What should we call the Vaccination bus?

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, September 15th, 2021 - 82 comments
Categories: covid-19, health, humour, jacinda ardern, Judith Collins - Tags:

The Prime Minister has sparked another national debate.  What should we call the new mobile vaccination vehicles that will be rolled out over the next week or so.

From yesterday’s press conference:

Now, there has been much talk of a Mr Whippy – style mobile vaccination bus or portable vaccinations. I’m pleased to confirm that the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre will launch its first buses this Thursday. The initial plan is to take them into areas where we know vaccination numbers have been low or people have not been able to access vaccination services as easily. The aim is to increase the network from its expected six on Thursday to 12 over the coming week. A huge thanks to Auckland Airport and Bus Travel New Zealand, who have supplied buses for this work. I know in Australia they’ve started operating something similar, and have named their mobile outreach clinics “Jabba the Bus”. I’m sure that we can do better

Early favourites include “Jabberwaka” and “Shot Bro”. Other options will no doubt surge and ebb.

Judith Collins has shown she cannot buy a trick right now by claiming that she proposed the mobile vaccination clinics last week.  Newshub has been unable to substantiate this.  National has been approached for clarification.

The vaccination programme continues to surge.  Currently 69% of the eligible population have had at least one shot.  There is still plenty of reserve in the system and in the next couple of weeks we could hit 80%.

Anyway what should we call the new vehicles?  A chocolate fish for the funniest contribution.

82 comments on “What should we call the Vaccination bus? ”

  1. JPWood 1

    Covid the Busbarian

  2. Macro 2

    Not original but heard this suggestion yesterday "Mr Pricky"

  3. mac1 3

    "All Vaxxed" with a slogan "Get two in for the team.

    In Ireland, it would be known as “Bejabbers”!

  4. Gezza 4

    The Jabmobile.

  5. MindPilot 5

    Lockdown Loosener

  6. Enough is Enough 6

    The better late than never express

  7. Tricledrown 7

    The covid crusher

  8. Agenda 21 bill gates microchip sterilisation 5G alien brain injection facility

  9. bwaghorn 9

    I like shot bro ,its kiwi as mate.

  10. weka 10

    Maybe it's just me, but the word jab isn't the most encouraging word for engagement for people that are hesitant.

    • Anne 10.1

      Agreed. And much as I like it, I don't think Macro's Mr Pricky is any better. 🙂

      • weka 10.1.1

        lol, same.

      • weka 10.1.2

        and the size of the syringe in the meme, it's like people haven't really thought this through strategically.

        • Anne 10.1.2.1

          Tell you what: if I saw a Vax Bus with a giant syringe on the roof I'd run a mile.

        • Gezza 10.1.2.2

          Re size of the syringe in the meme … True.

          They stick that Covax needle a long way in, from looking at others getting their vaccination shots on telly, but it’s such a fine needle it’s completely painless. I never felt it. Not like getting a blood sample taken.

          Not even like my annual flu jab – where the nurses always say “sharp scratch”.

          Not looking is the way to go.

        • Andre 10.1.2.3

          Weird-looking microchips in that syringe, too.

  11. Reality 11

    Read somewhere "the vacci taxi"

  12. weka 12

    Immunibus.

  13. Ad 13

    Free Icecream

  14. dv 14

    Life extender

  15. Anne 15

    That vax bus is so scary, the creator deserves the chocolate fish. 😮

  16. Covid Eliminator

    Zombie Apocalypse Prevention System

    Plague Bus

    Reality Injection

    Free Beer!! (a bit of misleading advertising but who cares)

  17. Tricledrown 17

    The Vanacintor

  18. Nic the NZer 18

    Personal wifi hotspot?

  19. Jenny how to get there 19

    Magic Bus

    I wanna it, I wanna it.

    • Gezza 19.1

      Works for me ! 🎸

      Comes with it’s own mighty jingle.

      That takes me back. Been a while since I last listened to Live At Leeds.

      • mac1 19.1.1

        Went on Youtube to find Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done" inspired by the tunes cited here. The compulsory advert was advertising getting vaccinations in NZ. Classic.

  20. Pete 21

    The Point.

    Accompanying music and colours and storyline via Harry Nillson:

    "The Point! is a fable that tells the story of a boy named Oblio, the only round-headed person in the Pointed Village, where by law everyone and everything must have a point Nilsson explained his inspiration for The Point!: "I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, 'Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's no point to it.'"

  21. Sabine 22

    Maybe ask Maori, they have been doing it for a while now it seems.

    It has set up drive-through centres, and teams are loading up vans and heading out to communities and low-income suburbs with what chief executive Geoff Milner calls a no-barriers approach: no groups, no age restrictions, no sign-ups.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/450365/maori-health-providers-push-for-accelerated-vaccination

    • roblogic 22.1

      Good point. Should be something that connects with the target communities. Not something to amuse middle class Pakeha.

      • AB 22.1.1

        "Jabber waka" was mentioned on RNZ this morning.

        • Gezza 22.1.1.1

          That one could be a winner.

        • Forget now 22.1.1.2

          Kāore ki "jabber waka". In Te Reo Māori that would be; Waka Jabber, which loses the pun to Victorian English poetry, which may not be that helpful anyway (especially with allegations of Dodgson being pretty dodge; son).

          "Waka Pekepeke" or; quick vehicle, would be preferable to my ears. It has a nice assonance and avoids any mention of needles. My first thought was to emphasize the convenience aspect, but "Waka Haratau" doesn't have the same flow, and quick is close enough. Pekepeke can also mean; mountain daisy, which might be good calming imagery to associate with the service.

          He waka i te tuku rongoā āraimate (vaccination vehicle) might be more accurate, but hardly rolls off the tongue.

          • Pete 22.1.1.2.1

            "Jabber waka" is getting very close to Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

            ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
            Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
            All mimsy were the borogoves,
            And the mome raths outgrabe.

            “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
            The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
            Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
            The frumious Bandersnatch!”

            … etc.

            https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/jabberwocky/

            • Andre 22.1.1.2.1.1

              Indeed.

            • Forget now 22.1.1.2.1.2

              Lewis Carroll was a pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's. His obsession with the pre-pubescent muse for his best known works seems rather creepy to modern eyes (and even to some at the time):

              To be a Victorian photographer, says Douglas-Fairhurst, required “the knowledge of a chemist, the eye of an artist, and the patience of a saint”. The craft suited Dodgson, and the art inspired Carroll. He could prolong his fascination with childhood by photographing little girls, ideally in the nude. “A girl of about 12,” he wrote towards the end of his life, “is my ideal beauty of form.” In words of pre-Freudian innocence, he could never see “why the lovely forms of girls should ever be covered up”…

              Carroll, asked if children ever bored him, replied simply: “They are three-fourths of my life.” Pretty eight-year-old Alice, especially, captivated the young man.

              https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/22/the-story-of-alice-robert-douglas-fairhurst-lewis-carroll-alice-liddell

  22. Gezza 23

    Collins gets an uncharacteristic easy ride interview on RNZ this morning – & although, among other comments, airily still insisting that Wiles (as opposed to her friend) was somehow in the wrong, & while still flogging the long-dead dead horse that big fat hypocrite is everyday discourse in NZ – manages I think not to significantly disgrace herself any further.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018812388/judith-collins-standing-by-siouxsie-wiles-comments

    “Crush The Covid” is her favourite name suggestion for the vaxbus. 🙄

  23. Alan 24

    Join Us – and have large photos of jabbed NZ sport, cultural, entertainment etc. stars all over the bus,. Make sure the photos include a charismatic figure for every age and socioeconomic demographic in our population.

    Make it cool and patriotic to get jabbed.

  24. Leighton 25

    Why does it matter whether Collins suggested the idea last week or not? Does she honestly expect us to believe that Northern Region Health heard Judith say it seven days ago and have in the short time since then got it all organised from scratch so it is ready to go on the road tomorrow? Clearly this must have been in the works for much longer than that.

  25. bwaghorn 26

    Jabba the bus

  26. Incognito 27

    The Bubble Bus

    The Bloomfield Bus

    The Anti-Boris Bus

    How Buzarre

    The Kiwi Defender

    The All Jabs

    The Jab-Do

    All Shots Are On The House

    Bus To The Future

    Buzzy Bee

  27. Chris 28

    Mobile Vaccination Unit

  28. Magic 29

    “Mobi Prick”

  29. John G 30

    Put Fred Flintstone on it and call it "Jabber Dabber Do !"

    • tc 30.1

      That'd be lost on most under 50.

      Like in Simpsons when Adam west laments about the good old days with robin….Bart's response 'who the hell is robin man !'

      I see across the ditch 'Jim's jabs' as Jim looks to extend his mowing empire further.

  30. Vague Craig 31

    Te Immunofizer

  31. McFlock 32

    Has anyone nabbed "Bussy McBusface"? 🙂

  32. mikesh 33

    Jabs Omnibus

  33. Frances Kenny 34

    Vaccines on Wheels

    Vaccinations by J & AB

    Vaccines for All 5 million

    Get it in the arm for someone else.

  34. rod 35

    Let's Lick Covid.

  35. mikesh 36

    The Jab Cab

  36. Stuart Munro 37

    Well, there are the updateable versions:

    The Delta Devastator
    The Epsilon Exterminator
    The Phi fighter

    or the simple Covid Buster.

  37. Patricia Bremner 38

    Wakahuia
    The vaccine is the treasure the bus is the container.

  38. Policy Parrot 39

    If it was the 90s you could have "Party of Five" Million – although you might get into some copyright issues.

  39. Koff 40

    Siouxie Wheels

  40. vto 41

    just call it Mr Whippy and stick the goo in the ice-cream,.. no nasty jab things …

  41. Upapua 42

    +100 Forget now

    .. has anyone suggested Protect-u-lance?

  42. weka 43

    Vax Mobile 🦇

  43. Descendant Of Smith 45

    "Uncle Colin's drambulance" after the NZ inventor of the plastic hypodermic needle.

  44. Zsazsa 46

    BUSTER the Vax Van

    • Gezza 47.1

      From this image from an RNZ “live updates” section, which says the buses are being blessed – it looks like they may have decided on the name

      Unless they have four buses & they might all have different individual names?

  45. Gezza 48

    I often enjoy Ben Uffindell’s satirical efforts: 😀

    “The Government is dealing with a Covid outreach debacle today, after the decision to put the naming of New Zealand’s vaccination bus service to a social media poll backfired, when users across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram voted narrowly to name the service ‘The Murder Wagon.'”

    http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/covid-outreach-disaster-as-online-poll-sees-vaccination-bus-named-the-murder-wagon/

    • Gezza 48.1


      ” …The first murder wagon was blessed at a ceremony this morning attended by Auckland mayor Phil Goff, before it was sent out into the community, where it has already triggered several calls to police.

      Despite the name emerging from a public vote, the Government is being criticized for “stealing ideas” by Level 4 opposition leader Judith Collins, who pointed out that “The Murder Wagon” was actually the nickname of her 2020 campaign bus.”