The case for vaccinating children

There has recently been a build up of peer pressure for vaccinating children for covid.

At this point, NZ has no official % target for vaccinations, apart from some wishful thinking of 90%.
Given that NZ voted for a rather shallow PM in the last election, it’s likely they haven’t set a target because they wont achieve it, and it would end up as a noose around their neck . (they haven’t achieved any target in almost every election pledge they have made so far)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/124499266/no-official-covid19-vaccination-target-and-plenty-of-uncertainty-before-herd-immunity-is-reached

Given that NZ simply follows behind Australia (without actually admiting it), it is worth looking at what is happening there.

Australia has mentioned they will open their borders when they have 70-80% vaccinated.
In order to get the % over 80%, they would need to vaccinate children over 12 years.
However this could backfire as it did with Israel.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/israel-shows-what-life-looks-like-at-80-per-cent-vaccinated/100394760

Pro’s
they will get less sick if they ever get covid.

Cons
They can still carry and spread the disease even if vaccinated.

Children are the least affected by covid, and have virtually no chance of been adversely affected with symptoms any worse than the common cold, therefore why would you bother?

Testing was pushed aside in the rush to get it to market. In the USA, the FDA approved the vaccines only for ’emergency use authorisation’ for 16 yrs and over. In the UK, the vaccine advisory board has refused to approve vaccinating healthy children aged 12-15 https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/UKs-vaccine-advisory-body-refuses-to-approve-vaccinating-healthy-children-aged-12-15/108-219631

NZ links are as follows https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/vaccine-report-overview.asp

https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/2021/08/17/nz-100-confirmed-deaths-2-per-day-on-average-100s-injuries-heart-attack-stroke-clots-important-info-on-what-you-can-do-citizens-register/

This site mentions the possible health issues as well. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01898-9

Vaccine Passports

This is likely to be the next ‘in’ thing in NZ. At present, vaccinations are been promoted via texts, Facebook, emails, pamphlets in letterboxes etc. As part of the campaign, vaccine passports have been mentioned, which implies you will need one to go to cafés, etc. In other words they are FOMO (fear of missing out) as a weapon.

These have also started to be a trend in parts of Europe and the USA. The reasoning behind this is a bit obscure, because been vaccinated wont stop you from been a carrier, therefore it’s a case of the Government forcing them to comply with groupthink.

Because of the obscure reasoning, it opens the door for speculation.
It could be simply a reaction to the public over reaction to covid, or there could be a darker reason why it’s been pushed.

https://rumble.com/vlle3a-powerful-australia-is-leading-the-way-into-global-tyranny.-resist-covid1984.html

Another issue is getting reliable information. A rather scary story was doing the rounds until it got discredited a few weeks later.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/australia-forced-vaccination-stadium/

There are those who would simply say you should trust your Government because they know best. I think that argument is lazy and patronising at best. also, history is not on their side….

Lockdowns -plan for the future

lockdowns are likely to be the way of the future for quite sometime, if not forever, given the sentiment of some people.

It’s therefore time to redesign your life to suit the new environment in much the same way that animals adapt to a new environment, and set yourself up for the future.

The first thing to do is throw out what doesn’t work anymore.

Number 1 on the list is team sports. Last year my daughters soccer team ended up playing half the season & they were lucky to get even that because of all the postponements and it got very hard to keep the kids focused and develop them as a team. Encourage them to do individual sports like running or cycling instead.

Planned holidays. These are now harder to plan and can easily be cancelled at a moments notice because of yet another lockdown. Then you are stuck trying to get a refund / postponements etc. it’s also hard on the kids and it doesn’t do you any good either. Do spontanous unplanned trips instead.

International travel. Yeah, nah, you could easily get stranded away from home with a dwindling amount of funds.

What Does work…

Individual sports. Sports like skiing or mountain biking are more likely to be available on lower level lockdowns. Walking, cycling etc can be done almost anytime. If you are goal orrientated, get the Strava app for your phone to record your progress

Unplanned day trips and weekend getaways. Make up a list of things that you could do over a weekend, and do them any chance you get, dont make excuses, just do it.

Projects around the house. plan to do these yourself, most of the big hardware shops have online guides on how to do things. Buy everything you need when you can. It’s also worth saving up a spare project with all the needed materials in case of a sudden lockdown.

Online shopping. It’s here to stay

Covid saga’s, another lockdown in NZ

New Zealand is currently under a level 4 lockdown in persuit of eliminating the covid virus.

This simply isn’t possible for various reasons, each reason on it’s own merits is suffice to justify that its not possible.

1/ New Zealand is surrounded by sea, so it’s theoratically easy to control the borders, but so far, there have been 11 border breaches. Each time this happens, it cost @ 1 Billion dollars a week to lockdown the country. In conclusion, this option isn’t feasible as the capability to keep it out just isn’t there.

2/ Even if you do eliminate it, it will eventually turn up again via an International traveller, which means locking down the country again. The only alternative then is to retrict International travel forever.

3/ Simply vaccinating the whole country won’t work. There has never been a vaccination that is 100%. Any virus mutates much faster than a vaccine can be created. This is why there is a yearly vaccine for the common flu and that it’s only effective for last years variant. Iceland & Israel presently have a very high % of their population vaccinated and the virus has come back with a vengeance.

Having said all that, New Zealand will likely carry on down the path of eliminating the virus. Kiwi’s are infatuated with their female Prime Minister who is a very good communicater and not much else.

To the average Kiwi, facts don’t matter as much as “feelz”. No one is happy with the latest lockdown, but no one is held to account for why it had to happen (again). It is notable the nationwide lockdown happened because of one confirmed case of the latest “Delta” variant.

The fact that the PM is slipping in the polls would have nothing to do with it ‘wink’ ‘wink’

In conclusion, NZ is going to become a lot poorer and isolated, and Kiwi’s are going to suffer a lot of pain, and it will take decades to repay the resultant debt. Whether they will ask why is another question, but given their apathy and blind obediance to a show pony of a PM, the image below becomes quite relevent .

Update 27 August

The NZ prime minister Jacinda in her latest speech from the podium has indicated there may be a softening of the elimination strategy

Your new Taliban 2.0

Shared from nominister@wordpress.com

Salaam Alaikum. You’ve been that friend who rejoices with friends in their good times and sticks with them through the bad times.  Congratulations on your purchase and installation of the new Taliban 2.0 Operating System. We realise that twenty years is a long time to wait for an upgrade but thanks to a donation of […]

Your new Taliban 2.0