I am very happy to report nearly my whole family has had at least their first vaccine. They got on waiting lists and apparently they have more vaccines than takers. Which is fine with us. We believe in science.

 

Interesting preprint about detection of covid variants in sewage samples from the UK.

I am happy this is catching on

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252867v1

Thinskin

 

Vaccines are really picking up in the US with 2.9 people vaccinated in a single day. That's two million more per day when President Biden took over.

And I thought this was just interesting but we probably won't get lucky because of it.

Bashar al-Assad and Wife Test Positive for Coronavirus as Syria’s Secretive Vaccine Rollout Begins

https://www.thedailybeast.com/assad...-as-secretive-vaccine-rollout-begins?ref=home

 

This is good news but President Biden and the CDC stresses this is not the time to let down our guard and if we are not careful COVID cases could be going up again.

New U.S. COVID-19 cases fall 12% last week, vaccinations top 2 million a day

https://www.rawstory.com/new-u-s-19-cases-fall-12-last-week-vaccinations-top-2-million-a-day/

 

Most of us are back to normal now, and Auckland back to near it.

Happily I think our vaccination program is picking up steam ,
so hopefully within the month ,
or at least a month ,
we'll have much better border protection/insulation.

Our government has decided to go with using just the one vaccine for the whole job ,. since it has got such good reviews ,
and since we are already fully set up for it.

Makes sense I guess.
No stuffing around training and retraining for a bunch of different things ,
different storage and distribution etc ,
and that whole circus.

No , they haven't put all thier eggs in one basket.
We have always had far more than enough of all sorts ordered ,
both to cover any problems or failures ,
and to assist our Pacific neighbours.
(that was stated right from the get go ,
particularly for the Cook Islands , Niue , Samoa , and Tonga I think)

Apart from that and helping any others when the time comes ,
there's not going to be any oversupply for a long time , so I'm sure no-one will be upset if we have to say , "thanks , but no more for us"

Also , obviously no-one knows yet how long any last effectively ,
or. ,
that all will be adequately successful ,
so they all need encouraging , backing ,
and a chance to show how good they are.

I'm sure everyone wants the best they can get,
from wherever it comes.

I think it will be good for our small country if everyone has the same known successful shot.
Then there's no need for any confusion ,
or overlapping ,
and IF boosters are needed ,
again , all will need the same.

Imagine dealing with half a dozen different scenarios , all needing different boosters ,
or whatever.

Young ones got this ,
oldies got that , health workers started with the other, school.kids got another ,
border worker go no.2
Quarantiners got no.1

Stop.
My head aches already

 

@thinskin might find this interesting since he's the first one to report about tracking COVID 19 in sewer water. But its definitely not good news for Texas lifting all restrictions.

Sewage Analysis Shows U.K. COVID Variant Spreading Fast in Houston

https://www.thedailybeast.com/houst...week-after-texas-mask-mandate-lifted?ref=home

 

Here they are going to allow pharmacies & doctors to give shots. That is a great idea as who would know better than them who is more at risk?
Yeah they went with 4 and even considering a 5th.
Wtf better still get some Canuck pharmaceutical companies involved making vaccine, typical government inaction on the real problem.

 

Don't think we're gonna win prizes for our vaccine roll out ,
or perhaps better labelled
our "vaccine drag out"

In spite of thousands of border and quarantine workers being at high risk ,
and
having about a quarter million doses already delivered and on the ground ,
in the three weeks since it started ,
our grand well prepared for program has managed just 18,000 first shots.

Considering they all have to have two shots
it seems a rather disappointing effort
after all the big talk Poli babble we're constantly fed.

Good job we invested in some very expensive super freezers.

Looks like they'll be holding an ever increasing stockpile for quite some time.

Shame they aren't protecting our borders


Oh , apparently we don't want to get ahead of supply.

we'll actually

why not ?

With enough already on the ground to protectect all border workers and flight crews , and their families etc , and surrounding vilnerables ,
plus active sports people and so on ,

surely it would not matter IF , somehow our so far regular deliveries have a pause .

Our border insulation and protection would be pretty comprehensive.

A vast improvement on the current and recent situation ,
constantly under stress , and occasionally failing.

It's rather sad that under preparation ,
and under performance
continue to be the norm ,
while repeated assurances and claims prove to be consistently "optimistic"
and often misleading.

As some commentators say
"it looks a bit of a fizzer"

"it looks very half baked"

 

I am not sure if this is good news or bad news because it could be they have abundant vaccines because the population of the state is fairly small or they have abundant vaccines because people don't want them. But anyway its a first.


Alaska Opens Vaccine Eligibility to Anyone Over the Age of 16

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alaska-opens-vaccine-eligibility-to-anyone-over-the-age-of-16?ref=home

 

Today is the one year anniversary of WHO declaring COVID 19 a pandemic and most all the news coverage is going back and looking at that as well as the death and destruction that followed.

But I always go back to this thread because if you read it you knew the pandemic was coming clear back on January 20, 2020. That and this thread amazes me because over the course of more than a year if you actually followed this thread every day you actually knew more about COVID 19 than most the rest of the world. Its been a terrifying, cruel, destructive, and deadly journey and its all right here thanks to slutwolf and all the other contributors.

 

This is interesting and tends to prove @slutwolf and New Zealand right.

Lockdown Rebound



Using Google Mobility data, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, an economics professor at Yale University, illustrated the economic cost imposed on the United States and U.K. after a year of “muddled, indecisive” pandemic response policies. New Zealand, which experienced a much sharper drop in mobility for a month during its initial harsh lockdown in April 2020 compared to the United States, has rebounded while the United States and the U.K. continue to experience a prolonged slump. “The best way to protect livelihoods in the longer term is to crush the virus first and only then reopen the economy,” he writes.

Foreign Policy Morning Brief

 

meanwhile:
As of mid day yesterday Auckland came out of level 3 , and the whole country is back to normal ,
level 1
and everything is pumping again.

No restrictions in any gatherings or (internal) travel , activities or crowds.

Alert Level 1 will be the norm for the forseable future , because that's the requirement to make all the nescassary border restrictions ,
control measures , like MIQ , Testing regimes , and the only one that really effects the public at large ,
the compulsory wearing of masks on busses and planes etc. legal and enforceable.

Every change has to be legally done here.
There is no arbitrary decision making.
(dictatorship)

The government is required to show due process , including expert consultations , which on a day to day basis , requires at least an order in council.

And of course , always giving us good , timely , well informed information generally ,
has kept the people on side.
(even if often delivered in a mush of annoying Poli-babble)

 

The joke of Ausie's "free travel bubble"

Are they really that desperate ?

Aussie states have been opening and closing its own borders between its own states like swing door pubs ,
yet trying to demand a quarintine free travel bubble with NZ.

**
Australia looks to Singapore for travel bubble after trans-Tasman stalemate
1:29PM • SOURCE: AAP
The Australian government is reportedly working on a plan to create a travel bubble with Singapore as doors to New Zealand stay shut.
*
Eastern Australian states have allowed Kiwis to traveling freely to Australia since late last year
(we'll actually on and off at their convenience):
but New Zealand is yet to reciprocate.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been frustrated with Australian states flicking the switch from open borders, or 'green zone', to closed, or 'red zone', on short notice in response to their outbreaks.

From that frustration, it appears the two countries are no longer attempting to work together on bubble arrangements.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says a goal of shared plans across the Tasman has all but been abandoned.

* ** *
Meanwhile at the same time

States and territories are chasing down potential contacts of a doctor who contracted Covid-19 while working at a Brisbane hospital.

Health authorities across the nation have asked for people recently in Brisbane to monitor their symptoms after the doctor caught the virus from a patient at Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The infection has caused aged care homes and hospitals in the city to enter isolation.

The doctor - who is yet to be vaccinated - had contact with two patients in the early hours of Wednesday before testing positive on Friday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters yesterday.
* ** *
Not long ago she was blatantly chastising NZ for not opening our borders as they had ,
THEN
soon after abruptly closed the doors to us ,
catching out a planeload on the way ,
so that on arrival ,
they were forced into isolation ,
instead of the free entry still being promised
at departure.

******
Any one of their many cases , or carriers , since trying to force free travel with NZ
could have been anywhere in NZ , traveling and spreading covid untill they were discovered ,
if we'd succumbed and opened our borders to Aussies for free travel.

That is a huge cost we are not prepared to accept.

Aussie might be desperate.
We are not.

We are close enough to reasonable vaccination protection , why would we rush it now ?

 

And from Aussie this morning.

New South Wales is rushing desperately to trace contacts of another new case.

**
A person who works in two hotels involved in NSW's Covid-19 quarantine program has come down with the virus, ending the state's virus-free run.

NSW Health said in a statement the source of the Sydney worker's infection remains unclear, and the testing of their close contacts is underway.
**
they are also concerned about recent travelers from Queensland

So that's two states currently with new problems.

Not ideal travel bubble partners

 

I do not know if there is really a problem with the the AstraZeneca vaccine but about a half dozen countries have now suspended its use due to reports of blood clots. And if there really is a problem with the AstraZeneca then its going to be a huge problem because Trump invested $1.2 billion to help develop it and has already secured about 300 million doses. And the AstraZeneca seems most suitable for poorer nations.

Ireland temporarily suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine
Health minister says ‘precautionary step’ taken after reports of blood clots in several adults who received the shot in Norway.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...pend-astrazeneca-vaccine-says-medical-officer

 

A shameful reality

Kiwi dad's horror as yacht sponsors, Wiggles, Hollywood nannies enter NZ .

David McCormick missed his daughter's birth, then her first tooth, first smile, and first time she crawled. Any day now, he will miss her first steps.

But he won't – touch wood – miss her first birthday, which is May 23, the day Aila and McCormick's Japanese wife, Misumi, get out of managed isolation and the baby he has only seen on video calls and photographs will be in New Zealand for-real.

As McCormick tried to reunite with his family, he watched from Auckland as an Avatar film crew got into New Zealand, followed by other film workers, then movie star Kirsten Dunst's nanny, then The Wiggles, then more than 1000 foreigners tied to the America's Cup.

With Covid-19 sweeping around the globe, New Zealand has earned the world’s envy for our low rates of the virus. Our borders have become the defence frontline – a point made when border workers were first in-line for Covid-19 vaccination – but strict border rules have meant months-long waits for New Zealanders wanting to get home.

To McCormick, serving out a three-month wait for an MIQ spot for his wife and daughter,
the “thousands” of non-New Zealanders allowed in were slowing things for families like his, who were trying to reunite.

“It is shameful that the Government has abandoned the core principle of our society, the whānau family over the corporate cash machine,” he said.

and not a rare case.

The Wiggles , , wtf
film crews , nannies etc before kiwi families to unite ?
?
1100 for the Americas Cup ?

 

Many of us have been concerned and wondering about all of this.
Finally the media is beginning to do its job a bit better.
Probably realising it's comming out anyway ,
and trying to save thier arse to some extent.
More on our Immigration NZ border controls.

What a sad, sick joke it has become

where foreigners watching the America’s Cup
can be approved entry as ‘critical workers’ during the Covid-19 pandemic
while actual critical workers are being refused.
more than 1000 people from overseas have been invited as ‘critical workers’ associated with the event, including representatives of more than 200 team sponsors and suppliers

*****
For the absence of doubt, co-owners of America’s Cup syndicates may be considered other critical workers’

How did that rule get extended to representatives of team sponsors and suppliers ?
*****

INZ is talking rubbish when it says it has “no discretion” in how to assess requests. Legally, it does.

Meanwhile, people with skills that are actually unique and not readily obtainable are being refused entry because INZ decides they don’t meet this rule.

The list is huge and growing ,
genuine actual critical workers
not just spectators

An equally scandalous situation exists for the families of critical workers in New Zealand who were unlucky enough to be outside the country when the border closed in March 2020.

Now, 12 months later,
some doctors and nurses
who are protecting our health during the pandemics
are still separated from their families overseas
who don’t meet the government’s criteria to be granted a border exemption.
These types of cases are inexcusable , indefensible , and inhumane.

If it’s okay for the government to relax its border exemption rules to allow the entry of
98 per cent of people requesting entry to ‘work’ on the America’s Cup,

why can’t it do the same to allow a few hundred family members (spread over a whole year) of critical health workers to join them here?

And the Wiggles being given exemption is even more rediculous.
Firstly we have plenty of reputable top class children's entertainers.

Then the Wiggles promoters booked them and sold tickets ,
without gaining entry permits ,
AND without booking MIQ places
As Requured.
So INZ granted them retro permits and
"found spaces" in MIQ to suit them ,
where there were No Spaces for genuine critical people for 2 months ahead.
WTF

Considering the contribution frontline healthcare workers are making, the Minister should be approving residence for them and their families, rather than worrying about how many managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) places their families might take up if they are allowed entry.

After all, if the government can find MIQ places for America’s Cup spectators and The Wiggles, surely they can find them for the spouses and children of our critical workers?

I entirely agree with this.

The whole border exemption mess stinks of favouritism and unfairness, in my humble opinion.

It absolutely stinks.

 

Every male in my family is a veteran.

 

A disappointing result confirmed;

AstraZeneca's under-fire COVID-19 vaccine has been dealt another blow,
with confirmation it simply doesn't work at preventing mild-to-moderate infections caused by the South African variant of the virus.

***
Also:

Most vaccine manufacturers expect they'll need to make booster shots as new variants of the virus emerge,
but they won't be available for months, at least.
Some medical experts have predicted COVID-19 will become endemic like influenza - another disease that is here to stay, constantly mutating to evade existing vaccines.

 

further to the above:

They concluded by saying that although development of second-generation COVID-19 vaccines against strains such as B1351 and P1 has begun,

the only vaccines likely to be available for the rest of 2021
are formulated against the original virus. Until then, the AstraZeneca vaccine is probably going to be the most accessible and cheapest coronavirus vaccine.

"Deliberations on the utility of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine also need to be made in the context of
ongoing global spread and community transmission of the B.1.351 variant
and the evolution of other SARS-CoV-2 lineages that include similar mutations," the authors said.

In early February, South African health officials paused the rollout of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to investigate reports that it offered little protection against mild-to-moderate disease. It switched to using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to immunize healthcare workers.

So yet again , a reminder.
This thing is not going away yet.

You still need to take responsibility for your own health and that of you family and community.

The magic bullet is not here yet ,
and particularly
if you're in a community with new variants
you still need to take the basic precautions at least.

But everybody needs to be wary
and vigilant.
A hell of a lot more are going to suffer the consequences of this curse yet.

You don't need to be one ,
and you certainly don't need to make your family