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.
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Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
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 from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
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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.