This is a re-post of an article originally published on pundit.co.nz. It is here with permission.
New Zealanders do not easily talk about social class: that there are groups in the community who connect together, live different lives and have standards of living very different from the average – who are different from, but still a part of, us. We may recognise such groups exist, but we generally avoid using the notion or incorporate it into our social thinking. (A bit like Victorians being chary of talking about sex.)
Once we would say that New Zealand was a ‘classless society’ or, more cautiously, that we were the least class-bound society in the world. We may have been but the data suggests this is no longer true if it ever was. Often all we meant was to compare ourselves with the English but they are hardly a useful benchmark in the whole world.
We have a curious dialogue which implicitly equates Māori with the lower classes, drawing attention to their low incomes, their poverty, their unemployment, their poor health, housing and life prospects and their high incarceration rates. All true on average, but demeaning to many Māori, who have good jobs, decent incomes, reasonable health, their own homes and high social status and who are proud of their culture. It is true there are proportionally fewer of them than for Pakeha, but it is also true that there are many more Pakeha in total who are low in the socioeconomic rankings.
Covid forces us to face up to the disconnected. A lot of the public dialogue is about Māori who are not vaccinated but there are more non-Māori who are not. On Sunday 17 October we had to vaccinate another 216,000 New Zealanders to meet the 90 percent first-dose target, but there were only 194,000 unvaccinated Māori. Vaccinate every one of them and we would still be short. (This data refers to first-dosed only. Currently, only 66 percent have both.)
However the 90 percent target is not a magical threshold above which all difficulties disappear. It still leaves another 421,000 unvaccinated (plus 216,000 equals 637,000 in total); we need to get to as many of them as possible. The vaccines are not totally effective even though they reduce substantially [Note to Sub: please underline ‘substantially’] the chance of getting the virus, substantially the chance of transmitting the virus and substantially the chance of suffering serious health effects (including death) from the virus. [Note from Sub: I added the latter ‘substantially’s] That means that if we have any residual unvaccinated group, we are all still vulnerable (but much less so than if we were not vaccinated).
Who are in this residual group? We know that they are generally younger than average. The rates of the vaccinated are high among the older groups (including Māori), but begin falling off below the age of 50 and are disappointingly low for the under 35s. We have data for four ethnic groups. Three – Asian, Pasifika and Pakeha – are much the same. But the Māori young are below the youth average, dragging down their ethnic average.
We don’t have class data – its indicators are rarely collected – but from what we do know, the vaccination rates are low in the underclass (not just gangs). We cannot ignore them or we end up with a significant residual among whom the virus can mutate and spread to the rest of the population.
The underclass is less connected with society as a whole and so we have to think about how to vaccinate them differently. Strategies which treat them as middle-class, middle-aged adults are not going to work. Re(re)ad Rosie Scott’s novel Glory Days about the Auckland underclass and ask yourself how the vaccination drive connects with them. (Hospital Emergency Departments should be offering vaccines; that’s a point where the underclass connect with the system.)
We have to abandon the conspiracy of silence about class. ‘Connection’ is probably crucial. Both the Asian and Pasifika communities are doing well with their young – better than Māori or even Pakeha. Allow me to speculate.
Pasifika families are generally strong and often deeply involved with their church. The churches have been at the forefront of vaccination drives including connecting with their young, despite some of their church gatherings having been superspreader events.
Asians are a very heterogeneous group. But again the vaccination rates are high among their young. It may partly be that some Asian countries were badly hit by the SARS epidemic and those Asians are more prepared for Covid. I am also struck by how cohesive many Chinese families are. Perhaps like the Pasifika, they are much better connected with their young. (That may also be true for Indians and South East Asians but does not apply, of course, to overseas Asian students.)
Yes, there are a lot of cohesive Māori and Pakeha families. But there are many who are not; the least cohesive are among the underclass. There is the challenge.
The Māori community may not articulate their challenge in quite this way, but when they say they need registers to run their campaign they are implicitly saying they have lost connections. And yes, they may need to approach their communities differently from the conventional middle-class middle-age Pakeha approach (which may or may not also apply for all the working class either). All power to Māori: kia kaha!
The Vaxathon was targeting groups who are disconnected from middle (older) New Zealanders. Instructively, while about 30 percent of Māori are not vaccinated, only 16 percent of those vaxathonated were Māori, indicative of just how harder it is to deal with the particularities of the unvaccinated rump.
Sure, there are the vaccine deniers, but their number are minor compared to the disconnected. Since the underclass are different, we need to pursue them differently because we need to keep the residual unvaccinated group to an absolute minimum in a post-elimination Covid age.
And when we have got them all, we can lapse back to a public discourse which ignores class.
Footnote: Vaccine deniers are inconsistent when they use the same medical science on which the vaccines are based for their other health purposes. This is nicely illustrated by an Arkansas hospital faced with an unusually high number of employees declaring they could not get the vaccine because of religious convictions that would not allow them to use anything created from fetal cell lines in the development and testing. The hospital informed its employees that they could be granted the religious exemption if they signed a paper attesting that they did not use, and would not use, any of the 30 commercially available products that also used fetal cell lines. They included Paracetamol, Pepto Bismol, Aspirin, Tums, Ibuprofen, Ex-lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, the MMR vaccine, Sertraline, Omeprazole and Azithromycin. The number of those claiming religious exemptions declined drastically.
Brian Easton, an independent scholar, is an economist, social statistician, public policy analyst and historian. He was the Listener economic columnist from 1978 to 2014. This is a re-post of an article originally published on pundit.co.nz. It is here with permission.
117 Comments
So the unvaccinated are now declared to be the under class, nice!
Mr Dave Dobbyn was right this has changed from a fight against a virus to a fight against people.
So congratulations Mr Brian Easton you have now declared the undesirables!
What a sad bunch of totalitarian toadies Kiwis have turned into!
Agree gypsymanz.
The battle lines are drawn between vaccinated and unvaccinated. As we have been told again and again the virus doesn't discriminate on ethnicity or religion, just on vulnerability. The fact is without the vaccine you are vulnerable.
Understanding the demographic breakdown is only pertinent in being able to craft a better strategy to connect with the unvaccinated and bring them in to the vaccinated fold. The same holds for why folks are declining free vaccinations. I'm only interested because it helps unlock their beliefs - I don't have any interest in judging or labelling, it's simply counter productive. Let's not alienate the unvaccinated any more than they already are it won't help.
Is it true that Covid-19 doesn't discriminate on ethnicity? See https://teara.govt.nz/files/27772-enz.pdf for a list of epidemics in NZ. In just the first 50 years of our history epidemics include Measles, Flu, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Smallpox, Whooping Cough, Typhoid & Tuberculosis. These epidemics killed Europeans and Pakeha but disproportionately killed more Maori and Pacifica. There is a reason most Maori have some Caucasian DNA - preferential survival from epidemics. The opposite effect applies to 'the white man's grave' in Africa.
Maybe if NZ history was better understood then Maori would be first in line for Covid-19 vaccinations.
First: using the term 'underclass' is not an insult, unless you believe that class is equivalent to moral character.
Second, that is not what Mr Easton said. He did not say the unvaccinated are an underclass; he said that the underclass are relatively under-vaccinated. Which is true.
Third, I don't see any authoritarian strain in this article at all. He urges community involvement and patience in the vaccination drive, and at no point insults the unvaccinated.
In your desperation to be a martyr, you are failing tragically at reading the actual sentences on the page.
'When we reach 90% vaccination, will all restrictions be lifted?' Jacinda's Response:
https://mega.nz/file/1ZpmxCwI#qtGG0uDRfTMdP8TeccRK8076YWdDKRi6Adz-qTOZP…
Shows what an appalling public speaker she is when not reading auto cue and pre prepared speeches. Tons of over the top hand gestures. At one point she's actually wheeling her hand around in circles. Then remembers to come back to the stock standard lines, ah yes back to the security blanket of those sound bytes she's fed.
Jacinda Ardern is dangerous.
She's dangerous because she's not very bright but she wields untold power and it's gone to her head big time.
Her cabinet are amateur. James Shaw is another loose cannon. As is Marama Jackson.
When the muppets voted for her in 2017 thinking she'd save them and Winston put her in power I knew this country was doomed.
Apart from getting a jab my biggest regret is not permanently leaving NZ four years ago.
NZ will be quite a different place by 2030. Poorer, its inhabitants poorer, living costs or of control, green policies adding so much regulation and cost to everyday needs. By then the people will be even more brainwashed to accept socialist policies designed to take away your freedom and tell you everything about what to do.
Jacinda... harbinger of doom.
the last time i heard major discourses on teh Underclass - was nearly 30 years ago studing to be a social worker and having to read a certain Charles A Murray -- him of the Bell curve fame !
its a worrying state of affairs when not only are we talking about a social underclass, but we are further enhancing their poor situation in society by threatening them with exclusion from virtually any social activity bar food shopping and healthcare.
Is it weird that Act are now further left than Labour :)
"We cannot ignore them or we end up with a significant residual among whom the virus can mutate and spread to the rest of the population." And there it is, the current official line that implies that those opting out are solely responsible for the continued spread of the virus. This is why there is distrust.
It's totally bogus. Even if we are 100% vaccinated, the virus will spread among the general population. It is actually more likely to dangerously mutate in vaccinated people, because there is a large evolutionary pressure to overcome the high but incomplete protection that the vaccine provides.
The virus faces no such pressure in unvaccinated individuals because it's already so damn effective at spreading.
If we get a worse variant, it will ironically partly be because of the vaccine.
100% not achievable and neither is 90%, even if for one moment MoH & DHB recordings could be taken as sufficiently accurate. But more importantly even if 90% is reached that does not guarantee the main cause for concern, the emphasis on hospital services being overwhelmed, will be removed. The government is simply flying a “90%” kite to draw attention away from this probability. There are simply too many vagaries and uncontrollables at play, pockets of unvaccinated by community, religion, ethnicity, choice, disaffected etc etc who collectively can easily create the said overrun and then add to that, there will be a proportion of those vaccinated, who will still require hospital care. Just need to think back how the White Island tragedy did near to this, and there has been no significant improvement to these specialised services since.
100% of observed 'mutations' in viruses and animals occur due to loss of genetic information, not the gaining of genetic information.
Variants might weaken the potency, even cause a flame-out. In any event natural immunity is vastly superior to replicating Ugur Sahin's selected proteins at Covid-19's spike-cleave using messenger RNA.
Natural immunity is multi-layered. Unlike patients on the vaccine-program, there is NO reason to believe people with natural immunity will be susceptible to ANY mutations.
In fact it is probably advantageous to have as many healthy people with natural immunity as possible?
The above article is impertinent at best.
look at some of the data coming out of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world
This vaccine is, at best, effective at preventing serious sickness and death. It has never been claimed that it can reduce risk of infection and transmission. It does not do that.
The idea of mandating it and requiring a vaccine certificate makes no sense from a public health perspective.
As for the comparison with other vaccination programmes, bear in mind that this is the first time we've rolled out mRNA type vaccines so looking at previous successful vaccinations for a comparison is apples and pears.
See a bit of critical assessment of UK data…
Brutus Iscariot "it is more likely to mutate in vaccinated people because there is a large evolutionary pressure to overcome the high but incomplete protection that the vaccine provides."
Evolution is effected by the following simple process:
The Virus:
RANDOM VARIATION of the Covid Virus genome within a particular environment followed by SELECTIVE RETENTION of that variation if it benefits the survival ( and thus the spread ) of the Delta species.
The Delta variant, which is what we are all focused on now, began as a random variation of the original Covid virus in the slums or countryside of India and was certainly well retained (and thus spread) by the now modified Covid virus because it helped that virus species to survive . These viruses reproduce in hours, not years as humans do.
An effective Human Response to the virus:
There is no time to wait for a human random variation of the human genome that would effectively deal to the Delta Virus because even if such a variation did arise in some individual human it would take generations to immunise the human race as a whole. History tells us that only human scientific intervention, developed by those humans who have themselves been selected (probably accidentally) for their scientific intelligence, can devise such a method.
So-called "herd immunity" ( there is in fact no evidence it actually exists) can't be relied upon because history tells us that in The Black Death in Europe around the year 1348 the death count was estimated to be a third to a half of the European population (30 to 40 million died) and the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic killed 9000 New Zealanders in a population of one million (equivalent to 45,000 NZers today). There was certainly no effective herd immunity or scientific intervention in these cases.
Thus, the human scientific intervention method is the only one we can turn to. Human intervention has been proven to work effectively in the last 70 to 80 years: there are dozens of diseases we have all been vaccinated against in this period that we can prove have worked effectively. And it was revealed last week that at last a vaccination against Malaria has been developed that could save millions of lives; are those opposing Delta vaccination saying we shouldn't deploy this new Malaria vaccine.
"it is more likely to mutate in vaccinated people because there is a large evolutionary pressure to overcome the high but incomplete protection that the vaccine provides."
The above is misleading.
The virus can "mutate" [lose information] and reproduce according to its genome.
However, there has been NO virus in the HISTORY of humanity that has been observed to naturally gain information (evolve).
Bingo. As previously said the selection pressure seen with antibiotic resistance is completely different to the evolution of stronger/faster/sexier vaccine variants. Preventing 1 strain/phenotype/genotype from causing disease can lead to replacement with another eg HPV and pneumococcal bacteria. No suggestion that replacement =" more dangerous." And if that clown comes along quoting Marburg virus in chickens pse punch him in the mouth (I hate it when people link to stuff they haven't read).
Fully agree
If we were to vaccinate 100% of the population there will still be spread, new variants and sickness.
There will still be vax certificates, restrictions and erosion of freedoms.
There will be more and more boosters and therapeutics you'll need to take to keep your vax cert up to date.If you don't then you'll also be an anti-vaxxer.
What there won't be will be a control group of people who haven't taken the vaccine.
There are underlined points in the article which have been proved dubious (ie. questionable) in other countries and those same points are looking somewhat questionable here with every passing day.
There are two lines we could plot on a graph -1) numbers of vacinations 2) numbers of cases. Both are rising.
Logic would imply that at least one line would be in decline if the underlined statements of (opinion/fact?) were emphatically the case as the author insists.
Yes. This is the elephant in the room. By the time we complete this vaccine rollout probably one week before Christmas. We will have to start the booster campaign almost immediately. The "waning effect" means that those who got there vaccine in August/September will need a booster in february & a further booster in August 2021/2022. I wonder if we will get to the "magical 90%" for these boosters?? The answer is no it is doubtful we will even hit 70%. Why? As a lot of people who take the initial vaccine are reluctant to take the booster. Why is this? Because the vaccine does its job at preventing hospilisation death for at least 12 months. The booster is only to boost your immunity against infection/transmission. So in effect you are taking a booster to slow/stop the spread. A lot of people won't bother. I'm sweet they will think, i'm still protected against hospilisation/death. No need to get the booster. As people are selfish. There is no team of 5 million.
Now that we have allowed Jacinda to implement a system that excludes people from society, all that needs to be done to ensure ongoing compliance is to declare non-boosted people as "unvaccinated" and turn off their vaccine pass. As has been done in Israel. Although note that even in Israel (and every other place with a vaccine passport) non-vaccinated people still have the choice of taking a covid test and uploading the negative result to the passport for entry to places. Not so in NZ. Jacinda has truly created a class of "deplorables". Shame on her.
it's also worth keeping in mind that a not insignificant percentage of people in highly vaccinated countries are hesitant to take a 3rd jab after experiencing adverse reactions (or at least perceived adverse reactions) from their 2nd jab.
But by not taking the booster I guess that makes one an anti-vaxxer and thus one of the underclass? Same for the 4th, 5th, 6th boosters in 2022?
If the outcome of contracting Sars-Cov-2 is same as that of Coronavirus HCov-229E, i.e. a common cold, then the caseload means very little. That's the whole point of vaccination. Singapore saw a decline of severity rate since they opened up (down to 1.1% now). On the other hand, the challenge is to support a rise of absolute severity numbers.
I understand your frustration, but you have to enter into the bizarre mental world of conspiracy theorists, GV 27. You can't have a science-based reasoned argument with them - as soon as you don't buy into their cultish beliefs, they will accuse you of being "sponsored" by the deep powers that are hellbent on removing your freedoms or installing secrets microchips into your arms. They apply the same criteria to the overwhelming majority of iimmunologists and epidemologists - according to these conspiracy theorists, they must all be sponsored by these evil secret powers. You are wasting your time with this kind of people.
I bet the majority of things you would probably consider 'conspiracy' are all out there able to be proven. Labelling people in this way because a select few might have some crazy theories is actually dangerous.
I suppose you're going to tell me that the pharmaceutical companies aren't really funding media or government agencies and that's all a conspiracy theory or that Anthony Fauci is actually an upstanding citizen, that actually cares about the common folk. Come on, make my day.
"Labelling people in this way because a select few might have some crazy theories is actually dangerous."
I'm pretty comfortable telling people who think everyone who disagrees with them is being paid to point out how nuts they are that they're actually just nuts.
No sponsorship needed. Although New Balance, if you're reading this, I could do with a bit more arch support.
Why do all lefties not understand science? Death has always been defined as "underlying cause". My grandfather died FROM cancer, with the flu. Using this (correct) definition even the CDC admitted it's death figures were 95% overstated. Hence grand juries now being convened in the USA to prosecute these liars.
In NZ two people have died since August 2021, WITH Delta from 2,400 cases. This is a 0.0 % or at most a 0.1% death rate, lower than the flu. C19 is the flu Brian. Please read some research.
I had covid last year and it is basically the flu. A very, very bad flu albeit. Wouldn't want to go through it again but on the other hand would rather face that then get another jab.
3x as many people have now died from the vaccine in NZ as died from covid. Go figure.
We're being asked to take one for the "team" because our useless govt didn't beef up the hospital system. Human collateral being told to inject our bodies with an experimental vaccine which is actually not that effective, all because of our inept, fish n chips shop, student MPs.
not sure why you addressing it to me, I am pretty much saying the same thing as you are. Govt literally scapegoating unvaccinated people because of govt incompetency , and moreover they want others (vaccinated people ) to hate the other part. Since recently I found the following true - if something which the govt or RBNZ is responsible for can have multiple outcomes with different levels of social severity - they will almost certainly choose the worst option.
Look up the role of a denominator in extrapolating risk.
The number of people infected with C19 in NZ in total vs number of people infected annually with flu. Then look at death rates per 100 000 infected people - oh wait, there hasn't been 100 000 C19 infections yet!
Not sure you're on the right track. 2400 cases (at least, that we know of) is a reasonable sample size from which to extrapolate death rates from assuming the sample is representative of the wider population - my thoughts about hospital capacity not being challenged yet, would be the only proviso here.
I agree that the stats so far in NZ do not support this being as serious as the response suggests and even offshore, it's hardly the 1918 flu epidemic despite all the headlines. I wonder whether it has something to do with case numbers in NZ being low enough currently for the hospital system to cope. If it gets overwhelmed then death rates will climb (albeit maybe not as high as a lot of people have been led to believe).
This is not about an underclass.
Your problem Brian is that some young NZers, Maori and Pakeha, do not trust their elders and instead think for themselves. Some young NZers even believe our older generation are completely self-interested and have no regard for anyone else (climate change, house prices). Other cultures of more recent immigrants have not always had this level of education.
For a person over the age of 60 this disease is scary.
For a person under the age of 30 (and without high comorbidity) the risk from the disease is low and chances of getting the disease is not universal. The risk of injury from the vaccine is non-zero and there is suspicion that some of its ills are being hidden.
"For a person under the age of 30 (and without high comorbidity) the risk from the disease is low and chances of getting the disease is not universal. The risk of injury from the vaccine is non-zero and there is suspicion that some of its ills are being hidden. "
There's also a risk of serious ongoing issues after Covid has passed that is also 'non-zero' but it's funny how the vax bad crowd never want to talk about this bit. If it takes Formula One drivers - some of the most highly tuned athletes on the planet - months to get over it, then what makes you think your average teen knocking back litres a day of fizzy and spending hours playing video games is any better placed to weather a bout of Covid.
But sure, the vaccine is the only non-zero bit worth mentioning, right?
Over the past 28 days Singapore 86106 individuals have tested positive for Covid. 98.7 percent had no or mild symptoms. The teens and under accounted for 7260 of the total cases. Within this age group, no individual irrespective of vaccination status , irrespective of any pre existing medical history or fizzy drink intake has died , required intensive care, required ventilation or other, has required oxygen supplementation when warded and the majority if hospitalized are for observation or by non medical necessity , and generally if admitted stay less than two days in ward.
Try arguing the point I'm actually making. 13% of children in Singapore are overweight using a BMI metric. 39% of Kiwi children are overweight.
I know which population set I'd back to have a healthier immune system that's better able to cope with Covid.
You're also looking and what are quite short-term metrics when we know that Covid effects can linger long after the initial infection is gone.
I think the only time you would admit injection of experimental treatment should be voluntary and is beneficial would be on your deathbed full of blood clots or a heart issue that does not want to go away. But then, I would not put it past you that you would die screaming ‘heil Jacinda’…
That means that if we have any residual unvaccinated group, we are all still vulnerable (but much less so than if we were not vaccinated).
You can almost sense the author becoming aware of the cognitive dissonance required in order to believe this statement halfway through writing it, and adding the parenthesis afterwards to try and salvage himself.
The vaccine "substantially" reduces the risks associated with COVID-19, but oddly enough stops working in the presence of "the underclass".
Christ...
Its as if people really believe they are going to get a special form of Covid from non-vaccinated people. Currently 86% of adults in the UK contracting covid are vaccinated. But clearly with a different type of Covid than that being spread by the 14% of non-vaccinated people so its okay right?
Why do we even care if the young are vaccinated or not? Very few of them will get sick, end up in hospital or die. Why not just let them get covid, acquire natural immunity, and get on with life. This approach seems to be working in places like Sweden. Covid is a disease of the elderly and those with co-morbidities, so they are the only people who need to be vaccinated. Covid has a 99.7% survival rate, even higher if you exclude the elderly and already ill. We have had 2 deaths out of 2,681 cases, and one of those people was a 90+ year old person already in end of life care! So demanding that children and young people be vaccinated or face exclusion from society is complete overkill.
The commentariat here are usually pretty anti-woke, anti-trigger warning, big on 'why can't we call it as we see it?"
Yet the use of the word 'underclass' here seems to have really triggered people. Easton is clearly using at as a descriptor of class. Are we supposed to deny class? Is that the topic that is too delicate to mention for the readers of Interest, who are usually very keen on free speech? Is it the implication (which relies on misreading the article) that anti-vaxxers, including themselves, might be considered part of an underclass that is so offensive?
It may also be shaped by living in a Pacifica family and having two Māori distant relatives by marriage that I meet fairly often.
The other bigger factor may be my being an immigrant so I didn't grow up in an anti-Māori environment. The first Māori I met were long before I ever set foot in NZ and they compared to me, were wealthier, higher ranked at work, much fitter and even at that time more happily married. Since living in NZ I've met more multi-millionaire Māori and a few in the state housing adjacent to my home who might be called 'underclass'. I was brought up to be quietly proud of my family and that is the attitude I apply to ethnicity - just be proud of what you are. If I woke up tomorrow and discovered there was a big mistake in the maternity ward in Lincolnshire many years ago and that I was now Māori I would be proud of it and consider all others to be unlucky. But it is both rude and counter-productive to indicate any sense of superiority.
My feelings have little to do with my 'ethnic worldview' because I ain't got one and I feel very sorry for anyone who does. My feelings are influenced by whatever capacity for empathy I might possess.
1918 Influenza pandemic: at least 500,000 cases, nearly 9,000 deaths across New Zealand.
European death rate 5.8 per 1,000; Māori death rate nearly 50 per 1,000
1959 Tuberculosis epidemic:
Europeans, 4.1 per 10,000; Māori, 31 per 10,000
Will Covid-19 be the same with Maori mortality tenfold Pakeha?
My wife says "What are the Maori leaders doing?"
Question.
If the person is unvaccinated and will face severe limitation of freedom, lifestyle etc. WHY should that person pay the same tax as 'other class? The fact that Prime Minister is creating '2 classes of people' and openly admitting it is poor and unethical.
Brian forgot to mention the 'Overclass,' you know like the Dr. that has just lost their job for refusing to be vaccinated, and also as research shows the highest level of education (PhD.s) the more likely, as a cohort %, to be vaccine-hesitant.
Nice article cover photo by the way. Shows true professionalism at work. I'm sure it will encourage people to get vaccinated.
Well put Dale, I have read thru all the comments waiting for someone to raise this.
The most educated have given the jab a pass. While the govt makes out it is an underclass.
Easton is away with the fairies, he has gone low. Blame the poor.
Tertiary educated here. I gave it a pass. Not poor either.
Kind of how they treat Rogan. Like he is a dimwit. He ran rings around Gupta and Lemon. Showed them up to be the dumb shits they are.
Read an article titled "Who to Blame When Everyone’s Vaxxed?"
Our leaders are in race of 90% vaccination target and promising oasis to New Zealander's. Waterford, Ireland have 99.7% of vaccination rate. Every 18+ adult is vaccinated yet still cases are all time high and still surging.
Our beloved P.M is big fan of following what other countries do, don't know how she missed that. I think we will get mirage instead of oasis.
lovely! thanks (https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/waterford-city-district-has-state-s-highest-rate-of-covid-19-infections-1.4707344)
It clearly shows that this vaccination is an 'cardboard armor'. It is OK for a while and then just stops working.
No different to UK, Singapore.
Oh, the irony, the perceived histrocial underclass of the four nations (England/Wales/Scotland/Ireland) has the highest vaccination rate and one of the highest infection rates.
Well, there goes my Potatoes and Guinness remedy. Maybe now it's a co-morbidity factor?
Give it about 7 months. NZ will be on its knees. Interest rates up, inflation off to the races. Winter breathing down our backs and 3rd and fourth booster shots required or your vax pass is cancelled.
In the meantime covid numbers will start skyrocketing as it has in other highly vaxxed countries. Some will say but they wont get seriously ill. Time will tell. This Northern Hemisphere winter. I am just waiting to see how it all pans out. Staying out of the experiment.
Good video https://www.bitchute.com/video/qU5iPj4BBZjg/
The underclass is less connected with society as a whole and so we have to think about how to vaccinate them differently. Strategies which treat them as middle-class, middle-aged adults are not going to work.
And therefore, vaccination is a personal choice - you can only lead a horse to the water.
Hence all that talk about the 'how' summarises the crux of socialist ideology; a few has the power to hold the whole hostage and demand a ransom.
Socialism is the excrement of cilvilisation.
The victims of government are most vurnuble people on minimal wages like hair dressers. They must start from them self. They have to have 3 shots and everyday make test on covid before entering beehive. And once they misses then they will be fired(it is easier to elect new one rather than study to be hairdresser). Also after any travel they have to isolate in cacroah motel. So tired to see they travel around the world on tax payers money.
How about instead of trying to talk down to people with your use of the word "substantially" we start admitting simple, obvious facts like:
- The vaccine is experimental - This shouldn't be an issue.
- mRNA-based therapies are classed as a gene therapeutic unlike most vaccines – this shouldn’t be an issue and if it is, it should be brought out into the open.
- The vaccine doesn't use quite the same immune response as a normal vaccine – Obviously that’s why you use boosters unlike most other normal vaccines (I think it's up to 4 or 5 booster shots now in Israel).
- Natural Immunity is better than the vaccine – it always is but it also has substantial down sides in how you get it.
- Medsafe allowed Pfizer to skip parts of the approval process to get the vaccine rolled out – This could make it less safe but also it should be fine in a pandemic.
- Pfizer will NOT allow themselves to be culpable for any effects from their product in any way – Its experimental and they’re a commercial company, of course they don’t want to have to fight millions of potential cases.
- The "Comirnaty" vaccine is not in production yet.
- A lot of people have had adverse reactions to the vaccine - But is it worse than what would have happened to more people if they caught COVID-19?
- The vaccine won't stop the spread of COVID-19 in New Zealand.
- Our health system won't be able to handle the projected COVID-19 numbers even at 100% vaccination - We're in real trouble this vaccine debate is just a diversion.
- Internationally 92% to 95% of COVID-19 deaths had serious comorbidities that likely contributed substantially to the deaths.
- Over 99% of people would be fine if they're infected with COVID-19, with or without the vaccine.
- The lethality of COVID-19 is between a bad flu season and measles, with a lethality of between 0.1% and 0.8% which drops to about 0.007% for under 60-year old's.
- The epidemiologists were VERY wrong, COVID-19 doesn’t have the 2%-3% lethality originally projected.
- Any comparison with the flu pandemic of 1918 is misinformation, that had a lethality of about 10% which makes it 10 to 100 times more lethal than most bad flu seasons including the COVID-19 flu.
- Epidemiologists have been saying the same thing for the last 60 years, while I'm not saying we should ignore them they do seem a bit like chicken little at this point.
- The author, epidemiologists, the government, and their cheerleaders are all sounding like the emperor with his new cloths.
The biggest issue for a lot of the “educated anti-pfizer experimental therapeutic” types is that people like the author won’t admit what’s obviously true, start doing that and you might start getting people turned around to your point of view and possible start writing more interesting articles too.
Andrew Little, the Minister of Health has stated that he believes our health system can cope with any Delta surge. Presumably he has finally worked out, (as you say) that 95% of deaths ascribed to Covid (by hospitals and the media) are fake.
The sensationalist media did this to make more money. The hospitals also did it to make more money, (particularly in the US), from insurers. Not one, published researcher has rebutted the median IFR being 0.1% (J Ionnaidis), which is lower than the flu.
This is why NOT ONE COUNTRY has requested overseas help with their Covid patients and total world mortality has not risen. Deaths have been taken from the cancer column and put in the Covid column.
As someone who (humbly) has science and law degrees I am appalled at the moronic, jack booted fascists running this country. Our lovely country is being destroyed. Labour's actions are a disgrace to our scientific, legal, and political heritage.
So today I watched the presser and a Herald video of an Ardern interview from friday.
I saw no body language of regret. No matter what anyone believes, to be jabbed or not jabbed, their are real lives being destroyed by this woman and her cohorts now. Measurable pain for their families, for their children. Yet I did not see an ounce of squeamishness. Pity. Or distaste.
The mother of my grandchildren has battled to start her successful hairdressing business. She has four children to feed. Ardern has just 'mandated' her back to the benefit.
So much for fixing poverdy. But being a tough kiwi, my grandaughters mum will break the law with gusto. Any fine she will tearfully request to be overlooked. With 4 kids to feed she wont pay it. The system will be hacked. You wont break her.
The government have sentenced us to home detention. We are in level 3. Yet each end of our road is level 2. There is no way out. None. Zip. Unless one attempts a cross country tramp.
Its sort of hilarious really. Everyone up here goes into level 2 to get to the closest town 25km away. To go to a level 3 town is through many km of level 2, then 60km if you escape west, 80 if you head north.
The cops fined a neighbour $150 for going into our closest town. Yet everyone is doing it. The cops come and go.
If the government has become an ass. You just ignore them. The good citizens on our road are ignoring them.
I see a pattern here. To get gas, food and veterinary supplies, our government has the cops on our tail. Roadblocks. The mother of my grandees will break the law to feed her kids.
There will be vaccinated people on our road. Yet the government is actively trying to stop us accessing food and fuel. Scary stuff.
And when I say good citizens. Indeed they are. Through thick and thin, ie levels 4 to 2, they keep working. No handouts for them. Milk the cows, feed the stock. Earn export dollars. Provide milk for all the espresso and weetbix lovers.
And apparently not one vaccination amongst the 20 staff on the big property next door. Now that must skew your underclass theories Mr Easton and Ms Ardern.
Belle, please make sure you join VFF and stand up together. This government and particularly Ardern will find out the hard way what happens when you turn a decent democratic country into a divided, hateful dictatorial state. Those intelligent and still able to assess critically a situation being untenable will simply rise to bring things to a stanstill.
I have been told by my boss I need to take the consequences if I don’t want to get vaccinated about 4 weeks ago. Today, 4 guys off work really sick (all just had second shots the last 2-3 weeks) and I am on second last interview for a much better paid job that does not require me to battle getting onto a construction site without caccination. This vaccination drive will not end well.
I have accessed VFF CT, I have had a couple of busy days and need some time to download and print their stuff.
Check out the current weekly death stats for the UK or separately for England Wales etc. I didnt save the link. It was easy to find though. Something is going on. Up between 13 and 16% for each country, over the average from the last 5 years. Taking 'with covid' out its still up a lot. They didnt show that percentage, but gave real numbers. Remembering many of those with covid would have died of other causes.
Friends and family now getting heat as you are. Two pregnant nurses losing their jobs. They know whats happening with the jab and refuse.
In an interview with her doctor for an exemption, pregnant nurse says, you recommend I dont eat a piece of cold meat for lunch yet you want to inject me with an experimental jab, twice.
Dr agrees. But wont give exemption. She will lose her job she says. Evil is afoot.
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