, Labour and the Lib Dems together picked up 52%.
In 2017, the Tories won 42.4% and Labour and the Lib Dems 47.4%.
The last election in 2019, which was a Tory triumph in terms of seat numbers, saw the party win 43.6% of the vote, with Labour and the Lib Dems just ahead on 43.7%.
In every one of these cases, the Tories still entered Downing Street.
Labour just need to figure out how to run coalitions again, and after that pick up the phone.
You're an optimist, Ad. The fact is, the Labour Party has, thanks to the sabotage of the Blairite right wing, descended from the biggest, most popular political party in Europe to a shambles.
Ad the optimist, which is true in a sense…like all free market centrists they believe that if they keep pushing an economic ideology that has proved itself unfit for human consumption (let alone the rest of the planet) hard enough and loud enough it might start working again, while the earth burns around us…as I have mentioned lese where these people are dangerous extremists.
Seriously no one gives a flying fuck about ideology anymore.
Instead, people just learn to count.
If the UK Greens could consistently get above the Lib Dems, I'm sure they'd be on the election day speed dial as well. In fact in 2010 they had a shot at a "traffic light" coalition but still weren't close to solid.
Only person who lost for Labour according to the exit polls was Corbyn. OMG running against the weakest Conservative candidate in a generation; a far stupider loss than Hillary v Trump.
It was probably The Guardian what caused it.
Then there's Blair.
3 massively popular Labour terms under Blair – longest they'd had in decades … and Brown just fucked up the 4th they could have had.
" he was very slow to come up with a clear policy on this, which cost him and the party dearly."
I agree with that observation, however by that stage the damage to him by the relentless negative media had already been done
Jeremy Corbyn is the most smeared politician in history
"In the UK, one politician has been subject to the longest continuous smear campaign in UK history, and we are all influenced by it. Over 75 per cent of Jeremy Corbyn media coverage factually misrepresents him."
"Seriously no one gives a flying fuck about ideology anymore"…that funny coming from one of the most centrist fundamentalist ideologue on TS…though it doesn't surprise me in the slightest as the liberal centrists have been pushing that 'post ideology' bullshit for years…everything is ideology.
Robert, to link to FB you have to click on the date/time stamp of the post you want to link to, then copy and paste from the URL. Atm, you're just linking to generic FB pages, not the thing you intend (happened yesterday too).
In the "this comes as no surprise dept" it turns out that the Biden family are just as corrupt as the Trump's…but at least he conducts himself in a more palatable way for the refined tastes for his liberal imperialist supporters to swallow….and report on…
Hunter Biden expected to meet with potential art buyers before anonymous sales
….and while on the subject of corruption, human rights attorney Steven Donziger has just been convicted in a US court of contempt of court, so is still under house arrest that has been going on for nearly 700 days!..strangely enough our own RNZ felt the need to remind us all of Alexei Navalny's case yesterday, but as far as I know has never covered this outrageous miscarriage of justice…but then RNZ never covers that other miscarriage of justice out in full public view..Julian Assange, so no surprises there..unfortunately for the New Zealand public.
The Lawyer Who Beat Chevron Has Been Found Guilty of Criminal Contempt
Behind the banner headlines of unemployment and underemployment heading down, down, down, poverty over the last year appears to be going up and up and up:
"In the year to March 2021, some children and young people were placed in extreme and dangerous situations due to lack of support for those made homeless. More families than ever were forced to experience the deep-seated stress of ongoing food insecurity due to income inadequacy. Inequity grew between children on lowest incomes and others, and our modelling suggests around 18,000 more children may have been pushed into poverty (even before housing costs are considered)."
The poorest of us have really been made worse over the last year.
Vaccination in Hutt seems to be going pretty well. Haven't come across any major frustrations and people are complimentary about the actual vaccination process at their appointment. People are being quite patient about waiting their turn for their vaccination as most understand it is all a massive undertaking nationwide. So amid the noisy complaints in the media there are many thousands who are satisfied.
A hard to understand comment was from one person who is an anti-vaxxer and does not want their body being injected with the vaccine, but is a long time smoker taking all manner of chemicals and toxins.
Not quite as bad, but I have acquaintances that are into the lifestyle of no-artificial-toxins, natural-wellness, superfoods, etc (dunno for sure if they're anti-vax), and whenever I visit their place it reeks of scented candles, incense, weird foods etc.
Coincidentally (not very), they're always complaining of various vague ailments, often respiratory, that their conventional doctors can't cure which is why they don't trust conventional medicine, and why woo alternative medicine is the answer for them.
Well i have very definite arthritis that that the doctor has nothing for, I've started using a herbal oil that gives very definite relief that the doctor says is not. I've eaten some strange things , ants, crickets and more. I don't have the flu vaccine but have had 1st pfizer, so its like everything, do your own research make your choices and live with it.
As an aside when the doctor looks disprovingly as I refuse the flu vaccine I ask if they eat processed meat and suggest they consider their own choices before questioning mine.
He saved it for tonight's TV1 6pm news.Its a shambles he said. Instead of counting sheep he goes to bed every night repeating "Its a shambles" over and over.
At each step we have been told of vaccine demand worldwide, the approximate dates and sizes of NZ shipments, the charts clearly show those DHBs doing well and those running behind schedule, and that overall we are 5% above the planned rollout.
We were warned earlier that shipping and supply would dictate our progress. We have begun mass vaccinations from this week.
The Government is not responsible for people's stupidity. The dying covid victims of vaccine hesitancy overseas are reported to be asking to be innoculated. That is a sad but predictable outcome.
We have lost sight of the huge impact of the pandemic, protected as we are by many favourable factors, but get a right wing group in power in 2023 a shift in emphasis from wellbeing to money, and wow… we become like Britain.
A strange take, but a useful one. Shows how far removed from reality and consequences he is. Will adjust expectations for meaningful discussion accordingly.
This research is part of an ongoing series that looks into New Zealanders’ attitudes and public sentiment towards the COVID-19 vaccine.
Background
Horizon Research, in association with the School of Population Health, University of Auckland, have been commissioned to survey New Zealanders’ attitudes and sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
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 ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 30 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Clean Energy Council / Neoen As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland Arrest for witchcraft (1866) by John PettieNGV, CC BY-NC In recent decades, governments the world over have increasingly taken action to address the dark history of witch-hunting. In western Europe, memorials to ...
By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kara Dadswell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University Ask your son or daughter, niece, or nephew to draw you a picture of a sport coach. They will most probably draw a man. Why? Our latest research published in the Psychology of Sport ...
The vaccination rollout now does appear to be in trouble – a self fulfilling tidal wave of unrelenting and hyper negative media coverage and false information on social media is leading to a lot of hesitancy. The media coverage in particular has been a master class in boomer bitching and every negative nelly with an axe to grind having the ear of the media.
The failure is entirely in comms – apart from a feeble dribble of ads on TV that quickly spluttered out the DHBs, MOH and government have utterly failed to run a counter narrative to what should have been utterly predictable MSM and social media attacks on the rollout of the vaccine program.
The DHBs should never have been put in charge of the vaccination program. They have miserably failed at every step of the pandemic response – in preparation, in the management of MIQ, and now the vaccination program (slow, badly communicated, over complicated) they've been worse than useless. The army should have managed the vaccination program in conjunction with the MoH, and government – who so admirably handled the comms around the lockdowns – is responsible for allowing the bozos at the DHBs and MoH to cock up the comms around the vaccination program.
so who gave the job to the DHB?
Showed a hesitant person some world news last night, plus Aus news. She's hesitant no more.
As for vaccine shy people etc, who cares. Open the vaccinations now to all who want it, and vaccinated those that show up rather then cry after those that still have reasons or make up reasons.
But i doubt that the DHB is solely reasonable for the vaccine roll out, last i checked it is the Governments duty and responsibility to buy and distribute the vaccinations, the different Groups to receive Vaccinations was also set by government and so on. I understand that some may need a convenient scape goat for the misery that the vaccine rollout has been, but as far as i understand, the DHB is not Government. Even if some like to pretend it is.
I think it is "open for all" in Aug. In some parts of the US they're making vax mandatory for some jobs. While there are unvaxed ppl it'll keep mutating, but like you've said before, this thing ain't going away, ever probably.
For those of us that haven’t been following, how is it in trouble? I see people on Twitter talking about confusion over who is eligible when but find the level of angst confusing given we have no community transmission and time on our side. Is that what you are referring to?
This is actually an issue, the 'no community transmission' mantra. Ideally we are all mostly vaccinated before we have an outbreak.
I totally agree. Time is only on our side until delta gets here and we have community transmission.
The Australian man with Delta waltzing around Wellington for 3 days should have been a massive warning, and was also luckiest miss we have had. That demonstrated how vulnerable we currently are, and probably will be for the next 12 months.
It's not in trouble Weka, it's like what the US has now, with the RW politicians & media (+ RNZ here!) undermining constantly, then having to do an about turn to encourage ppl to get vaxxed, mixed messages. We're on schedule, just ppl are hesitant & discouraged, because bozo misinformation.
people are hesitant and discouraged about what? They doubt the usefulness of the vaccine and so aren't getting vaxxed?
Hesitant because conspiracy theories, because they think they are healthy & won't catch covid, believe covid isn't that bad, believe Chris Bishop. We're complacent because we've never really had it here, "what's the rush".
My hesitant friend (who’s been eligible for months because she’s a caregiver) didn’t want the vax because “I have a good immune system & I don’t want the vax to make me sick”. My jaw dropped, she’s a bright person, but faaaaark.
ta. Anecdotes and MSM bullshit aside, is there evidence that too many people are refusing to be vaccinated?
Everyone i speak to wants it and is still waiting on invites etc.
But i guess it is easier writing something about someone – undefined and far far away – who may or may not refuse, rather then talk about hte many things that have not worked out well in regards to the vaccine roll out.
Any vaccine refusals are too many.
The math is simple. Delta variant has R0 of 5 or greater. At best, the Pfizer vaccine has efficacy against symptomatic infection by Delta of 90%, possibly a lot less.
So that means absolute best case is that community immunity* is just barely achieved when over 89% of the population is vaccinated. But under 12s are around 15% of the population, and there is no vaccine authorised yet for under 12s.
What that means for the unvaccinated, after the vaccinated voting majority no longer tolerate closed borders and lockdowns, is that the virus will find them.
In terms of risk analysis, that means the vaccine hesitant will have to weigh the risk of the vaccine (which really is tiny – think struck by lightning, die in plane crash, eaten by shark etc order of magnitude) versus the very real risk of some sort of long-term disability (I'd guess 20% or higher) or even death (1% looks like a fairly reasonable round number guess on average) from the actual disease. There is no world in which they won't have to choose between the vaccine and the disease.
*Note that community immunity does not mean nobody will get infected. It just means that outbreaks tend to naturally die down, rather than naturally exponentially spread.
yeah, nah. As the MoH rolls out the vaccine programme, sorts out the cultural barriers to access, most people will choose vaccination. Those that are *hesitant, can then be encouraged not by shaming and ostracising but by calling in.
The issue I have with your general scenario is that we don't yet know how/if the current vaccine will hold up long term. Lots of assumptions being made along the lines of 'this will all work out well if the nasty anti-vaxxers don't fuck it up'. But we don't actually know that.
Also, the position of 'open the borders and let unvaccinated people die or be damned' doesn't appear to take into account people that can't be vaccinated (children, people with health conditions).
Trials are underway for the under-12s. Pfizer expects to submit the data in September. So there's a good chance that by the time the Group 4 rollout in NZ reaches the youngest age groups, there will be an authorised vaccine for children.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-07-28/pfizer-covid-vaccine-trials-in-us-babies-young-children/100324816
When it comes to medical reasons to not get the vaccine, that's been covered here many times before. But just to go over it yet again, the only general contraindication for the Pfizer vaccine is to do with the very few people at risk of allergic reaction to one of the ingredients of the vaccine. There is also a very very small additional risk of a temporary episode of post-vaccination cardiomyopathy in young males that hasn't risen to the level of contraindication (yet).
Immunocompromised people (the most common reason for contraindication for other vaccines) can get the vaccine, but it's just unlikely to do them much good. Because their when someone's immune system is low-functioning or not working at all, there's simply not much there for the vaccine to train to recognise and fight the invading virus.
I have not seen any reports of any other reason for contraindication for the Pfizer vaccine.
Go visit social media. Find a wingnut – check their friends.
The nutjobs are rife, and there's a lot of them in some circles. How many overall, who can say. Some multiple of the New Conservative membership.
They've been listening to the naysayers both on social media and among their friends and associates weka. The government, imo, has been far too soft on the element within society who have been spreading misinformation. This talk of being kind and gentle with them was never going to work. They are so full of the shit they have been absorbing, the only thing you can do is remove said shit from all social media sites and make it a sackable offence to spread misinformation in the workplace. Something along those lines anyway.
At a recent family function, I discovered one of my nieces is refusing to get vaccinated. She's a cop in her early thirties and she's far from dumb but – as I told her – she is being stupid. 😐 She won't like me for it but sooner or later I expect her to see sense.
That doesn't tell me what the trouble is that Sanctuary mentions. Is the programme failing because people are refusing vaccination?
The program isn't failing
I'm still a bit confused. Don't really know what Sanctuary was referring to, but that aside, can you please give me a state of play? Would this be fair?:
1 to 4 – very fair.
5? According to a media item I saw one or two days ago, only 20% of Category 3 are fully vaccinated. [I don't have the time to trawl through the sites to find it.] There will be plenty of people who have future bookings for their second dose and I'm one of them. Even so, I doubt that would take the percentage total much above 50%.
If that proves correct, then up to 50% non-vaccination rate among Cat 3 is not a good state of affairs. More work needs to be done to provide easier access and to allay the fears that still exist out there.
what makes you think that that is a result of vaccine hesitancy or anti-vax beliefs?
The weak take-up for the Manukau mass-vaccination event points to a lack of enthusiasm. It will be interesting to see what reasons the follow-up comes up with for that weak response.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-scramble-to-fill-places-for-mass-vaccination/XZSRYUZUIYJTB3NGXZ54IUKBQ4/
I'm not seeing the evidence that this is mostly a vaccine hesitancy or anti-vax issue.
This makes more sense to me. We already know that cultural sensitivity is a barrier issue in accessing health care.
which fits with pre-covid vax issues. It's not primarily an issue of anti-vax activism or belief, but more about some communities needing better access. We should be less worried about anti-vax and more concerned that the MoH doesn't know how to design culturally appropriate access.
Hi weka – a reply to your 11:19am.
I think different parts of the country may be experiencing different problems. In Auckland, there has been sufficient evidence, both anecdotal and media reports, that suggest vaccine hesitancy is a significant problem. I suspect some of it is the result of influence from peripheral religious groups. You will recall Auckland had to go back into lockdown 3 in August last year because of one such cluster in Mt Roskill. We have a number of these church groups in Auckland. That could be just one of the causes.
The Auckland region, by and large, has well spread and easy access clinics but some other regions don't seem to be so well serviced. I think we need to take these differing situations into account. What scenario fits one region may be different to another. Sooner or later (later probably) we will know the main underlying causes of the slow uptake thus far.
As Sanctuary says and I paraphrase… there is a hell of a lot of hesitancy out there. I agree with him that the media also have a lot to answer – the hyper negative media coverage has made it worse. Nor does the constant barrage of largely unwarranted criticism from National help. Together, they have scared many people and I am sure this is what is behind the huge numbers in Category 3 who have not even had their first jab yet.
Edit: I see Sabine has suggested lack of easy access is a hindrance and she will be right of course – particularly in rural areas. But overall I still think hesitancy caused by the hyper negativity surrounding the vaccine is causing a bigger problem.
what's the evidence base for "the huge numbers in Category 3 who have not even had their first jab yet"?
What's the evidence base that the cause of that is vaccine hesitancy?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/charting-new-zealands-vaccine-rollout
Never mind the fact that for the better part of the this year, we only had enough vaccinations to actually vaccinated the as per the link, due to low numbers of vaccine doses in the country.
Nothing to do with 'Anti vax' or 'vaccine shy' people.
But all to do with the fact that we DON"T have enough doses in the country even now to vaccinated everyone who wants to be vaccinated.
I don't actually care who is at fault for the drip feeding type deliveries that we have in NZ, or why we don't emergency grant other vaccines, but fact is that we still don't have enough doses to vaccinated all of the country. The million + doses that have arrived this month will be good for about 500.000 people at two jabs. The rest will wait until the next delivery comes etc etc etc.
👍
Patience would indeed be advisable, imho, although not mandatory.
@Sabine (10:44 am) – as NZ's vaccine rollout (currently 3% ahead of schedule) continues, it's possible that the influence of the 'anti-vax' movement, and specifically 'anti-Comirnaty' communications (as opposed to Government and public health service pro-Comirnaty communications), will become a more apparent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy
A key question is to what extent do anti-vax movements compromise the effectiveness of public health vaccination programs?
Fwiw, I don't believe that the anti-vax movement is growing (as a proportion of the population) in NZ, but I have no evidence for this. Only time will tell the extent to which anti-vax communications influence the uptake of the Pfizer vaccine, but the anti-vaccine leaflets in my letterbox failed to dampen the enthusiasm of this fully-vaccinated Kiwi – hooray!
I am in Group 3 and booked as soon as I received an invitation some 7 weeks ago. The vaccination date I was given was 9 August ; I think availability of vaccines was the problem then.
The roll out is a bit of a mess for quite a few. My wife for example has been contacted 3 times when she tried to book she is told is not eligible. This turned out to be due to a privacy breach on behalf of a Dhb where she was formally employed.
My parents although now vaccinated were given a right running around in terms of booking then getting sent away to re book because they didnt have anyone to deliver the shots… didnt tell them prior to leaving home of course…
A good freind has been trying to get his very elderly and frail mum vaccinated they booked at the local clinic but were then contacted to be told they couldnt do it on the day for various reasons but told he could drive to Mount Wellington (about 45min drive) to get it done. They did that and were turned away there because the booking wasnt transferred.
Things like the above will drastically lower uptake.
I can only report on my own experience: got my first jab at Orchard Road in Christchurch yesterday.
In at 4.20, out at 4.55. Very efficient, including a text reminding me of my appointment.
The place was really buzzing and busy,
Canterbury DHB has had a bit of a rocky path recently, but I would give them 10/10 for their vaccination programme.
Same Tony, I got a txt, surprised I was in that group (yet didn't bleat on Twitter "wtf? Why did they txt me, waaaaaah"), checked the hyper link they sent, booked my 2 dates (plenty of options, dates & times & venues, I chose the one next suburb over), & am ready to go. Fucking simple.
Was not contacted despite being in Group 2. Rang to enquire, told that I was Group 3, booked in for first jab six weeks after. (Still meet Group 2 criteria when I checked MoH Covid website.)
Went in. Took two hours. 1 and a half hours in queue. About 80-90 in queue.
Son got random text on weekend. Thought it might be a scam, knowing how I had to wait. By the time he discovered it wasn't, booking had been rescinded. No follow up available.
I am actually typing this as I sit in waiting area after the jab (hence having the free time for the site). No waiting at all before, seats are slightly crammed together for wait after- but that's not much of a complaint.
Though the way the site railroads you into 3 week interval is a bit of an issue. I am planning on canceling my second appointment now I have had my first jab, and reschedule the 2nd for 8-12 weeks away. 12 weeks was the original recommended interdose interval, but 10 weeks seems equivalent, 3 weeks is absolute minimum & may not produce as robust an immune response.
On mobile, so not so easy to link sources. Mainly the UK PITCH study – long preprint pdf.
Out the door now. Less than half an hour total and most of that was waiting around afterwards.
On a proper computer, so can paste those links now for the; "Protective Immunity from T cells to Covid-19 in Health workers" (PITCH) study (they were really stretching for that acronym!).
https://www.pitch-study.org/PITCH_Dosing_Interval_23072021.pdf
BNT162b2 is for BioNTech producer (ie Pfizer vaccine). It's prepublication, so the diagrams are in a seperate file – Supplementary Figure 3 (on page 12) is clearest of these, to me:
https://www.pitch-study.org/Figures_Appendix_PITCH_Dosing_interval_23072021.pdf
My observation is that the main problem appears to be an over-reliance on internet capability (an increasing problem when dealing with Gov, depts)….I booked online for my mother and the system appeared to operate very smoothly albeit the dates were sometime out in the future but if you try to book via phone I can see there are potentially multiple issues.
the 'trouble' is that people are having problems accessing the vaccination? Rather than say people declining to be vaxxed?
Thats one of the complaints i have heard….it is a seperate issue to vaccine hesitancy.
That is what i have encountered in my discussion with clients of all ages. For some it went swimmingly well, others over 70 like my in laws still waiting? And they live rural, so internet and phone can be sketchy. But yeah, accessing atm i think is a far greater problem then refusniks.
Your faith in the Army is a bit misguided, there are only a few thousand to call on in the armed forces and only a limited number of them are available to do the sort of work required. Yes, there is a logistics problem and the main one of them is the 20 minute wait-time post injection to check for adverse reactions, real or imagined. This requires the attendance of trained nurses and quite a few of them. Keep in mind that the injection takes less than a minute, give or take, but twenty times that for the observation period. So in a large one site effort of say 20 trained vaccinators, within 20 minutes you have a rolling, well, sitting anyway, maul of 400 post vaccinated people and that would require quite a lot of trained nurses. Trained REGISTERED nurses are essential for this part of the operation, definitely not someone who has done a half day First Aid course, adverse reactions, of any kind, can get critical very, very quickly and highly experienced staff are essential. Medical people are also very aware of how "contagious " reaction panic can get after one genuine case happens in a crowded enviroment. A badly handled reaction involving non-registered medics or God forbid an 18 year old army private could derail the entire safe roll-out quicker than a Boris or a Judith.
So that is why the job is being done by the DHB's, not Rotary, or the Lions or the well-meaning, and certainly not the Army. DHBs know the medical protocols and the staffing requirements and the huge complications around finding enough suitable people to do the job properly while still running a full health service in winter mode.
This will also explain the slow uptake of GP surgeries to do the job, most don't have the sitting, parking and other space available to do the job, not to mention the fact that most are working to capacity on their normal work anyway.
I well remember the howling chaos on vaccination day in the 50s at school, an era when TV cameras and "Karens " were a long way in the future, even the Olympics would be pushed off the first item of the 6 oçlock news if a shit-fight of those proportions was to break out anywhere.
It starts with the message from the top. The message from the top is we don’t have COVID so we don’t need to rush. We can be 125th in the world and the messaging from the top still maintains that’s okay. No rush. So no one is rushing.
Sanctuary….I believe you are buying into the Seymour meme when you say the vaccination roll out is in trouble. It seems to be ramping up nicely with the best vaccine on the planet.
I'm in Darwin at the moment and the news is full of how crap the roll out is over here and how scumo is suffering in the polls because of it. But my guess is that by the time of the Oz election next May 90 per cent will be vaccinated and scumo will portray the Vax rollout as a success and get re-elected.
I.e., the mojo of BoJo.
Managing a vaccination programme within their boundaries should entirely be within the remit and capability of DHBs. That it turned out it wasn't is a failure of DHBs and also the ongoing monitoring/auditing.
rang the 0800 number on saturday, made two appointments, had first jab yesterday. no stress, no drama………..
Please don’t bore us with your good news, you sniveling show-off! We want bad news and drama, the worse it is, the better. If you’re photogenic, we’ll post a photo of you here. We could really do with more good bad stories because that’s what the TS readership likes.
😉
You might, like me, despise Boris Johnson and his cronies.
But you'd better get used to them. The Labour Party in Britain is dead.
https://skwawkbox.org/2021/07/27/breaking-gmb-withdraws-funding-from-labour-in-london/
Yes and we can lay the blame directly at the feet of third way Labour members and most MSM liberal press including The Guardian, who as we all know now, mobilized to destroy Corbyn and his progressive Socialist project…as it turns out those people and their supporters would rather have Boris than real progressive change, would rather defend their free market liberal centrist ideology and see the world burn than give change of any sort a chance…turns out centrist liberals are just as dangerous to the planet as the the extreme right…because the centrist ideology is extremist.
Why do people always blame the media when a politician fails. Corbyn was never going to be a PM. Blind Freddy could see that from the day he became leader.
The Tories could have put up a poodle against Corbyn and they would have won. In fact they put up something less qualified than a poodle in the form of Boris, and they still won.
Some people just don't have it depsite their loyal supporters thinking they do. For example try this on for size rgarding Judith Collins:
Yes and we can lay the blame directly at the feet of most MSM liberal press including Stuff, the Herald and TVNZ , who as we all know now, mobilized to destroy Collins and her consevative project.
That statement is a load of BS, but its what Judith's supporters think. The reality is she, just like Corbyn, were never going to be elected because they are shit.
"In fact they put up something less qualified than a poodle in the form of Boris, and they still won"
You're talking about 2019. It was much closer in 2017 – so you need an explanation for why Corbyn was shit in 2019, but not really shit in 2017. Did he become substantially shittier over the course of two years? Was Theresa May even less qualified than someone already less qualified than a poodle? Or was Brexit important in some way, or the antisemitism campaign/beatup, or a media landscape that is far more partisan than in NZ? Did the surprise of Corbyn's 2017 result mobilise all reactionary forces against him in a sort of frenzy? Did the fact that he is almost absurdly principled but also rather dull and anti-charismatic matter? Why did polling indicate that Labour's policies were popular but Corbyn was not? Should he have told the second referendum advocates within Labour to boil their heads and protect the Red Wall with a "Brexit for the many not the few" campaign? It's all history now anyway and only tragics still care. But single-dimensional, categorical explanations won't help us understand it
Particularly since Labour votes didn't really move that much – the bigger change was the right wing coalescing around the Tories rather than splitting between the Tories and UKIP.
I think that is the key for both elections and again is just a feature of political parties. Some people are loved, some are not and that is where it begins and ends.
A perfect example is New Zealand in 2017. What core policies did Jacinda change when she bacame leader of Labour? What were the big annoucnements that resulted in such a jump in popularity for her party over such a short period of time.?The answer is nothing. The Labour party, and its policy platform that went to the election, was the same Labour party that Andrew Little had lead. The only difference was we got rid of someone who was never going to be PM with someone who was always going to be a PM.
It is simple as that.
Fair enough – the 2017 NZ election certainly surprised me by showing how much personality matters.
The difference between a pretty communist and a rugged union man?
+100 Adrian…..Corbyn shabbily treated by the LP and the Grauniad.
FFS who ever believed the anti-Semitism bollocks.
Stopped voting Labour after 1984, still see no reason to change.
Sir Rodney's doing a bang up job for his peers after replacing JC. Continuing the work of Kinnock, Blair etc
Thankfully Morrissey you are nowhere near anything to do with UK Labour.
It doesn't take much for either Corbyn or Starmer to pick up the phone to the LibDems and sweep the field, as they have before.
In the 2010 general election, the Tories won 36.1% of the vote, Labour and the Lib Dems together picked up 52%.
In 2017, the Tories won 42.4% and Labour and the Lib Dems 47.4%.
The last election in 2019, which was a Tory triumph in terms of seat numbers, saw the party win 43.6% of the vote, with Labour and the Lib Dems just ahead on 43.7%.
In every one of these cases, the Tories still entered Downing Street.
Labour just need to figure out how to run coalitions again, and after that pick up the phone.
You're an optimist, Ad. The fact is, the Labour Party has, thanks to the sabotage of the Blairite right wing, descended from the biggest, most popular political party in Europe to a shambles.
Ad the optimist, which is true in a sense…like all free market centrists they believe that if they keep pushing an economic ideology that has proved itself unfit for human consumption (let alone the rest of the planet) hard enough and loud enough it might start working again, while the earth burns around us…as I have mentioned lese where these people are dangerous extremists.
Seriously no one gives a flying fuck about ideology anymore.
Instead, people just learn to count.
If the UK Greens could consistently get above the Lib Dems, I'm sure they'd be on the election day speed dial as well. In fact in 2010 they had a shot at a "traffic light" coalition but still weren't close to solid.
Seriously no one gives a flying fuck about ideology anymore.
The people who instigated that ludicrous campaign against Corbyn cared a great deal. They burned down the Labour Party.
Only person who lost for Labour according to the exit polls was Corbyn. OMG running against the weakest Conservative candidate in a generation; a far stupider loss than Hillary v Trump.
It was probably The Guardian what caused it.
Then there's Blair.
3 massively popular Labour terms under Blair – longest they'd had in decades … and Brown just fucked up the 4th they could have had.
Or maybe it was The Guardian again.
Brexit stuffed Corbyn in 2019.
Much though I like and support Corbyn he was very slow to come up with a clear policy on this, which cost him and the party dearly.
Corbyn as a person is, I believe, well liked and respected by many more people than Boris.
Agree.
" he was very slow to come up with a clear policy on this, which cost him and the party dearly."
I agree with that observation, however by that stage the damage to him by the relentless negative media had already been done
Jeremy Corbyn is the most smeared politician in history
"In the UK, one politician has been subject to the longest continuous smear campaign in UK history, and we are all influenced by it. Over 75 per cent of Jeremy Corbyn media coverage factually misrepresents him."
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/jeremy-corbyn-is-the-most-smeared-politician-in-history-146523/
"Seriously no one gives a flying fuck about ideology anymore"…that funny coming from one of the most centrist fundamentalist ideologue on TS…though it doesn't surprise me in the slightest as the liberal centrists have been pushing that 'post ideology' bullshit for years…everything is ideology.
The problem is that in the UK elections nationwide percentages don't mean much. In 2019:
Corbyn's Labour got; 32% of the popular vote for 202 seats,
Libdems; 11.6% for 11 seats
SNP; 3.9% for 48 seats
Tories; 365 seats alone with 326 needed (half of 650 +1).
Though SNP are more focused on un-uniting the kingdom to ally with UKLabour.
Learning a bit of history would do you some good.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have actually run governments in the United Kingdom in the following terms: 1903, 1924, 1929, and 1977.
They also went in together in Scotland in 1999.
They also had a close arrangement in the Welsh Parliament in 2000.
Blair was in close discussions with them in 1997 until he realised he didn't need them on election day.
Coalitions were also discussion in 2010.
So it's pretty commonplace even in an FPP system in the UK.
Nice numbers Ad
I say yet again under MMP Corbyn would have been PM in 2017 AND 2019 (assuming the SNP backed him, which of course they would have).
Finally! A Really Serious Issue!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/
Robert, to link to FB you have to click on the date/time stamp of the post you want to link to, then copy and paste from the URL. Atm, you're just linking to generic FB pages, not the thing you intend (happened yesterday too).
Oh, thanks for that guidance, weka.
And what would that be?
Utes. As opposed to climate change etc. Sharon Murdoch's cartoon 🙂
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/94869389/sharon-murdoch-cartoons
Great cartoon.
In the "this comes as no surprise dept" it turns out that the Biden family are just as corrupt as the Trump's…but at least he conducts himself in a more palatable way for the refined tastes for his liberal imperialist supporters to swallow….and report on…
Hunter Biden expected to meet with potential art buyers before anonymous sales
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-artwork-for-sale-meeting-buyers/
….and while on the subject of corruption, human rights attorney Steven Donziger has just been convicted in a US court of contempt of court, so is still under house arrest that has been going on for nearly 700 days!..strangely enough our own RNZ felt the need to remind us all of Alexei Navalny's case yesterday, but as far as I know has never covered this outrageous miscarriage of justice…but then RNZ never covers that other miscarriage of justice out in full public view..Julian Assange, so no surprises there..unfortunately for the New Zealand public.
The Lawyer Who Beat Chevron Has Been Found Guilty of Criminal Contempt
https://amazonwatch.org/take-action/free-steven-donziger
"It turns out that the Biden family are just as corrupt as the Trump's."
I'm pleased someone has lists of all the corruption from all quarters from over the years and can compare the objective lists.
In the end does it really matter? One man's 'Swamp' is another's Shangri La.
Behind the banner headlines of unemployment and underemployment heading down, down, down, poverty over the last year appears to be going up and up and up:
https://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/CPAG_First_Year_of_Covid_Initial_outcomes_of_our_collective_care_for_low_income_children_in_Aotearoa_NZ.pdf
"In the year to March 2021, some children and young people were placed in extreme and dangerous situations due to lack of support for those made homeless. More families than ever were forced to experience the deep-seated stress of ongoing food insecurity due to income inadequacy. Inequity grew between children on lowest incomes and others, and our modelling suggests around 18,000 more children may have been pushed into poverty (even before housing costs are considered)."
The poorest of us have really been made worse over the last year.
Vaccination in Hutt seems to be going pretty well. Haven't come across any major frustrations and people are complimentary about the actual vaccination process at their appointment. People are being quite patient about waiting their turn for their vaccination as most understand it is all a massive undertaking nationwide. So amid the noisy complaints in the media there are many thousands who are satisfied.
A hard to understand comment was from one person who is an anti-vaxxer and does not want their body being injected with the vaccine, but is a long time smoker taking all manner of chemicals and toxins.
Not quite as bad, but I have acquaintances that are into the lifestyle of no-artificial-toxins, natural-wellness, superfoods, etc (dunno for sure if they're anti-vax), and whenever I visit their place it reeks of scented candles, incense, weird foods etc.
Coincidentally (not very), they're always complaining of various vague ailments, often respiratory, that their conventional doctors can't cure which is why they don't trust conventional medicine, and why
wooalternative medicine is the answer for them.Well i have very definite arthritis that that the doctor has nothing for, I've started using a herbal oil that gives very definite relief that the doctor says is not. I've eaten some strange things , ants, crickets and more. I don't have the flu vaccine but have had 1st pfizer, so its like everything, do your own research make your choices and live with it.
As an aside when the doctor looks disprovingly as I refuse the flu vaccine I ask if they eat processed meat and suggest they consider their own choices before questioning mine.
Try green mussel extract pills for osteo-arthritis. Seems to gradually work.
May not be so good for the gout unfortunately.
Nope. From what I remember that is a usually a buildup of one of the metabolic acid. The mussel thing seems to be useful to cartilage.
uric acid. Gout is agony.
Allopurinol nuked it for me, thank jebus.
"Vaccination in Hutt seems to be going pretty well"
Good to hear. Any sign of local MP Chris Bishop shouting "shambles" as the needle goes into his shoulder?
He saved it for tonight's TV1 6pm news. Its a shambles he said. Instead of counting sheep he goes to bed every night repeating "Its a shambles" over and over.
At each step we have been told of vaccine demand worldwide, the approximate dates and sizes of NZ shipments, the charts clearly show those DHBs doing well and those running behind schedule, and that overall we are 5% above the planned rollout.
We were warned earlier that shipping and supply would dictate our progress. We have begun mass vaccinations from this week.
The Government is not responsible for people's stupidity. The dying covid victims of vaccine hesitancy overseas are reported to be asking to be innoculated. That is a sad but predictable outcome.
We have lost sight of the huge impact of the pandemic, protected as we are by many favourable factors, but get a right wing group in power in 2023 a shift in emphasis from wellbeing to money, and wow… we become like Britain.
The planet may burn and we'll eat more plastic but at least we will be able to watch rugby.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/447867/nz-rugby-confirms-six-year-partnership-with-petrochemical-company-ineos
“NZ Rugby’s chief executive Mark Robinson said the partnership is “an exciting new venture”.”
A strange take, but a useful one. Shows how far removed from reality and consequences he is. Will adjust expectations for meaningful discussion accordingly.
Calling the team, "The Oil Blacks" is just mean…isn't it??
A repeat performance of the Springbok Tour RU denials in the 70s and 80s.
For those who would like to have some insights on why Kiwis may hesitate to get vaccinated against Covid, see Barriers to uptake here: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-vaccine-strategy-planning-insights/covid-19-vaccine-research-insights
Google is your friend 😉
Something to look forward to
https://twitter.com/mandyhager/status/1420121420114268161?s=21
Yes!
Just updated!
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/horizon-research-covid-19-vaccine-glance-june2021_0.pdf
Just shy of 40k jabs given out yesterday. 30k the day before.
Things are gaining momentum.
What a shambles McFlock!
An omnishambles, even.