The US has had a dramatic drop in covid infections and deaths, coinciding with with the mass rollout of vaccinations.
So a reasonable question is: how is the pandemic going for those yet to be vaccinated?
WashingtonPost has taken a look at that question, and the tl;dr is that for the unvaccinated, the pandemic is carrying on just as it was before the decline. The explanation may be the way vaccination and behaviours to limit disease transmission has become such a polarised issue. Those inclined to be vaccinated or not have separated into distinct social groupings, and the antis are still having their superspreader events while completely unprotected.
The evidence is clear, folks. Get your vaccination when it's offered to you. It really works. Herd immunity in the rest of society won't protect you if you're unvaccinated if your social circle includes a lot of other unvaccinated people.
""Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star," Greene tweeted on Tuesday. Greene has also compared face masks to the gold stars. Nazis forced Jews to wear the stars to stigmatize, humiliate, isolate and control them."
oh well…rumor has it, some of them are fuckwits. Also it was not a gold star (that one goes to families in the US that have lost people in their war adventures elsewhere). The jewish citizenry of Europe, Russia, and other places occupied by the German were forced to wear a yellow star. Seriously, US Americans are dumb, mean, petty and dumb.
Don't they know that stuff is poisonous? There's a sign at the community gardens where there's been some at times considerable pilfering (I lost all my kumara one year), that gives a warning that the vegetables in the plot had been sprayed with di-hydrogen monoxide and should not be eaten until the withholding period had been safely observed!
oh well…rumor has it, some of them are fuckwits. Also it was not a gold star (that one goes to families in the US that have lost people in their war adventures elsewhere). The jewish citizenry of Europe, Russia, and other places occupied by the German were forced to wear a yellow star. Seriously, US Americans are dumb, mean, petty and dumb.
The Nazis required Jews to wear the yellow Star View This Term in the Glossary of David View This Term in the Glossary not only in the camps but throughout most of occupied Europe.
Yellow badges (or yellow patches), also referred to as Jewish badges (German: Judenstern, lit. 'Jew's star'), are badges that Jews were ordered to wear at various times during the Middle Ages by some caliphates, at various times during the Medieval and early modern period by some European powers, and from 1939–1945 by the Axis powers. The badges served to mark the wearer as a religious or ethnic outsider, and often served as a badge of shame.[1]
with all due respect…. yeah, nah nah. But thank you much for explaining my countries history to me, what would i do with out you telling me?
And yes, i am quick to judge, as Maya Angelou once said: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." And it has served me well ever since.
Not only quick to judge but also resistant to challenge and correction with belligerent passive-aggressive behaviour to avoid having to change their minds let alone their behaviour; virtually incapable of admitting being wrong let alone apologising.
if you were to have looked at the links listed you would know that the white armband with blue david star is listed as one of the variants used in Poland and pretty much every where else they wore the yellow star.
Good grief, Incognito i have no idea what upset you today, but it was not me, nor anything i said. Please find someone else to discuss the marking of the jewish citizenry by the generation of my grandfather.
[Content deleted because it contained too many links that triggered Auto-Moderation]
But then you are not here calling me out on my perceived incomprehension of your attitude towards me, you are just here trying to goat someone into a cake fight, and as always, i don't have enough cake to waste.
Not admiration, but in absolute awe how someone can judge the IQ and undertake a character assassination of one nation in one fell swoop based on the colour of a badges worn in Europe over 75 years ago. That ain’t a mean feat, even by Trumpian standards.
Hopefully the awe you feel will grow an aspiration to explore the differences between persecution and claimed victimhood by choice. Every journey begins with a single step.
My journey is taking me in a different direction; my metaphorical shoes are well worn and not just by walking. I’m afraid I won’t live up to your aspirations.
“Several months ago, our studies showed that natural infection induced a strong response, and this study now shows that the responses last,” Weiskopf says. “We are hopeful that a similar pattern of responses lasting over time will also emerge for the vaccine-induced responses.”
I guess at the end of the day it comes down to choice. The vaccinated have nothing to fear. Those who have not had any of the vaccines are not a risk to the vaccinated.
From what I've read, the vaccines are safe for everyone….old, young. babies, pregnant women, immunocompromised…there's a vaccine to suit.
And all the vaccines are of course 100% safe and at least 90% effective and each new outbreak inspires a greater demand for the jab. There will be very few left unvaccinated, and these these folk pose no threat to those who are.
Antisocial arseholes who don't get vaccinated when given the opportunity, then get diseased, are still a risk to those for whom the vaccine is ineffective.
That's largely the immunocompromised. Often due to needing medication for other conditions.
Then if someone with a weak immune system is unfortunate enough to get exposed to one of those diseased antisocial arseholes and gets the disease, they are at risk of a prolonged illness, which vastly increases the likelihood of them becoming the source of new mutations.
There is nonetheless a point to be made that a person has a right (!) to decide whether they want to be vaccinated. It seems to me that this pandemic has not just wracked havoc with the health and economies but also with the understanding that people are free to decide. Emphasis on FREE. Unless we are now in a dictatorship by stealth?
I personally will get vaccinated once its offered. But only because I want to see my family again. Otherwise I wouldn't as I feel that the speed in which the vaccine was introduced leaves my sense of proper process very much at unease. And I am not the only one.
the speed in which the vaccine was introduced leaves my sense of proper process very much at unease.
Any rational person with even a minimum of understanding how these products are developed will have cause for concern.
The latest drive to use these experimental mRNA vaccines on children (using the 'you don't want to kill grandma') inducement is, in my opinion, criminal.
I can find no study which proves children are at risk from Covid 19 or are a risk to others.
I can find no study which proves children are at risk from Covid 19 or are a risk to others.
That’s unsurprising, but dead children are all the proof I need.
In Kids, The Risk Of COVID-19 And The Flu Are Similar — But The Risk Perception Isn't Even a vaccinated parent can occasionally get infected with the coronavirus. There's also a small risk that the virus can pass to an unvaccinated child, and that child has an extremely small risk of getting seriously ill. To date, out of more than 74 million children in the United States, there have been about 300 COVID deaths and a few thousand serious illnesses.
Everycell on the planet is either chocka-block with mRNA, or dead.
mRNA-based vaccines have been delivered to hundreds of millions of people since their initial approvals in December 2020.
Full length mRNA molecules have been proposed as therapeutics since the beginning of the biotech era. The field became active in 2012 when Moderna Therapeutics raised almost a billion dollars in venture funding in its first three years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messenger_RNA#Applications
The dawn of mRNA vaccines: The COVID-19 case [JCR, May 2021] In less than one year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two mRNA-based vaccines, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, were granted the first historic authorization for emergency use, while another mRNA vaccine, CVnCoV, progressed to phase 3 clinical testing. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines represent a new class of vaccine products, which consist of synthetic mRNA strands encoding the SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein, packaged in lipid nanoparticles to deliver mRNA to cells. This review digs deeper into the scientific breakthroughs of the last decades that laid the foundations for the rapid rise of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as providing momentum for mRNA vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 represents an ideal case study allowing to compare design-activity differences between the different mRNA vaccine candidates. Therefore, a detailed overview of the composition and (pre)clinical performance of the three most advanced mRNA vaccines is provided and the influence of choices in their structural design on to their immunogenicity and reactogenicity profile is discussed in depth. In addition to the new fundamental insights in the mRNA vaccines' mode of action highlighted here, we also point out which unknowns remain that require further investigation and possibly, optimization in future mRNA vaccine development.
It's important to understand how the speed of development and approval was achieved. There weren't safety corners cut, that it happened a lot quicker than normal is more a reflection of how much drawn-out dawdling there is in the normal process, together with how tragically prevalent the disease become during the trials.
This meant the necessary data came in very quickly. Most new vaccines are for very rare diseases, so it normally takes a long long time for enough trial participants to actually be exposed to the disease to gather meaningful data.
The apparently compressed timeframe was achieved by companies taking financial risks by gearing up for the next stage while trials were still underway, rather than the usual process of waiting for results to come in before even thinking about the next stage. Regulatory and approval bodies also sped things up by immediately acting as soon as data was available, rather than their usual process of maybe considering things at their convenience months or even years after data becomes available.
This piece discusses the timeframe issue in more detail:
It's important to understand that there are absolutely no long term studies on these vaccines and there is absolutely no data to support a declaration that there will be no long term adverse effects from these vaccines.
So why, pray tell Andre, are they pushing these experimental vaccines on to children who are not at risk from Covid and pose minimal risk to others?
Children should get vaccinated because there are people at risk from infected children. It's only in your fantasies that children do not pose a risk to vulnerable individuals, and that children are not at personal risk.
The personal risk to children is lower, but the risk of death and long covid appears to be high enough that just the risk to children alone would justify a robust response to this emergent disease.
A SERIOUS picture is emerging about the long-term health effects of covid-19 in some children, with UK politicians calling the lack of acknowledgment of the problem a “national scandal”.
Children seem to be fairly well-protected from the most severe symptoms of covid-19. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the majority of children don't develop symptoms when infected with the coronavirus, or their symptoms are very mild.
But Andre. Those people who are, according to you, at risk from being infected with Covid 19 by a child will be a non-child. An adult. Who may or may not have chosen to be vaccinated. Who will either not be at risk at all, or have chosen to live with the risk. Such risk that exists'
The good news is that evidence suggests children don't easily pass covid-19 to each other in the classroom. In one study, a 9-year-old in France with flu and covid-19 was found to have exposed more than 80 other children at three different schools. However, no one became infected with covid-19 as a result, despite numerous flu infections within the schools, suggesting that although the environment was conducive to transmitting respiratory viruses, covid-19 wasn't passed on as easily.
More recently, a study of children between 5 months and 4 years old in nurseries in France has shown low levels of infection and transmission of covid-19. The study also shows that staff weren't at greater risk of infection than a control group of adults. The results suggest that children are more likely to get covid-19 from family members than from their peers or teachers at nursery, although more evidence is needed, say the study's authors, because the study happened when strict measures were in place to control the virus, and before fast-spreading variants appeared.
That quote is from the study you cited, that also shows that children suffering from 'long Covid' are very much in the minority.
If I have the time later I will try and find a study that proves that the risks to children from Covid outweighs the long term risks from an experimental vaccine.
There are no studies of the long term health effects of covid vaccines because such studies will take a long time.
There are also no studies of the long term health effects of chilhood covid infection because such studies will take a long time.
It seems to me that some countries are vaccinating children because they will otherwise not reach covid herd immunity due to too many adults refusing the vaccine.
Well, we do know there are lots of people still suffering significant disability from covid fourteen months or more after they first got infected. My nephew is one of them.
The flip side to rights and freedoms include responsibilities and accountabilities.
So while I agree that anyone should be free to not get vaccinated, there should be a corresponding responsibility to minimise the risk of infecting others. So not having unvaccinated people in public facing jobs or other jobs where there is increased risk an infected individual may cause to others seems a reasonable precaution.
It seems to me that a reasonable accountability for those that refuse vaccination (without good medical reason) is they should be fully responsible for their own medical costs of treating that vaccine-preventable disease, should they get it, as well as the treatment costs and other losses suffered by anyone they pass it on to.
Rights also do not exist in isolation – they are balanced against others. Freedom from avoidable infection or death seems like a pretty significant one.
Maybe we could re-open some quarantine islands for those who believe their freedom to refuse is more important. They can imperil one another as much as they like.
People with HIV infection or other immunocompromising conditions or people who take immunosuppressive medications or therapies might be at increased risk for severe COVID-19. No data are available to establish COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy in these groups. However, the currently FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines are not live vaccines and therefore can be safely administered to immunocompromised people. People with stable HIV infection were included in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, though data remain limited.
Immunocompromised people can receive COVID-19 vaccination.
So at the end of the day it is going to come down to availability and choice.
The happily vaccinated are not at risk from the unvaccinated.
Immunocompromised people can safely get the vaccine. It's just of low likelihood of doing them any good. Because they are immunocompromised – ie their immune systems are weak to non-functional, so they don’t have an effective immune system that can be trained to identify and neutralise the invading virus.
So they are still at risk from diseased antisocial arseholes.
Another interesting topic for discussion might be how it has come to be that it is acceptable to level hate speech at those exercising their right to bodily autonomy and medical choice?
In the absence of any real risk to those making a different choice.
On the topic of hate speech, you're the one here advocating for something that is likely to lead to identifiable specific harm to identifiable specific vulnerable individuals, while expecting to be free from accountability or consequences.
Where have I advocated for something that is likely to lead to identifiable specific harm to identifiable specific vulnerable individuals, while expecting to be free from accountability or consequences.
We are having a discussion. Debating the pros and cons of the necessity of vaccinating children with an experimental vaccine that has not been proven to have no long term adverse effects.
When the risk to and from those children from Covid 19 is extremely minimal.
Discussing a thing, and presenting evidence, does not constitute "advocating".
Of course, if you say so. Vaccines offer full protection to all known and future variants, don’t they, so there’s nothing to worry about? Some of these variants might arise in immunocompromised patients, as Andre has already pointed out. Some variants might arise as we speak in other countries.
It is the the FDA, the CDC and various researchers and health professionals making these claims.
And you make a good point about the variants, but I don't understand how immunocompromised people (if they choose to be vaccinated) are at any greater risk from variants than any other vaccinated person, providing of course the vaccine is effective for that variant. If the vaccine is effective for those variants then fully vaccinated people have nothing to fear from unvaccinated persons. If the vaccines are not effective against a variant then a person's vaccination status is not a risk factor for those vulnerable persons.
As has been said…this is a 'tricky' virus… and it's apparent ability to rapidly form viable mutations means that vaccines are not going to be the magic bullet some are understandably desperate for.
All the more reason to put greater effort into learning about the origins of this best. Know your enemy and all that.
I understood that the Covid vaccines on offer reduce the chance of death or serious injury, but they do not prevent a person becoming very sick. Some of us are better placed to tolerate that risk than others.
Well done on not rising to the manky bait bobbing around in the thread, My reckons have the animosity towards those that are wary is going to start ramping up.
If you read the first link in my comment, you’ll know that immune-compromised people generate a weaker or even no response at all to Covid vaccination. You’d also know that a third dose is being studied and under review, so no ‘expert’ worth their salt can make any claims yet.
Immuno-compromised people are always more vulnerable to infections.
Immuno-compromised with long (chronic) infections could be a source of new variants, as has been suggested previously.
It has been suggested that the variant may have originated in a chronically infected immunocompromised person, giving the virus a long time to replicate and evolve.[20][2][21][22]
…
The HV 69–70 deletion has, however, been discovered “in viruses that eluded the immune response in some immunocompromised patients”,[60] …
If this is correct, then even vaccinated immuno-efficient people may be at risk if the vaccine is less or not active at all against any new variant that may evolve in time in immuno-compromised patients.
It will be very interesting to find out about Ground or Patient Zero but it has little bearing on national and global vaccination and elimination strategies.
Be interested to hear what you think are the natural immunity for humans that currently exist. I assume that you refer to those who have previously had the virus and have recovered. Even so persons who have recovered can still be reinfected and transmit the virus.
As for natural treatments, do you have any studies supporting their efficaciousness?
.
Wouldn't it have been nice if those at greatest risk of serious illness / dying from any Covid outbreak (aged 80+ with comorbidities) had all been vaccinated by now (as opposed to just a relatively small minority). Maybe, just maybe the high-risk elderly should've been in Group 2 (as in other Anglosphere Countries) rather than back in 3 ?
There are lots of things the would have been nice to have been different.
One of the things that actually is nice about New Zealand's response to covid is that we now don't have community transmission, unlike just about everywhere else in the world.
So in New Zealand, those at highest risk of serious disease/dying (aged 80+ with cormorbidities) would be at the end of a chain of transmission starting at one of our various borders (air, sea, freight etc).
So I'm quite happy that the strategy is to try to break the potential chain of transmission at the earliest possible links, so those at highest risk didn't get exposed. After all, the elderly with comorbidities are also likely to have less robust immune responses, so the better protection for them is to not be exposed. Put another way, I'm quite happy my 80+ parents with comorbidities got their vax (first one 8 days ago) well after their port-working neighbour in his forties and their late 30s granddaughter that is a doctor at the local hospital.
IIRC, there were three published strategies for different levels of community transmission for the vaccine rollout – we're in the awesome position of using the one with no community transmission. The other two scenarios, limited community transmission and widespread community transmission, would both have put 80+ with comorbidities into a higher priority slot.
You're sounding very complacent given the recent emergence of dangerous new variants & the associated surge in Asia-Pacific Countries previously praised for their apparently successful elimination strategies …
… great to hear your 80+ parents have had their first jab … but most in that age group haven't … my 90 year old parents (one with high-risk health conditions) for instance continue to wait patiently with no sign on the horizon.
The Ministry of Health abandoned an effort to secure all district health board computer systems citing budget constraints.
The Government also has not followed through on its Cyber Security Strategy 2019 which promised annual reports around cybersecurity breaches.
He notes “enterprise security protection software”, of the type being talked about are in place at a number of different health organisations, but the ministry does not publicly disclose security tools and technologies.
Hunter allegedly pledged to the health IT industry that the ministry would put money into a sector-wide system for cybersecurity during a presentation he made to a Health Informatics NZ conference in Hamilton in 2019.
Meanwhile, key parts of the Government’s cybersecurity strategy have barely been implemented even though it was published two years ago. Promised actions included an action plan and an annual report.
The minister responsible for the cybersecurity strategy, Kris Faafoi, left the role in November last year.
His successor, David Clark, admits no annual cybersecurity report from the 2019 strategy document was ever produced. However, he promises a report will be produced for the 2022 financial year.
Well i guess the guys who get their medical help from the Waikato DHB are shit outta luck, prevention of these hacks are hard work, even harder when no one who is tasked and paid to do something is actually doing something. But i rest peacefull in the knowledge that should either Kris Faafoi or David Clark need any medical help they will get it asap, thus all is good.
The former Minister of Health who is on record knowingly lying about this very same DHB, who hid under his bed in Dunedin (when he wasn't out breaching lockdown rules) during the worst of the pandemic, who… too many screw ups to record.
He possibly could manage the parliamentary broom cupboard, but thats about his limit. Unbelievable.
Was Clark was Minister of Health until July last year? Over the period all of the approaches to the handling of Covid were formulated, established and got under way?
Our handling of covid was a massive screw up I suppose. Is that what history says? Oh well, put it down to Clark 'hiding under his bed' in Dunedin.
It came very very close to being a massive screwup. Geography, small and largerly well dispersed population, luck and yes, Arderns firm decision to lockdown are the reason we missed a bullet.
Do you really think Clark showed a sliver of leadership, hiding under his bed in Dunedin and repeatedly breaking lockdown? Do you not think his place, and his job, required him to be in Wellington? Do you think the repeated lies he told about the Waikato DHB were a good thing?
The policies and processes you point to were in no shape or form down to Clark. These were developed and refined and gamed over time by professionals. Clarks role was that of a manager and leader. He has failed continually as both.
@ Peter ChCh. What a ridiculous statement to make, Clark never hid under his bed. All ministers, including Clark, were told to work from home, which they all did, he was part of NZ's successful Covid19 strategy and I would describe his resignation as Minister of Health as a circuit breaker.
Dr Bloomfield would disagree with your belittling assessment that it was all down to luck, geography and small population, because it wasn't.
I seriously doubt your claim that the Waikato DHB board were sacked due to "repeated lies" from the minister, after all, it had been warned previously over its poor governance and finances.
Why is anyone surprised? There are no photo-ops when you do useful things like putting in decent cyber-security systems. It isn't nearly as useful as blowing $50+ million on horse and pony shows like the fiasco that was the Pike River Recovery project. That was the one where the PM, back before the 2017 election promised that the boys would be recovered and that money was no object?
I am not surprised, but still pissed of at the nonchalance with which these guys admit that in fact they had done nothing, and will do nothing until at least 2022 – well hire some to 'start the report' or such – after all some monies will be spend on IT this year as per Minister of health Andrew Little.
The only ones paying for the inaction of government are those needing the services of that DHB, the staff working there cause they don't et paid – that darn IT system – and never mind the covid vaccination roll out for the area as that too is supposedly done by he DHBs.
That was the one where the PM, back before the 2017 election promised that the boys would be recovered and that money was no object?
I think you’re misrepresenting things; there was never a promise of an unlimited budget (AKA blank cheque) and nobody would have expected that. IIRC, the total budget was $51 million, once Labour got into Government with NZF.
As you know, the Pike River Recovery Agency was set up by the new Government within MBIE, not MOH, as you seem to erroneously insinuate in your comment. You know how Government Budgets work, so please lift your game and stop making misleading comments here, thanks.
I gave you a link for my statement. Did you see in the bit that says.
""Returning your men and your boys is as much about a personal perspective as it is about anything else."
No projections for a monetary cost have yet been created and it was yet to be decided which budget the agency would come from.
Ms Ardern said that "money shouldn't be an issue".
"There's no reason why the work can't start immediately," she said."
That sounds pretty unlimited to me. And no, I don't accept that I have in any way implied that it was to be run by the Health Department. It was of course going to be part of Government expenditure and it is money the Government chose to spend in exactly the way the Government chose not to spend it on cyber-security.
So, you’re pretending that you’re naive and ignorant about Government budget allocations and Budgets? How cute, but I don’t believe you; no budget ever is unlimited or open-ended and you know this – you have previously claimed knowing “a great deal better” than the PM and the Minister of Finance (here it is: https://thestandard.org.nz/bluffgeld/#comment-1774689), which sounded like a load of pretentious hot air but you can’t have it both ways.
Anyway, money to start is not money to complete.
And no, I don't accept that I have in any way implied that it was to be run by the Health Department.
Well, in that case, your comment about the Pike River Recovery project was utterly irrelevant to the topic of the thread and a diversion. But then again, you were in good company with other divisive and divertive commenters here 🙁
Firstly. The Government did decide to finance the Pike River Recovery Project.
Secondly. They chose not to finance cyber-security for the DHBs.
One can only conclude that they wanted the first project more than they wanted the second. The budget allocation pot for each of them is quite irrelevant. The ranking of things they wanted to do stands and that confirms my conclusion.
If you want to argue that the various budget allocations for Departments were set and couldn't be altered in 2019 you will still have to explain why the project couldn't have been done in 2020.
You will also have to explain why, if additional money cannot be put into the budget for a Department at a time after the Budget cycle they managed to find a huge sum for the Covid 19 activities in early 2020 when the money had not been foreshadowed in the previous Budget round.
Sorry but they clearly chose one thing and did not choose another. The only thing I will agree that I am the one bringing it up without proof, in the form of a statement from one of the Politicians involved, that one had photo-op possibilities and the other didn't. It remains my opinion of course but I'll admit I don't have a smoking gun.
Indeed, Government set its Budget based on priorities. Whether they under-funded or not funded at all the centralising of cyber security is a moot point, as it is still up to each DHB to ensure its system is safe and fit for purpose. If it had gone ahead, not all DHBs may have taken it up, anyway. That’s your first red herring.
Your second red herring is to suggest that there is a direct connection between funding the Pike River Recovery Agency and not funding or underfunding centralised cyber security in the public health sector. There is no such link; they are funded from completely different pots of money (AKA Ministerial down to Departmental budgets, etc.). You just picked one of your favourite pet projects to take a swipe at your favourite targets, as usual.
Your third red herring is suggesting that Government found “a huge sum for the Covid 19 activities in early 2020 when the money had not been foreshadowed in the previous Budget round”. They did not “find” it anywhere, as you know. As if they were meant to also miraculously ‘find’ some money for cyber security!? Yeah, right. You know that Government does not run its books like that, so stop spreading disinformation.
You still have to explain why you are trolling here, particularly why you should get away with it.
Alwyn given Nationals history on underfunding health and IT stuff ups INCIS healthcare IT failures makes Labour look good.National kept funding for health at the 2008 levels over 9 years funding for 4.5 million NZers while the population increased by 500,000.The cash sums were made to look good but the percentages never increased.National gave the savings in tax cuts to buy votes just before elections.
Rubbish. Why don't you tell us what the health budget as in 2009 and then each year after that. Your claim that it never increased is a risible comment.
What Andrew says and reality seldom have much in common. I haven't looked at this study but I did look at one by, I think, the CTU Economist a few years ago. What they did, and what I think this study did, was to very carefully pick the starting year. You will note that National was in office for 9 years but this study purports to compare the numbers with 7 years ago. It doesn't look at the numbers from the end of the Clark Labour Government and compare them with the ones at the end of the National Government. That would be fair.
When they talk about 7 years they are taking as their base year the first year attributable to National. That was the 2009-2010 year. The 2008-2009 year was the last year of a Labour Budget.
Now what actually happened in 2009-2010 was a massive, far above inflation, one off, injection into the Health system. Then they didn't have further one offs, but basically kept up with inflation. This study is cheating by their choice of there starting year. Try doing it again by looking at end of Labour and end of National and you get a quite different result.
I'm not going to try and track down this study. It will have ended up in the rubbish bin by now I would think. At the time of the CTU equivalent I commented in some detail about the fiddle. It was on this site I believe. It was a fraud but not that many people bother to check out the claims made. The simply take the view, as you seem to have done, that Andrew Little says it so it must be true.
So Alwyn, basically that's just your opinion and you cant actually back yourself up.
$2.3 billion shortfall in health
"The funding needed for health to be restored to the level it was seven years ago to keep pace with cost pressures has widened to a massive $2.3 billion"
“The updated study by economic consultants Infometrics… used Treasury’s own modelling for calculating real health costs for core crown health expenditure"
Frustration, disappointment over health funding in Budget 2017
Patients and healthcare workers say they have been left frustrated and disappointed by “inadequate” funding for health in the 2017 Budget.
They said the Government’s announcements on Thursday would not go nearly far enough in addressing concerns about overworked staff, access to new medicines, and access to mental health treatment.
The Government said total health spending would be a record $16.77 billion in 2017/18 – an increase of $879 million, with an overall increase of $3.9b over the next four years.
However, the record claim does not take inflation into account, and sidesteps the fact that almost half the spending will go toward mandated wage increases as part of the pay equity settlement. …"
Why don't you take a look at how Infometrics calculate the result. Then you should ask yourself the simple question. What are they comparing their calculation to? The only rational answer is compared to what Labour might have done. Since Labour weren't the Government you will have to try and decide how an estimate for that can be determined. A possible answer is to take the last year of the Labour Government and increase it each year in the way they historically did. Or by the factor they did use in the paper, which is a possible interpretation of that.
You have to start however by what Labour actually were doing, not by what National was already doing during their term.
I wrote quite a lot about this in this blog. After you have read the Infometrics stuff, assuming that you can find it, and have understood their methodology try working out a proxy for what Labour might have done, and compare it with what National actually did do during their entire term. Their entire term.
You'll find that the total National did spend was greater than what Labour might have spent using their preferred inflation factor for Health expenditure.
I am really not going to waste my time repeating the facts about a subject over and over again to people who haven't bothered to read the comments the first time around.
It is like the rubbish people post that the banks can simply help themselves to the money in your account if they make bad deals and that you, the customer, lose your money while the shareholders in the bank lose nothing at all. I explained the fallacy in their statements on a number of occasions on this blog. I then decided that I had wasted enough time on fools.
That is what you are. You are a fool who believes a fallacious claim that one of your heroes chooses to blather on about. I have told people in the past what was wrong with the story. I really don't see why I should waste my time explaining it again to someone who is too lazy to read the first explanation.
What the facts prove is that you are a lazy idiot.
Last week, weka published a post on the Longwood Loop and our efforts to raise funds to buy an electric van that will travel the circuit from small town to little village in Southland, moving locally-produced fruit, vegetables, cheese, honey and whatever else locals produce, to other locals, waiting expectantly at the various "trading posts' along the loop.
We're thinking of, and pitching this as "a pilot for social and economic rejuvination and reslience in rural NZ", which is exactly what it is. With $47,400 raised already we are close to our target of $51 000 – we need just $3 600 more and have 36 hours left in our PledgeMe campaign to reach that target.
Could you, would you (I won't say, "you should 🙂 please give a little and share this message ( there are some great rewards: Wild South honey, Southern NZ scenic calendar, produce hamper, forest-garden tours (these are very ably narrated 🙂 meals and accomodation and more.
Vietnam has discovered a new coronavirus variant that's a hybrid of strains first found in India and the U.K., the Vietnamese health minister said Saturday (US time).
Nguyen Thanh Long said scientists examined the genetic makeup of the virus that had infected some recent patients, and found the new version of the virus. He said lab tests suggested it might spread more easily than other versions of the virus.
Vietnam was initially a standout success in battling the virus — in early May, it had recorded just over 3,100 confirmed cases and 35 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
But in the last few weeks, Vietnam has confirmed more than 3,500 new cases and 12 deaths, increasing the country's total death toll to 47.
My first question on this news was how is vaccination going in Vietnam? The short answer is it's barely even started – ourworldindata has them at just 1% of the population having received at least one dose.
Hopefully we'll make through to most of our population getting vaccinated before the next significant border breach.
As per the article is 1 million with astra zeneca, and still waiting on more doses to be delivered by the third/fourth quater?
Yes, that is what i hope, that we get enough of at least the compromised groups vaccinated and those that work the border and plague hotels.
Vietnam has since ordered a nationwide ban on all religious events. In major cities, authorities have banned large gatherings, closed public parks and non-essential business including in-person restaurants, bars, clubs and spas.
Vietnam so far has vaccinated 1 million people with AstraZeneca shots. Last week, it sealed a deal with Pfizer for 30 million doses, which are scheduled to be delivered in the third and fourth quarters of this year. It is also in talks with Moderna that would give it enough shots to fully vaccine 80% of its 96 million people
A frequent concern about the new mRNA vaccines is about their long-term safety – obviously a completely new technology does not and cannot have a long-term record so how can anyone know?
My own biochemistry expertise is negligible, but I have several family members and friends that are academics that need a deep understanding of cell biochemistry for their jobs.
Their opinions are unanimous: there is zero reason to believe the mRNA vaccines might have long-term effects beyond training the immune system to recognise the pathogen and deal to it. The mRNA simply causes a cell to make copies of the spike protein and show it to the immune system, then the mRNA breaks down and is dealt with by normal cell biochemistry processes just like all the myriad other RNA mediated processes going on all the time in cells. The immune system does its garbage cleanup on the cells exhibiting the spike protein just like it does the myriad other garbage cleanup operations going on all the time. For anything long term to come out of these completely routine processes (besides immunity) would go against well established understanding of how biochemistry works.
Then there's the fact that the first trials with mRNA vaccines started roughly a decade ago, and the first covid vaccine trials started roughly a year ago, and widespread administrations started roughly six months ago. In the context of vaccine side effects, that's starting to be "long-term". Even with the very intense monitoring happening, there is no signal of any kind of side-effects beyond the usual few weeks or at worst months timeframe that vaccine side effects almost always appear in.
mRNA is created during the process of transcription, where an enzyme (RNA polymerase) converts the gene into primary transcript mRNA (also known as pre-mRNA). This pre-mRNA usually still contains introns, regions that will not go on to code for the final amino acid sequence. These are removed in the process of RNA splicing, leaving only exons, regions that will encode the protein. This exon sequence constitutes mature mRNA. Mature mRNA is then read by the ribosome, and, utilising amino acids carried by transfer RNA, the ribosome creates the protein. This process is known as translation. All of these processes form part of the central dogma of molecular biology, which describes the flow of genetic information in a biological system.
Hey, howboutdat? Ctrl Shift V actually works. Next all I need is a browser where I can just hit that ‘clipboard with a T’ button.
Sure, what else can it be except an overly long piece of text with way too many links? It has already been explained to you today @ 2:40 pm and @ 3:50 pm, but here’s the reason why it triggers Auto-Moderation: https://thestandard.org.nz/faq/comment-formatting/#linking.
Your comment triggered Auto-Moderation because it contained too many links; it is pending. This has been around here on TS for as long as I can remember. This is entirely independent from Moderator action. In fact, a Moderator has to deal with it, review it, and release it as is or with edits, or Trash it. This takes time and depends on Moderator availability – Moderators are not at the beck and call of belligerent commenters who cannot or don’t want to follow the rules here.
Your comment is therefore utterly misguided, but this is not unexpected from you. In fact, your comment sounded like an accusation to me and I hope this was not your intention; you may want to be clearer to avoid such interpretation.
Bennett to announce forming 'change' government today
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett informed Lapid of his decision on Friday * They agreed that Bennett would serve first as prime minister until September 2023………………
MKs and other candidates in Yamina who oppose building a coalition that would replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be asked to resign by Monday in order to be replaced by a candidate who would vote in favor of the government, because the support of at least six of the seven MKs in Yamina is necessary for a majority.
Sources in Yamina accused Netanyahu of lying about an agreement with Likud on a minority government being reached. They said the only agreements reached with Likud were about running together if there would be a fifth election.
"More than half of global GDP relies on high-functioning biodiversity but about a fifth of countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing due to the destruction of the natural world, according to an analysis by the insurance firm Swiss Re last year. Australia, Israel and South Africa were among the most threatened."
Panel of Mike Smith of the Iwi Chairs Forum, Climate Change Commission Rod Carr, Dairy NZ's Tim Mackle and Wellington Councillor Tamatha Paul talked emissions during a Q+A special this morning.
Tim Mackies made a stout defense of the dairying position but undermined his arguments by making some silly statements, eg
First thing is, it's not all about dairying although greenpeace like to use this highly emotive 'industrial'
There's nothing industrial about the sector, this is a bunch of families across the country pretty much…
Here is how leveraged house prices are unreasonably affecting Council rental prices. Whatever directive from government there has been, it is poor public housing that forces government public housing, central of local, to calculate rents based on market rents, or a proportion of them, rather than on historic book value, plus costs incurred. That way they would be paying their own way, not some inflated figure driven by stupid government policies based vaguely on business methods.
But a report to council last month indicated that, to keep up with market rate, senior housing rents in Marlborough needed to go up by 35 percent. This was $66 a week more for a one-bed unit, and $78 a week more for a two-bed unit.
The council has a self-imposed rule that the rent it charged for senior housing needed to be within 80 percent of the "market rate".
Pensioners said a 35 percent increase would be "impossible" to pay.
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
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Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
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With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
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Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
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The US has had a dramatic drop in covid infections and deaths, coinciding with with the mass rollout of vaccinations.
So a reasonable question is: how is the pandemic going for those yet to be vaccinated?
WashingtonPost has taken a look at that question, and the tl;dr is that for the unvaccinated, the pandemic is carrying on just as it was before the decline. The explanation may be the way vaccination and behaviours to limit disease transmission has become such a polarised issue. Those inclined to be vaccinated or not have separated into distinct social groupings, and the antis are still having their superspreader events while completely unprotected.
The evidence is clear, folks. Get your vaccination when it's offered to you. It really works. Herd immunity in the rest of society won't protect you if you're unvaccinated if your social circle includes a lot of other unvaccinated people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/covid-rates-unvaccinated-people/?itid=hp_pandemic%20test
https://www.newsweek.com/tennessee-hat-shop-blasted-selling-nazi-style-jewish-stars-proclaiming-not-vaccinated-1596081
""Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star," Greene tweeted on Tuesday. Greene has also compared face masks to the gold stars. Nazis forced Jews to wear the stars to stigmatize, humiliate, isolate and control them."
oh well…rumor has it, some of them are fuckwits. Also it was not a gold star (that one goes to families in the US that have lost people in their war adventures elsewhere). The jewish citizenry of Europe, Russia, and other places occupied by the German were forced to wear a yellow star. Seriously, US Americans are dumb, mean, petty and dumb.
James Shaw came up with an amusing anecdote on Q&A this morning:
A bottled water company in America (might be California) is producing GE free bottled water. Where else could that happen?
Don't they know that stuff is poisonous? There's a sign at the community gardens where there's been some at times considerable pilfering (I lost all my kumara one year), that gives a warning that the vegetables in the plot had been sprayed with di-hydrogen monoxide and should not be eaten until the withholding period had been safely observed!
That's funny, Mac1, 'cept, those who sole were unlikely to be deterred by the fear of sprays 🙂
Probably thought, all good, that's what we normally eat!
You’re so quick to judge.
https://www.holocaustcenter.org/visit/library-archive/holocaust-badges/
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge
with all due respect…. yeah, nah nah. But thank you much for explaining my countries history to me, what would i do with out you telling me?
And yes, i am quick to judge, as Maya Angelou once said: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." And it has served me well ever since.
Not only quick to judge but also resistant to challenge and correction with belligerent passive-aggressive behaviour to avoid having to change their minds let alone their behaviour; virtually incapable of admitting being wrong let alone apologising.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/artifact/white-armband-with-blue-star-of-david [same source as yours]
Nobody argued that it was about “[your] countries history”, which is another one of your many comprehension fails on display here on a regular basis.
Bye now – have a nice day.
if you were to have looked at the links listed you would know that the white armband with blue david star is listed as one of the variants used in Poland and pretty much every where else they wore the yellow star.
Good grief, Incognito i have no idea what upset you today, but it was not me, nor anything i said. Please find someone else to discuss the marking of the jewish citizenry by the generation of my grandfather.
[Content deleted because it contained too many links that triggered Auto-Moderation]
[link added: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_badge ]
But then you are not here calling me out on my perceived incomprehension of your attitude towards me, you are just here trying to goat someone into a cake fight, and as always, i don't have enough cake to waste.
I truly wish you a happy day.
Your other comment is held up in Spam. Cut and paste is too long, and too many links within the cut and paste.
It's impressive that someone can judge quickly and accurately while others dither, haver and nitpick, isn't it. You are right to express admiration.
Not admiration, but in absolute awe how someone can judge the IQ and undertake a character assassination of one nation in one fell swoop based on the colour of a badges worn in Europe over 75 years ago. That ain’t a mean feat, even by Trumpian standards.
Hopefully the awe you feel will grow an aspiration to explore the differences between persecution and claimed victimhood by choice. Every journey begins with a single step.
My journey is taking me in a different direction; my metaphorical shoes are well worn and not just by walking. I’m afraid I won’t live up to your aspirations.
"…and the antis are still having their superspreader events while completely unprotected."
It's almost like natural immunity and treatments don't exist in your world.
An oldie (in terms of this rapidly morphing field) but a goodie.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lasting-immunity-found-after-recovery-covid-19
“Several months ago, our studies showed that natural infection induced a strong response, and this study now shows that the responses last,” Weiskopf says. “We are hopeful that a similar pattern of responses lasting over time will also emerge for the vaccine-induced responses.”
I guess at the end of the day it comes down to choice. The vaccinated have nothing to fear. Those who have not had any of the vaccines are not a risk to the vaccinated.
From what I've read, the vaccines are safe for everyone….old, young. babies, pregnant women, immunocompromised…there's a vaccine to suit.
And all the vaccines are of course 100% safe and at least 90% effective and each new outbreak inspires a greater demand for the jab. There will be very few left unvaccinated, and these these folk pose no threat to those who are.
I'm not seeing any problem here.
Antisocial arseholes who don't get vaccinated when given the opportunity, then get diseased, are still a risk to those for whom the vaccine is ineffective.
That's largely the immunocompromised. Often due to needing medication for other conditions.
https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/04/20/immunocompromised
Then if someone with a weak immune system is unfortunate enough to get exposed to one of those diseased antisocial arseholes and gets the disease, they are at risk of a prolonged illness, which vastly increases the likelihood of them becoming the source of new mutations.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-variants-may-arise-in-people-with-compromised-immune-systems/
There is nonetheless a point to be made that a person has a right (!) to decide whether they want to be vaccinated. It seems to me that this pandemic has not just wracked havoc with the health and economies but also with the understanding that people are free to decide. Emphasis on FREE. Unless we are now in a dictatorship by stealth?
I personally will get vaccinated once its offered. But only because I want to see my family again. Otherwise I wouldn't as I feel that the speed in which the vaccine was introduced leaves my sense of proper process very much at unease. And I am not the only one.
the speed in which the vaccine was introduced leaves my sense of proper process very much at unease.
Any rational person with even a minimum of understanding how these products are developed will have cause for concern.
The latest drive to use these experimental mRNA vaccines on children (using the 'you don't want to kill grandma') inducement is, in my opinion, criminal.
I can find no study which proves children are at risk from Covid 19 or are a risk to others.
That’s unsurprising, but dead children are all the proof I need.
Every cell on the planet is either chocka-block with mRNA, or dead.
The dawn of mRNA vaccines: The COVID-19 case [JCR, May 2021]
In less than one year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two mRNA-based vaccines, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, were granted the first historic authorization for emergency use, while another mRNA vaccine, CVnCoV, progressed to phase 3 clinical testing. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines represent a new class of vaccine products, which consist of synthetic mRNA strands encoding the SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein, packaged in lipid nanoparticles to deliver mRNA to cells. This review digs deeper into the scientific breakthroughs of the last decades that laid the foundations for the rapid rise of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as providing momentum for mRNA vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 represents an ideal case study allowing to compare design-activity differences between the different mRNA vaccine candidates. Therefore, a detailed overview of the composition and (pre)clinical performance of the three most advanced mRNA vaccines is provided and the influence of choices in their structural design on to their immunogenicity and reactogenicity profile is discussed in depth. In addition to the new fundamental insights in the mRNA vaccines' mode of action highlighted here, we also point out which unknowns remain that require further investigation and possibly, optimization in future mRNA vaccine development.
It's important to understand how the speed of development and approval was achieved. There weren't safety corners cut, that it happened a lot quicker than normal is more a reflection of how much drawn-out dawdling there is in the normal process, together with how tragically prevalent the disease become during the trials.
This meant the necessary data came in very quickly. Most new vaccines are for very rare diseases, so it normally takes a long long time for enough trial participants to actually be exposed to the disease to gather meaningful data.
The apparently compressed timeframe was achieved by companies taking financial risks by gearing up for the next stage while trials were still underway, rather than the usual process of waiting for results to come in before even thinking about the next stage. Regulatory and approval bodies also sped things up by immediately acting as soon as data was available, rather than their usual process of maybe considering things at their convenience months or even years after data becomes available.
This piece discusses the timeframe issue in more detail:
https://theconversation.com/less-than-a-year-to-develop-a-covid-vaccine-heres-why-you-shouldnt-be-alarmed-150414
It's important to understand that there are absolutely no long term studies on these vaccines and there is absolutely no data to support a declaration that there will be no long term adverse effects from these vaccines.
So why, pray tell Andre, are they pushing these experimental vaccines on to children who are not at risk from Covid and pose minimal risk to others?
Children should get vaccinated because there are people at risk from infected children. It's only in your fantasies that children do not pose a risk to vulnerable individuals, and that children are not at personal risk.
The personal risk to children is lower, but the risk of death and long covid appears to be high enough that just the risk to children alone would justify a robust response to this emergent disease.
Just one of the many results from searching for long covid in children.
edit: and when it comes to general covid in children, there’s a plethora of articles like this:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-in-babies-and-children/art-20484405
But Andre. Those people who are, according to you, at risk from being infected with Covid 19 by a child will be a non-child. An adult. Who may or may not have chosen to be vaccinated. Who will either not be at risk at all, or have chosen to live with the risk. Such risk that exists'
The good news is that evidence suggests children don't easily pass covid-19 to each other in the classroom. In one study, a 9-year-old in France with flu and covid-19 was found to have exposed more than 80 other children at three different schools. However, no one became infected with covid-19 as a result, despite numerous flu infections within the schools, suggesting that although the environment was conducive to transmitting respiratory viruses, covid-19 wasn't passed on as easily.
More recently, a study of children between 5 months and 4 years old in nurseries in France has shown low levels of infection and transmission of covid-19. The study also shows that staff weren't at greater risk of infection than a control group of adults. The results suggest that children are more likely to get covid-19 from family members than from their peers or teachers at nursery, although more evidence is needed, say the study's authors, because the study happened when strict measures were in place to control the virus, and before fast-spreading variants appeared.
That quote is from the study you cited, that also shows that children suffering from 'long Covid' are very much in the minority.
If I have the time later I will try and find a study that proves that the risks to children from Covid outweighs the long term risks from an experimental vaccine.
There are no studies of the long term health effects of covid vaccines because such studies will take a long time.
There are also no studies of the long term health effects of chilhood covid infection because such studies will take a long time.
It seems to me that some countries are vaccinating children because they will otherwise not reach covid herd immunity due to too many adults refusing the vaccine.
That is exactly what the US is doing atm.
Also states are now rescinding mask mandates and are in the process of re-opening schools, no masks, no social distancing etc.
There are no long term studies of Covid either.
Well, we do know there are lots of people still suffering significant disability from covid fourteen months or more after they first got infected. My nephew is one of them.
Death is also fairly long term as an effect.
Quite, and I will rank those observable effects over unquantifiable future fears any day.
Here's an interesting read on those getting covid after vaccination, and giving the vaccine to those that have already had covid:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/will-people-who-get-covid-post-vaccination-have-long-term-symptoms_l_60afda9be4b0ead279660672
However, we have about a year head start on our knowledge of covid compared with the new vaccines.
The flip side to rights and freedoms include responsibilities and accountabilities.
So while I agree that anyone should be free to not get vaccinated, there should be a corresponding responsibility to minimise the risk of infecting others. So not having unvaccinated people in public facing jobs or other jobs where there is increased risk an infected individual may cause to others seems a reasonable precaution.
It seems to me that a reasonable accountability for those that refuse vaccination (without good medical reason) is they should be fully responsible for their own medical costs of treating that vaccine-preventable disease, should they get it, as well as the treatment costs and other losses suffered by anyone they pass it on to.
Rights also do not exist in isolation – they are balanced against others. Freedom from avoidable infection or death seems like a pretty significant one.
Maybe we could re-open some quarantine islands for those who believe their freedom to refuse is more important. They can imperil one another as much as they like.
Heh – Waiheke comes to mind. They might be going to end up that way completely voluntarily.
I'd suggest Whakaari,/White Island.
Decent distance from the main land.
Nice and hot
Pretty damned sterile
No, no, Andre…it's all good to give the vaccine to immunocompromised people…
From the experts…
People with HIV infection or other immunocompromising conditions or people who take immunosuppressive medications or therapies might be at increased risk for severe COVID-19. No data are available to establish COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy in these groups. However, the currently FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines are not live vaccines and therefore can be safely administered to immunocompromised people. People with stable HIV infection were included in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, though data remain limited.
Immunocompromised people can receive COVID-19 vaccination.
So at the end of the day it is going to come down to availability and choice.
The happily vaccinated are not at risk from the unvaccinated.
So what is your problem?
Immunocompromised people can safely get the vaccine. It's just of low likelihood of doing them any good. Because they are immunocompromised – ie their immune systems are weak to non-functional, so they don’t have an effective immune system that can be trained to identify and neutralise the invading virus.
So they are still at risk from diseased antisocial arseholes.
They seem to have that issue sorted…
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/coronavirus-vaccine-immunosuppressive-medications/#x
They are giving them an extra dose.
Again, it comes down to availability and choice.
The vaccinated are not at risk.
Another interesting topic for discussion might be how it has come to be that it is acceptable to level hate speech at those exercising their right to bodily autonomy and medical choice?
In the absence of any real risk to those making a different choice.
On the topic of hate speech, you're the one here advocating for something that is likely to lead to identifiable specific harm to identifiable specific vulnerable individuals, while expecting to be free from accountability or consequences.
Where have I advocated for something that is likely to lead to identifiable specific harm to identifiable specific vulnerable individuals, while expecting to be free from accountability or consequences.
We are having a discussion. Debating the pros and cons of the necessity of vaccinating children with an experimental vaccine that has not been proven to have no long term adverse effects.
When the risk to and from those children from Covid 19 is extremely minimal.
Discussing a thing, and presenting evidence, does not constitute "advocating".
Oh good, all sorted, nothing to worry about then, if you say so. Although people who actually know about this stuff might not quite see it this way, at least not yet: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/92439
Of course, if you say so. Vaccines offer full protection to all known and future variants, don’t they, so there’s nothing to worry about? Some of these variants might arise in immunocompromised patients, as Andre has already pointed out. Some variants might arise as we speak in other countries.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/05/coronavirus-vietnam-detects-new-hybrid-of-indian-covid-19-variant-and-uk-mutation.html
If you say so.
Correction, Incognito.
It is not I making these claims.
It is the the FDA, the CDC and various researchers and health professionals making these claims.
And you make a good point about the variants, but I don't understand how immunocompromised people (if they choose to be vaccinated) are at any greater risk from variants than any other vaccinated person, providing of course the vaccine is effective for that variant. If the vaccine is effective for those variants then fully vaccinated people have nothing to fear from unvaccinated persons. If the vaccines are not effective against a variant then a person's vaccination status is not a risk factor for those vulnerable persons.
As has been said…this is a 'tricky' virus… and it's apparent ability to rapidly form viable mutations means that vaccines are not going to be the magic bullet some are understandably desperate for.
All the more reason to put greater effort into learning about the origins of this best. Know your enemy and all that.
I understood that the Covid vaccines on offer reduce the chance of death or serious injury, but they do not prevent a person becoming very sick. Some of us are better placed to tolerate that risk than others.
Immuno-compromised people are at a greater risk because they are immuno-compromised.
Thanks Rosemary for your mahi on this topic.
Well done on not rising to the manky bait bobbing around in the thread, My reckons have the animosity towards those that are wary is going to start ramping up.
If you read the first link in my comment, you’ll know that immune-compromised people generate a weaker or even no response at all to Covid vaccination. You’d also know that a third dose is being studied and under review, so no ‘expert’ worth their salt can make any claims yet.
Immuno-compromised people are always more vulnerable to infections.
Immuno-compromised with long (chronic) infections could be a source of new variants, as has been suggested previously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineage_B.1.1.7 [AKA UK variant]
If this is correct, then even vaccinated immuno-efficient people may be at risk if the vaccine is less or not active at all against any new variant that may evolve in time in immuno-compromised patients.
It will be very interesting to find out about Ground or Patient Zero but it has little bearing on national and global vaccination and elimination strategies.
HTH
Be interested to hear what you think are the natural immunity for humans that currently exist. I assume that you refer to those who have previously had the virus and have recovered. Even so persons who have recovered can still be reinfected and transmit the virus.
As for natural treatments, do you have any studies supporting their efficaciousness?
.
Wouldn't it have been nice if those at greatest risk of serious illness / dying from any Covid outbreak (aged 80+ with comorbidities) had all been vaccinated by now (as opposed to just a relatively small minority). Maybe, just maybe the high-risk elderly should've been in Group 2 (as in other Anglosphere Countries) rather than back in 3 ?
There are lots of things the would have been nice to have been different.
One of the things that actually is nice about New Zealand's response to covid is that we now don't have community transmission, unlike just about everywhere else in the world.
So in New Zealand, those at highest risk of serious disease/dying (aged 80+ with cormorbidities) would be at the end of a chain of transmission starting at one of our various borders (air, sea, freight etc).
So I'm quite happy that the strategy is to try to break the potential chain of transmission at the earliest possible links, so those at highest risk didn't get exposed. After all, the elderly with comorbidities are also likely to have less robust immune responses, so the better protection for them is to not be exposed. Put another way, I'm quite happy my 80+ parents with comorbidities got their vax (first one 8 days ago) well after their port-working neighbour in his forties and their late 30s granddaughter that is a doctor at the local hospital.
IIRC, there were three published strategies for different levels of community transmission for the vaccine rollout – we're in the awesome position of using the one with no community transmission. The other two scenarios, limited community transmission and widespread community transmission, would both have put 80+ with comorbidities into a higher priority slot.
.
You're sounding very complacent given the recent emergence of dangerous new variants & the associated surge in Asia-Pacific Countries previously praised for their apparently successful elimination strategies …
… great to hear your 80+ parents have had their first jab … but most in that age group haven't … my 90 year old parents (one with high-risk health conditions) for instance continue to wait patiently with no sign on the horizon.
Who would have thought? She'll be right?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125180968/ministry-of-health-abandoned-cybersecurity-system-for-waikato-and-other-dhbs-due-to-budget-issues
Well i guess the guys who get their medical help from the Waikato DHB are shit outta luck, prevention of these hacks are hard work, even harder when no one who is tasked and paid to do something is actually doing something. But i rest peacefull in the knowledge that should either Kris Faafoi or David Clark need any medical help they will get it asap, thus all is good.
David Clark is now in charge? Are you joking.
The former Minister of Health who is on record knowingly lying about this very same DHB, who hid under his bed in Dunedin (when he wasn't out breaching lockdown rules) during the worst of the pandemic, who… too many screw ups to record.
He possibly could manage the parliamentary broom cupboard, but thats about his limit. Unbelievable.
Wow so from Faafoi to Clark who's done nada. That's an arc of competence we can all take comfort in at least it wasn't Nash.
David Clark would be lucky to get a job in middle management in the real world. His CV does not make for good reading.
Was Clark was Minister of Health until July last year? Over the period all of the approaches to the handling of Covid were formulated, established and got under way?
Our handling of covid was a massive screw up I suppose. Is that what history says? Oh well, put it down to Clark 'hiding under his bed' in Dunedin.
It came very very close to being a massive screwup. Geography, small and largerly well dispersed population, luck and yes, Arderns firm decision to lockdown are the reason we missed a bullet.
Do you really think Clark showed a sliver of leadership, hiding under his bed in Dunedin and repeatedly breaking lockdown? Do you not think his place, and his job, required him to be in Wellington? Do you think the repeated lies he told about the Waikato DHB were a good thing?
The policies and processes you point to were in no shape or form down to Clark. These were developed and refined and gamed over time by professionals. Clarks role was that of a manager and leader. He has failed continually as both.
Why do you think Clark was dumped in July as MOH?
@ Peter ChCh. What a ridiculous statement to make, Clark never hid under his bed. All ministers, including Clark, were told to work from home, which they all did, he was part of NZ's successful Covid19 strategy and I would describe his resignation as Minister of Health as a circuit breaker.
Dr Bloomfield would disagree with your belittling assessment that it was all down to luck, geography and small population, because it wasn't.
I seriously doubt your claim that the Waikato DHB board were sacked due to "repeated lies" from the minister, after all, it had been warned previously over its poor governance and finances.
Louis. I never claimed thats why they were sacked. They were sacked because of incompetence, corruption and other performance based reasons.
I said Clark repeatedly lied to the media before finally coming clean and apologising for his lies. Please re read what I said.
@Peter ChCh I did read what you wrote.
Quote: "Do you think the repeated lies he told about the Waikato DHB were a good thing?"
You gave the perception that he lied in order to sack to DHB board, which is not true.
"Clark repeatedly lied to the media before finally coming clean and apologising for his lies"
Link?
Louis. Thats your perception, not what I wrote and certainty not my intent.
That's the problem with text communication, very easy for both sides to miscommunicate or misunderstand.
I am very well aware why that DHB was sacked, and for the reasons I stated. That was not Clarks doing.
You should still provide a link about all those lies by Clark to the media, thanks.
You were pretty clear Peter ChCh "Do you think the repeated lies he told about the Waikato DHB were a good thing"
Clark wouldn't lie…he is a religious minister/a man of God…a christian…
Phillip, that means he most probably cannot lie straight in bed!
But seriously, he comes across like a possum trapped in the headlights. Probably a decent guy, just out of his depth.
That's hypocritical of you Peter ChCh.
Well said Pete.
Why is anyone surprised? There are no photo-ops when you do useful things like putting in decent cyber-security systems. It isn't nearly as useful as blowing $50+ million on horse and pony shows like the fiasco that was the Pike River Recovery project. That was the one where the PM, back before the 2017 election promised that the boys would be recovered and that money was no object?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/we-have-obligation-families-new-cross-party-pike-river-mine-agency-would-bring-bodies-end-2018
Cyber security? Nah.
I am not surprised, but still pissed of at the nonchalance with which these guys admit that in fact they had done nothing, and will do nothing until at least 2022 – well hire some to 'start the report' or such – after all some monies will be spend on IT this year as per Minister of health Andrew Little.
The only ones paying for the inaction of government are those needing the services of that DHB, the staff working there cause they don't et paid – that darn IT system – and never mind the covid vaccination roll out for the area as that too is supposedly done by he DHBs.
It's either incompetence, lazyness, or malice.
I think you’re misrepresenting things; there was never a promise of an unlimited budget (AKA blank cheque) and nobody would have expected that. IIRC, the total budget was $51 million, once Labour got into Government with NZF.
As you know, the Pike River Recovery Agency was set up by the new Government within MBIE, not MOH, as you seem to erroneously insinuate in your comment. You know how Government Budgets work, so please lift your game and stop making misleading comments here, thanks.
I gave you a link for my statement. Did you see in the bit that says.
""Returning your men and your boys is as much about a personal perspective as it is about anything else."
No projections for a monetary cost have yet been created and it was yet to be decided which budget the agency would come from.
Ms Ardern said that "money shouldn't be an issue".
"There's no reason why the work can't start immediately," she said."
That sounds pretty unlimited to me. And no, I don't accept that I have in any way implied that it was to be run by the Health Department. It was of course going to be part of Government expenditure and it is money the Government chose to spend in exactly the way the Government chose not to spend it on cyber-security.
So, you’re pretending that you’re naive and ignorant about Government budget allocations and Budgets? How cute, but I don’t believe you; no budget ever is unlimited or open-ended and you know this – you have previously claimed knowing “a great deal better” than the PM and the Minister of Finance (here it is: https://thestandard.org.nz/bluffgeld/#comment-1774689), which sounded like a load of pretentious hot air but you can’t have it both ways.
Anyway, money to start is not money to complete.
Well, in that case, your comment about the Pike River Recovery project was utterly irrelevant to the topic of the thread and a diversion. But then again, you were in good company with other divisive and divertive commenters here 🙁
Firstly. The Government did decide to finance the Pike River Recovery Project.
Secondly. They chose not to finance cyber-security for the DHBs.
One can only conclude that they wanted the first project more than they wanted the second. The budget allocation pot for each of them is quite irrelevant. The ranking of things they wanted to do stands and that confirms my conclusion.
If you want to argue that the various budget allocations for Departments were set and couldn't be altered in 2019 you will still have to explain why the project couldn't have been done in 2020.
You will also have to explain why, if additional money cannot be put into the budget for a Department at a time after the Budget cycle they managed to find a huge sum for the Covid 19 activities in early 2020 when the money had not been foreshadowed in the previous Budget round.
Sorry but they clearly chose one thing and did not choose another. The only thing I will agree that I am the one bringing it up without proof, in the form of a statement from one of the Politicians involved, that one had photo-op possibilities and the other didn't. It remains my opinion of course but I'll admit I don't have a smoking gun.
Indeed, Government set its Budget based on priorities. Whether they under-funded or not funded at all the centralising of cyber security is a moot point, as it is still up to each DHB to ensure its system is safe and fit for purpose. If it had gone ahead, not all DHBs may have taken it up, anyway. That’s your first red herring.
Your second red herring is to suggest that there is a direct connection between funding the Pike River Recovery Agency and not funding or underfunding centralised cyber security in the public health sector. There is no such link; they are funded from completely different pots of money (AKA Ministerial down to Departmental budgets, etc.). You just picked one of your favourite pet projects to take a swipe at your favourite targets, as usual.
Your third red herring is suggesting that Government found “a huge sum for the Covid 19 activities in early 2020 when the money had not been foreshadowed in the previous Budget round”. They did not “find” it anywhere, as you know. As if they were meant to also miraculously ‘find’ some money for cyber security!? Yeah, right. You know that Government does not run its books like that, so stop spreading disinformation.
You still have to explain why you are trolling here, particularly why you should get away with it.
Alwyn given Nationals history on underfunding health and IT stuff ups INCIS healthcare IT failures makes Labour look good.National kept funding for health at the 2008 levels over 9 years funding for 4.5 million NZers while the population increased by 500,000.The cash sums were made to look good but the percentages never increased.National gave the savings in tax cuts to buy votes just before elections.
Rubbish. Why don't you tell us what the health budget as in 2009 and then each year after that. Your claim that it never increased is a risible comment.
Alwyn, the previous National government underfunded health by $2.3 billion dollars
“So that gives you an idea of how short it is and therefore why we are seeing patients put up in motel beds..”
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/system-so-overstretched-andrew-little-says-health-underfunded-2-3-billion
No. "Andrew Little says that National etc"
What Andrew says and reality seldom have much in common. I haven't looked at this study but I did look at one by, I think, the CTU Economist a few years ago. What they did, and what I think this study did, was to very carefully pick the starting year. You will note that National was in office for 9 years but this study purports to compare the numbers with 7 years ago. It doesn't look at the numbers from the end of the Clark Labour Government and compare them with the ones at the end of the National Government. That would be fair.
When they talk about 7 years they are taking as their base year the first year attributable to National. That was the 2009-2010 year. The 2008-2009 year was the last year of a Labour Budget.
Now what actually happened in 2009-2010 was a massive, far above inflation, one off, injection into the Health system. Then they didn't have further one offs, but basically kept up with inflation. This study is cheating by their choice of there starting year. Try doing it again by looking at end of Labour and end of National and you get a quite different result.
I'm not going to try and track down this study. It will have ended up in the rubbish bin by now I would think. At the time of the CTU equivalent I commented in some detail about the fiddle. It was on this site I believe. It was a fraud but not that many people bother to check out the claims made. The simply take the view, as you seem to have done, that Andrew Little says it so it must be true.
So Alwyn, basically that's just your opinion and you cant actually back yourself up.
$2.3 billion shortfall in health
"The funding needed for health to be restored to the level it was seven years ago to keep pace with cost pressures has widened to a massive $2.3 billion"
“The updated study by economic consultants Infometrics… used Treasury’s own modelling for calculating real health costs for core crown health expenditure"
"It’s not just Labour saying this:
Gosh, he's found a post on the Standard that repeats Little's waffle.
And adds David Clark and a number of Union Reps.
Are you surprised that The Standard didn't approve of the National Government? Doesn't mean they were right though.
You're in denial of the facts Alwyn, Infometrics used the government's own figures, which showed a $2.3 billion shortfall in health.
Why don't you take a look at how Infometrics calculate the result. Then you should ask yourself the simple question. What are they comparing their calculation to? The only rational answer is compared to what Labour might have done. Since Labour weren't the Government you will have to try and decide how an estimate for that can be determined. A possible answer is to take the last year of the Labour Government and increase it each year in the way they historically did. Or by the factor they did use in the paper, which is a possible interpretation of that.
You have to start however by what Labour actually were doing, not by what National was already doing during their term.
I wrote quite a lot about this in this blog. After you have read the Infometrics stuff, assuming that you can find it, and have understood their methodology try working out a proxy for what Labour might have done, and compare it with what National actually did do during their entire term. Their entire term.
You'll find that the total National did spend was greater than what Labour might have spent using their preferred inflation factor for Health expenditure.
That's a load of waffle and it's not my job to find your past comments on this website, that's your'e job.
Facts prove otherwise to your opinion, Alwyn.
I am really not going to waste my time repeating the facts about a subject over and over again to people who haven't bothered to read the comments the first time around.
It is like the rubbish people post that the banks can simply help themselves to the money in your account if they make bad deals and that you, the customer, lose your money while the shareholders in the bank lose nothing at all. I explained the fallacy in their statements on a number of occasions on this blog. I then decided that I had wasted enough time on fools.
That is what you are. You are a fool who believes a fallacious claim that one of your heroes chooses to blather on about. I have told people in the past what was wrong with the story. I really don't see why I should waste my time explaining it again to someone who is too lazy to read the first explanation.
What the facts prove is that you are a lazy idiot.
The facts prove you wrong alwyn, but there you go waffling again, with nothing to substantiate your opinion.
Well I think the drought may have ended
More bloody pluvial di-hydrogen monoxide. Dangerous stuff. Hope it's GE Free! See1.1.1 above.
However….
https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastic-rain-western-us/#:~:text=The%20discovery%20of%20the%20microplastics,fragments%20less%20than%205%20mm%20(.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhbjrPrBGe4
Joan Baez knew something. "And what have they done to the rain?" She sings later in the song, "Just a a little breeze, with some smoke in its eye".
The prophecy of song.
Last week, weka published a post on the Longwood Loop and our efforts to raise funds to buy an electric van that will travel the circuit from small town to little village in Southland, moving locally-produced fruit, vegetables, cheese, honey and whatever else locals produce, to other locals, waiting expectantly at the various "trading posts' along the loop.
We're thinking of, and pitching this as "a pilot for social and economic rejuvination and reslience in rural NZ", which is exactly what it is. With $47,400 raised already we are close to our target of $51 000 – we need just $3 600 more and have 36 hours left in our PledgeMe campaign to reach that target.
Could you, would you (I won't say, "you should 🙂 please give a little and share this message ( there are some great rewards: Wild South honey, Southern NZ scenic calendar, produce hamper, forest-garden tours (these are very ably narrated 🙂 meals and accomodation and more.
http://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/6879
Unbelievable lack of support from EECA there.
Happy to support the effort there.
Thanks, Ad!
I will repost tomorrow 👍
Lovely, thanks, weka!
All set to go. I used your comment above, hope that's ok.
Yes please!
But the kids will be okay..
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1398757529430208522
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1398757529430208522.html
https://twitter.com/ProfColinDavis/status/1396783107676778498
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1396783107676778498.html
This interview* might interest those with a garden and a desire to interact with it more closely.
*advance warning – the interviewee is me 🙂
https://accessmedia.nz/ProgrammePage.aspx
https://accessmedia.nz/ProgrammePage.aspx?PID=61150e34-18c8-4a26-b53c-4b177e362b44
MP3
[direct link added]
Just a heads-up for you robert…
I understand a beard-intervention is being planned for you..
There are fears amongst your friends that you might completely disappear…behind that untrammelled growth…
Been practicing aikido for years in anticipation…
Heh..!
What is the interview title Robert?
The link gets me to the access media home page.
oh boy, the virus that just keeps on giving.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-vietnam-finds-new-variant-hybrid-of-india-uk-strains/CN5JRNYNIOITLZYNHK4TDYHZSQ/
My first question on this news was how is vaccination going in Vietnam? The short answer is it's barely even started – ourworldindata has them at just 1% of the population having received at least one dose.
Hopefully we'll make through to most of our population getting vaccinated before the next significant border breach.
As per the article is 1 million with astra zeneca, and still waiting on more doses to be delivered by the third/fourth quater?
Yes, that is what i hope, that we get enough of at least the compromised groups vaccinated and those that work the border and plague hotels.
A frequent concern about the new mRNA vaccines is about their long-term safety – obviously a completely new technology does not and cannot have a long-term record so how can anyone know?
My own biochemistry expertise is negligible, but I have several family members and friends that are academics that need a deep understanding of cell biochemistry for their jobs.
Their opinions are unanimous: there is zero reason to believe the mRNA vaccines might have long-term effects beyond training the immune system to recognise the pathogen and deal to it. The mRNA simply causes a cell to make copies of the spike protein and show it to the immune system, then the mRNA breaks down and is dealt with by normal cell biochemistry processes just like all the myriad other RNA mediated processes going on all the time in cells. The immune system does its garbage cleanup on the cells exhibiting the spike protein just like it does the myriad other garbage cleanup operations going on all the time. For anything long term to come out of these completely routine processes (besides immunity) would go against well established understanding of how biochemistry works.
Then there's the fact that the first trials with mRNA vaccines started roughly a decade ago, and the first covid vaccine trials started roughly a year ago, and widespread administrations started roughly six months ago. In the context of vaccine side effects, that's starting to be "long-term". Even with the very intense monitoring happening, there is no signal of any kind of side-effects beyond the usual few weeks or at worst months timeframe that vaccine side effects almost always appear in.
For more reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7956899/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/COVID-19/Pages/The-Science-Behind-the-COVID-19-Vaccine-Parent-FAQs.aspx
ahh, when comments fall under pre – moderation. 🙂 It must be a rainy day sunday.
Or maybe lots of links?
i try to delink but sure that can be it.
Wikipedia quotes are especially bad. It can take ages to hunt down all the links in those and kill them.
Easily fixed: paste as Text Only
Hey, howboutdat? Ctrl Shift V actually works. Next all I need is a browser where I can just hit that ‘clipboard with a T’ button.
Why make life hard when it can be dead-easy with the lovely Text Editor provided at no charge by Lprent & Co 😉
The text editor actually told me "no". But was helpful enough to tell me to try the Ctrl Shift V.
I don’t actually use the front-end text editor but good to hear that it is working well.
Sure, what else can it be except an overly long piece of text with way too many links? It has already been explained to you today @ 2:40 pm and @ 3:50 pm, but here’s the reason why it triggers Auto-Moderation: https://thestandard.org.nz/faq/comment-formatting/#linking.
Dinner is smelling good!
Your comment triggered Auto-Moderation because it contained too many links; it is pending. This has been around here on TS for as long as I can remember. This is entirely independent from Moderator action. In fact, a Moderator has to deal with it, review it, and release it as is or with edits, or Trash it. This takes time and depends on Moderator availability – Moderators are not at the beck and call of belligerent commenters who cannot or don’t want to follow the rules here.
Your comment is therefore utterly misguided, but this is not unexpected from you. In fact, your comment sounded like an accusation to me and I hope this was not your intention; you may want to be clearer to avoid such interpretation.
This is going to be interesting, hopefully in a good way.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/lapid-i-dont-know-if-well-form-a-government-or-not-before-mandate-expires-669478
I doubt there will be anything good to come from swapping one murderous right-winger for another.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-rap-bennett-over-alleged-kill-arabs-remarks/
"More than half of global GDP relies on high-functioning biodiversity but about a fifth of countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing due to the destruction of the natural world, according to an analysis by the insurance firm Swiss Re last year. Australia, Israel and South Africa were among the most threatened."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/27/nature-financial-value-investing-global-gdp-avoid-breakdown-ecosystems-un-report-aoe
If anyone knows about (financial) risk it's Swiss Re
https://twitter.com/nchefz/status/1398900901486735361
Panel of Mike Smith of the Iwi Chairs Forum, Climate Change Commission Rod Carr, Dairy NZ's Tim Mackle and Wellington Councillor Tamatha Paul talked emissions during a Q+A special this morning.
Tim Mackies made a stout defense of the dairying position but undermined his arguments by making some silly statements, eg
(sound of members of the panel scoffing)
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/clips/we-can-have-our-cake-and-eat-it-dairynz-says-climate-change-solutions-can-be-found
(15min 20 secs into that clip)
Here is how leveraged house prices are unreasonably affecting Council rental prices. Whatever directive from government there has been, it is poor public housing that forces government public housing, central of local, to calculate rents based on market rents, or a proportion of them, rather than on historic book value, plus costs incurred. That way they would be paying their own way, not some inflated figure driven by stupid government policies based vaguely on business methods.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/443677/elderly-council-tenants-hardships-laid-bare-at-meeting-to-discuss-rent-rises
But a report to council last month indicated that, to keep up with market rate, senior housing rents in Marlborough needed to go up by 35 percent. This was $66 a week more for a one-bed unit, and $78 a week more for a two-bed unit.
The council has a self-imposed rule that the rent it charged for senior housing needed to be within 80 percent of the "market rate".
Pensioners said a 35 percent increase would be "impossible" to pay.