About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

December 29, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 29 December 2021

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment277

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (277)

Login to comment or vote

Warren

68 Hours to go before we head into the new year and the resumption of the political drivel that many politicians spew but is there any bets to who out of all this bunch of rule makers and those that hold control of our Nation that will be the first in 2022 to blatantly lie to those they count in the team of 5 million.
53 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:00am
- sooty
  
  You just watch, every bloody churnilists will be publishing their thoughts on how darling leader saved us and what she should do in the next year.
  As well as every person who thinks they are an expert or even a fathead!
  Boring, boring!
  
  40 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:36am
  - Ruahine
    
    Here is someone who is not a churnalist publishing her thoughts. Thanks Kate
    
    https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:33pm
krazykiwi

Boosters, aka D3. Soon to be mandatory if you want to participate in ‘normal’ society. But their protection drops rapidly, meaning the vaccination hamster wheel spins faster. D4 isn’t far away. It’s already a thing in heavily boosted countries like Israel, Gibraltar et al. Yet the last two weeks have brought three new studies finding negative efficacy for two vaccine doses, meaning the vaxxed are more likely to become infected than the unvaxxed.

As this begins to manifest here I expect increasingly shrill accusations of blame being laid at the feet of the unclean unvaxxed, threats of more containment theatre, and a studious disregard for real world evidence from our leaders as they remain ensnared in a sunk cost fallacy of their own making.

We have a pandemic all right. It is a pandemic of hubristic self promotion from an unholy alliance of politicians, experts and media. Nothing will change until New Zealanders quit hiding under their beds and demand the return of accountable leadership.
97 14
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:00am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I’ll be hiding under the bed by driving onto the wharf every day except New Year’s for the next week or so. Probably around 50,000 Kiwis will be hiding under their beds by going to Sylvia Park and it must be around 150,000 have gone to baches or beaches in the last week to hide under the sun.
  Meanwhile, while you would have collected a lot of white feathers in WW2 now you can be an anonymous hero on KB.
  
  11 70
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:44am
  - krazykiwi
    
    That dog, Brian. You remind me of that dog.
    
    31 9
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:50am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      That’s a vivid and accurate image. I might need to go and have a shower.
      
      21 6
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:59am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        The McLeods never rated in my story wee Mac.
        
        4 34
        Report
        December 29, 2021 9:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Your clans are at peace now, chaps.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Coire_Na_Creiche
        
        8 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:48am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Look on the bright side the only Kiwi in NZ with white feathers.
      
      5 39
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:35am
      - igm
        
        [Deleted – pointless rabbit hole. mod.]
        
        0 7
        Report
        December 29, 2021 9:38am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        There is something wrong with you. You might want to reflect on the usefulness of such comments.
        
        23 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 9:54am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Personally I am not scared of Covid, hence you can take your leaky imperfect vaccine and shove it where the sun does not shine.
    
    Covid does not even come close to the top 10 list of things that I will eventually die from.
    
    But people are afraid, little children afraid to go back to school, because they will catch Covid and die, really. people afraid to leave their houses etc
    
    The blame for this complete overreaction lies directly at the Government and their propaganda.
    
    Life is about taking risks. we all asses how much risk is acceptable to us personally.
    
    So Brian it is OK to be afraid, it is really, you jab away if it makes you feel better, double mask with gloves while in the car by yourself, just stay away from me, because the vaccinated are the biggest threat to the unvaccinated.
    
    “The vaccinated are the biggest threat to the unvaccinated” I realize that you may struggle with this concept, but you will carry a higher viral load before showing symptoms, making you a super spreader.
    
    44 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:37am
    - Fight4NZ
      
      Personally I am not scared of Covid vaccines, hence you can take your leaky imperfect virus and shove it where the sun does not shine.
      
      Covid vaccine does not even come close to the top 10 list of things that I will caused to suffer by.
      
      But people are afraid, little children afraid to go to the clinic, because they will have a vaccine catastrophe and die, really. people afraid to leave their houses etc
      
      The blame for this complete overreaction lies directly at the antivaxxers and their propaganda.
      
      Life is about taking risks. we all asses how much risk is acceptable to us personally.
      
      So Blobby it is OK to be afraid, it is really, you cough away if it makes you feel better, no mask without distancing while protesting by yourself, just stay away from me, because the unvaccinated are the biggest threat to the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.
      
      “The virus is the biggest threat to the unvaccinated” I realize that you may struggle with this concept, but you will carry a higher viral load before showing symptoms, making you a super spreader and sufferer.
      
      1 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:47pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        You might not be scared of Covid ‘vaccines’, but you’re shit scared of Covid.
        On the other hand, I’m not scared of Covid, so I don’t give a shit about the ‘vaccine’.
        
        0 2
        Report
        December 30, 2021 5:49pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Thanks for that. I don’t have time to read all the linked studies in your primary source. About to hit the road. However it seems clear that the best we can hope for is that the best case scenario is that the vaccines will protect the highly vulnerable from severe illness while omicron infects just about everyone in the next 6 months. Watching the UK will be key to predicting what will eventually happen in New Zealand when, or if, the borders reopen.
  
  The performance of the vaccines in preventing infection against omicron utterly destroys the rationale for vaccine passes in New Zealand, unless the entire population is willing to be vaccinated every 4 months. I am making that statement with certainty, but nevertheless with a high degree of confidence.
  
  Also, and I did spot this in one of the secondary sources in your link, it is still too early to properly assess the performance of the vaccines against hospitalisation and death against omicron. This is important. If Omicron is, say, 3 times as contagious as delta but, say only 30 percent as pathogenic, it could still put a lot of vulnerable folk in hospital if it sweeps through New Zealand.
  
  In summary, I hope the Government is using January to come up with Plan C. Because using vaccine passes to keep the unvaccinated out of cafes is not going to be a viable omicron strategy. And vaccinating 5 year old sure as hell won’t work.
  
  42 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:51am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Sorry there were a few typos. The Tall Redhead was yelling at me to get in the car and “stop that damn Kiwiblog thing” ?
    
    41 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:53am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Yep, argue with the likes of Brian or road trip with red head, engage with Shaun of the Dead or road trip with the red head, choices choices choices decisions decisions decisions . . .
      
      My V8 awaits, not equipped with a redhead I admit, a brunette for what it is worth but, it sure as shit, does not involve fing Brian McDonald!
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:03am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Sadly we are road tripping in her Suzuki Swift. ?
        
        12 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:57am
    - cmm
      
      If it is tall and red, listen to it.
      
      16 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:04am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Have a great break Benedict.
      
      14 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:15am
  - cmm
    
    I still would like to see research as to Vit D and Zinc status of “the vulnerable”.
    
    Perhaps this is really just a pandemic of those with insufficient Vit D? If so, then lining up for jabs is a dodgy way to go about it.
    
    27 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:08am
    - mawm
      
      There were some studies of Vit D and the inverse ratio to severity of outcomes. I don’t have the link. I don’t recall any of Zn levels.
      
      7 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:32am
      - mawm
        
        cmm – just a coincidence that I came across this today. Zn is in there.
        “Low Levels of Few Micronutrients May Impact COVID-19 Disease Progression: An Observational Study on the First Wave” https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/11/9/565
        
        4 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 2:02pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Check out the PDF document on Vitamin D, Zinc and other products located at http://www.nzdsos.com.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 12:05pm
  - Alwynn
    
    “I hope the Government is using January to come up with Plan C”
    True optimism. That is what I like to see. As Pope put it “hope springs eternal in the human breast”.
    I think that the Government will spend January resting up from their labours of 2021 and for the blest ones preparing for the wedding of the Century, as I’m sure some woman’s magazine will label it.
    Do you realise that there is only one Minister at work here in Wellington? All the others are holidaying.
    
    11 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:31am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      So in February they will say “oops the vaccines don’t work against omicron.” ?
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 1:46pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “I hope the Government is using January to come up with Plan C”
    
    Don’t hold your breath with this stellar brains trust! Rinse and repeat the usual shower of sh^t I’m thinking. Jaspinda’s sold-out media and big-tech sycophants will provide cover.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:42pm
  - Fight4NZ
    
    Agree. Only other variables that come to mind are the new treatment (and the unlikelihood our government will get their heads around it) and an omicron targeted vaccine.
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 7:53pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  My late dear Dad used to say if you want the answer always follow the money. And in this case the money leads to the Drug Companies. History will show they have made a killing ( pun intended) from vaccines. And in this case multiple vaccines. Usually vaccines are one time shots. You get the shot and thats it. With the Flu its annually. But with Covid its like multiple times a year.
  
  Now I’m not saying this is deliberate on the part of the Drug Companies but if I was a shareholder I would be mighty glad that the Company was coming up with multiple shots all putting money in my hip pocket.
  
  29 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:20am
  - Pharmachick
    
    Drug companies are not out to save the world (that would be those pesky academics). Pharma/Biotech are beholden only to their shareholders. A fact I drum into my undergraduate and graduate students, lest they be under any false impressions.
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 12:13pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Pharmachick: “Drug companies are not out to save the world (that would be those pesky academics). Pharma/Biotech are beholden only to their shareholders.”
      
      I think Bret Weinstein nailed it in his recent “Dark Horse Podcast” on Vitamin D and Covid. He said (not word for word probably, but extremely close) “imagine a large entity that is either a robot and/or a psychopath”. Having worked in many large corporations, I would say they are both very accurate descriptors for most (if not all) corporations. Autonomous psychopathy machines. IE not looking out for the best interests of humanity (or ultimately anything, apart from their own survival and profit). And probably the bigger they are, the worse they are.
      
      Note: I’m not anti “big pharma” per se. Corporations, hmmm, mostly a destructive and inhuman shower of shit in my experience.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 1:27pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        Yes, I’d say that’s pretty accurate. I’m not anti- Pharma either, without them we’d only have about 1/4 of the therapeutics we have. They’re not evil per sé (despite that we call them collectively “the Evil Empire” somewhat tongue in cheek), but you have to be very aware of what you’re dealing with. I once had to explain to a University contracts office [diplomatically], that they really needed to be careful with the language not least because we were contracting across borders, and to remind them that the annual profit for that company was 5X our university’s endowment. Likewise, once was 24 hours late on [something] and got yelled at for 20 mins straight on a teleconference, this is what one is dealing with and that is reality. Conflict of Interest declaration: I can and do contract to/with big Pharma as well as Biotech on occasion.
        
        9 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 3:09pm
      - Jack5
        
        NZer in exile is wrong in generalising that corporations, are, in his words, “mostly a destructive and inhuman shower of shit.”
        
        The statement’s in a discussion of companies in the pharmaceutical business, but it’s still so high over the top it’s short of oxygen.
        
        Corporations are just companies, though the word is commonly used for large companies.
        
        They are not inherently bad or evil. They are just groups of people, or of other companies in turn made up of groups of people, that are pooling resources in a quest for profit. Without profit there’s no reward for members of the groups, nor even survival of the companies they set up.
        
        The advent of companies, with limited liability, has been a huge factor in economic progress, especially since the Industrial Revolution.
        
        Times are going to be rough for most of us when interest rates surge, but we’ll be better off than our peasant ancestors when the aristocrats owned the resources except for the common plot in the village. Like modern Muslims, those aristocats regarded interest as unnatural and sinful. People died young, and often young and hungry.
        
        What are the alternatives to companies? Partnerships and co-operatives have been useful and still are, but, without them and companies, economic activity would depend almost entirely on State departments and local authorities like councils. Yuck.
        
        0 1
        Report
        December 30, 2021 1:31pm
    - Sarkozygroupie
      
      I couldn’t reply to your suggestion of guest posts below…but yes please, you bring real value to KB and I always read what you have to say.
      
      Thanks,
      SG
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 30, 2021 5:18am
- mawm
  
  kk – we must hold the leadership accountable for the mismanagement of this pandemic, for the harm they have caused to society, for the small businesses owners who have lost everything, for the mental health problems created in our youth and for the deaths by suicide of all those desperate New Zealanders. And make no mistake it has been mismanagement from the very beginning – banning any therapeutic intervention at the start of the illness, and sending people home to wait until they are so sick that they require hospitalisation and admission to intensive care where many would die. This is the scandal – government overriding medical management of patients all so that they could get people vaccinated with a faulty product because they were told to by whomever (the WEF/Davos crowd being the most likely) with the intent of creating a worldwide “covid” passport. This is treasonous and in a liberal democracy the government of the day would be in the dock with the complicit media alongside.
  
  15 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:27am
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  This is an excellent interview with Dr Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University. He also has a masters in statistics. It has high explanatory value re: the Covid cult.
  
  “Why do so many still believe the narrative?”
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDpZ8daIVM&t=3s
  
  What we are witnessing with the persistent push in spite of all the evidence showing that it is mostly irrational and totally unscientific, is an phenomenon of mass psychology called “Mass Formation.” Most of the general idea is explained in the first 30-40 mins or so.
  
  People’s naturally occurring but unfocused anxiety has been deliberately exploited, exacerbated, and harnessed. A “solution” has then been offered, presenting a psychologically powerful collectivist mission (i.e. “fighting Covid). It is ritualistic and almost messianic in character.
  
  An interesting and widely observed point Dr Desemet makes is that, despite all of the enormous harm, disadvantage and loss accruing to themselves and their families by maintaining the collective insanity, they single-mindedly continue to do what they are instructed to do regardless, such is the emotional pull of their mission. Dissenters are harshly treated. In what Dr Desmet calls “the drama of totalitarianism,” the more absurd the narrative, the better it functions as a ritual.
  
  14 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:16am
  - Fight4NZ
    
    This is a partially informative interview with Dr Mattias Desmet, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University. He also has a masters in statistics. It has some explanatory value re: the Covid antivaxxer cult.
    
    “Why do so many still believe the narrative?”
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDpZ8daIVM&t=3s
    
    What we are witnessing with the persistent push in spite of all the evidence showing that it is mostly effective and totally safe, is an phenomenon of mass psychology called “Mass Formation.” Most of the general idea is explained in the first 30-40 mins or so.
    
    People’s naturally occurring but unfocused anxiety has been deliberately exploited, exacerbated, and harnessed. A “solution” has then been offered, presenting a psychologically powerful collectivist mission (i.e. “fighting Government/Covid vaccine/Big Pharma). It is ritualistic and almost messianic in character.
    
    An interesting and widely observed point Dr Desemet makes is that, despite all of the enormous harm, disadvantage and loss accruing to themselves and their families by contracting Covid, they single-mindedly continue to do what the cult instructs them to do regardless, such is the emotional pull of their mission. Dissenters are harshly treated. In what Dr Desmet calls “the drama of totalitarianism,” the more absurd the narrative, the better it functions as a ritual.
    
    0 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:03pm
- surfing
  
  Again you misquote research. In fact, I will say you are lying if you actually read the paper.
  
  The authors said this…
  
  The negative estimates in the final period arguably suggest different behaviour and/or exposure patterns in the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts causing underestimation of the VE.
  
  They then say this….
  
  these findings highlight the need for massive rollout of vaccinations and booster vaccinations.
  
  This is the exact opposite conclusion to yourself, and made by the researchers you seem to find so admirable. You should contact them if you think they made an error in their research.
  
  Hey one thing, do you know the difference between efficacy and effectiveness? I didn’t but I took time to look.
  
  Incidentally the authors of your graph say the results are probably inaccurate
  
  1 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:23pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    The authors are just guessing about the behavioural differences, no part of their research has my information on behaviour. That is just them desperately trying to get published by conforming to the narrative.
    
    In the same way their findings simply do not match their advice. Looking at a significant increase in vulnerability at a mere 12 weeks after a booster shot, it seems difficult to imagine what sort of clown would think that even more of the same failing policies will rescue them.
    
    Sadly not uncommon these days.
    
    2 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:12pm
    - Fight4NZ
      
      There is agreement on both sides that the behaviour of vaccinated is leading to more cases. Numerous comments to this effect have been made here,eg
      ClanMcleod, GD 27/12
      “The risk to health of others is letting double jabbed people attend large events while knowing they can still catch, carry and spread covid. It’s actually malfeasance. The unjabbed aren’t allowed to attend such events. They aren’t spreading anything.”
      Thus so-called negative effect.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:45pm
- Ra Henare
  
  What I find both interesting and disappointing is the lack of a world view. Both in NZ and here in Kiwiblog.
  
  Almost all references are Westernised. The good PHD Nurse with his daily chats, thru to rattlings from US and Australian commentators, dare I say, experts. Its rare to hear from Japan and Taiwan who seem to have thing under control.
  
  And the concentration on Vaccines as THE solution.
  While Big Pharma-USA are touting $700 pills.
  The Chinese are finalizing trials on pills that they will make freely available – note that – FREE.
  
  In my own little world, I am convinced that the totalitarian states and the spread of Covid will be stomped out by human ingenuity.
  
  While I know that there is a large anti Chinese sentiment in NZ, i suspect that pot is being stirred for political gains.
  
  I had products made in China, and other Asian countries for some years. All good quality produced in a timely fashion.
  Forget the Chinese cheap crap BS. The Chinese are smart to meet the market. Westerners want cheap cheap cheap. Chinese manufacturers oblige.
  However they (Chinese) can make high quality products, just they cost a little more.
  
  What seems to get forgotten is that, like NZ, the general population in China and the political elites may as well be on different planets. The average Chinese business owner and the average Kiwi business owner are not that different!!!
  
  If I was a gambling man, I would put money on India and China producing quality solutions to the Covid problem.
  
  Now to put my flak jacket on for the anti Chinese tirade 🙂
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:48pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    The Chinese have done some very clever things in the therapeutics arena and pioneered some excellent technologies. However, their trials and approvals processes live a lot to be desired. In part that’s because of the central control – the same sort of thinking that saw nobody from the local politburo tell central about Chernobyl for ages. It’s not communism, it’s totalitarianism that is the problem IMHO.
    
    Secondly, they have some *very* dodgy ethical standards when it comes to experimenting on animals and on “special” populations (e.g. enforced enrolment of prisoners in clinical trials). I just cannot get behind that behaviour. And before you point out the obvious, yes my beloved FDA has gone more-or-less toes up recently due in part to political interference (both Dems and Reps as it happens), more is the pity. We will just have to look to the UK’s NICE for leadership now.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:21pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Thanks for your feedback.
      While I am not proposing that the Chinese are perfect(or the Indians). We can all find fault. Whether it be Chinese, Indian, US or UK.
      (remember the UK millions dead scenario).
      
      What I would say tho is that your ëthical” comment about use of animals always amuses me.
      It seems experimentation on rats/mice is OK but digs and Chimps is not.
      
      Lets allow a difference in culture before we impose, our western views on other countries/cultures.
      The extreme waste of lives in Iraq was westerners (The US) trying to impose their culture(version of democracy) on a different culture.
      
      But do appreciate your view.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 4:09pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        Ra, thanks for your comments, they are valuable.
        
        To address point-by-point:
        
        (1) Yes, we can all find fault.
        
        (2) No, I disagree… your comment is clearly not informed with current information. We DO NOT allow that sh*t with rats and mice anymore either. The argument “just because they’re rodents” went the way of the Dodos in the late 90s/early 2000s. And should’ve been earlier IMHO.
        
        (3) Oh yeah we still use dogs, Beagles in particular are the best predictors of human PK.
        
        (4) If I never se a primate study again I will be happy, there’s isn’t space here to fill in those reasons, and 6 mo ago (before my primary job dropped off the deep end in terms of sheer work), I asked, and was given permission for; a series of guest posts to this blog by DPF. Perhaps if there is appetite I might do an animal research post (?, please reply all that are interested [or not]).
        
        Best
        Pharmachick
        
        4 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 5:52pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I hope you don’t mind me posting this Pharmachick….
        
        I see you received an international award this year for your work which will lead to fewer animals needed for pharmacological -toxicological studies.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 6:08pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Pharmachick.
        Now you have me confused re
        
        (2) No, I disagree… your comment is clearly not informed with current information. We DO NOT allow that sh*t with rats and mice anymore
        
        I am talking internationally. Maybe you are talking Canada??
        
        looking around the interwebby…
        https://speakingofresearch.com/facts/animal-research-statistics/
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 6:20pm
      - Fight4NZ
        
        Be good to see your posts.
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 11:55pm
    - artemisia
      
      Always interested in your posts Pharmachick, so guest posts is a yes from me!
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:43pm
- Jim
  
  Note the media are quiet on Omnicron and the NZ situation……standbys for early January when people come back from holiday and the pulpit of truth need to give another sermon…..the media will ramp up the fear especially with the 5-11 year old cohort and no doubt find some statistical anomaly to scare every parent with. ‘Boost to the Max’ is likely to be the Gov 2022 mantra. It looks like that foolish idiot who was taking vaccines for cash was ahead of the game.
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 7:45pm
- kerravon66
  
  I look forward to those papers mentioned on the dailysceptic site landing on http://www.science.org . Then I can read them with a clear mind .
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 30, 2021 8:14am
gorse

We now know Sean Plunket has been up to. Look up theplatform.kiwi.
32 4
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:06am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Plunket is in the process of assembling a formidable team. He’s certainly going to set a cat amongst the pigeons…
  
  37 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:56am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Tony Stuart – it’s an opportune time for someone with the fortitude and ability to revive journalism in this country. It’s a complete clear playing field, zero competition. Bring it on.
    
    34 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:18am
  - Jim
    
    It sound a good apart from holding some reservations about Plunket’s involvement in such a project
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 7:50pm
- DeepBlue
  
  I will be excited to read old school journalism, I.e. both sides of a debate presented fairly without clickbait/ author bias.
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:42am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Just so long as it is not behind a paywall where I have to spend money to read it … 🙂
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The effectiveness of being “fully vaxxed” seems to be dropping by the day….

Time to get boosted seems to have dropped from 6months to 5, 4, and now 3 months..

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/24/millions-more-australians-to-be-eligible-for-covid-booster-as-interval-reduced-to-four-months
66 5
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:07am
- krazykiwi
  
  Dropping into negative territory. It’s difficult to see Ardern’s ‘boost or loose you freedoms’ plan standing up to even the most favourable scrutiny.
  
  67 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:15am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    But as you know, the media in NZ will NEVER cover or report data like this, nor will any of our health officials or MPs. There is a wall of silence. It is shocking malfeasance.
    These people will keep doubling down to protect their collective butts until it is impossible to do so any longer. They will blame the coming omicron infections on the unjabbed when it is actually BECAUSE they are jabbed that they are more prone to the newest variants and in fact, the new variants are evolving because of the jabs.
    They will claim the fact the symptoms are mild is because they are jabbed.
    The narrative is so twisted out of shape it is astonishing. But the information is there for those prepared to read it. The more jabbed you get, the more prone you will be to other infections and potential damage to the natural immune system.
    Kafkaesque isn’t an adequate description.
    
    62 7
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:24am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Negative protection (aka heightened susceptibility) to omi is, to my mind, evidence of the mRNA weakening or worse, permanently damaging the innate immune system. It could be ADE or something as yet undiscovered. If we start to see increases in non-Covid ailments in the vaxxed cohorts then this theory will begin to look more sound. I hope I’m wrong. The implications of being correct are horrible.
      
      We are well past the time where stopping the vaxx juggernaut to dispassionately assess the evidence made sense.
      
      43 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:37am
      - sooty
        
        But think how many would be out of a job, if they stopped the vax!
        There would be thousands and thousands from the so called experts to the lowly tester!
        It has been NZ’s biggest growth industry for sometime.
        Even beat tree planting!
        
        21 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 9:40am
      - mawm
        
        Clinical pathologist Ryan Cole has spoken up and tells of a decrease in the CD8+ T killer cells in the vaccinated population. These cells are responsible for destroying cells infected with viruses and cells that have malignant mutations, and as such he is seeing an increase in diseases such as molluscum contagiosum and an increase in certain cancers.
        
        10 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:43am
      - Weetbix3ways
        
        It was shown in studies years ago that taking the annual flu vax would make you MORE vulnerable to subsequent variants. No surprise that we are seeing the same here, whatever the mechanism may be.
        But like so many things on this subject, most people will plug their ears and ignore the science, preferring instead the tilting talking head.
        
        10 2
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:52am
  - pdm
    
    Want to bet KK.
    
    Just wait and see who she appoints as scrutineers.
    
    21 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:30am
    - Inandout
      
      pdm, after the wedding. Nothing stands in the way of ‘the wedding’.
      
      26 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:17am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I don’t often wish for summer cyclones. But this year I’ll make an exception.
        
        23 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:11am
  - Weetbix3ways
    
    None of their other abject failures has drawn much attention. This country seems happy to continue like lemmings over the cliff.
    
    34 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:31am
    - Man Among the Ruins
      
      Please see my link posted above: Dr Mattias Desmet of Ghent University on the psychological phenomenon of “Mass Formation.” A brilliant exposition where most of the manifestations described will no doubt sound very familiar indeed to many of us.
      
      10 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 11:26am
  - cmm
    
    It is certainly not The Holy Water when it comes to dealing with Omicron.
    
    Numbers from South Africa show that Omicron is thumbing its nose at the vaccinated. Baragwanath Hospital stats I saw showed no assistance from the vaccine, if anything the unvaccinated were doing better.
    
    Numbers from London show that even the triple vaxxed are getting Omicron with little, if any, help. If there is any help it will be short lived.
    
    But yet the only thing any of these government channels are telling people is to queue up for more jabs.
    
    When will we hear just one government source, from any Western government, suggest Vit D?
    
    Perhaps that is part of the Secret Pfizer Contract. Thou shalt serve no remedies other than Pfizer.
    
    20 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:16am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      cmm It’s worse than you even realise.
      
      “Preliminary UK data: Triple vaccinated SARS-2 positives are more than four times more likely to have Omicron than unvaccinated.
      We should be calling for a total and complete shutdown of vaccinations until our public health representatives can figure out what is going on.”
      
      https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/preliminary-uk-data-triple-vaccinated
      
      20 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:21am
- Matt Long
  
  There is a complex equation that Pfizer researchers have found based on the numeric values of Greek letters involving a lot of complex roots, tangents and constants by which they prove how many doses of vaccine and at what interval will be effective for a Covid mutation.
  For example Omega Epsilon 4 will require 12 doses with an interval of 6 weeks, 6 months, 3 months, 6 weeks, 24 hours, then every 30 minutes until immunity is achieved.
  Pfizer shareholders are said to be quietly satisfied with the research…
  
  42 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:30am
  - Pavel
    
    What will happen in 6 months time if you’re unvaxxed and decide to go in and get vaccinated? Get your first two 3 weeks apart, wait 3 months for booster 1, then 3 months for booster 2, by which time booster 3 and 4 will of already been rolled out. You won’t be able to keep up.
    I reckon the Vax passes and restrictions etc will be gone within 12 months, all things come to pass, they can’t last forever. They will definitely be gone by the next election when labor realize their going to be back in opposition for at least another 11 years. Once the pandemic ends there is going to be a massive, intergenerational, mess to clean up in regards to the social and economic carnage this has created. In the future we will look back at this period and there are going to be alot of “never again” moments to reflect on.
    
    38 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:42am
    - Lee C
      
      I will be contacting all my clients, subject to a Proper Risk Assessment to inform them I will not be accepting a Booster.
      
      From this basis, if I am to be caused to deliver my service in other ways I will, or if their H&S protocols deem me to be too much of a risk to visit them physically, I will regrettably have to stop doing so.
      
      I simply do not trust the science, and have a family to provide for, and this spam&rort process in which pharmaceutical companies enrich themselves courtesy of their whoremaster politicians, is not for me.
      
      I will not keep lining up for ‘boosters’. I’m not a farmyard animal, and I’m not going to be a ‘cash-cow’ political or otherwise for these glorified pimps.
      
      41 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:21am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Ardern will be forever remembered as the worst PM in history. No mean achievement considering some of the previous candidates. She will have gone from the dizzying heights of almost goddess status to where she belongs. Only remembered for the havoc she wreaked and her complete failure to achieve a single positive policy that she ran on.
      Yet she still has many delusional useful idiots who think she can do no wrong.
      
      59 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:26am
      - sooty
        
        We have had a few, Geoffrey Palmer must be leading the pack surely!
        
        17 2
        Report
        December 29, 2021 9:49am
      - pdm
        
        Sooty – Bill Rowling.
        
        7 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:26am
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Stiff competition from Muldoon and Lange after the latter’s lover got to him. But it’s hard to compare Jacinda’s quick disaster with Palmer’s slow remorseless destructive legacy.
        
        13 3
        Report
        December 29, 2021 10:49am
      - Paulus
        
        Don’t forget the havoc she is still to subject our country to in the rest of her term.
        2022 will be painful in the extreme.
        
        6 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 1:18pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        Depends on who writes the history books. Most historians are committed lefties.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 2:02pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      “I reckon the Vax passes and restrictions etc will be gone within 12 months”
      
      I agree. They SHOULD be gone but jacinda will hang on to them for as long as she can manage, probably until the next election.
      
      39 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:59am
      - sooty
        
        She’s got nothing else to go into the election with, other than leaving!
        
        4 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 12:14pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Thankfully if Jacinda plays the authoritarian panic-monger card for too long it will personally impact enough swinging voters that she’ll sink her ship. A double edged sword. Oh dear how sad. Couldn’t happen to a more wonderful bunch of people. ?
        
        6 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 2:03pm
      - mawm
        
        NZer – but will National be any different?
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 6:52pm
  - oc35
    
    9.5
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 6:38pm
- Simon
  
  Biden Admin surrendered to the virus. It will be up to each State to solve issue. Omicron is winning. The vaxx dont work. A booster for 10 weeks? Good news as Omi almost harmless compared to Delta. (to date) . Omi is the cold.
  
  This has been the doing rounds which is good. May 2021.
  
  Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by FDA but has been authorized for emergency use to prevent COVID-19 in ages 16 . See Fact Sheet: http://cvdvaccine-us.com
  
  https://twitter.com/pfizer/status/1390626929372536832
  
  Prevent corona. Delta was wrecking this. Omicron will blow this away.
  
  And those who claim to “Follow the science” like Cindy will be very quiet as to the science of failed vaccines.
  
  This is over, All that is left is for zero covid to claim victory. The narrative will have to change sooner or later.
  
  Will they corona vaxx the children in Jan? Only the most misguided (NZ political & poodle experts) who want to hide what is happening will push on and vaxx children. The science will not come into it.
  
  31 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:31am
  - Vory v zakone
    
    Meanwhile CNN admits cloth masks do not stop COVID.
    
    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1475918570588622850?t=yix0qvRKG4kPA4rCml3LGA&s=19
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:33pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Apparently South Africa was about 30% vaccinated (with what and whether double jabbed I’m not sure) when Om strain swept through. Their spike (in Om cases) is almost over (last time I looked). It would be interesting to take a large sample of the pop there to see how many now have natural immunity to the most prominent Covid strains. There is some talk that Om is unnaturally mutated and could be a genetically engineered attempt to mass vaccinate everyone. Will be interesting to see if anything comes out in the wash on that.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:15pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Maggy it’s becoming apparent that as predicted, the jabs are causing the variants and increasing the likelihood of infection for those jabbed.
  
  “The more heavily vaccinated a population, the more preponderant escape mutations become in the local mix of SARS-2 varieties. These are mutations which trade some infectiousness for the opportunity to evade vaccine-elicited antibodies. SARS-2 can afford this trade-off, because it has been steadily improving its infectiousness since it was leaked into human populations in 2019. Our vaccines also prime the immune system to focus primarily on the spike protein in its vintage January 2020 configuration. Even after subsequent infection, the vaccinated have an attenuated antibody response to other SARS-2 proteins, vastly improving Corona’s prospects for vaccine escape.”
  
  https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/sars-cov-2-loves-the-vaccines
  
  22 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:41am
- Rich Prick
  
  I have better things to do, and getting jabbed every couple of months to maintain my freedoms, is not amongst them. It’s about now we delete our vaccine passes and get on with normal life, this Government has had its fun, now it’s our turn.
  
  61 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:10am
  - Lee C
    
    Amen to that RP.
    
    29 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:22am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Rich Prick, the sooner enough people do exactly that, the sooner this is over. As has been said often, you cannot comply your way out of tyranny. You can refuse to partake in tyranny and it stops instantly.
    NZ needs to collectively say “NO”.
    
    35 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:29am
  - mawm
    
    It’s time to become ungovernable!
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:50am
  - Diogenes
    
    There seems to be some resistance to the mandates, at least in Christchurch. I went for lunch at a mall yesterday. The place was fairly busy. We popped into two coffee shops, and while we waited (we gave up because of the queues), none of the staff were asking for a vaccine pass. In the mall food court, there were numerous notices saying that a pass was required, but not a single food stall appeared to be asking to see them. Busy staff just don’t have time for this malarky.
    
    17 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:53am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “Busy staff just don’t have time for this malarky.”
      
      They’re also not trained enough and not paid enough to deal with psychos going off at them multiple times a day!
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 2:39pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    If I was offered a vaxx pass for accepting a saline injection I would decline. These things are a blight on the civil democracy my forebears spilled blood to procure for their descendants. I will not dishonor their sacrifices.
    
    21 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:13am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Hear hear, what that man said
    
    7 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:59pm
    - mawm
      
      Resist, resist, resist!
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 6:54pm
- Ed Snack
  
  Wait until it is 2 months. Then with a 2-3 week reduced immunity period, you would get maybe 5 weeks of above average reduction in risk, with some as yet unquantified but not zero chance of heart or blood clot issues that will increase significantly with each jab.
  
  And a big question remains, there is at least reasonable evidence that there is a definite risk of blood no heart issues. What is this not being urgently and properly investigated, instead of being dismissed ?
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 1:35pm
Yvette

“3 Waters”
A new Government entity TAUMATA AROWAI is quietly established – well, have you heard of it? – hushed up because it destroys a large aspect of Mahuta’s “3 Waters” campaign – if you can call a political mandated bulldozer a campaign …

A key FEAR FACTOR used in the pro “3 Waters” argument is –
Four people died and more than 5000 people fell ill after Havelock North’s water supply was contaminated with campylobacter in 2016. The crisis sparked a government inquiry and led to the Three Waters review in mid-2017.

Three Waters reform programme –
40,000 PEOPLE LIVED WITH BOIL-WATER NOTICES IN 2020
A new independent water regulator will ensure all water standards are enforced. The reforms will make sure we can afford the upgrades needed to meet the standards, seeing fewer boil-water notices and greater protections for the environment.
https://threewaters.govt.nz/

◼ But a new Government entity TAUMATA AROWAI –
Te Mana o te Wai
Restoring and preserving the balance between water, the environment and people
– now presumably caters for such as the Havelock North disaster –
https://www.taumataarowai.govt.nz

Taumata Arowai became fully operational as the drinking-water regulator when the Water Services Act 2021 came into effect on 15 November 2021. Part 2A (Drinking Water) of the Health Act 1956 was repealed from this date.

Taumata Arowai has been developing new drinking water standards for water suppliers, which will replace the current Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand (DWSNZ) and come into effect on 1 July 2022.
30 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:16am
- Rich Prick
  
  All because some sheep droppings found their way into the water supply. As they say, never let a “crisis” go to waste.
  
  32 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:13am
  - sooty
    
    Is that one of the weather presenters cousins?
    
    12 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:51am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “Taumata Arowai has been developing new drinking water standards…..”
  
  And I bet these are based at least partly on Maori Science.
  
  28 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:01am
  - Nickc2
    
    Will a National/ACT Govt get rid of these clowns? I sure as hell hope so.
    I hadn’t heard of this Govt Agency until now and I can’t find the political leanings of any of them. However, I can logically conclude none of them are Centre-Right leaning.
    What the hell, just print some more money eh?
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:39am
- DeepBlue
  
  This is not hidden, it pre-dates the 3-waters debacle. I don’t have a problem with this new entity, nor do Councils or any Opposition parties.
  
  It is filling a need by setting the standards for water, a big failing in the past with Councils doing their own interpretation.
  
  2 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:48am
  - Yvette
    
    Deepblue
    My point is, although the entity was provided for in earlier law, it was not until November 15, last month, that it was fully established, and – although being one of the few things the Government has actually delivered on, it was not heralded for its conflict with their subsequent proposed and now mandated ‘3 Waters” law – so much so that even Dr Mike Joy missed it, saying “3 Waters’needed a “4th water” to assure catchment purity, which “3 Waters” doesn’t, but Taumata Arowai is meant to.
    I, too, don’t have a problem with this new entity – except for its vast Maorification, like anything the Climate Commission now puts out and gets wrong, so somewhat besmirching Maori Science, before it strikes its own limits.
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 12:57pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    As the owner of a number of water tanks I set my own standards for water quality and have every intention of comtinuing to do so.
    
    12 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:07pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Right so simply starting a small and efficient national water quality “flying squad” to do regular audits of all local water supplies was too hard? Instead create massive division, mistrust and expense with a bloated Zimbabwe style racial water quango! Way to go Labour! ?
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:44pm
artemisia

Covid-19 Delta outbreak: Bleak festive season for unvaccinated Northland DHB staff made redundant

Herald today (paywalled).

The article sets out some DHB staff numbers.

Nationally, 226 people remain stood down, 140 have resigned and 814 have had their employment terminated. These figures include 44 doctors, 418 nurses and 72 midwives…

I wonder how many do actually face ‘a bleak festive season’ and how many let out a huge sigh of relief. Suggest that depends to an extent on household circumstances that also apply to other impacted sectors, with education coming to mind.

For example – households with an earning partner, demographics (average age of practicing midwives – 47, thousands of teachers already over pension age), willingness to deal with workplace stress due to increasing workload. And more of that coming. And summertime too.

How many will return to their old sector when the rules change? (Will the rules change?)
33 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:16am
- Fletch
  
  Makes you wonder. These are health professionals, who are obviously more informed than the general public. And if they are refusing to get the jabs then there must be good reason.
  
  18 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:15am
ClanMcleod

KK it’s completely insane and quite frustrating that this isn’t being picked up by media or more importantly, the wider public. If they become aware of this then the compliance will finish and so will the career of Ardern and her bevy of experts. It can’t come soon enough. Even more data to support what you have posted above here from Eugyppius.

“The mRNA vaccines aren’t very safe; they cause a wealth of severe side effects, particularly in the lowest-risk age cohorts. These side effects outweigh the risks of SARS-2 infection for everyone under 40; for those in good health facing the vastly milder Omicron, there is really no reason to be vaccinated.”

All as predicted many months ago by those who were shut down and vilified. Worth reading in full.

https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/sars-cov-2-loves-the-vaccines

Also:

“Preliminary UK data: Triple vaccinated SARS-2 positives are more than four times more likely to have Omicron than unvaccinated.
We should be calling for a total and complete shutdown of vaccinations until our public health representatives can figure out what is going on.”

https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/preliminary-uk-data-triple-vaccinated
38 6
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:16am
- kowtow
  
  Our Media is owned by the govt .
  
  The other day it was announced how much this gurnermunt spent on consultants , that’s just another way they are buying influence and desired results .
  
  Think about it .
  
  36 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:37am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  “If they become aware of this then the compliance will finish and so will the career of Ardern and her bevy of experts.”
  
  Exactly why it cant happen.
  
  Dear Leader will declare victory over Covid, we will be World leaders, etc etc etc
  
  Borders will have to remain closed, least the lie be discovered. Hermit Kingdom.
  
  The problem is that the “vaccines” if you can even call them that, don’t work.
  
  We don’t have the natural immunity that other Countries have, so even mild versions will hit us very hard.
  
  We will likely see a rise in autoimmune and other problems amongst the heavily vaccinated.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:05am
- cha
  
  “Preliminary UK data: Triple vaccinated SARS-2 positives are more than four times more likely to have Omicron than unvaccinated.
  
  Because they’re immune to Delta, not Omicron. Omicron is able to evade immunity generated by past infections and vaccines. Delta can’t.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:23am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Not quite true, the delta variant certainly can evade vaccine mediated immunity, to the point where it was only 2 or so months ago that we noted that the vaccinated population was suffering more cases per 100K than the unvaccinated population for all age groups except the very youngest. It could also evade natural immunity far far less readily (20-30 x less in various estimates) but, as I recall, naturally immune people are rarely infectious if they do contract the disease again.
    
    Natural immunity also works against Omicron (immunity from a case of delta or beta that is) but less well than against the earlier variants. Vaccines also work a bit against Omicron, but wane rapidly according to the latest (pre-print so not peer reviewed yet) paper.
    
    As noted above, although many wish to claim that the vaccinated indulge in riskier behaviour and so are more likely to encounter the virus in the wild, that has not, to my knowledge, ever been more than, at best, anecdata. A good-sounding explanation that fits with the narrative, but not as yet remotely scientific.
    
    And unless that is the entire explanation (and needs to be convincingly demonstrated) then the default explanation has to be that the vaccination itself renders people vulnerable to infection with this new variant; and there are several feasible reasons that could explain why. If true, this is a dangerous situation, because if a more lethal variant emerges, we could be very badly exposed with ba heavily “vaccinated” population with little natural immune system function against the new variant left.
    
    Like the heart and other issues, why aren’t these plausible scenarios investigated and either properly dismissed or plans made to deal with the issues that arise ?
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:26pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I disagree cha. Natural immunity after infection with delta gives good protection against other variants. If you’re jabbed you have an increased chance of getting omicron. The vaccination seems to be causing negative efficacy.
    
    https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/sars-cov-2-loves-the-vaccines
    
    0 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 30, 2021 9:36am
NeverMindTheBollocks

I went to get a takeaway coffee yesterday, from a grungy hip & happening cafe. The counter was by the front door. The tattooed young man was very polite as he explained that it was corporate policy that no vax pass meant no service. Never mind that the risk (in windy Wellington) was minuscule, or that I offered to wait in the street. A small thing in & of itself, but a slap in the face to a law abiding, tax paying native citizen of this country. I’m fed up.
57 5
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:22am
- Inandout
  
  Wild Bean gets my money now, just throw on a face covering and get your coffee and tasty eats. My wife and I used to haunt cafes but now the table spacing and passport demands just make it a hassle. My wife’s hairdresser just quitted her job of 20 years because she refuses to spend another summer trying to breathe and speak through face masks. Oh, and my cousin said on his trip north he noticed less and less face mask wearing the further north he went.
  
  31 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:35am
- Surely Knott
  
  I ordered takeaway Vietnamese sandwiches for the family online through menu log . It had an automatic disclaimer saying you must have a passport. I rang them up to check if that was indeed their policy which it wasn’t, no vax passport needed for takeaways. He was very polite and welcoming and happy to have my business, and I went to the counter inside to collect and pay. And will be going there again 🙂 worth hunting out the good businesses.
  
  28 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:47am
  - mawm
    
    And shaming the bad – those retail stores where no government mandate exists for denying entry to those without a passport. I see Smith and Caughy’s has a sale on. I wonder how many will read the sign at their entrance banning the deplorables.
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:58am
Russ the Muss

This is correct KK, I keep banging on about our lack of foresight and future planning.Another article in the Herald today. I’m paraphrasing, stating we may beat Delta(dubious claim) but MIQ is a worry with Omnicron, we need to keep it out. FFS when are people going to realize we can’t keep Om out? When are we going to realise the dominant global strain will be endemic in NZ and will be mostly vax resistant? This Zero COVID horsesh$t is still haunting us! You cannot run and hide from this thing forever, there is no locking the border solution that is viable!!! Eventually when u open up u are back to square one, I just cannot understand how other smart people cannot see this logic? I’m flabbergasted!
34 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:25am
- ClanMcleod
  
  I read that article, and yet again the voice of doom Michael Baker, who is loving his time in the spotlight, is given a platform to drone on and on and on. This is his time. It is the peak of his “career”. He doesn’t want to let it go to the detriment of the whole country. The man is a complete waste of oxygen.
  
  “Yesterday there were 18 new cases detected in the community. That’s the lowest number since October 1, according to epidemiologist Michael Baker, who said elimination of Delta is possible.”
  
  Here he goes with the idiotic idea of elimination! This was put to bed a year ago but the fool is still having wet dreams about it. As for the low number of cases, did it never occur to him that their are low case numbers because nobody is getting bloody tested??? It’s Xmas week, everyone is on holiday. You would have to be mental to risk getting a dodgy test that comes up positive and wrecking your own and your close contacts’ break.
  
  Baker should be told to just stfu. He is our version of Neil Ferguson but the media keep giving him air time. It’s ridiculous.
  
  42 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:20am
  - Russ the Muss
    
    Yup, agreed Clan. I wonder how many people had a bit of a ‘cold’ over Xmas but didn’t get tested as they didn’t want to get forced to isolate. TBF for some people isolating from family over Xmas would be welcomed, but for most this was never a geor, so I’d expect a small spike in the new year. Anyone want a bet that Om will be in the community before Feb?
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:16am
  - GJM
    
    No way am I getting tested for the Rona. It is not like there is any treatment beyond “take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.” I can do that myself.
    I can’t afford to take the time off work. Us few nett taxpayers have to pay for Grant’s money printing.
    I know a lot of others with similar opinions. Only the Karens and those who have to have a test will get one.
    
    13 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:24am
  - oldfella
    
    Clan: and testing figures were down on Sunday because it was a public holiday, and most testing stations were closed! Just as well we’re not in the middle of a real pandemic. Eh.
    
    13 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:27am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Strange it is already here, only fully vaccinated allowed into the Country.
  
  Let me simplify, the only way it can get here is by fully vaccinated travelers.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:09am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep, and now omicron is here in the community, brought in by a fully vaxxed individual.
    
    “The case arrived on a flight from the United Kingdom via Doha on 16 December and is fully vaccinated with a mRNA vaccine
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458777/covid-19-omicron-case-was-active-in-the-community-ministry-of-health-confirms
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 6:49pm
    - mawm
      
      It’s a live attenuated virus – like used for smallpox for decades.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 6:59pm
- Fletch
  
  May as well be trying to hold back flood waters with a garden rake….
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:28am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Jacinda & Labour have no moral authority to carry out the long list of uncampaigned-for policies being rammed through parliament.

An absolute majority does not make her an absolute monarch.
59 5
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:28am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Jacinda should look at what happens to people who think they are Absolute Monarchs.
  
  Charles 1, Louis XVI, Kaiser Wilhelm for a few examples.
  
  38 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:13am
  - mawm
    
    Nicolae Ceausescu seems more appropriate.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:02am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yeah, but they did it wrong ///
    
    7 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:06pm
coge

State mandated vaccine passport segregation is damaging NZ society and business. If more (jabbed and unjabbed) refuse to comply it will be dropped.
46 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:35am
- Rich Prick
  
  I think many, who never signed up to be Cindy’s Brownshirts, have grown wary of asking to see my “papers”, if the last few days are anything to go by. I haven’t had to produce them once, and I’ve been out and about quite a bit.
  
  33 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:18am
  - DeepBlue
    
    The fundrainsing response to the boxing gym in Auckland was a bellwether pole of public sentiment.
    
    Should worksafe go around the country slapping $12k daily fines on cafes this would only hasten the end of the vax pass.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:53am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Just say NO. It ends when enough say NO.
  
  26 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:31am
freemark

But, but..misinformation. Cindy said so.
24 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:45am
- sooty
  
  And how many times has she been right? None!
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:57am
Tony

The whole stupid traffic light system will be completely redundant when Omicron gets here, because most of us will end up with Covid, vaccinated or not..

I give it another three months tops for the traffic light system.
.
34 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:56am
- pdm
  
  Hope so Tony.
  
  It has always been Mickey Mouse and unworkable.
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:29am
ecco

So much for ‘expert’ Wiles bleating on about case numbers being down for covid in a recent article. I know for a fact that test results are taking over 2 days to come back in Wellington. The reason is NOT people not getting tested, it’s clearly NOT ENOUGH STAFF on at the Wellington lab SIOUXSIE. That’s Jacinda and Ashley’s Health department responsibility. This is NOT the time to run a skeleton staff just because it’s holiday time. It’s the time to RAMP UP STAFFING LEVELS if you think Covid is a thing and you’ve just opened the Auckland border.

I know of a person who travelled to Auckland on 16/12, got a heavy cold and covid symptoms on return to Wellington on 20/12. Attended a family gathering of 25 people with people in their late 80s in attendance on Xmas eve, as his cold symptoms were subsiding. Cold persisted and decided to get a test at the Wellington centre 2 days ago. Apparently there was little queue at the test getting tested.

After going through sheer hell, waited TWO days to find out he was negative and hadn’t infected the rest of that family group. He tried to ring the testing centre number at around 5pm yesterday to find out what the hell was going on. Everyone had buggered off home at the testing centre and the call went to voicemail. Recieved test result this morning at 7.13am. Some two days after the test was taken.

So the Wellington lab skeleton staff make people wait for 2 days, making it 2 nights of overnight waiting. UNACCEPTABLE. I surmise that the lab staff took off at 5pm and came in early the next day to make up for that. Hence the 7.13am test this morning.

Imagine how much covid could have circulated in Wellington waiting another day if that test had come back positive. Running a skeleton staff at the labs at a crucial time after opening up the Auckland border is just another blundering example of the inept Ardern government and the hapless Bloomfield’s NZ ministry of health.

Also, whilst I’m at it, the banning of rapid antigen home test kits in NZ by Ardern and Bloomfield, is verging on criminal negligence to the NZ public and also to the many businesses who would rely on these things to keep people safe and not rely on the incompetence of the NZ MOH.

Sorry such a long post but people need to know that these statements the government’s ‘experts’ like Wiles are putting out there in the media are all smoke and mirrors for an inept response to covid that is costing NZ billions. Not to mention the untold stress it’s inflicting on it’s citizens. Trying to put the blame on NZ citizens and not the useless government systems.
45 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:57am
- Nickc2
  
  Arrogant incompetence on the part of the MOH and a distinct lack of attention to detail by Cindy, Chippy and Blossom. We’re in the midst of a pandemic FFS and these bastards go on holiday and leave Kelvin Davis in charge.
  What a joke and an insult to a nation!
  
  38 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:32am
  - sooty
    
    The joke is kelvin Davis!
    Why can’t you get self tests, it’s all about control!
    
    21 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:01am
    - Nickc2
      
      The last time he was in charge during holidays, his mates burnt down a prison FFS and he wouldn’t attend the scene. What calamity could he possibly oversee this time?
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 11:12am
      - Paulus
        
        The destruction and reconstruction of the burnt prison has not even started yet.
        The committee have not decided what to do.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 1:25pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      ” We’re in the midst of a pandemic FFS”
      
      Actually Nickc2 we’re NOT. Well, not a health pandemic anyway – it’s a political/scam testing pandemic.
      It was breathlessly announced yesterday on the so-called “news” that NZ had reached the massive number of 50 DEATHS in TWO YEARS from, Covid – that of course, included one who was killed by a shotgun blast and was found Covid positive by the coroner.
      50 Covid deaths pales into insignificance when the deaths from the common ‘flu are usually 5 – 600 per year.
      Bring on Omicron and get it over with.
      
      20 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 11:24am
- Russ the Muss
  
  Obviously u have never worked in Wellington. It’s cultural and runs deep that everyone goes on leave for a 2 to 3 week break. Good luck trying to resource up over this period. It’s literally not possible. At best you may get close to yur existing workforce, but everyone has checked out, the city is dead, nothing is open and the baches of taupo and the kapiti coast are full of our dear public servants.
  
  18 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:21am
  - ecco
    
    Agree with you on Wellington Russ. Dismal place with abysmal weather year round which Wellingtonians turn a blind eye to. Getting greyer and greyer with Labour in government and the increase in Roman sandal wearing , walk shorted civil servants.
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 4:36pm
mikenmildagain

How about something completely different from Covidism?
There have been one or two small discussions on Kiwiblog about the National Library’s plans to dispose of items that don’t fit within its collections policy.
I came across an interesting article recently from History Today, and agreed with the concluding sentences:

Even if libraries are cherished, the contents of these collections require constant curation and often painful decisions about what has continuing value and what must be disposed of. This process, difficult as it is, should be embraced. It will always be a challenge to sustain libraries, but their history shows that the library, as a concept, is infinitely variable. It is not yet time to write its obituary.
13 18
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 9:03am
- Cassandra
  
  I think the problem is that the judgement of the chooser is questioned. What is valuable to one librarian is not to another, and in this woke environment we’re likely to see something close to a book burning.
  
  36 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:28am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    The point of the article was to show that the collection, maintenance, disposal and even destruction of libraries is a matter of changing judgments, and has always been so. Without defining what you mean by a ‘woke environment’, you provide no idea about how we should collect, curate, and retain information of enduring value beyond a vague sense that you are against whatever the current policy might be.
    
    5 25
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:58am
    - washo
      
      You raise an interesting question. Because we don’t know what will happen in the future we don’t know what will be of enduring value. In the religious disagreements of the 17th century in England whole libraries were burned and many of the most useful resources only survived because someone hid them.
      I don’t know the answer but it is a good discussion.
      
      8 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:46am
      - Mike
        
        I think it is an issue deserving of more thought than ‘woke librarians are burning our literary heritage’, yes.
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 7:19pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  If the narcissistic princess hadn’t decided to impose her monarchy on us all and destroy the economy and many people’s lives we could have more discussions about those things. She created this “single source of truth”. She is responsible for it dominating almost every aspect of our lives. I am sure the majority of us don’t actually want to keep talking about this, but it is the most critical thing that has happened in the lives of almost all of us. It didn’t need to be, it’s all down to Ardern and her “experts”.
  I look forward to the day when we can focus more on the mundane yet important aspects of life.
  
  26 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:36am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Yes, you have made your obsession plain. No doubt when the covid crisis has passed you will be able to find other things to obsess you.
    
    4 34
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:43am
    - sooty
      
      Whinestone, it’s all your bloody fault!
      
      8 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:03am
    - Russ the Muss
      
      He could become a troll on a blog site.
      
      10 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:24am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      No milky, I’ll fade off into the peaceful, semi retired obscurity I previously enjoyed. With my boat and fishing, my garden and my golf.
      I didn’t want this fight, but fight I will until the very end. I’m not letting any narcissistic, wannabe “celebrity” politician compel me to do anything. I’ll see this one out.
      
      28 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 10:27am
- Jack5
  
  I’ll bite, Milky …
  
  History Today is a magazine rather than a scholarly journal, Milky. Waste of cash, but it’s probably at your library.
  
  The Vandals who are giving away scores of thousands of National Library books paid for with tax money aren’t doing some sort of overnight brain clean with cerebrospinal fluid, such as sluices the daily crap out of your head, Milky.
  
  It’s a Woke, Lefty move to change a public-servants’ role from archivists to selectors and cullers of the national book collection – and to shape the collection.
  
  The librarians claim they are running out of room, which could be economically fixed with relatively cheap storage at other sites.
  
  They admit they want room for Aotearoa, Pacifica and other decolonised books.
  
  Power, power, power ….
  
  Now balance History Today with some decent online sources, or the Spectator.
  
  27 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:43am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I didn’t think I should have to resort to credentialism, but there you go. History Today is a magazine for general readers, providing accessible articles from leading specialists. The article in the November 2021 ‘A Quiet Death’ is by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen, a professor and a researcher at the University of St Andrews. They have published The Library: A Fragile History this year. Among many other favourable reviews, it was called ‘a sweeping, absorbing history, deeply researched, of that extraordinary and enduring phenomenon: the library’ by Richard Ovenden, the author of Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack.
    But if you want to trawl through Spectator to find a rant by a journalist who knows more about libraries than these men, please go ahead.
    
    3 10
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 10:12am
- Reid
  
  Communists re-write history when they take over a nation, so do facists.
  
  We’ve seen it happen three times in the 20th century.
  
  Why does anyone think something different is happening now when the re-writing is happening again today? It’s not just in NZ, same thing across the Western nations.
  
  But nothing to see?
  
  11 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:18am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Diversion? The National Library I believe considered this a few years back.
  
  4 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:49am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  If it’s not on the internet it doesn’t exist for most of the population. Libraries are just a strange little cult obsession now as far as I can see.
  
  3 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:06pm
pdm

Labour downticking troll is out of bed early today.

Is that you Mikey?
24 8
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 9:13am
- Nickc2
  
  Have you noticed there are two of them now?
  
  14 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:44am
Warren

Government mulls fix for tax law that looks into who stays at Bach.
Kiwi families who own beaches through trusts could face compliance headache this year with IRD requiring disclosure of all family members that stay over. While this is under paywall the gist of the message is quite clear the Government wants more taxpayers money.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/government-mulls-fix-for-rushed-tax-law-that-looks-into-who-stays-at-the-bach/HZCLSYWOC6HQAKSWXIIXOANZJM/
It is a pity that Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson don’t start at the blatant loss of taxpayers money they have inacted with the money they have paid out to their buddies in political bribes like the Waters, dumping of unemployed into the public service and the contractors employed at hugh costs to to help put bad law in place, before going after families that have their Bach in Trusts.
35 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 9:20am
- sooty
  
  Pardon me, but what do the government gain by knowing how guests, how many nights the bach is used?
  Do you have to name each and everyone or just family x?
  With all the new trusts rules to comply, why not just take it out of the trust?
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:08am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Just include those family members as trustees. Our Trust is non profit, so easily done. [deleted].
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:19pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Looks like I can not say bad things about the Labour Govt. Wonderful, just bloody wonderful
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 3:51pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Good luck to them enforcing that rule.
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:54am
- KevO'Brien
  
  I suspect this is a less sinister than suggested. A technical issue may have arisen.
  The article, paywalled, has a caption:
  “The rules have implications for many of New Zealand’s approximately 180,000 domestic trusts, but especially on trusts that own holiday homes where income is generated to cover running costs”
  
  Generating income puts the owner/trust in the position of having to file tax returns for the the assessable income. That devolves into apportionment of costs among all the users. A further complication is that family members may be sharers in any net income and could their personal use be relevant?
  
  3 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 12:00pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    If the bach is owned by a trust (no such thing as someone “owning an asset through a trust”) then the trust (not the beneficiaries) will be up for tax on the income.
    
    This is all the same whether it is owned by a trust, a company or a person. Possibly the marginal tax rate might be different …
    
    Offsetting this are costs eg rates and power and maintenance and stuff. If “you” (the trust) rent it out for 10% of the time, then 10% of the costs is what you get to claim. So I guess that’s where this (“who used it when”) comes from.
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 12:31pm
    - rouppe
      
      Agree. Maybe they’re trying to find out how many people other than trust beneficiaries have used it to assess whether “in kind” value has been generated but not accounted for.
      
      Like letting your mates use it for a week, that sort of thing.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 2:02pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        It can be that complex. Trusts also face the problem of who is taxed on the trust income. That follows the Trust Deed and the income may all fall to be taxed as the Trusts at 30% or some or all distributed to the beneficiaries and taxed at their personal rates.
        
        1 1
        Report
        December 29, 2021 5:20pm
- Paulus
  
  I read today that there are 160,000 Trusts.
  How many are undiscoverable as they cover multiple ill defined land ownerships.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 1:29pm
nz_aj

I thought this headline strange. It appears you can’t say stabbing anymore. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/person-left-in-critical-condition-after-disorder-incident-at-mission-bay/ZAH2ET3EV7OCQVWC2ELQOVUZIU/
21 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 9:30am
- JimBobJoe
  
  So we have had media reports of the Commancheros buying pads in the suburbs around Mission Bay… I wonder if its a coincidence we have a stabbing on the beach at Mission Bay with them in residence near by?
  
  50 to 60% probability its a Commancheros prospect involved on one end of the knife or the other…
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:11am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Nope; Orwell’s newspeak is the way to go now. Drownings are “water-related incidents” and the riot at Waikeria last Christmas (which has cost at least $25 million) was an “inmate disorder event”.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 11:51am
  - Scooter
    
    Bashing/murder at home is now domestic harm incident.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 30, 2021 1:14am
Jack5

The writer, Keri Hulme, had a sad end after a long spell of dementia.

If anyone posting on Kiwiblog got through her novel, The Bone People, my guess is that it would be Milky.

Well, did you, Milky?

If you bought a copy, is it still on your book shelves, or did you set it in plastic and use it for a door stop?
15 6
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 10:04am
- Biscuit
  
  Jack, I got almost as far into Hulme’s book as I have ever done with David Foster Wallace’s ‘Infinite Jest’…
  
  One day, one day, I will read both to their bitter ends.
  
  Not THIS day, mind…
  
  11 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:46am
  - kevn
    
    @Biscuit/Jack5… Bit like The Luminaries tome. I slogged to the end. Wonder what the movie was like?
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:18am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  I’m pretty sure I read it and decided I wouldn’t bother with any other Booker Prize winners but it was a long time ago.
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:58am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I found The Bone People to be incomprehensible, but plenty of other Booker Prize winners are great novels. Try Wolf Hall,The Remains of the Day or The Ghost Road.
    Or ask Jack5 for his opinion, and then ignore it.
    
    10 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:22am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I read it, but didn’t enjoy it.
      It would have benefitted from professional editing (cutting out at least a third).
      
      Other Booker Winning novels worth reading:
      Bring up the Bodies; The English Patient; How late it was, how late; Schindler’s Ark; Hotel du Lac.
      
      15 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 12:09pm
  - lifesgood
    
    I read it a long time ago and I thought it was quite good but every other Booker winner I’ve read has been abysmal. I don’t bother with them now. They are always pretentious twaddle. Hulme never wrote another thing worth reading and it took her around 12 years to write The Bone People. I have no idea why she was acclaimed.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 11:52am
    - washo
      
      Wolf Hall is very good.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 12:59pm
    - Bea Rossini
      
      Hulme wrote some short stories and a novella I think. One of her shorts was a NZ short film – Hooks and Feelers. Starred Brigette Allen. Good watching. I’m not sure why Jack5 is choosing to attempt to bait MM on this – a bit puerile. Hulme is a celebrated N Z writer- show some respect.
      
      1 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:39pm
- Pharmachick
  
  I read it decades ago. Thought it was okay – the kid sees a lot of violence though. I used to try and read a few Booker Prize finalists each year, but stopped in the 00s when they became too political/new school.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 12:34pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    That is just about the universal response I get when talking about the Booker. Like many, I tried to read The Bone People and could not really get into it.
    
    Booker used to be a good indicator of novels worth trying, but for the past quite a few years seems to be an indicator of those NOT worth trying. My wife who is an even more avid reader has the same response though she still tries a few of the booker list each year, some sort of penance possibly. She has even published her own book online, without gaining any significant sales unfortunately.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:44pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy. IMHO the last truly great winner, and a heck of a lovely book. Plus most of what JM Coetzee wrote. I haven’t kept up for several years now.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 3:27pm
- Fletch
  
  We had to read The Bone People for 7th Form English class. The teacher gave each one of us a copy to borrow. But gee it was a heavy book, especially to lug around in your bag. I never did finish the whole thing. Only got a few chapters into it.
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 1:07pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Christ, why do high school English teachers always choose the WORST books. There’s lots of great Shakespeare, but some wag always assigns a Richard or some other twaddle. Or Wuthering Heights, FFS I will *never* forgive my 7th for English teacher for assigning that crap (Death of a Salesman and Of Mice and Men however ? ??).
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:34pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      By the time the eldest daughter hit high school it was solely NZ authors & poets who were being championed.
      
      “Not another Fiona Kidman,” she fumed….
      
      (although she did enjoy “The Vintner’s Luck” and thought Elizabeth Knox gave a great presentation to her English class).
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 5:07pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        Mr Pharma was stuck with Coriolanus in 7th form (admittedly, he’s 18 years older than me and was at a quite nice Public school in Scotland, so maybe the teacher thought to “elevate” the conversation ?)
        
        The Vintner’s Luck is pretty good IMHO.
        
        Have just been informed that unlike NZ teacher s that get a range of books to choose from (IIRC it was 5-7 to choose 3 for my 7th form English class), for O-levels and A-levels the national UK body sets the texts. A pox on the house of who set Coriolanus even if it was the early 1970s
        
        4 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 6:04pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I didn’t enjoy reading “Wuthering Heights” in the 5th Form…. but I now realise I had excellent (but very different) English teachers in 5th, 6th & 7th forms.
      
      I listened to it (Audio Books) a few years ago on flights back from Norway to NZ and really enjoyed it.
      I had forgotten much of the story.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:09pm
      - lifesgood
        
        I didn’t enjoy any books I had as texts at school. Have since read most of them again and enjoyed them. I think it is the painstaking analysis that put me off books used as school texts.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 7:56pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I wouldn’t wish dementia on anyone so I was saddened to hear of Ms Hulmes death due to that illness.
  As for her book, I did read it. ‘’Portentous crap” is a good executive summary of my opinion of its merits.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 3:57pm
Benedict Yu

I can report that as I reach further into the back blocks of the west coast there is no vaccine pass scanning. Merely a bored glance. And mask wearing is not really an effective thing.
38 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 10:08am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The west coast of the south island is a generally backward area. Lots of anti-1080 signs and a culture that has developed around getting the government to pay them to exhume deceased miners, and not to mine coal or cut down the remaining forests. A fair few obsessed with catching the last of the whitebait before its all gone. Hard to find a decent beer as well.
  Magnificent scenery.
  
  7 21
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:25am
  - Jack5
    
    Wuz them Coasters chewing tobacco and spittin on the sidewalk, Milky?
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 12:18pm
  - Inandout
    
    m&m, and they generally vote Labour on the West Coast.
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:13pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Several of my extremely smart peers came from the West Coast, one becoming VC of a Canadian university. It’s a different place but not a backward place. Was renowned for ignoring “6-oclock closing” and having warning systems in the mountain passes to detect cops coming from Chch.
    
    14 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:17pm
  - rouppe
    
    That must be why they have huge rates of community transmission of covid.
    
    Oh wait…
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 1:58pm
Biscuit

This chap didn’t win at Awapuni the other day either:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1474950825784926215
8 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 10:20am
- mikenmildagain
  
  He chose the right event for his streak. Doing that at the Basin Reserve or Wellington Stadium these days would get you severely bashed by the security guards.
  
  5 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:27am
- pdm
  
  Was that at Awapuni Saturday? I did not notice it and think I saw every race – got 13% of the early quaddie.
  
  At least he stayed by the outside fence unlike the idiot at Trentham last year or the year before.
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 10:37am
  - Biscuit
    
    Yep, pdm, during the last race on Boxing Day (which was Sunday not Saturday, if I may quibble!).
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:19pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  No number or colours. The public could not place a bet
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:25pm
Jack5

Milky usually keeps up to date with anniversaries, but he’s nodded off today…

Let’s not monk around. December 29 is the 105th anniversary of the murder of Rasputin, and 851 years ago today knights killed Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury.
9 4
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 12:15pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Marvelous film Becket with Peter O’Toole as Henry and Richard Burton as Becket.
  
  Then The Lion in Winter with O’Toole again and Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitane.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 12:20pm
Rusty

How come none of Barry Crumps books were turned into movies?
Though I have a feeling the woke/cancel culture will probably make sure it never happens.
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 12:43pm
- Fletch
  
  I think there have been a couple. His book Wild Pork and Watercress was adapted into the 2016 film Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
  
  Hang On A Minute Mate was also adapted into a TV movie in 1982.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:31pm
  - Rusty
    
    Forgot about that -thanks
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 6:24pm
    - Bea Rossini
      
      Yes – Taika Waititi directed the movie.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 9:09pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    The scenery and the farmhouse/shed that were used in Hunt for the Wilderpeopke are round the corner from us in Ahuroa. The buildings were remodelled a few years ago.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:19pm
Fletch

It looks like the final cypher message from the Zodiac killer has been solved, 51 years after it was sent to authorities.

https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/fbi-confirms-zodiac-killers-infamous-340-cipher-has-been-decoded-and-his-message-finally-revealed/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1oQLPRE21o
2 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 1:04pm
- Mike
  
  Was it Ted Cruz?
  
  1 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 8:18pm
Warren

Isn’t it funny we have low numbers of Covid-19 Delta over the last couple of days and the experts are crowing we can eliminate it now only to have the numbers double today 48 with in the community .
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-outbreak-delta-could-potentially-be-eliminated-as-cases-plunge-to-lowest-since-october-while-border-cases-spike/YFJHCMEFVL6LRMSO5KSSS56Z2Q/
Some much for Michael Bakers prediction that this could be the start of eliminating the Delta strain of covid-19.
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 1:30pm
- Hard Cheese
  
  Even if the numbers did reduce to zero, what did it take to achieve? 4+ months of lockdown, -3.7% drop in quarterly GDP, businesses closed, hospital and diagnostic backlogs, ongoing mental health problems. The fact that Baker is even talking about it as being some sort of creditable achievement and viable strategy shows you how what sort of an idiotic bubble he lives in.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 9:50pm
greybeard

Can someone please advise me: if I become infected with CV-19 , vaccinated or not, and get through it OK am I then permanently immunised? ( i.e could I catch it a second time? )

If I am immunised , is that not a good thing?
Would that not be the ideal situation for the majority ?

Interesting that the Govt does not publish a running total of those who have contracted and survived CV-19.
9 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 1:40pm
- rouppe
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases
  
  90.5% have recovered
  9.09% currently active
  0.36% deceased
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 1:54pm
  - mandk
    
    Except we know that the 0.36% number doesn’t mean much because we don’t know how many of the 51 deceased died with the bug and how many actually died because of it.
    
    13 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:27pm
    - rouppe
      
      That is true. Some became a covid statistic after they died once the blood work was done.
      
      I was trying to be somewhat succinct.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 5:38pm
      - fernglas
        
        There are two specific examples I can think of; the child under 10 who was tested after death because a contact had it, and a guy who came home with terminal cancer, was taken from MIQ to hospice care, where he died from cancer, and Bloomfield announced that as he had tested positive, he would be a Covid death.
        The only reliable way of guessing the number of fatalities in which Covid was a principal causative factor is by looking at excess deaths. That doesn’t help in NZ because in 2020, for example, there were less deaths than usual. For the 6 months around lockdown, all cause mortality was down 11%. So for NZ, Covid has saved lives.
        
        6 0
        Report
        December 29, 2021 7:07pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      I am wondering why my uptick or downtick options are greyed out despite the fact that I have never seen your post before. Someone please tell me why.
      
      0 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:39pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        You probably have to log in again
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 30, 2021 7:21am
  - greybeard
    
    Thanks Rouppe: I will have to use Google a lot more !
    Actually I am still interested in possible answers to my questions about immunisation, as opposed to vaccination.
    To me, “vaccination” means nothing more than having had a needle stuck in one’s arm once or twice, with no discernible benefits.
    “Immunisation” on the other hand is a whole different ball-game.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:19pm
- cha
  
  Interesting that the Govt does not publish a running total of those who have contracted and survived CV-19.
  
  Didn’t look very hard did you, sport.
  /
  
  We publish details about every person with COVID-19 (confirmed or probable) in a downloadable spreadsheet below. For privacy reasons, this data only includes:
  
  Date potential case was notified
  Sex of case
  Age group of case
  DHB where the case lives – listed as “Managed isolation & quarantine” for border cases
  If the case is related to overseas travel
  
  This file covers all cases from 26 February 2020 to 29 December 2021.
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-case-demographics#case-details
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:13pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Get an antibody test – oh wait, they are banned
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:28pm
  - cha
    
    oh wait, they are banned
    
    I thought a man like yourself Stevie would see an opportunity in the market to get one approved and make another fortune.
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/454635/covid-19-the-lab-in-a-box-which-determines-immunity-response
    
    5 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:45pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Invest in ANYTHING this Govt can fuck with? Highly unlikely.
      But you go for it, I don’t even want royalties!
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 3:48pm
- Ed Snack
  
  I don’t think the situation vis-a-vis Omicron is really clear yet. If you have had one of the elite variants, you can catch it again but that is very unlikely and if you do it is likely to be mild and you won’t be very infectious if at all.
  
  For Omicron, a previous delta or earlier case is protective but not as much. Again, it does seem at this point that any symptoms are likely to be mild but you may be more likely to be infectious.
  
  Likely to have better data on all this in a month or two. There is data now, I’m not clear on how good that is yet.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 3:01pm
- mawm
  
  Greybeard – the answer is not a simple yes or no. It appears that you were permanently “immunised” before the Omicron variant came along. Now there is a great deal of discussion about omicron. In vitro testing with sera from previously exposed individuals is showing that the resistance is not cross reactive for omicron.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 7:12pm
Benedict Yu

I read this opinion piece by the “chief sustainability officer” at BNZ.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/green-business/300478909/reaching-netzero-emissions-means-all-hands-to-the-pump-for-nz

In fact I read it twice. It is about what BNZ is going to do to reduce emissions in Aotearoa. By using finance. The implication is this is going to be subsidised finance. But I’m not sure. And we need “better data”. Not sure what this data is about. And there is no mention of the Emissions Trading Scheme.

It is incomprehensible waffle. Which seems to be typical for anyone with “sustainability” in their job title.
14 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 1:42pm
- H. Upmann
  
  Change banks immediately.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:36pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The most useful thing they could do is to sack everyone with sustainability or similar nonsense in their job title and spend the money sponsoring high quality STEM research and education.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:38pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The trouble with DoC..

limited capability around reading, writing and computer skills

Too many overqualified folks sitting in central offices; too few with basic skills out in the field.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458760/boat-crash-report-highlights-doc-organisational-deficiencies
12 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 2:10pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Forgot his lifejacket? Yer right. Travelling on the left. Port to port is the rule.
  This clown is prob an arrogant cyclist as well
  
  5 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 2:35pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    How the heck do you forget your lifejacket getting into a kayak and then travel on the wrong side of the river finishing up by manouvring into the path of a speeding jet boat? Darwin Award material.
    
    DoC’s problem appears to be hiring diligent idiots presumably being a self reproducing catastrophe. Remnicent of the Cave Creek disaster where its amateur builders thought a few nails would do the job of proper bolts.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 2:53pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Special people – invincible. Been on this harbour for nearly 50 years – seen all the fuckwits
      
      6 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 2:57pm
Truman lodge

Any bets when level 4 lockdown comes back? Go hard Go early to stamp out omicron.
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 2:31pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I would say soon – Lorde is here you know.
  Jaspinda hates Aucklanders, so level 4 could be 11.59pm Friday 28th Jan, announced on Friday 21st Jan about an announcement on Wed 26th Jan. Why? Just to fuck up Auckland’s Anniversary weekend.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 3:08pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I’ll make a brave call. There will be no more lockdowns and the vaccine passes will be gone by the end of 2022.
    
    14 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:12pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Chocolate fish, servo pie and a can of sprite?
      You have great faith in Jaspinda.
      
      5 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 3:55pm
    - Stu2
      
      I reckon the passes will be shown to be pointless by the end of march (maybe sooner). That will be because of high omicron infection rates by the double vaxxed
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:58pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      I think you might be right.
      
      https://eugyppius.substack.com/p/the-beginning-of-the-end
      
      0 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 30, 2021 9:55am
- Benedict Yu
  
  The vaccine will “stamp it out like measles” ???? ?
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 3:14pm
  - Warren
    
    If that’s the case Jacinda Ardern will retire midway into her forth term , the ? lovies ? will be forever grateful to the Princess that saved them.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 3:44pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I’ve got my Golden Ticket…so I’m alright.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 7:12pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    I read that in the UK measles jabs for kids are down below “”herd”” immunity.
    Stand by for a measles outbreak in UK.
    
    Then watch Jacinda dance on a pin.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 7:42pm
- Julie
  
  Unfortunately you cant not even if Michael Baker thinks you can!
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 6:46pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Boebert threw out some bait.
AOC took it hook line and sinker, and most of her arm. Let’s see AOC name the gifts of the 3 wise men – without using google. I doubt she could even spell them.
https://thepoliticalinsider.com/aoc-accuses-republicans-of-erasing-the-meaning-of-christmas/?
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 3:01pm
Pheobe

Just having a quick scan through trademe, you never know when you will find something that you didn’t know you needed. Came across a crocheted Jacinda Ardern doll, complete with Podium. Starts at $199, but has a buy now of $299.00. Now that’s an expensive pin cushion.
8 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 3:26pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Mike will buy it, he needs another doll//
  
  5 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 5:22pm
  - Mike
    
    Mike Hosking? I suppose he might be enough of a weirdo.
    
    1 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:15pm
fernglas

Just a word for the timid. I had Covid, it was fine, got double vaxxed to travel, and have now had the booster purely so I can get out and about in silly places like France, Austria etc. I feel worse from the booster than I did with the virus. But in both cases I have had worse hangovers. Nothing to fear unless you are fat, old, or otherwise very unhealthy. Nothing much you can do about age, but if Jacinda had got the average Kiwi to knock off 10kg since the pandemic started, it would have been more effective at preventing hospitalisation and death than the vaccines themselves. It seems that it is more socially and politically acceptable to vaccinate children than to tell their parents to stop being fat pricks.
16 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 3:48pm
- fernglas
  
  Gratified to see Bob Jones agrees with me:
  https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2021/12/sir-bob-jones-amazing-treaty-of-waitangi.html#more
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 3:54pm
- dcrane
  
  Their official govt website still says nothing about avoiding Vitamin D deficiency or the boosting of zinc to fight a viral infection.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 30, 2021 3:41am
Surely Knott

Auckland moves to Orange. Without a vax passport you can now have a “public or private gathering” of 50 people in a space with more than 1metre per person area.

So what is a gathering. Can a gym owner open to his private members if he has less than 50 in a space. Why is that not a gathering. Because it is excluded.

I can hire the restaurant for a gathering of 50 people. So why can’t the cafe initiate the gathering and open the whole cafe as an unvaxxed gathering if there is only 50 at a time. Because the law specifically excludes “gathering for the purpose of a business or service” including gyms and restaurants.

The definition in the law says: Gathering “means people who are intermingling in a group but excludes people who remain at least 2 metres away from each other, ”

Gathering includes “a gathering held in a defined space or premises of a workplace (other than a vehicle in use as part of a public transport service) that have been hired for the exclusive use of the gathering by a person (other than the person who manages or controls the defined space or premises); but”

So you can hire out the whole cafe, but the business person cannot be the one who hires out or decides to have a gathering in their own space! ???!!!!

Gatherings “excludes a gathering for the purpose of a business or service at—(i) office workplaces; and (ii) ordinary operations at retail; and
(iii) gyms; and (iv) courts and tribunals; and
(v) education entities at normal operations”

So following the science you can have 50 people in a room gathering for faith and singing – a known super spreader. You can have a gathering for “a community club” so presumably you could have a gathering of yoga people gathering. But “gyms” are a business – so no.

How is this legal?
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 3:55pm
- Surely Knott
  
  As a community club the Head Hunters will be able to gather with 50. But Oliver MMA will be charged $12,000 a day for opening to the same number of people.
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 4:04pm
  - Truman lodge
    
    Great you understand they are a club..
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 9:13pm
- Julie
  
  Its all going to be irrelevant soon now that omicron is in the community.
  Maybe they should have rolled out boosters more aggressively and certainly child vaccinations.
  Still Cindy will be worried about her wedding! History shows numbers claim very quickly.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 6:42pm
Warren

Maybe the Police should go back to policing their Cities and Towns and start gathering imformation like Police officers did in the 1950’s / 2000 instead of jumping to every whim our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wants.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/investigation-launched-after-mystery-gunshots-in-whang-rei.html
If anyone thinks our Cities and Towns are safe since Labour become the Government you are in fairy land , because more lives will be lost if we continue down this path as our Prime Minister only thinks of herself.
12 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 4:08pm
Ban Everything

At the risk of coming across as thick, can someone explain to me how someone has three negative tests in MIQ, so is released and then tests positive for Omicron two days later.
What the hell is the point of MIQ?
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 6:43pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  They must have caught it from someone in MIQ just at the end of their quarantine.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 7:15pm
  - artemisia
    
    Yes, also a bit unclear from the media but sounds like they left MIQ after 7 days and 3 neg tests but then needed to self isolate for 3 days. First day out 26 December, party time. Sadly back in lockup again.
    
    And good luck getting all those clubbers to stay home with NY Eve coming up.
    
    10 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 7:27pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Hipkins said this 8 days ago ““We are also making a temporary change to MIQ that increases the length of stay from 7 to 10 days. Currently returnees do their final 3 days of isolation at home. Bringing those final three days back into MIQ reduces the risk of the virus entering the community.”
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 7:56pm
      - artemisia
        
        The MIQ change was announced 21 December. Clearly was not followed in this case. Why?
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 30, 2021 5:35am
    - Stu2
      
      It was into MIQ on the 16th, so out 7 days later on the 23rd but then positive on the day 10 test (the 26th). But they didn’t get their result that day and went for it before they found out. No doubt they were supposed to self isolate until the test result arrived.
      
      The testing delay didn’t help, but not suprising at this time of year
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:03pm
    - alex Masterley
      
      That is just peachy. The media will now collectively wet themselves, Barker, wiles and Hendy will be wheeled out to predict doom, and the PM will be nowhere to be seen.
      Then a suitable period after NYE we will be shoved back into lockdown.
      I hope the “DJ’ has to share a floor with some of our less desirable members of society before he gets shunted onto the next flight back to the UK.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 8:32pm
- fernglas
  
  The point seems to be to ensure that even those who don’t have the virus on arrival, leave with it. But who is this non-citizen who not only got a place in MIQ but then failed to self-isolate until the follow up test? Judging by the places they visited, I suggest someone young with a few bob and a sense of entitlement. DJ Friction, perhaps? https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/127405535/two-rhythm–alps-music-festival-headliners-drop-out-due-to-impacts-of-covid19
  However, it is out now, so best of luck.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 29, 2021 7:28pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yes, extraordinary how NZ citizens cannot get a MIQ spot to return to NZ, but celebrity music folk can just flit in and out of the country and there’s always a spot available.
    
    They must have good ~~contacts~~ luck/
    
    15 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 29, 2021 8:55pm
    - Bea Rossini
      
      Be more specific in your lies.
      
      0 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 29, 2021 11:24pm
fernglas

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/28/catching-omicron-covid-variant-may-protect-against-delta/
If this is right, then NZ needs to let Omicron loose as soon as possible; a much weaker version that protects against Delta, at a time when vaccinations are proving ineffective.
9 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 8:53pm
WaveyDavey

Lockdown in 3… 2… 1…
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 29, 2021 9:31pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Where were the parents?

Jordan Peterson on free speech and free thought »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 37.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Links

Finance Minister Willis is sitting on a gigantic fiscal hole – her Budget 2024 figures contradict Treasury’s long-term fiscal forecasts
Point of Order
Maybe It’s Me
No Minister
Another cop out
Hompaddock
Small but promising change
Utopia
New puberty blockers advice and how radioactive the Trans debate has become
The Daily Blog
Open mike 26/11/2024
The Standard
Property Rights for “Sesame Street”
Not PC
Top 14 Predictions for Round 11
Stats Chat
BISHOP BRIAN TAMAKI
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
Treaty Principles Debate
NZCPR
Justice in Brazil
No Right Turn
The transgender agenda sunk Kamala
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
What does “reciprocity” mean in New Zealand laws?
Croaking Cassandra
Media Link: “A View from Afar” on the US elections.
Kiwipolitico
This will not end well
Offsetting Behaviour
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

editor@kiwiblog.co.nz

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: