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September 22, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 September 2021

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General Debate

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Ra Henare

safety obsessives
The western world has had the safety fear for many years.
You see it in the irrational fear from parents who drive their kids 100 metres to school.
Playgrounds with rubber matting and attempted elimination of anything that might cause kids to hurt themselves
and lets not get started on the ridiculous health and safety regulations.
Although my favourite is trucks, road cones and signs surrounding some back country round having some berms trimmed repaired.

Which brings us to the current angst.
The Covid fear, stirred up by propaganda from the government(not only New Zealand) with their attendant media seeking clickbait.

The current fear is not having enough people vaccinated before normalizing the situation and dropping Alert levels. The 1pm propaganda show keeps referencing Oz and other irrelevant places as to why we have to get Jabba the butt up to 90% (whatever that actually means)

Looking around the world. Singapore is very highly vaccinated but has an outbreak of epic proportions.
Taiwan, very low vaccination rate(Yes Benedict I understand the Vaccine restrictions) but they have reduced their recent high death rate to almost zero.
Many other examples around the world of Countries with “”adult”” leadership.
https://tinyurl.com/whataboutnz

Unfortunately, I think safetyism has infiltrated NZ society so much that the Pollies wont be able to quickly change the tide of worry and fear Labour voting Kiwis have about opening borders and getting out of lockdown.
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September 22, 2021 8:01am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  It is about controlling the population.
  
  Covid is just the excuse.
  
  $150 Billion would have built a lot of ICU capability.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:36am
- PhilBest
  
  This is a tragic, tragic problem all over the world. Tyranny is “POPULAR”.
  
  I wish there was somewhere all the sane people could flee to and start their own Republic.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:12am
  - surfing
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    “I wish there was somewhere all the sane people could flee to and start their own Republic.”
    
    Ha, you’d all rip each others’ heads off. If you didn’t first die from covid or guzzling hydroxychloroquine .
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:42am
    - PhilBest
      
      You lying, gaslighting lefties SAY that. Actually you know we wouldn’t die of Covid and we would use HCQ as an effective treatment. THAT is what your worst fears really are.
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:24pm
  - artemisia
    
    Time for the South Island to secede and welcome the world.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:37am
- ABS4EVA
  
  There is one area they do not err on the side of Caution and the is DEFENCE.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:27am
- ABS4EVA
  
  There is another area they do not err on the side
  of caution and safety
  
  IMMIGRATION
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:29am
- krazykiwi
  
  As I suggested yesterday, I believe entrenched socialism displaces individual agency with the ill-founded belief that it is the state’s job to provide life, and to protect against death.
  
  Without wanting to channel Morpheus, this is a prison of the mind.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:28pm
- ABS4EVA
  
  There is another areas they ignore the safety aspect on GANGs or as I call them
  
  PATCHED PANSIES
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:22pm
Warren

The question I would like to know is how much the Labour Party were fined for delivering polical pamphlets while the Country was in level 4 lockdown and what was the fine for the Prime Minister for someone delivering political pamphlets in her Electorate.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/government-significantly-increases-fines-for-breaking-covid-19-rules.html
But you can bet your bottom dollar there will be a law for some and a different law for others especially when it comes to political affiliation concerning the Labour Party .
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September 22, 2021 8:01am
- KiWombat
  
  Add to your first para – “and for the Prime Minister fleeing her electorate as soon as she got a whiff of the Covid outbreak” which, of course is diametrically opposed to all the advice she and her merry band foist upon the sheeple !
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:47am
- Lance
  
  I am sure the National party delivered a pamphlet once, so the MSM will shout “hypocrisy” far and wide, quick, another hitjob is needed, fast.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:08am
- doggone7
  
  I would like to know why the Labour Party should be fined if a couple of individuals, off their own bat, on their exercise walk up the road put stuff in people’s letterboxes.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:42am
  - Yabster
    
    Where do you think they got the pamphlets- delivered during lockdown. We had a few hundred delivered to us to distribute during the last lockdown (previous owner must have been a Labour member)- the pamphlets got filed…
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:40am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Of course it was off their own bat….like anyone who votes labour would have the wit to have an independent thought in their heads.
    
    But none of them will be even identified let alone prosecuted, and any police officer who decided to try to do something about that is heading for a very rapid bit of corrective action. There are rules and there are “rules”…
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:15pm
Diogenes

How many consequences of the continual lockdowns are having major impacts on us, but not being commented on in the media? Here are just two that occur to me:

1. Dentistry. Why are dentists not considered to be an essential service? I lost a large filling on day one of the recent level 3 in Christchurch, and was told I could only be seen if I was in severe pain. As it happened, a second tooth also needed previously undetected attention, which fortunately I was able to get without too much delay when we shifted down to level 2. But my dentist told me the lockdowns have cost him all his life savings, and he is hanging on by a thread. If that’s the case in Christchurch, how much more in Auckland? The “experts” who are advocating lockdowns until Christmas and beyond could potentially be cutting a swathe through a significant sector of our health system. It can cost well in excess of a million dollars to set up a dental studio. Repayments on this are not covered by the wage subsidy. We could quickly find ourselves with a Third World service as dentists shut down or move overseas. I could wish that every MP have a sudden attack of severe toothache to bring home the consequences of what they are doing.

2. The deaf community. Deaf people rely on being able to see our faces — and particularly our lips — to communicate. How are they supposed to know what shop assistants are saying to them? By mandating mask wearing, we are condemning them to social isolation twice over. This time of cover-up must be terrible for them.

And a side note on the idiotic inconsistencies of face covering: At the entrance to my local supermarket there is a prominent sign requesting that all people entering remove sunglasses and hoods/helmets because of ID issues and shoplifting. Duh! You must remove your sunglasses but you must put on a mask. How does that work?

Development psychologists tell us that seeing faces is a vital part of human development. It’s an essential aspect of being human. Hiding our faces is killing community — I am finding myself losing the ability to have empathy for people when I cannot see their face. I like to smile at people as I walk down the street. I’ve had some great conversations from chance encounters. Where are we getting to when we dehumanise our daily lives?
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September 22, 2021 8:04am
- MCos
  
  “my dentist told me the lockdowns have cost him all his life savings”
  
  Every time I go to the dentist it costs me my life savings.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:41am
  - Jibber NO Jabber
    
    My (former)Dentist is quietly sobbing in his Ferrari…?
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:12am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Try brushing your teeth twice a day. You’re welcome 🙂
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:09pm
- tf78
  
  Diogenes, yep, I really feel for our dentist – he’s had a really tough couple of years.
  Re masks, I wonder if the end game is for all the women to wear burkas. Also notice the recent advertising for goats milk -rather odd for a dairying country.
  As Greta Thunberg famously said “You’re stealing my future”.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:49am
- calendar girl
  
  Well said, Diogenes. A welcome dose of common sense.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:54am
- Ra Henare
  
  Let alone the masks muffling what we (hearing impaired) people hear and say. 🙂
  Well spoken Diogenes
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:55am
- GJM
  
  Optomitrists weren’t considerd essential. My sone broke his glasses before lockdown, and they weren’t repaired before we all got home detention. Made it very hard to do schooling online when you can’t read the screen
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:18am
- Ed Snack
  
  The whole mask issue is garbage anyway. I defy anyone to come up with any scientific justification for mask wearing anywhere as a protection against Covid.
  
  They just. Don’t. Work.
  
  And BTW, that’s real world tests, any fool can set things up in the laboratory to make it seem like aerosol viruses are at least partially filtered by even toilet paper, but in the real world, there’s nothing credible.
  
  The only science I’ve seen offered is a recent paper on mask wearing in Bangladesh; and that has three very real problems. First, there was no effect for the under 50 age group at all (and hard to see how age makes a difference), second the 95% confidence levels included zero, so not very significant even if true, and third those in the test were actually paid depending on how successfully they appeared to be, giving considerable motivation to skew the results which relied on self reporting to a degree. And if that’s all they’ve got, that’s nothing.
  
  So why are masks required, what is the REAL motivation as surely the scientific advisors are aware of the science. If they aren’t then they are even more incompetent than it seems.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:23pm
  - cmm
    
    All this testing is bullshit.
    
    You know how car engine power and fuel consumption are tested don’t you? They use various dynamometer tests and such that are not in any way linked to reality. These are used to provide the official numbers and the motor companies game the tests (remember the VW scandal?). Thus, surprises surprise, the “official” numbers do not match what the customer experiences.
    
    Well exactly the same applies for mask testing.
    
    There are standard ISO tests for masks. These are lab tests that do not match reality.
    
    For example the test use by the flash Sonovia company to claim that the fabric in their masks is “99.97% Effective Against COVID-19” is ISO 18184:2019
    
    This takes the virus in a solution and places it on the fabric for 20 to 30 minutes.
    
    Fine in the lab, but that is in no way a good representation of how aerosols carrying virus particles encounter the mask. The aerosols only touch the fabric for a millisecond or less (if they touch the fabric at all). They don’t sit in a puddle on the fabric for 20 minutes!
    
    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0521/7091/6031/files/Vismederi_-_Sars-cov2.pdf?v=1624372800
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:59pm
artemisia

Interesting post over at Point of Order on Britain’s energy chaos (with wider implications). One sentence stood out.

That hasn’t worked in line with the modelling.

Seems to have left out the word ‘political’. Sound familiar?

pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/energy-chaos-coming-to-a-market-near-you/
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September 22, 2021 8:06am
- Albert_Ross
  
  Yer basic problem with energy is that unless you are prepared to go nuclear, it can’t be green, and reliable, and cheap. If you are prepared to add “reasonably”, you can have any two out of those three, but you can’t have the third.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:21am
  - Ed Snack
    
    I doubt you can get even “reasonable” reliability at any possibly reasonable cost. Some days the sun don’t shine and the wind just don’t blow. So unless you have the natural resources like Hydro or Geothermal that are also “green”, then there are no “green” options that offer reliability.
    
    With the proviso that somewhere like Saudi Arabia or, say, Libya, where the country is primarily desert, could possibly use solar including solar heat (which can be stored) at some cost to provide reasonably reliable power, for some values of reasonable.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:27pm
KevO'Brien

Hipkins plans to introduce Digital Passports
What is the Infamous Agenda ID2020? Are we following the WEF agenda?

https://www.globalresearch.ca/worldwide-resistance-against-vaccine-covid-fraud/5755538
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September 22, 2021 8:06am
- hookerphil
  
  Perhaps it would be easier if just the unvaccinated had to wear something, perhaps a Yellow Star, to signify their uncleanness and be denied access that way.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:15am
  - Jibber NO Jabber
    
    I believe a forehead tattoo works wonders in alerting one to the presence of a danger to society.
    Tho’ it should be the Vaccinated that wear something to show their compliance and virtue.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:46am
    - sooty
      
      Why would you need a digital passport, when a microchip in the arm works better
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:44am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I believe that is in the model too.
        
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        September 22, 2021 1:19pm
    - backster
      
      Jab….Wouldn’t that add to confusion as to who was and who wasn’t a member of the Mongrel Mob?
      
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      September 22, 2021 10:43am
      - Jibber NO Jabber
        
        ?
        
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        September 22, 2021 11:16am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    A great “P”for Platlets or a “S” for Semen.
    The filthy unvaxxed will be the new gold.
    The price of unvaxxed sperm is going through the roof. The double jabbed are starting to fire blanks.
    Platlets will be in massive demand, they are today with the Red Cross desperately texting continuously. we ain’t seen nothing yet.
    When 2 jabs followed by the endless boosters really takes a hold, Platelets will be only obtainable from us filthy unvaxxed.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:28am
    - Jibber NO Jabber
      
      Awesome Greg, I’m putting in an order for the new Bentley as we speak, on the back of your excellent financial advice ?.
      And…er…getting to ~~wa…~~ ah…work immediately.
      
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      September 22, 2021 11:20am
  - oldfella
    
    HP: how about the unvaccinated dress in rags, ring a bell, and call out ‘unclean, unclean’ as they pass by.
    Or, we could set up special colonies for them on offshore islands where we wouldn’t even have to see them.
    It worked once for lepers, and that’s how some in our society are now viewing the un-jabbed.
    (FWIW, I’ve had both of my shots, but won’t condemn those who chose a different path).
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:30am
    - tf78
      
      oldfella, I can’t understand if the vaccines are so bloody good why are the vaccinated so frightened of the unvaccinated. Like everything this government does, it doesn’t make sense.
      
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      September 22, 2021 12:09pm
- Nick R
  
  You really need to do your research. Everyone knows digital passports are a conspiracy between the Illuminati, the Templars and the shape changing reptilians.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:19am
  - Ed Snack
    
    And Aliens, don’t forget the “grays”.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:28pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I know a guy who has been contracted to help with the design of the digital passports. They are supposed to integrate with your phone and your actual passport.
  
  It is always a mystery to me why New Zealand designs so many bespoke programmes. Why can’t we just say to Australia or Taiwan hey can we licence your system for a fee?
  
  Btw expect to see the digital passport to have a Maori name and only a Maori name.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:33am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Ben – that is the New Zimbabwe way. We can always do better…….
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:43am
    - PhilBest
      
      I forget who said it; “always be thankful for bureaucratic ineptitude as a mitigator of tyranny”
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:28am
    - Nickc2
      
      Yea, and who says everyone has to have a fucking mobile phone anyway? I would prefer my Vax Passport on a plastic card with an ID photograph.
      Alternatively, another Category could be added to driver’s licenses. Let’s have choices, we have suffered enough already from dictates.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:39am
      - Flossie
        
        Not everyone will have a Drivers Licence either unfortunately.
        
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        September 22, 2021 10:46am
  - Northshoredoc
    
    Have you been subjected to the gender pronoun nonsense in your work with the pubic sector benedict ?
    
    https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/our-work/diversity-and-inclusion/pronoun-use-in-email-signatures/
    
    They are trying to introduce this nonsense at one of the DHBs I do some of my work at. They were a bit taken aback when I told them it was errant time wasting nonsense and I wouldn’t be subject to their directions to include it in my correspondence to staff and/or patients.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:56am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Yes I ignore it.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:32am
      - sooty
        
        Who thinks that the digital passport will include your clot shot, etc. National ID card in disguise?
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:47am
      - Ed Snack
        
        My only brush with it ended badly when I insisted that my pronouns were “Your Imperial Highness or Majesty”. Apparently making fun of it is hate speech….
        
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        September 22, 2021 1:30pm
    - Belinda
      
      Imagine if your job was to be responsibe for writing crap like that.
      Reminds me of the comedy show Utopia on Netflix.
      
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      September 22, 2021 6:35pm
    - Durden
      
      Put Comrade/Comrade.
      
      And call everyone, regardless of their chosen gender, Comrade
      
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      September 22, 2021 6:37pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      “arrant nonsense” and yes you’re handling it in the perfect way.
      
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      September 22, 2021 6:45pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      My preferred pronoun is “Your Magnificence”
      
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      September 22, 2021 7:38pm
  - cas
    
    Those of us with older phones will have to buy new ones then. Perhaps that’s part of the recovery for the economy strategy. The Govt’s QR app can’t be downloaded on to my phone so I have to use Rippl so a digital passport is not going to download to the phone either.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:05am
Jibber NO Jabber

I guess it is official then, Arderns govt has turned NZ into Clownworld. ?

https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2021/09/kentucky-fried-jabs-you-cannot-make.html

The entertainment from the Cindy Covid Clown Show continues.

This is an idea so obvious that a five year old could have told you it was a great idea. Take vaccinations to the fast food chains and even reward your target group with free KFC.

?

Imagine though the incandescent outrage from the Polynesian, Maori and woke left if anyone from the centre-right of politics came out publicly what we have all been talking about privately – just do what Labour do to sign up voters, bus them up and promise KFC to comply.
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September 22, 2021 8:11am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  It smells like finger licking desperation to me.
  
  We were originally told that the vacine was 95% effective. I doubt that very much.
  
  We were told that at 65 to 70% vaccination rates we will have herd immunity, now they are saying 90%.
  
  Nobody should ever be forced to take a medical treatment, ever, now they are forcing people, no jab no job, no jab no shopping etc.
  
  We have been told the vaccine is safe, side effects are ignored.
  
  So how about some informed consent.
  
  How effective is the vaccination, is it 95% or 39% and dropping.
  
  How many people need to have had covid or the vaccination to achieve herd immunity, 65%, 70%, 80%, 90% …….
  
  Will we need booster shots every 6 months for the rest of our lives?
  
  What exactly are the known side affects and potential long term side effects, what % of people will get them?
  
  What is the real death rate for those infected and how does it compare to say flu.
  
  What affect has any of this had on long term general death rates. 0.5% or less or like the plague 33%.
  
  It is safe because we say it is safe, the only truth is the truth we tell you, everything else is dissinformation, is nowhere near good enough.
  
  So how about some real informed consent.
  
  No step right up folks free KFC with every jab, bring the whole family.
  
  To late Aucklands Park and ride at the airport are doing a lottery.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:43am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “We were told that at 65 to 70% vaccination rates we will have herd immunity, now they are saying 90%.”
    
    I know I have said this before but it is worth repeating. There will NEVER be herd immunity from COVID. We could have 100 percent vaccination rates. And even with 100 percent vaccination rates, every person in New Zealand will eventually get COVID.
    
    I have posted the rationale for this before.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:55am
    - Ra Henare
      
      The entertainment will be watching the squirming from the Podium of Truth getting themselves out of the corner they have painted for themselves.
      
      It has already started with the redefinition of stamp this out, elimination etc etc
      
      Fortunately/unfortunately “”her with the teeth”” wont be able to spin this out until the next election.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:00am
      - ecco
        
        From about middle of next year, [appearance insults not permitted, deleted – Mod] will just go into election mode and start up the re election bribes. Will be totally unrelated to covid except for that she’ll probably use the leftovers from the covid fund to fund these bribes.
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:13am
      - Paulus
        
        By sadly looking at Ardern yesterday at her Podium of Truth, which I soon turned of she looks as though she has been through a hedge backwards, scruffy is what I really mean, and her agitated diction is well out.
        Does she really believe that she understands what she thinks she means, or is it just the sound of her own voice she loves.
        I assume that as we are seeing and hearing Robertson pontificating of their joint brilliance that shortly someone, who dares, should tell her to wind her neck in and stop digging as it is becoming w0rse and physically for her let alone mentally.
        Many of us – males of course, are very tired of hearing her voice and unfortunately seeing her in the media continually – the combination is now dreadful
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:24am
      - JCB
        
        It would seem that Dear Leader could stand on the PoT and read the dictionary backwards and the masses would nod and wonder at her wisdom and kindness and her brilliance would be reported around the country. I don’t think she’ll be squirming anytime soon. She has a non-answer for everything.
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:30am
      - amospicton
        
        It’s already started. “Delta is a game changer” and transferring blame from themselves to the unvaccinated. They are not concerned with any outcome here other than a political one. As cmm pointed out elsewhere encouraging people to lose weight was an obvious, effective and no cost way of improving outcomes. Did they do so? No, because it would have been unpopular. It’s disgraceful really.
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:58am
      - morepork
        
        You seem to have not noticed how the toothless press has not held her to account for any of her mistruths so far, she could mistruth until the day she dies and it will be glossed over and forgotten about in 24 hrs
        
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        September 22, 2021 10:28am
      - Flossie
        
        Paulus – many of us females are sick to death of the sight and sound of her too
        
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        September 22, 2021 12:21pm
  - Sacha
    
    I can see it now: c’mon, get in the car we have to get our jabs before they close, and then we can get our free KFC!
    Every week.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:04am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    How have you got this far in life if you can’t cope with the fact that we don’t always know everything, that reasonable and intelligent people can disagree in their interpretation of the same information and that as new facts emerge, rational people change their minds?
    
    What other decisions do you think should not be taken until every single person’s opinion on the matter is precisely the same and it is quite certain that no new information has emerged or will emerge?
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:05am
- tf78
  
  JnJ – isn’t that how Labour got so many votes.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:51am
- cmm
  
  Gross obesity (BMI 45+) is a higher risk multiplier than the vaccine helps.
  
  Reducing from BMI 45+ to BMI 35 is more useful than getting vaccinated, just for CV19 and obviously would have immense positive impacts on obesity-exacerbated diseases that are far more important to fix than CV19: cancers, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, flu, etc etc.
  
  To encourage people to eat obesity related foods just to score vaccination is gross stupidity.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:53am
  - Ra Henare
    
    It was a Joke cmm. Lighten up.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:01am
    - cmm
      
      That they have ignored obesity when speaking from The Podium Of Truth is no joke.
      
      Addressing obesity is the greatest single way to improve health outcomes (including CV19 outcomes) and they are not talking about it.
      
      Avoiding hurting feelings and “fat shaming” etc might feel kind, but it really isn’t.
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:42pm
  - ecco
    
    You’d have to get some of the prominent Labour ministers to step down from public appearances as they are not a good example for the general populus they are preaching to re Covid. For some of them their BMI’s are at least in the 40s, ie obese.
    
    Another easier way to measure this is the waist to height ratio. Should be <1. Robertson definitely doesn't meet this criteria and needs to be like Boris and get out there for a few runs around the park and probably less KFC…
    
    ("A healthy ratio for females is 0.85 or less. For males, it's 0.9 or less. A WHR higher than 1 may indicate an increased risk of heart disease and related conditions for both males and females.")
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:10am
    - Flossie
      
      I just googled WHR and it said “waist to hip ratio”. Incidentally it also gave 85 as a dangerous level.
      
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      September 22, 2021 11:21am
    - cmm
      
      I think you have the WHR wrong. 0.9 is massive.
      
      I am very tall which distorts BMI (taller people have a higher BMI than their body shape suggests). At 124kg my BMI is about 32 and would be 29 if scaled to an average male height. My WHR is 0.63.
      
      I’d have to put on about 50kg to hit 0.9. That would put my BMI at 45.
      
      BTW I consider myself overweight and am working on that – targeting 100kg = BMI 26.
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:54pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Does this amateur gulliblement know anything different?
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:11am
- Jibber NO Jabber
  
  It’s a gateway drug…
  https://twitter.com/Coltheman1/status/1440412550273777675
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:28am
- Clownworld
  
  Jibber NO Jabber….clownworld indeed. Idiocracy in it’s purest form. Just add gatorade to corn crops like the movie and KFC jab drive through. Devolution at it’s finest!
  
  Why the push? Why is the vaccine so sacred?
  Let the free market decide and free individual choose without bribing with chickens and lotteries . Oh that’s right, I forgot freedom is a social construct, rights are not inalienable like breathing, thinking, moving, associating with others, singing, using words, eating, drinking etc. That was pre-Greta , old world ,pre-reset, normal world, before the mainstream was infected with totalatarianism.
  
  Cowardly new world. Idiocracy. Clownworld indeed.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:33am
  - Jibber NO Jabber
    
    Yes CW, an interesting point, those who have previously had spectacular infantile meltdowns over GM corn, the fake hormone injected poultry disinformation, and other scientific “nasties” have lined up without question to be injected with untested mRNA vaccines, “for their health” ?.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:30am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Like most of the waffle that emanates from that low-rent attention-seeking site, turns out it’s complete nonsense.
  
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  September 22, 2021 7:00pm
I remember when

If I am over 40 and vaccinated, what possible benefit do I get from the vaccination of the under-40s.
If I am vaccinated what do I gain from a “Level 4” lockdown.
If I am vaccinated and living anywhere, apart from Auckland and Wellington, in New Zealand why am I in an level of lockdown.
What is the point of vaccination.
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September 22, 2021 8:11am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Indeed..
  
  You are to work yourself up into a lather about this and take it out on the unvaccinated.
  
  For it seems that the unvaccinated are now solely to blame for why the virus continues to transmit through the community.
  
  It has nothing to do with leaky MIQ, or a slow vaccination roll-out of the vulnerable, or the unwillingness of folks to comply with being locked down.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:40am
  - cmm
    
    … or the fact that even with the vaccine, the virus is going to relentlessly march through the population at some point.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:54am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    ….Or the fact that gangs are not on the Team of 5 Million.
    e.g. the Black Power cluster.
    
    I like the idea that the Teddy bear displaying Covid-Fearful might be miffed at gangs, if more like this comes out.
    Two of the most precious class-of-people for the Labour government.
    Will Cindy express disappointment against the gangs like she did the KFC worker, or comment like she did on the Wanaka couple? {rhetorical question, of course}.
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:16pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  the point of vaccination is to reduce number of hospital beds required so that if you are one of the 10% ish of vaccinated people who ends up in hospital there might be a bed and staff to keep you alive. NZ has nowhere near enough hospital and ICU beds for even fully vaccinated if Covid spreads through population in 2 months.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:46am
  - RockyJ
    
    You make a very good point. The real bottleneck in our coming out of lockdowns is our lack of ICU capacity. We half half the number of ICU beds as Australia and the second lowest in the OECD. They are full right now
    Even fully vaxed when we stop lockdowns there will be more Covid and more critical care needed even if the incidence of serious illness per head of population drops. Our ICU will overflow.
    Andrew Little has spent the last 18 months setting up his Apartheid health system when he should have been building ICU units and hiring and training staff. Now he is desperately trying to catch up.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:00am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Yep we need a crash program to expand ICU capacity. – I suggest we set up a temporary program to hire in nurses and doctors for a year from anywhere we can (eg india, Philippines, Thailand). Pay heaps and we will get the numbers we need to manage the Covid surge. At same time pull out all the stops to get more beds capacity built
      
      Of course this can’t happen given Labour is in charge and they have a demonstrated inability to deliver or build anything
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:14am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Singapore has over 80% of its adult population vaccinated, but is currently experiencing an outbreak.
      
      It has spent the last year preparing for the inevitable, by ensuring that it can bring on extra ICU beds in an emergency.
      
      https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/forum/forum-capacity-of-singapores-icu-facilities-has-to-be-addressed
      
      https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/icu-numbers-can-go-up-very-quickly-so-singapore-cannot-afford-to-be-complacent
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:39am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Yes agree Maggy.
        
        Out of Interest they have now only allowed “foreign” workers to leave their Dormatries.
        
        As in my case shipyard workers ( But read construction etc) who have basically no freedom whatsoever. Talk about modern day slavery ?
        
        Extremely pleased they can now enter the “community” as opposed to locked down after 12 hrs work.
        
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        September 22, 2021 10:19am
      - Ruawai
        
        Maggy I think the Government is putting all their eggs in the vaccination basket just like they put them all in the elimination /keep it out basket before this without actually planning and implementing more capacity in ICU. Seems they can’t do 2 things at once.
        
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        September 22, 2021 11:10am
  - Parnell Gun Club
    
    According to MoH there are currently 325 active cases with 13 in hospital. That’s 4%. They don’t report vaccination status unfortunately.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:35am
  - guardianista
    
    It doesn’t help that we have no effective treatments. I don’t think we have approved monoclonal antibodies even though they have been used against cancers for decades and are used in the US and I know our medical authorities have joined the anti ivermectin camp and I presume are against all the other repurposed drugs.
    
    This incompetence will put further strain on our ICUs.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:53pm
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  I remember when
  The medical justifications have all been exhausted and the logic of “protecting the vaccinated by getting vaccinated” is prima facie absurd and laughable to any thinking person. No, the point of the vaccination is purely to own you. That is it. You are required to hand over your biological integrity and your personal sovereignty under de facto duress. You will be a slave by any measure. It indicates who is willing to utterly submit to anything they are told to do, and those who are not. And if you think that other further unrelated dictates requiring compliance and submission will not follow with increasing intensity and increasing scope, you are simply not paying attention. Once they’ve got you under the pretext of Covid, you are finished as a free individual with rights.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:05pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Regardless of your age, if you have accepted one or even two shots of the Pfizer jab, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not in any way vaccinated. A vaccine prevents infection; the Pfizer jabs do not.
  
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  September 22, 2021 7:02pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I don’t need you to tell me anything I don’t know.
    
    OK so imagine a world right now – today – where the vaccines we have had failed to be developed. You think that would be OK? No we would be in the shit with millions more dying and hospitals overrun.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:23pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      “I don’t need you to tell me anything I don’t know.”
      
      Well since you don;t know it, someone should tell you, even if you don’t wish to know it. That word “vaccine” it does not mean what you think it means, even though I don’t doubt your conviction.
      
      “noun
      a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.”
      
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      September 22, 2021 8:54pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not in any way vaccinated. ”
    
    That is just mumbo speak bullshit.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:24pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      I was trying to soften the blow, because you’re a decent man with good intentions. But you’re 100% wrong – you are not vaccinated in any sense of the word. Call me anything you want, it doesn’t change the fact you’ve deluded yourself and quite possibly others.
      
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      September 22, 2021 8:58pm
AC

I would like to take this opportunity to wish James Shaw and his team of 14 safe travels and a successful climate change conference in Glasgow. It takes real guts to rise above the firestorm of public opinion.

Thanks for taking one for the team James. Those with little vision cannot understand the vital importance of your physical presence to the future of mankind.

Without your in person appearance the conference would surely fail.People who are complaining about you taking their MIQ spots need to take a good look at themselves.

Special thanks to Marama Davison for returning your balls from the glass jar she keeps on her desk. I know this act gave you the extra fortitude to enable you to take your truly heroic decision.
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September 22, 2021 8:16am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And we wish James and his buddies some snell, drookit and dreich weather during their visit.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:46am
  - Flossie
    
    Had to Google those words before my up tick!
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:32am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Perhaps snell is not very obvious…
      
      https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/scottish-word-week-snell-1517065
      
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      September 22, 2021 12:17pm
- Paulus
  
  There are 20,000 people attending this Scottish hooly so James will be able to be seen.
  Who are the other attendees with him ?
  Green MPs and who ?
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:28am
  - Nickc2
    
    Smoke signals from the Bee-Hive are telling me Matria Turei has managed to bludge a taxpayer-funded trip with Shaw.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:38pm
- Ruawai
  
  For the greater good!
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:36am
- virtualmark
  
  To be fair, the only thing worse than a week in Glasgow is two weeks in Glasgow.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:17am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Glasgow is about the prettiest part of Scotland, with some of the ugliest people.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:00pm
    - Sol Invictus
      
      Definiitely hate speech!
      
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      September 22, 2021 6:18pm
- Clownworld
  
  Thanks James for confirming what we thought was true. One rule for us and a different rule for Thee.
  
  Thanks Mr Shaw for validating our concern that you are doing this purely for elite status and airpoints. That you took 14 disciples as well tbough seems odd? Surely the 13th is unlucky and the 14th would be over the top?
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:39am
Maggy Wassilieff

Oh dear,
the Tricky virus is spreading amongst the gangsters.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300412629/covid19-spreads-to-third-gang-as-hells-angels-prospect-infected

I expect it might be difficult to trace all their contacts.
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September 22, 2021 8:18am
- peterwn
  
  No trouble. Just look out for the KFC.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:28am
  - RightFirstTime
    
    Now that we can get takeaways in Auckland I’m gonna get a “Bro Bucket” of KFC for my dinner.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:26pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  They are the weakest link. All that lockdown can do now is slow the spread that will be driven by these communities of people who won’t modify their behaviour. But a hundred people bailing water can’t make up for one making holes in the boat with an axe.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:29am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Will be very difficult to PHU to contact trace cartel meeting movements. Look at the difficulties the CC has with ” legit corporate” cartels.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:32am
- Nickc2
  
  Wow, gangs are Labour’s people, aren’t they? Didn’t Labour give the Mongrel Mob $2.75m for their problems?
  I can only conclude all other gangs will now be queuing up for their handouts so they can treat their own.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Essential workers.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:47am
- RiP NZ
  
  With any luck Covid will do what our justice system cant
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:36am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Active gang members tend to be young and so mostly unaffected.
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:47am
  - kowtow
    
    I see there’s talk of increasing fines to improve the public’s morale , that being the case a festival of public hangings of these outlaws should do wonders .
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:09pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Yep. Let’s extrapolate a theory here:
  
  1). 501 deportee mingles with Joe Bloggs from Sydney with the WuFlu
  2). 501 gets out of MIQ, mingles with gangs
  3). Gangs distribute drugs to young professionals
  4). Young professionals have parents over to house
  5). Parent(s) get sick. Get a test – test positive.
  
  I ask you would the current government ever, ever admit this if it was true.
  
  Just a theory but infinitely better than any of the garbage theories the Blairite and St Ash have dreamt up………..
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:52am
  - Ruawai
    
    If the young professionals stop taking drugs the demand will fall and gangs will have less money.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:38am
- cmm
  
  Can’t even track the buggers properly with GPS jewelry. How is it going to work with an honesty-based approach.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:56am
- ecco
  
  They need to train the police dogs to sniff out KFC and position them at the Mercer border out of Auckland.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:22am
- DeepBlue
  
  I think Michael Baker finally got a statement right.. “Professor Michael Baker also makes the point that transmission is happening in some groups of people that simply do not care about alert level rules – which is why being in Level 3 or 4 might not actually matter all that much.” Stuff.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:43am
- crikey
  
  …and good luck with trying to get them vaccinated.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:57am
New Zealander

Rawiri Waititi doesn’t want any more MIQ facilities in Rotorua:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-mp-rawiri-waititi-claims-govt-plans-quarantine-facility-for-rotorua/YIUWMNYGNEOFU2BC6IDORTBW6Y/

He doesn’t seem to understand what’s coming over the next few months. If the government is willing to accept moving down restriction levels while there is still community transmission of COVID-19, then we can only logically expect that the virus will spread “across the motu” once the policed Auckland borders are removed.

Where does Mr Waititi expect his local people to isolate if they catch the virus over the next few months? Bay of Plenty and Lakes Districts have some of the lowest numbers of vaccinations.

You should bookmark this story for in a few months time when Maori are dropping dead throughout the central North Island. Waititi will be claiming that the colonials didn’t do enough to protect his people. My guess is he’ll probably be asking for local facilities to keep people close to their whanau too.
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September 22, 2021 8:19am
- ecco
  
  Quarantine facilities in Rotorua actually would be the death knell for Rotorua as a tourist town. It was already getting a pretty bad rap from domestic travellers due to the number of motels being used for housing the homeless. Many people steering clear of it for their holidays anyway despite the attraction of the hot pools.
  
  But Ardern has to move quarantine out of Auckland before she totally dismantles the economy up here. Probably already has. Why wasn’t this done 6-12 months ago. She was too busy working on her vanity projects and woke agenda.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:29am
  - New Zealander
    
    Well, Rotorua already has quarantine facilities.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:44am
    - MCos
      
      Plus Hamilton, Wellington & Christchurch.
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:35pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Rotorua is already dead & buried as a tourist town. Plenty of other places with hot pools, & it’s possible to visit mud pools without visiting ‘Vegas.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:47pm
Warren

For the best part of two years now the Government its Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Health Ministry have been preaching on how we will succeed in the elimination of Covid – 19 .
But now they ha e the media preaching that we misunderstand the meaning of elimination and after many lockdowns that has seen a lot of small businesses hit the wall over this policy and the inevitable damage it has done to our economy they now say it was all about limiting the virus so people could survive.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126445683/covid19-new-zealands-elimination-strategy-explained
This is another of the Prime Ministers cover your arse excuses so she can save face on her failed policy and another attempt to con the public with her blatant lies.
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September 22, 2021 8:26am
- cmm
  
  The unvaccinated Untermenchen are already cued up as the scapegoats.
  I’ll bet the PMO spin team already have press releases ready to fire off at a moment’s notice.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:58am
- MCos
  
  The way I understand the pandemic, unlike measles, polio & smallpox, covid-19 cannot be eradicated.
  So you have the option of living with it as the UK, the US & pretty much everywhere else is doing or eliminating outbreaks as they occur as we are doing.
  Basically we have no choice due to the inability of the healthcare system to cope with exploding numbers of cases. It can only scrape by in the best of times due to neglect over the years.
  The reason vaccination is important, if you’re not antivax for whatever reason, is it vastly improves your chances of avoiding hospitalization.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:04am
  - bronny1
    
    ….it reduces your likelihood of hospitalisation if you are old, obese, or have other comorbidities. For those who are healthy and under 60 I don’t think it does much at all….perhaps reduces your teeny chance of hospitalisation to infinitesimal.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:28pm
- hookerphil
  
  “The emergence of the vaccines this year has created sustainable alternatives. This is the pretty much why Denmark is fully open.”
  Funny that it is Denmark mentioned and not Sweden.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:20am
- Surely Knott
  
  Haha. This is what the left do well – controlling language. Elimination used to mean remove to 0 but is now a process not an outcome. Gender is a feeling not a fact.. Vaccines used to mean immunity now it means less severe outcomes.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:46am
  - MCos
    
    The annual flu vaccine, for one, has never meant immunity.
    The smallpox vaccine is 95% effective.
    The measles vaccine is 97% effective.
    Two doses of the polio vaccine is 90% effective.
    Of course if everyone is vaccinated that’s all that’s needed.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:46pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

I am so happy to be ruled by Cindy. Jaffas can get take away coffee now. Mercy Cindy. You are so great. We will vote for you again and again as you allow us to drink coffee and eat KFC. We, a nation of sheeples snd traitors are eternally grateful to thee.
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September 22, 2021 8:27am
- Frank the tank
  
  Work will set you free SCS. Work will set you free……..
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:53am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Mr tank – Why will I work when the chief thief Robber(t)son gives me free money to watch TV and bake scones? Kumbaya!
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:12am
    - Frank the tank
      
      It’s a valid point until of course you have to take a wheelbarrow of cash down to the corner dairy; wait in a hour line and then find all the shelves empty.
      
      The way we are going in New Zimbabwe this will be a scene in our new distant future. All the while government bureaucrats will drive by in their Nissan Leafs……
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:46am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Who’s going to pay the bill for the damage caused by this amateur wannbe commie chick?
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:18am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Silly!!! It’s you that will pay until you can’t pay no more. Have you not read Animal Farm?
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:47am
- amospicton
  
  I’ve just wandered down to my local SCS. I’d been looking forward to it but what a disappointment. It was more like getting a vaccine. Masks, queues, frightened looks, spacing etc…I nearly gave up in despair. Nice coffee though.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:04am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    You have a local Sir Cullen’s Sidekick? Crikey!
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:24pm
Yvette

Vaccinate 90%!
The common consensus now (Little, Bloomfield, and several others) is that New Zealand must reach a vaccination target of 90%.

But if every person at present eligible to be vaccinated, 4.2 million people over 12 years of age, avails themselves of that opportunity, that will be only 84 percent of the “Team of Five Million”.
And 90% of those eligible – that 84% – is actually 75% of the nation’s five million.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she’ll settle for nothing less than “best in the world” when it comes to what level of vaccine coverage would be required for opening the borders.
It’s a much higher bar than National leader Judith Collins is setting, saying she’d set a target of 70-75 percent “to avoid future lockdowns and the cost that this imposes on every New Zealander”.

How will Ardern achieve her aspiration, when if every person eligible to be vaccinated is in fact vaccinated, so 100% of that group, still comprises only 84 % of all New Zealanders?

And who believes all those eligible will be vaccinated – besides those who for medical reasons can’t be, there are a few others who won’t be.

One in ten (13 per cent) say they have no intention to get vaccinated, while 22 per cent remain neutral.
Taken together, the survey findings suggest roughly half of the New Zealand public is strongly motivated to get the Covid-19 vaccine, with about a quarter undecided, and another quarter unwilling. – September 4 [1]

So as “hate speech” is as yet undefined – but “When you see it you know it” (Ardern) – likewise with something as simple as “ninety percent” – ‘you may not know that when you see it’ either.

Note: 1-News sub-headline “More than a fifth [21.4%] of the Covid-19 cases in New Zealand’s current Delta outbreak were children aged under 12, who are ineligible to be vaccinated”

[1] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122665893/survey-shows-one-in-four-kiwis-remain-hesitant-about-a-coronavirus-vaccine
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September 22, 2021 8:27am
- septic skeptic
  
  See the difference between National and ACT right there. ACT wants to open once everyone has had the opportunity, National says wait for compliance, coercion or whatever gets us to a %.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:52am
  - MCos
    
    ACT’s idea would be fine if the unvaccinated who caught the bug stayed away from the public hospitals.
    Of course that would never happen because everyone’s entitled to use the system no matter how unhealthy their lifestyle.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:14am
    - septic skeptic
      
      That’s a fair point, and you could make a case for rationing hospital care on Vax status if required. But the main point is that pretty much everyone agrees that further lockdowns are not worth the various costs (social, medical and economic). We shouldn’t spend billions locking down next year in order to protect those that have chosen the natural immunity route, or are just too lazy to go and get the Vax.
      
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      September 22, 2021 10:49am
    - bronny1
      
      Yup all the fatties can use it too. Surely they should be included in the unclean and wear the yellow star too? Anyone with a lifestyle disease in fact!
      
      The ICUs will be empty.
      
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      September 22, 2021 2:35pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    That’s the wets in National’s Caucus and polling suggesting this is what the majority of the Sheeple want.
    
    Act doesn’t have such worries. Bishop’s Labourlite and Seymour’s reasoned approach to Kungflu has finally swung this long term National voter to 2 ticks Act next time.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:50am
    - Steve Todd
      
      […] has finally swung this long term National voter to 2 ticks Act next time.
      
      You must live in the Epsom electorate.
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:02pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Iirc, Act also stood Candidates in Wellington Central, Te Atatu, Nelson and Rongotai. All of whom made it on the List.
        2 Ticks possible there too.
        
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        September 22, 2021 1:16pm
      - MCos
        
        In the last election someone called Chris Baillie stood for ACT in Nelson & picked up 2.96% of the electorate vote. Not even a thousand more than Advance NZ.
        Apart from Epsom, ACT, like the Greens & NZF are destined to dwell amongst the list MPs. A vote for individual candidates from these parties is a waste of good ink.
        Nicole McKee, a high profile ACT candidate, stood in Rongotai and came 5th.
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:04pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        My point was that Frank’s Electorate vote for ACT would only be effective if he lives in Epsom.
        
        The ACT candidates in the electorates you mentioned, received only 865 (Wellington Central), 1,610 (Te Atatū), 1,320 (Nelson), and 965 (Rongotai) votes, respectively, not nearly enough for them to win their seats. Indeed, in 2020, whereas ACT received 219,031 Party votes, its 57 candidates received a total of only 97,697 Electorate votes.
        
        Sure, the campaigns of those four candidates may possibly have helped boost ACT’s Party vote total, and, consequently, their chances of election on the List, but the only reason those particular candidates are in parliament, is because David Seymour won Epsom.
        
        Frank may decide to give the ACT candidate his Electorate vote, even though he knows it will be a wasted vote, just to feel good, or to demonstrate to himself that he is now a “rusted-on” ACT supporter. But, really, given it is an FPP vote, if he lives outside Epsom, he should still give it to the National candidate, just as 65.49% of ACT voters did in 2020.
        
        Of course, given that Seymour will presumably win Epsom again in 2023, Frank’s Party vote for ACT will be effective regardless of where he lives.
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:06pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        […], is because David Seymour won Epsom.
        
        Oops. “[…], is because ACT exceeded the 5% Party vote threshold.”
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:14pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Lol
        Watch the Pedant wriggle when he gets caught out
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:21pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Oh, dear. Yet another immature response from he-who-will-not-be-disagreed-with. Pathetic.
        
        You’re the one who was caught out, lol; I simply explained why you were wrong.
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:42pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Steveee
        You said; ‘[…] has finally swung this long term National voter to 2 ticks Act next time.
        
        You must live in the Epsom electorate’
        
        MUST? They MUST?
        
        Actually my triggered pedant friend, you are wrong.
        As Mcos and I point out, there are other Electorates where you could make 2 Ticks for Act.
        Maybe you should sharpen up your poor communication skills if what you mean is not being conveyed.
        What’s really funny is how seriously you take yourself. Probably why Karen’s like you don’t get satire.
        Now shouldn’t you be off hounding and stalking Christians like you usually do?
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:57pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        MCos understood what I meant, even if you still can’t, and corrected you the same way I did. Lol.
        
        Why else would he have referred to two of the four electorates you referred to?
        
        You said “2 Ticks possible there too.” In fact, as I pointed out, two ticks were possible for ACT in 57 electorates. Lol.
        
        But, only in Epsom were Electorate ticks for ACT effective votes. Clearly, that is why I said to Frank that he must live in Epsom. What else could I have meant? Did you seriously think that I am unaware that ACT puts up candidates in most electorates?
        
        If Frank does not live in the Epsom electorate, then his best strategy is to Party vote ACT, and Electorate vote National.
        
        Got it now?
        
        The fact that, in your haste to have another pathetic crack at me, you chose to deliberately misunderstand my response to Frank, says way more about you than it does me. Lol.
        
        (Just so you know, I am now done with you.)
        
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        September 22, 2021 3:45pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I’d like a choice of vaccine, thanks. It’s not enough to say that we’ll open once everyone has had the chance to vaccinate if Pfizer is the only option.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:50pm
- tf78
  
  Yvette, I wish Jacinda would stop talking to Daniel Andrews, they seem to be in a competition to see who can be the most dictatorial. She’s also copied his crazy fine system.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:03am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Along with the drop kick out West.
    
    Danistan takes the cake with their esteemed leader having a hissy fit and banning the entire construction industry over his own union’s reluctance to follow his dictates.
    
    As for his ‘freedoms’ post 80% double jab. Auschwitz had more relaxed rules……..
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:53am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/what-was-in-victoria-belt-and-road-deal-with-china/100086224
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:24am
  - curry4me
    
    tf78: The recent tradie demo in Melbourne; with the promise of more daily might have influenced Stalinda’s move to level 2 for Ak.
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:04pm
  - Man Among the Ruins
    
    Dan’s got some public disorder problems brewing in Victoria too. Forcing vaccines on the construction industry has been reversed due to the backlash. Great to see what standing up for your human rights will achieve. Watch this 15 min video all the way through. It’s quite stirring stuff:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIWfRmZ-Ww
    
    Then some follow-up analysis:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru8lu87Sj_I
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:17pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  One in 10 is 13% – really? I went to school a long time ago, and didn’t even use a calculator, but I always thought 1 in 10 was 10%
  
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  September 22, 2021 7:30pm
Benedict Yu

This MIQ system is a shocker. The Government is inflicting terrible damage on New Zealand citizens who are locked out of their own country.

At the end of the day this is a transport and accommodation logistics challenge. And there are no doubt many experts who are good at making those things work. And none of them are public servants in Wellington.

Right now the people wanting to come back to New Zealand are treated like serfs who go into a lottery for a few fixed places. Instead they need to be treated like customers. The supply or MIQ spaces will expand to clear the market for places. There are different ways this could work.

It is a shocker and it is causing great harm to our own citizens. This really needs someone like Steven Joyce who would pay what it takes to get the best logistics experts available to design a system.
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September 22, 2021 8:28am
- ecco
  
  It’s not that hard eh.
  Ardern and her elimination strategy taking out many facets of the NZ economy with her lockdowns. Including Air NZ and Queenstown who’s target market is Auckland travellers.
  
  Why couldn’t they make it an option that some of the high end hotels in Queenstown are available for business MIQ? If incoming NZers are prepared to pay the price, which would be higher than the normal rate (I doubt many people are actually paying those MIQ bills, a bit like the student loan scheme).
  
  If you can afford the bill then why not be able to jump the queue? Some very big NZ businesses are just getting hamstrung having no certainty of being able to send their people overseas to do business or get in overseas skilled workers they need.
  
  Also I’m sure some families with dying relatives would be quite prepared to pay more for MIQ, for some certainty of their relatives getting back to see someone before they pass on.
  
  This would save Queenstown, Air NZ and many NZ businesses at the same time.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:51am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    And completely puckeroo Queenstown as a global tourist destination.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:22am
    - ecco
      
      Would just be a temporary measure until they realise that home quarantine with saliva testing would be just as effective and cheaper. At this rate Queenstown is going to go down the gurgler.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:33am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        It’s the tourist operators who will make the decisions.
        
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        September 22, 2021 1:23pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      What international tourism business?. Everyone seems to have forgotten Nash’s reset, NZ is not going back to bulk tourism.
      
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      September 22, 2021 10:47am
      - Aurelia
        
        Determined to destroy our economy they are.
        
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        September 22, 2021 9:44pm
- Ehlana
  
  Benedict, I’m not sure we’d have to pay for the expert. The government has decided people can’t quarantine at home (not sure why) but must stay in hotels. Logically, all the people off one flight should go to the same hotel and each hotel should be taking people from the same source arriving at the same time (for example, all the passengers from Sydney this morning).
  Since these people are pretty much the only guests the hotels are getting right now and we wouldn’t allow a flight to land here unless suitable accommodations are in place, I think the airlines and hotels will be highly motivated to work together on this.
  The government needs to set the conditions and negotiate what costs it will pay. I would think passengers would pay for their own flights, non-New Zealanders would pay their own accommodation costs and the government would probably need to costs for NZ citizens & permanent residents. While there will be additional security & health care costs, the government is bulk buying rooms and meals, so there should be savings there. New Zealanders who want fancier rooms, meals, etc. can buy them from the hotel.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:01am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes exactly – government gibes you a voucher for a ‘standard’ MIQ spot. You can top that up to a luxurious place if you want. There will also be places that emerge to cater for “urgent” needs of business travellers and people coming here for emergencies. They will pay a premium.
    
    The current system is literally something the Soviet Union would have built.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:37am
    - Ehlana
      
      The need for actual urgent travel could be met by requiring the airlines to hold a percentage of seats initially. These could be released in the last day or two to people who waitlisted themselves – the ones who can pack up and go in half a day. That way spots exist for emergency travel, but are used if not required for it.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:53am
  - virtualmark
    
    The reason people aren’t allowed to quarantine at home is that there would be someone, guaranteed, who wouldn’t follow the rules.
    
    “Home quarantine” at scale = inevitable breakout infections = with this Government throwing a whole city into Level 4 at tremendous cost.
    
    All those fences and NZDF personnel are a feature of MIQ, not a bug.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:19am
    - Frank the tank
      
      LOL. Because the current situation is working out so well………….
      
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      September 22, 2021 11:37am
      - virtualmark
        
        Frank, things can always get worse
        
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        September 22, 2021 6:24pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    We have gangs leaking covid all over the place, no longer justification for not allowing home (or at a rented bach etc) isolation for returnees.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:09pm
- cmm
  
  It doesn’t even need the best logistical experts.
  It just needs people who are vaguely competent.
  
  That disastrous tracking system is being developed by semi-skilled people coming out of a woke prison program that teaches criminals a bit about programming and web development. Is there any reason to believe that the MIQ people are any better?
  
  The people running the show are clueless about logistics and how to set up scalable systems (both logistical and computer systems).
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:03am
- Paulus
  
  Only one Group of returnees are treated like serfs.
  The other two Groups like cricketers and sports people are ok –
  the third Group are special people like MPs, Public Servants, Refugees and the like and friends of Labour and Greens.
  That is why the system was changed so the third specials can come as they want without the inconvenience and worry.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:35am
  - MCos
    
    I suppose people such as the All Blacks, Blackcaps, Olympians and the occasional sports team that still comes here, could all queue up with the other 30,000 and try their luck for spot in MIQ.
    That would kill off what’s left of international sport for the plebs to look forward to that involves NZ, particularly in our country.
    As it is there’s no international rugby. The super rugby is defunct. The Warriors, Breakers & Phoenix no longer play here.
    The international tennis tournaments are on hold for the duration.
    The America’s Cup is going, but that’s another issue.
    
    Apart from that I have all the sympathy in the world for however many thousand Kiwis are trying to enter God’s Own Country. I feel like every one of them has told their story on the radio, tv or in the papers.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:30pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Perhaps then they shouldn’t have voted for her en-masse then.
  
  Most of those overseas doing the complaining would arguably be the same people that voted for this gong show 18 months ago. There are consequences to actions.
  
  As soon as the ‘bubble’ closed I put away any thoughts of international travel before 2024. Unless you want a painful traverse I would suggest everyone else should too as this won’t change till after the next election.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:58am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yep. Another day and 5 more NZ Seafarers cannot access MIQ due to impossibility of access.
  
  https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/opinions-analysis/crew-change-crisis-more-imo-member-states-need-act
  
  https://unctad.org/news/facilitating-crew-changes-and-repatriation-seafarers-during-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond
  
  NZ is a signatory but in breach of obligations.
  
  https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/pages/29-MSC-Ex-Session-seafarer-resolution.aspx
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:59am
Maggie Pie

According to rumors doing the rounds at the Viaduct, my partner was saying it’s likely the ‘MP for Tijuana’ may be joining the delegation to attend COP26.
It’s understood his knowledge of obtaining scarce ‘MIQ Spots’ will be invaluable to the group, as will his ability to connect with Glasgow’s large gay community pushing hard to advance the climate change agenda..
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September 22, 2021 8:32am
- Frank the tank
  
  Do they Remuera tennis ladies still love Cindy after the latest lockdown Maggie? Is that subset of the population still part of the team of 5 million?
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:55am
- MCos
  
  How could anything, let alone rumours, be doing the rounds at the Viaduct.
  Everything’s closed and those places wouldn’t be seen dead selling takeaways.
  Or would they, just to pass around gossip?
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:21am
  - Aurelia
    
    Probably means the well heeled types who live around there
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:49pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Glasgow. I remember that place when I was a young bloke. A nice quiet wee bar and was smacked in the head with a pint glass and had a pool cue broken over my head. It was quite a brawl.
  I should have taken note of the bars on the inside of the windows and the tables and chairs bolted to the floor. A bit like bars in Fort Valley in Brisbane used to be like. But at least in Glasgow, they didn’t have saw dust on the floor to soak up the blood and puke.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:01pm
peterwn

Will James Shaw and co still go to Glasgow? Seems that Jacinda is not too keen on the idea of James self-isolating on his return. Also there is no guarantee that the hangers-on would get MIQ slots on their return. Seems Jacinda would need to make a ‘Captains Call’ on providing MIQ slots this before they can go. Meanwhile on Facebook (see Chris Bishop’s items), left wing shills are desperately trying to argue that James cannot go by ZOOM.
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September 22, 2021 8:33am
- RoboRob
  
  I would hope that JA ensures that only fully vaccinated people are allowed to go on this ‘vital’ mission. That should rule out all of the Green party and a good chunk of Labour MPs too.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:49am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    James Shaw will be the only politician. The rest will be (mainly or all) public servants.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:38am
- Nickc2
  
  It has been reported that Cindy has used her influence to set aside MIQ facilities for Shaw and his entourage on their return. I’m picking she has kept the Wiggles rooms for such occasions. Who’s next?
  A return visit by the Wiggles for someone’s birthday perhaps?
  Note to MIQ Management. After James’s lot has finished with the rooms, Cindy will also want them for her wedding guests coming from the UN, WHO and Venezuela.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:22am
- RiP NZ
  
  Name the 14
  Outline their roles and purpose in the delegation
  Outline the cost
  ..and the return for the taxpayers on that cost.
  
  This of course – is all secondary to the chutzpah it takes to send a large delegation, half way round the world for ‘climate’
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:13am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Business class too – uses 2-3x the fuel of economy. A business class return trip to glasgow is about 5-6tonnes of C02 apiece. James and his staff of 14 greenwank fluffers obviously really care about C02 emissions.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:21pm
Tony Stuart

Having sat on the Souixsie Wiles video for five days before making an editorial decision to spike the story, does anyone else see the irony of TVNZ attacking Judith Collins for not wearing her mask while ordering an ice cream?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the later had a puff piece on what to do in L3, fronted by none other than – drumroll please – Dr Souixsie Wiles! Is it any wonder that people question the independence of mainstream media news coverage?

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/siouxsie-wiles-kiwis-can-do-help-ensure-summer-freedom
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September 22, 2021 8:33am
- RoboRob
  
  Lets face it, any chance to attack Judith and the media will. JA, Ashley, Souxsie and Baker are off limits when it comes to criticism.
  
  There is a huge difference between what Judith and Souixsie did. Judith did what (almost) everyone in level 2 South Island does in a coffee shop. Souixsie was in level 4 lockdown doing exactly what she tells everyone not to do.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:53am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Quite so; Dr Wiles and the others are protected by the Shield of Sanctimony that the Greens used to hide behind. Last night’s One News however was a particularly graphic illustration of the media’s disconnect, and lack of insight.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:05am
    - curry4me
      
      Tony Stuart: I think there might be one or two people in the mainland, and elsewhere whose thoughts on Stalinda and Co involve passages from a well known religious book, heat, and three resounding cheers.
      
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      September 22, 2021 12:11pm
- ecco
  
  Refuse to watch that woman Wiles. She has no credibility. Every time she crops up on NZ media sites, it’s an excuse to move away from that website. Almost like getting spam popping up continuously seeing that pink haired creature on your screen.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:55am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    One thing my wife and I noticed last night was that Dr Wiles is overdue to have her hair dyed again; there was the best part of an inch of her “normal” hair colour at the roots of the pink!
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:07am
    - Flossie
      
      Can’t stand the woman for many reasons. But to be fair my own hair has a similar problem after weeks of not having salons open. Not pink though.
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:15am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Indeed. My wife has been known to apply colour to her hair, but I no longer have enough to be worth worrying about. It was quite noticeable though.
        
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        September 22, 2021 10:50am
    - ecco
      
      Ughhh
      
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      September 22, 2021 9:35am
- Frank the tank
  
  The drum rolls are getting louder. Hosking was actively goading his employer over this topic this morning.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:56am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  “does anyone else see the irony of TVNZ attacking Judith Collins for not wearing her mask”
  The irony is even worse as the only reason the Wiles debacle ever saw light of day in the MSM was because Judith made a colloquial comment that most ( Hosking & HDPA being the exceptions) of the MSM hacks twisted into having another meaning.
  
  Tova, the PM’s and Labour Party’s PR teams are on a mission and nothing is going to sidetrack them. It’s worked twice already so why would they change the formula.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:13am
  - Warren
    
    Yes she has a team of vicious hateful female Journalists doing her dirty Politics for her, but this might yet still come back to haunt her if the opposition or someone finds a link to her dishonest participation.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:35am
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      If only happy – ( oops Warren 🙂 )
      
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      September 22, 2021 11:52am
- Spoff
  
  If you can tolerate the self indulgence that drips off every sentence, here is Wiles advising pregnant women to take the vaccine.
  https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-09-2021/siouxsie-wiles-should-i-get-vaccinated-if-im-pregnant-trying-to-get-pregnant-or-breastfeeding/
  She cites a study published by JAMA which carries this Conflict of Interest Disclosure:
  *Dr Lipkind reported serving on the Pfizer independent external data monitoring committee for the COVID-19 vaccine.
  *Dr Naleway reported receiving research funding from Pfizer for an unrelated study.
  *Dr Vesco reported receiving research funding from Pfizer for an unrelated study.
  
  I believe this is bad advice. It is simply too soon to ascertain the effects of this untested technology on the unborn – it took four years for the effects of Thalidomide to become known.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:57am
- Bobba Fret
  
  And Judith was in a Level 2 area. Siousxie was at level 4.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:42am
- Hard Cheese
  
  Interesting comment from Dr Wiles in the Herald this morning:
  
  Q: What might be the consequences – for Auckland and the rest of New Zealand – of getting this call wrong?
  SW: It’s a calculated risk for us to move to level 3 now, so if it doesn’t pay off then it will obviously be very demoralising for everyone. I have no doubt it will also be weaponised against us by those both here and overseas who are invested in our elimination response failing, so we should prepare ourselves for that.
  
  Obviously a laager mentality inside the Labour COVID circle
  
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  September 22, 2021 4:28pm
  - Spoff
    
    Thanks for bringing “laager mentality” into my lexicon. I had not heard the term before.
    I had always kind of admired the old Boers for their self-reliance and pioneering spirit – very like the NZ of my youth in the late 40s and 50s. Always mindful that they were not big on universal principles of justice of course.
    Ms Wiles seems to be telegraphing a “even if we are wrong we are right” message.
    We can probably anticipate future messages accusing dissenters of “hate”.
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:13pm
Gravelroad

Ok folks, at the risk of causing offence:
Yesterday on general debate there were 365 posts.
I thought I might have a go at counting how many of those posts were not about Covid 19 in some way.
I managed to find about 12 before tossing in the towel.
I estimate about 90% of the 365 comments were Covid 19 related. And I note that today’s contributions are already starting along the same track.
Time for a daily Covid 19 only thread on here?
Let general debate go back to being varied and less obsessive.
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September 22, 2021 8:38am
- Biscuit
  
  I’m with you, Gravel…
  
  I usually only have TV One on these days around 6pm because The Chase is on at that hour.
  
  Dopily, however, last night I lingered to watch One News.
  
  It took nearly 17 minutes before any non-Covid-related story got a mention…
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:12am
  - Inandout
    
    Biscuit, when there is no Trump to lampoon you switch to the covid fixation. How many media outlets will survive in the long term is the big question?
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:32am
- Yabster
  
  Couldn’t agree more- plenty of actual issues like, 3 Waters, He Pua Pua, MSM corruption etc to discuss – It’s exactly what Cindy wants- for the public to concentrate/obsess on the virus and let everything else slide past…
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:16am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Maybe Cindy will call an early election like Trudeau to try and squeeze out at least another year to get her non declared 2020 policies agenda into law. That would change the mix somewhat.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:29am
- Benedict Yu
  
  so write to DPF and suggest it.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:38am
- ecco
  
  It’s understandable that covid and the inept response and obfuscation by Ardern and her government, is front and centre of Aucklanders’ minds at the moment (I guess this is by design, no doubt). But this regime is starting to infringe on our lives in a big way up here. Basically locked up at home and not dissimilar to martial law. Have you seen those ridiculous fines they announced yesterday for their covid ‘infractions’.
  
  In saying that, I agree, a separate daily covid thread might be a good idea. The vax/anti vax conversations in the general debate are getting tedious.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:42am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Yes please.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:58am
- Fletch
  
  So, you’re saying that if we were alive during WWII and we had the internet, that most posts wouldn’t be about the war? Like it or not, Covid and what is happening concerning it, are the most important things going on the world right now. People like to talk about it. If it’s not a concern to you, then fair enough, but to most people it is the #1 concern.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:10am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @Fletch:
    I am not saying there should be no commenting about Covid 19 issues, just that there is a daily dedicated thread for them.
    Many of the comments are the similar to those made yesterday, and the day before, and before that.
    I don’t personally see Covid 19 as some sort of warfare battle, but acknowledge that others here do and their lives and outlooks are consumed by it.
    I also believe that if there are any Labour Party spinners commenting or reading posts on here, they will be delighted that people are so keen to keep debating the official narrative and agenda of Ms Ardern infinitum.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:03am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    You think? If Evergrande goes tits up & takes a chunk of the Chinese economy with it, thereby tanking global asset markets, then I think you’ll find that COVID will be relegated to second place in blogworld.
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:59pm
- artemisia
  
  Agree, and I do actually make an effort to post something non-covid on GD most days. Maybe if we all did?
  
  Working my way through Bryce Wilkinson’s Illusions of History over at NZ Initiative. Any comments from anyone?
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:16am
  - Ra Henare
    
    https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:38pm
  - JJ56
    
    Michael Reddell comments on it https://croakingcassandra.com/2021/09/22/illusions-of-history/
    
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    September 22, 2021 7:37pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Good idea.
  
  It worked well with all the Trump posts…
  
  I never read them … no interest at all… saved me scrolling through screes of comments.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:29pm
ecco

Wow what is happening at TV3? Just saw that Richardson and Gillies are leaving the AM show. That was the last show I watched on TV, less so now that Garner has gone. Is this part of the cancel culture? Will be especially sad to see Richardson go, he’s unashamedly right. Not so upset to not see Gillies any more.

What’s the bet they’ll bring in Toxic Tova, to host with Bridge, or a maori female presenter. Maybe that reporter they have with the moko?

Bridge is ok, but decided I wouldn’t watch any more as he’s just too lightweight and puerile on a lot of the themes he has running on the show. Richardson was really the main reason I watched the AM show now.

Were their ratings against TV1 Breakfast really that bad? Does anyone have those numbers? Would be interesting to know.

Wallace, ex Air NZ, has really been bought in to do a hatchet job there. That’s clear to see. There’s been murmurings of a Mediaworks ipo. Is that what’s driving this, trying to attract more younger viewers, to stem the tide of eyeballs going to the internet for their news?

Or is it something more sinister, like wanting to access Ardern’s media bribe fund and so having to comply with those Treaty requirements that were mentioned in that Vance article in Stuff on Plunket’s new station being launched?

What a demolition of the last, remotely independent channel, that is not scared to criticise Ardern and co. What a shame. Very sad to see.
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September 22, 2021 8:44am
- RoboRob
  
  Didn’t know Richardson and Gillies are leaving. Will be sad to see Rchardson go, I’m sure he will land on his feet. Always felt Gillies was wet blanket. I actually vastly prefer Ryan to Duncan.
  
  Hope we dont end up with Tova. Perhaps its time to stop recycling media personalities and bring in someone fresh?
  
  I suspect this is all around the new owner (Discovery) who apparently are put the progressive in progressive. Could be we end up with trans, muslim presenters 🙂
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:59am
  - Ruahine
    
    I think it would be good to have a trans Muslim on AM Breakfast.
    Such a person could keep us informed of many important developments such as social progress in Afghanistan.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:26am
  - oldfella
    
    The horrid headline says Mark and Amanda quit. The actually story says they resigned. Yeah, right.
    Anyone on here think believe they were not just dumped by management?
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:48am
- Inandout
  
  ecco, too late to ‘stem the tide’ of internet viewing amongst the young. They are on their mobiles or laptops viewing much more interesting material than local TV can ever provide; and no endless covid messages. The ‘world is your oyster’ saying has never been truer.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:15am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Agreed. It’s ironic that the MSM is dumping the Boomers as an audience in favour of the young when it’s only the Boomers that actually watch TV.
    
    Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, Trev!
    
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    September 22, 2021 8:03pm
- doggone7
  
  I’m sure all media are trying to attract more younger viewers, to stem the tide of eyeballs going to the internet for their news. Or cater for the younger viewers in the tide of eyeballs going to the internet.
  
  And why wouldn’t they? Their survival depends on it.
  The weirdest thing is that it is likely those who complain about the ‘MSM’ and rubbish it as poor and biased and shallow seem to be those who can’t do without it.
  They listen to RNZ or ZB or watch TV1 or 3 all the while saying how terrible it is. Its like eating something you can’t stand, hate, and go back the next day and eat more.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:51am
  - MCos
    
    Who actually watches these tv breakfast shows?
    
    A Discovery spokesperson says “626,383 people tuned into The AM Show this month compared with 566, 980 in the 5+ category with the 25-54 demo also showing strong growth with a 4.9 per cent gain in reach,” while “292,375 Kiwis tuned in this September compared to the 278 724 reached in September 2020 in the 25-54 age group”.
    
    So about 10% of the country tune in sometime during the month; half of whom might be in the 25-54 age group.
    Maybe the kids watch it because it’s on.
    Forty years ago when my son was about six I used to watch the BBC or CNN or whatever the one news channel Sky had in those days. One day he was watching. I asked why he was watching for, it was only the news.
    He said, because it’s TV.
    I suspect of the 10% of Kiwis tuned to the AM Show most aren’t taking a blind bit of notice. It’s on because it’s TV.
    
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    September 22, 2021 3:40pm
    - ecco
      
      I just have it on mysky and just fast foward it to certain slots. Certainly not sitting there for three hours watching it. Cameron Bagrie on Tuesday at 6.23am with his economic report is very good, so is Frances Sweetman from Milford on Thursdays at 6.23am. Jason Morrison with his aussie report on Mondays before 7am is really good and has a sense of humour. Quite good to watch Bridges regularly school Parker on the political round up on Friday mornings. I’ll have to switch to listening to Hoskings now on the radio in the mornings.
      
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      September 22, 2021 5:22pm
    - curry4me
      
      MCos: I think you’ve got a highly valid point.
      
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      September 22, 2021 7:35pm
Flossie

AM Breakfast (TV Three) announces that Amanda Gillies and Mark Richardson will leave the programme at the end of the year.
Great pains taken to point out that they will remain in some capacity with the broadcaster. So different to the earlier departure of Duncan Garner…what really happened there?

I will really miss Mark.
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September 22, 2021 8:44am
- Frank the tank
  
  Not woke enough. Their 2 replacements won’t be:
  
  a). white; or
  b). male
  
  Mark my words.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:58am
- jon
  
  Yep Mark has a spark and refreshing way!!
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:19am
- Jibber NO Jabber
  
  These dismissals will be in line with the channel’s commitment to diversity.
  Not surprised Richardson got the chop for the obvious reason, but Gillies getting the arse card for being too lightweight and wet ?…?…
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:40am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Stuffed are reporting they are not connecting as well with the younger woman demographic. LOL. Funny thing is – they can’t outwoke OneWoke’s Breakfast show.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:07pm
Tony Stuart

Well knock me down with a feather; the Hells Angels now have Covid, along with the Mongrel Mob and Black Power.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300412629/covid19-spreads-to-third-gang-as-hells-angels-prospect-infected?cid=app-android

Given that gangs don’t exactly have a stellar record in compliance with the authorities, I think we can safely say “watch this space” for further incursions into the community. After all, sneaking past the roadblocks to head south for a boot-load of KFC wasn’t exactly difficult.
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September 22, 2021 8:45am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  So the gangs fraternize, huh?
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:56am
- Frank the tank
  
  I have placed a theory earlier on in this thread. Something does not smell right here.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:59am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    To be fair, that’s not uncommon with gang members….
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:09am
- alex Masterley
  
  You have to wonder what the lads who did the KFC run took south with them that enabled them to return with 100k and the fried chook.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:50am
  - Ehlana
    
    Essential supplies?
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:55am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Wouldn’t it be funny if the delivery had been to the MM Kingdom in Hamilton…
      
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      September 22, 2021 10:51am
  - Nickc2
    
    Will KFC be held accountable for profiteering from the proceeds of crime? You can safely bet all the KFC in the boot wasn’t put on the plastic with all that cash laying about in the boot.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:03am
- Fletch
  
  And are they actually, you know, sick? Or do they just “officially” have Covid because a test says so.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:06am
- oldfella
  
  Tony, I guess meth doesn’t work against the ‘deadly’ Delta strain. I’m sure the gangs tested it, just in case.
  
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  September 22, 2021 4:13pm
- curry4me
  
  Tony Stuart: If it gets into the Rolleston gang; bang goes the Leeston, and Ch-Ch shows.
  
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  September 22, 2021 7:37pm
70andstilllearning

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/09/latest-on-covid-19-community-outbreak-tuesday-september-21.html

“And now Ardern has put the call out to Aucklanders to get the jab, HINTING ( my caps) that it may make the difference when it comes to deciding whether to shift down to alert level 2 in a fortnight.

Hinting? Sounds more like a ransom threat to me – do what I want or I may not let you go free!
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September 22, 2021 8:49am
- Ruawai
  
  Yet she also says lack of early vaccination was not the cause of level 4 lockdown, she can’t have it both ways.
  
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  September 22, 2021 8:55am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Sigh – you reckon not Ruawai – sadly the luvvies out there seem to be letting her.
    
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    September 22, 2021 9:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Logic seems to evade many Kiwis.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:10am
    - Spoff
      
      Its a universal syndrome, not unprecedented (look up “Tulip Mania” or, if you are sufficiently liberated from dogma, simply consider religion and the contradictions involved). Man has a propensity for derailment from clarity of thought from time to time.
      Truth and logic are grounded in reality but the pressures exerted by popular belief are very persuasive. They obscure and pervert truth and logic.
      This is a known and a tactic in certain hands.
      
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      September 22, 2021 5:50pm
      - Aurelia
        
        There is an even crazier syndrome called hysterical dancing. A village in Europe somewhere saw a person doing this
        for days on end then it caught on and 1000s were doing it and many died of exhaustion. Of course it made no sense. Catchy it was and defied all logic.
        
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        September 22, 2021 10:12pm
I remember when

What is a sufficient vaccination rate for covid re-opening.
Still the same 50.
In Australia the population is around 25.86 million and the median age is 27.
So approx 12.93 million are under 40.
Australian Dept of Health covid deaths by age group 20 September, 2021.
When Covid deaths were 1166 (20 September, 2021):
Deaths 40+ = 1149 or 98.54%.
Deaths 30+ = 1158 or 99.31%.
Deaths 0-9 = 0, 10-19 = 1, 20-29 = 7.
That means for the 0-19 age group the death rate is around 1 in 6.5 million.
Explain the vaccination rollout rationale again.
If the argument is ‘long covid’ then there is a suggestion that being vaccinated can cured that.
Surely, if vaccines are in short supply, this is a way of reducing demand.
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September 22, 2021 8:51am
- I remember when
  
  Sorry should have said median age was 37.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:16am
- Sacha
  
  ‘long covid’ is the term applied to ‘complications’ of contracting the virus.
  If what I’m reading from overseas clinicians, long covid can be successfully avoided by prompt , effective treatment when the viral condition is in its early ‘cold-like’ stages.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1TqxvXKTs
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:29am
Tomtoddy

Is there any worse case of arrogance, highhanded and despicable disdain than Shaw’s jaunt to Glasgow? He is shoving it right up our noses along with his team.

While we suffer, torn apart from families, unable to attend funerals, queued for months to get home, watching our busineses grind into bankruptcy, individuals suiciding under the pain and uncertainty he and his sycophantish “experts” climb into their business class seats, unpack in their $1,000 rooms, swan off to their plush conference venues by 11:00am then return to NZ and shove aside genuine Kiwis to access the best MIQ facilities.

And all for what? Saving the planet from warming 0.17 of a degree.
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September 22, 2021 8:52am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Shaw wasn’t prepared to risk going down the road to Parliament when New Zealand was experiencing around 80 cases of Covid per day.
  
  But yesterday, Scotland recorded 2870 new Covid infections, 18 deaths, and has 1107 people in hospital with Covid, 94 of whom are in Intensive Care. Also worthy of note is that we’re heading towards the northern winter, when infections are sure to increase.
  
  https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
  
  James Shaw continues to live by the mantra “One rule for thee, and one rule for me”.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:02am
  - Frank the tank
    
    BMW Jimmy loves his perks more than any other minister
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:00am
  - Ruahine
    
    Willing to pickup the money though.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:22am
- tf78
  
  Tomtoddy, don’t forget the actual irony of him flying there!
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:21am
  - Spoff
    
    Classic Politico-psychopathology.
    “I must do this because I am right.”
    
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    September 22, 2021 5:55pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  It’s the same the world over. Here’s several from the USA, The Hunger Masks, although the latest is probably my favourite. Just a month after she laid down a mandate on wearing masks indoors, San Francisco Mayor, London Breed, got caught on video without a mask at a Jazz club, where she was just super-excited about a band that had reformed. This was just one of her responses to questions:
  
  “We don’t need the fun police to come in and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing,” she said during an interview, contending she was drinking at the time and started dancing because she was “feeling the spirit” and “wasn’t thinking about a mask,” according to reports.
  
  The Fun Police are for you, the proles. As I put it in my post:
  These people either don’t believe their own bullshit about masks (and other things) or they’re glorying in applying those rules to little people who can’t fight back, at least not without ending up in jail.
  
  Or perhaps what we Untermenchen should take from all these events is that they’re just deliberately rubbing our noses in this shit. That the whole point is to make it clear who the boss is: that the rules apply to us, not them, and they want us to know it.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:57am
- Prince
  
  There is not one ounce of integrity there.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:30am
Ruawai

Jacinda Ardern now talking about vaccination percentage as percentage of first jab, aiming for 90% of first jab in Auckland, this is very misleading for people who will now think they only need to get one jab. She is doing this so there is a perception of more people vaccinated than there is.
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September 22, 2021 8:53am
- Sacha
  
  The PM parrots back what her backroom advisors tell her. God knows how much medical knowledge they have between them, and how much of their ‘knowledge’ is gathered from reading brief reports of stats from over seas.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:32am
Ruahine

A question for Trevor Mallard.
Have all Members of Parliament been vaccinated.
If not provide the electors of New Zealand with the names of those MPs who are not vaccinated.
Please state whether they have been vaccinated twice.
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September 22, 2021 8:57am
- Sacha
  
  It is none of anyone’s business who, or who is not vaccinated.
  This mass invasion of privacy is turning many New Zealanders into a nosy, bullying community.
  
  It’s enough to make one enter permanent Home Isolation.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:35am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I heard that only two have not been vaccinated. Would like to know who they are.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:40am
- Ruawai
  
  It was in the Herald a few days ago. Most have had first jab except for a few National MPs
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:47am
- graham
  
  There was an article in the Herald (paywalled) two days ago which stated that there were still four MPs who not yet received a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Unfortunately, because it’s paywalled I can’t tell who.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-the-90-project-who-of-our-mps-have-been-fully-vaccinated/WYTIZMZVQEEMABUMBJWRDXWLQU/
  
  An article in the ODT at the beginning of the month gave a breakdown across the parties.
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-national/mps-outpacing-other-kiwis-covid-jabs
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:12am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    The latest version of that story has all National MP’s with at least one jab (and around half with two), except Simeon Brown, Simon O’Connor and Maureen Pugh, all of whom are marked as “booked”. One ACT MP, Damien Smith is also booked, while Toni Severin is listed as having a medical condition.
    
    All Labour, Green and Te Pati Maori MP’s have had at least one jab, and many have had both.
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:58am
    - MCos
      
      About the MPs have had one shot, one of whom pointed out she had her first shot when her age bracket came up and now she’s waiting out six weeks before the second shot.
      Why the two Auckland Nat MPs are so tardy is a mystery when they could waltz straight into a vaccine centre any time the spirit moved them.
      
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      September 22, 2021 4:02pm
- doggone7
  
  Asking on here is pointless – if you really want an answer. Ask him directly.
  
  I’ve had no trouble getting in touch and have always had replies:
  [email protected]
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:17am
- dcrane
  
  While I understand the political point here, nobody should be forced to disclose whether they have been vaccinated.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:24am
  - MCos
    
    Particularly when the answer doesn’t suit their agenda.
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:04pm
I remember when

Fuzzysnuggleduck: Yesterday:
Wrote an interesting piece about criminal access to firearms.
He didn’t mention whether the OIA response had any comment on how those “illegally selling firearms” became firearm licence holders.
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September 22, 2021 8:59am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  They would have had to follow processes to acquire a license like any other.
  But points to note: The process around approving a firearms license appears to have been poorly managed in the last several years. e.g. Tarrant & police not vetting to their own requirements.
  The process to gain a license had moved more online, and less face to face (I for instance have always had about face to face, site inspections, and interviews with members of household, character references required, background checks.).
  It has now gone the opposite extreme after the mosque shooting, around far too onerous, with something like 40 pages needed for an application to renew a license.
  The process itself is being turning into a disincentive to own a firearm.
  As they well know…..
  
  And yet, as noted by COLFO, there are actual gang associates with licenses.
  So I would point to the police vetting and approval process failures.
  This is not about the process having to be a pain in the arse or cumbersome, or number of tick boxes, to be effective.
  It is about competent and prudent judgement on the character of the person & direct contact to support an informed decision.
  On this front, it is about MORE work from POLICE and not simply more hoops for the person applying.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:48pm
Yvette

Newshub headline – Ardern grants Shaw MIQ spot for UK climate conference but forgets to tell him – so makes one think, while one perches on the loo, rather than the morning random cognition in one’s shower, if …

1 – The climate conference isn’t all that fucking important any way
(Again, I haven’t yet had neither my morning Nescafē Strong Cappuccino nor medications)

2 – Although Ardern now has herself, Hipkins, Bloomfield , Little, Robertson, Dr Ayesha Verrall as Ministers of Health, her head is to full of spinning covid issues – like what to name the jabbing’ waggon – to think of any thing else, or …

3 – add your own reason for her non-delivery of even this small item of information to Shaw, while MIQ Lotto issues, and ‘queue jumpers’, so sort of dominate the nation’s media

(BTW: I am surprised no one has yet taken a firearm to attack the “Shot Bro” or taken a complaint of kererū English to the Race Relations bloke)

And, mentioning bastardisations of your English language –

Re new yo ur McA fee an tivi rus Sub scr ipt ion
LI MI TED TI ME OFF ER
yo ur sub scr iption wi ll be au toma tic ally re ne wed
To day pa y NZ$79.95 for 2 yr Sub scrip tion an d fo r 10 Dev ice

Is this spam, and what sort of dum bar se w ould sen ds uch a nema il?
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September 22, 2021 9:01am
- Fletch
  
  ^^ someone who doesn’t speak English has copy/pasted it from a PDF.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:02am
  - Fletch
    
    For the downtickers, let me clarify –
    
    When copy and pasting from a PDF, often the text becomes broken with added spaces. I can’t even “Print” to a PDF a page from Chrome without this happening. The only browser that seems to work is Opera with its right click, “Save to PDF” option. The text can be cleanly copied.
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:46pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Singapore has distributedAntigen Rapid Test kits to every household, so that folks can monitor their own Covid status if they have been in contact with a positive case.

https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/selftestart

Singaporeans can isolate at home if infected.
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September 22, 2021 9:03am
- alex Masterley
  
  A colleague is bringing in some of those Kits from Europe. It will be interesting to see how they work and whether or not we can get them made here.
  They would be a useful tool to have but i think there might be resistance to them from wellington.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:47am
  - Flossie
    
    Your colleague might be lucky to get them past Customs! Wouldn’t they be some kind of “contraband”?
    
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    September 22, 2021 10:22am
  - Frank the tank
    
    ‘Wellington’ have made them illegal. I shit you not.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:10pm
- dcrane
  
  One of many useful tools 100+ billion could have purchased, along with a strengthened medical system, had we decided to trust Kiwis to protect themselves as best they saw fit.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:27am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yep. A requirement to enter Singapore as a Seafarer as well.
  You guessed it unavailable here in NZ. Also only selected brands are to be used.
  I’m betting there will be a lot of fake ones being produced.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:33am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I wonder if our Government is waiting for someone “connected” to distribute here in NZ.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:10am
    - Ed Snack
      
      At be the MM could apply for that status…
      
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      September 22, 2021 1:46pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Here was my requirements before resigning travelling to Singapore.
    
    https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/files/MOH-Health-Advisory-SHN.pdf
    
    As part of the submission, I will need to inform MPA if you have taken your COVID vaccine and which brand of vaccine did you take. Could you please advise me by today?
    
    Before you travel, I will need you to send me the following for MPA to provide the final approval:
    
    Joiner SHN & Health Declaration & Temp Taking demonstrating 14 days of temperature log (Form attached)
    PCR Lab Report – not more than 48 hours (from sample collection time) prior to departure flight, with negative result.(Test should be taken at a government-approved or ISO 15189-accredited testing facility)
    Negative ART¹ Result not more than 24 hours prior departure (if tested positive, you shall not take further ARTs to obtain a negative result. Instead you should take another PCR test to confirm if you have been infected with COVID-19). More information on the ART test in the attached email.
    A picture of the ART kit box with the manufacturer details.
    Declaration usage of nebulizers, if any.
    Fit-to-travel Certificate – 24 hours before home departure flight (Template attached)
    SG Arrival Card (SGAC) Declaration (I will guide you in the joining instructions)
    
    NOTE:
    
    MPA may allow you to break SHN temporarily to carry out test, and immediately return home to complete SHN
    Once you are tested negative, you need to obtain a FIT TO TRAVEL CERT. You need to travel within 24 hours of receiving the FIT TO TRAVEL CERT. You can get your doctor to fill up the attached word document and insert their letterhead and sign it.
    
    And ART test requirements below,
    
    Dear Team,
    
    Please see below and the link for use of ART test approved by HSA: https://www.hsa.gov.sg/consumer-safety/articles/covid19_ARTselftests
    
    The following ARTs have been authorised by HSA under PSAR: This list is updated as at 12 August 2021. Only the below are acceptable.
    
    Name of antigen rapid self-test
    
    Name of distributor
    
    Authorisation date
    
    Abbott PanBioTM COVID-19 Antigen Self-Test
    
    Unison Collaborative Pte Ltd
    
    31 May 2021
    
    Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test
    
    Quantum Technologies Global Pte Ltd
    
    2 June 2021
    
    SD Biosensor SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Self-Test Nasal
    
    Roche Diagnostics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
    
    9 June 2021
    
    SD Biosensor Standard Q COVID-19 Ag Home Test
    
    SPD Scientific Pte Ltd
    
    9 June 2021
    
    BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test
    
    Becton Dickinson Holdings Pte Ltd
    
    15 June 2021
    
    BD Kit for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2
    
    Becton Dickinson Holdings Pte Ltd
    
    12 August 2021
    
    Best Regards
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:07pm
I remember when

Must make a mental note to remember to get a ‘Vaccination Card’ when I get my flu shot next year.
Don’t want to be unable to attend social functions or travel on public transport, trains or ferries.
Remember when people refused to work with anyone who hadn’t had a flu jab?
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September 22, 2021 9:05am
- kevn
  
  I rem… mehh, just run one up on your computer and print it. They look to be just basic pieces of paper. Laminate it to look pro.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:22am
- Ehlana
  
  Been organising flu jabs at work for a while now. We offer it onsite as a convenience to our staff, with an incentive of a lollipop when you get your jab. About half our staff take them up.
  
  No-one has ever asked about other peoples status and we don’t keep a record of it, so couldn’t tell them anyway.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:01am
- Observer of Life
  
  Note: If you want an official record of having had both flu shots. Go onto the MOH website and in the search bar type “Vaccination Proof”. You’ll need your NHI number and the date of you first vaccine. You’ll then receive an official letter stating you are fully vaccinated. I’ve done it in the hope that one day I can depart these shores, and if it’s need at my destination, I’m sorted. I’ll hunt out the link and post it.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:35pm
[email protected]

The comments for this article were closed after three comments:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/126225348/the-burning-question-why-do-ev-battery-fires-happen

The idea that the EV battery could start a fire in the garage when charging is scary. Since all EV’s have battery temperature sensors, why do the EV manufacturers not set off an alarm/beep the horn when the battery temperature rises above the normal level while charging? Then you could disconnect the charger and move the car before the battery fire starts.

Software could probably be updated.
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September 22, 2021 9:09am
- kevn
  
  @info@…. EV fires. Yes, a reality indeed and very hard to extinguish.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:20am
- tf78
  
  info – have you seen the video of parked up electric buses – one caught fire then the line of five were incinerated in about 5 minutes.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:26am
- Ehlana
  
  Or manufacture the product to stop charging at that point. It was once explained to me that lights out machining was safe because the machine monitored itself and would stop, in case of trouble, faster than a human operator could hit the stop button anyway.
  
  So why doesn’t a charging EV do the same?
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:03am
- Ed Snack
  
  Because that would only prevent some fires. The real problem with EV fires is that they are damnably hard to put out.
  
  Typically, with a fire there are two ways to put it out; either cool the site down so that vapourisation of the material is too low to support combustion, or stifle it by shutting off access to Oxygen. Water can do both so is for many materials a very effective treatment.
  
  With a battery, you have both fuel and oxidant already mixed, and once unconstrained it can generate very large amounts of heat. You cannot stifle it, so you have to try to cool it down, and keep cooling it down until you can isolate the issue.
  
  Often all one can realistically do is make sure it doesn’t spread and let the fuel exhaust itself.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:50pm
kevn

@Tomt… Despicable in many ways. He is a real trougher.
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September 22, 2021 9:18am
Tony Stuart

Here’s something to put the frighteners up you. New Zealand’s debt is growing at more than $1000 per second, or $60,000 per minute, or $3,600,00 per hour, or $86,400,000 per day; yikes!

And at the time of typing, our debt per household was $69,430.16; that’s government debt, of course, and doesn’t include our personal indebtedness.

https://www.debtclock.nz/
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September 22, 2021 9:22am
- gorse
  
  Thanks Tony, I think we all know this is unsustainable and will end badly. I am not sure how National will cop the blame for this, but I suspect they will.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:17am
- rockape
  
  Well in reality it’s not household debt. If I decide to get in a yacht and set off for the Pacific islands cruising for the rest of my life ,then NZ Governments debt matters not a jot to me.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:54am
- chukar
  
  TS,
  Yes
  Add in Inflation ,
  And ask what the NZD is actually worth now in food ,housing transportation etc etc?
  We are all doubly poorer by each second!
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:37pm
mandk

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/09/womad-nz-2022-line-up-features-fat-freddy-s-drop-covid-19-expert-siouxsie-wiles.html

Well, that’s WOMAD off my list.
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September 22, 2021 9:24am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Surely Fat Freddy’s Drop is a body-shaming band name; ban them!
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:00am
  - graham
    
    Ah, but as we know Tony, these controversies only get pointed out when it suits the narrative. When it doesn’t suit the narrative, the silence is deafening.
    
    Which is probably why you NEVER see any comment AT ALL in the media over the issue of cultural appropriation when it comes to Dr Siouxsie Wiles – who was named Susanna and changed the spelling of her name to Siouxsie because at 16 her boyfriend started spelling it that way after “Siouxsie & the Banshees”.
    
    Which I personally have no problem with at all – I think the majority of accusations of “cultural appropriation” come from people who are actively looking for something to be offended at – but it does seem strange to me that the usual suspects who would normally jump on such things stay very quiet about this particular instance.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:39am
waikatosinger

Iceland is a good model for our future. Having run a very successful vaccination campaign they opened up, but they are now struggling with a surge of breakthrough cases and their hospitals overloaded so they had to lock down again. They haven’t had too many deaths, but you still have to deal with a lot of seriously ill people, most of them vaccinated, overloading the health system.

A vaccination campaign alone is NOT enough. We also need good therapies to deal with the inevitable wave of infections when we open up. What measures is the government taking to investigate, approve and stockpile covid treatments? Jacinda never seems to talk about that. Taking a serious and proper look at the data from India would be a good place to start.

Normally we take our lead in medical matters from the US. But I don’t think we can trust the US about this. In the US covid has become extremely political. The foolish old man in chief wants to force everyone to get vaccinated; even young people for whom the risks outweigh the benefits, and even people who have already had the disease who get no benefit from a vaccine at all.

Any talk about drugs to treat covid in the US is seen as a threat to the vaccine campaign and is suppressed. It is the vaccine or nothing, which is ridiculous. Just because we have a vaccine against tetanus doesn’t mean we don’t also need drugs to treat people who get it.

Biden is even shutting down the supply of the most effective treatment, monoclonal antibodies, to states that resist his compulsory vaccine and mask mandate. Effectively he is withholding medical treatment to punish a politically inconvenient population. Stalin would have approved, but the fact that this kind of thing is happening in the US is beyond scary.

You are not allowed to even mention proposed treatments like ivermectin or hydroxychloriquine on US controlled social media or you’ll be banned. When people start calling these long established and safe drugs “fish tank cleaner” and “horse medicine” you know you are looking at a pure propaganda and disinformation campaign. WTF is going on here? This is so bizarre that it is no wonder conspiracy theories are surging in popularity.
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September 22, 2021 9:29am
- Don Beckett
  
  Bloomfield has said the same thing. Our Govt. is lying to us on a daily basis.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:13pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Worse, Bloomfield called Ivermectin “dangerous”, that is a deliberate mischaracterisation that he should be pilloried for.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:56pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      If Bloomfield is following the Yanks he should be sacked,
      
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      September 22, 2021 2:10pm
      - Jibber NO Jabber
        
        No, Bloomfield is there to carry the can if and when it all turns to shit, so Ardern can say “not my fault, I only followed Ashleys’ advice”, he is the Doctor she is the Teflon Immaculata of the Ninth Floor Proletariat.
        
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        September 22, 2021 3:26pm
- Fletch
  
  Veritas have video from a health worker inside HHS who decided to become a whistle blower. Ivermectin is not allowed to be prescribed in some hospitals.
  
  At around 11 mins..
  
  “[ivermectin] not allowed at this facility”. “I am stuck. I am told you are not to use it under any circumstances whatsoever for somebody with COVID, unless you don’t want to have a job. I am not going to lose my job over this”.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdI7tgKLtA
  
  The same video shows that staff know the vaccines are causing health issues such as myocarditis and other heart problems but that the issues are not being reported. In the video, a health worker in the hospital dies after having problems after the jab. She did not want it but could not afford to lose her job.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:28pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Ivermectin is a real problem in the USA because the doctors can only prescribe what the insurance will pay for. If ivermectin is allowed in a treatment regime the emergency approval of the vaccines is not lawfully possible. That is US domestic law at work.
    The outcomes in India and other places suggest strongly that ivermectin is effective but that could render the wiles and smiles political regime as out of control in New Tyranny.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:08pm
- Ed Snack
  
  To add to the clusterfuckery of it, Remdesvir is still an approved treatment in the US and in NZ, but the only trials held with it show that Remdesvir has zero value in treating Covid.
  
  But Remdesvir is very profitable for its maker, Gilead, and a lot of very well connected health bureaucrats and others have fingers in the Gilead pie. So the charade continues.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:54pm
  - waikatosinger
    
    Remdesivir is very expensive at around $US3,200 for a course of treatment. Ivermectin costs around 55cents for a course of treatment . For the cost of treating one person with Remdesivir you could treat 5,800 people with Ivermectin.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:43pm
bythesea

What happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object?

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1440382249560469524
from Melbourne at the CFMEU protest.
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September 22, 2021 9:49am
Paulus

I hear from Melbourne that the Builders Unions Anti Vax riots that this is because many of the (voluntary!!!) members are of course illegals and would have to identify themselves to get a jab.
This Union is considered probably the most corrupt in Australia and has been for many years.

Do we have reluctance to jab in Auckland because they my be overstayers who will not identify themselves as all having the jab are identified by a Medical Number anyway.
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September 22, 2021 9:52am
Fletch

I just heard Kerrie whatshername on ZB, talking about the protests in Oz, pushing the vaccination thing, describing anyone who doesn’t get it as a “bludger”, stopping NZ getting back to normal, saying if we don’t then it will clog up the hospitals etc. Bodily autonomy seems to be secondary.

Let’s imagine another scenario. Imagine the hospitals got so busy that abortion had to be stopped, for the good of the country you understand. Do you for one second think that liberals would give up abortion for the good of their country? Do you think if pro-abortion rights protesters took to the streets, saying ‘my body, my choice’ that the cops would be called in to shut them down, etc?
The good of the country wouldn’t even come into it. Personal rights and bodily autonomy would trump all.
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September 22, 2021 9:53am
- Benedict Yu
  
  It is not a good example as very few abortions require hospitalisation.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:41am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Kerre McIvor is employed by NZME, who are running The 90% Project, so that probably explains her stance.
  
  In the meantime, I am preparing an OIA request asking for copies of all meetings, letters, emails, texts and phone conversations between NZME executives and the PM, Ministers of Health, Covid Response and Broadcasting and their staff, and between NZME and the Director-General of Health and his staff.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:04am
  - ecco
    
    Per that Stuff report in April, NZME got $1,935,255 and Stuff got $1,116,435 from the media bribe fund.
    
    NZME doesn’t even try to hide that they are doing Ardern’s messaging anymore. They just blatantly put out those vaccine target scales (rigged) and the 90% target campaign. That’s coming direct from Ardern’s office. Unbelievable the control that Ardern has got over the NZ media using taxpayer money. Corruption of the media on the highest level seen in New Zealand.
    
    I truly encourage all of us that regularly post on kiwiblog to make a donation to the site commensurate with the amount of posts you are putting up here. Thanks DPF and your team for keeping us sane.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:42am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Thanks for your efforts, If I was younger I’d likely be helping too.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:54pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Remember when Jacinda Ardern told NZ that we shouldn’t be concerned about our slow vaccine roll-out

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/jacinda-ardern-defends-slow-covid-vaccine-roll-commentators-say-its-unacceptable

Seems she must have forgotten, because now the Media are trying to spin that Chris Bishop is misinforming the public when he brought up this matter in Parliament question time.

Bishop asked Hipkins: “Does he agree with the Prime Minister and other ministers who have said words to the effect of ‘it doesn’t matter how fast our vaccine rollout is because other countries need it more’, and do you think the Aucklanders who are now enduring the longest lockdown in New Zealand history might be reflecting negatively on those comments?”

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/sparks-fly-in-parliament-as-jacinda-ardern-chris-hipkins-deny-pace-of-covid-19-vaccine-rollout-meant-inevitable-lockdown.html
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September 22, 2021 9:57am
- dcrane
  
  Nations near the top: Portugal, Uruguay, Spain, Chile…. Obviously this is not about New Zealand not being a superpower nation. It’s about competence and/or a government that has never regarded Level 4 lockdowns as the evil they actually are.
  
  https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:32am
- Libertarians are right
  
  You’ll notice that the article gave Hipkins the last word with his lie that Bishop is wrong and that people should ignore him.
  
  Hipkins explicitly stated that we were offered a faster rollout for $40m but he turned it down as it would be “immoral” as others needed it more. The lockdown is his fault and his fault alone and his lying and blaming Bishop for misinformation is truly disgraceful. He is a fraud.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:37am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Let’s also not forget this statement by Chris Hipkins to TVNZ1’s Breakfast programme on 16 November 2020:
    
    Hipkins told TVNZ1’s Breakfast this morning New Zealand was “very well placed” to get its hands on successful vaccines for the virus, which has so far killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
    
    “Without going into detail I think we’re in a very good place to ensure that as vaccines start to come to market New Zealand will be at the front of the queue to be getting vaccines,” he said.
    
    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-zealand-front-queue-chris-hipkins-says-nation-well-placed-covid-19-vaccine-roll
    
    I’ve had any number of Labour apologists tell me that Hipkins was misquoted, and didn’t actually say we would be at the “front of the queue”. I guess TVNZ must have manufactured this story as a hit-job against him then!
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:11am
    - Libertarians are right
      
      It will be interesting if Chris Bishop shows up with evidence today which will prove Hipkins mislead parliament (as stated, Hipkins publicly admitted to not getting us put to the front of the queue).
      
      Hipkins didn’t only mislead Parliament but he also committed a lie based personal attack against Bishop.
      
      That’ll put Mallard in a difficult position which if it was anyone else he would probably block it but I don’t think he likes Hipkins.
      
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      September 22, 2021 11:27am
      - I remember when
        
        Just heard Hipkins using “THE Covid Report” to tell the nation why Chris Bishop’s questioning in Parliament was wrong.
        Fair enough, here’s ten minutes of television exposure to allow you to do some politicking.
        All the painting and wallpapering they are doing it would qualify as a home decorating programme.
        
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        September 22, 2021 1:48pm
Master Mariner

Yep, Been following as well.

Energy security world wide is more of a security issue than ever before by increasing Gas shortages and prices.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/20/business/uk-gas-prices-food-supply/index.html

Interesting is Europe/ Russia Nord stream 2 project, 75% of energy security now reliant on Russian Gas.
https://www.newsnow.com/us/Business/Energy/Natural+Gas/Nord+Stream+2

Another thing of interest is China’s Maritime Silk Road Plan.

It broadly follows “planned” or existing Oil and Gas Pipelines structures and large access to Deep water Ports .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_Silk_Road
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September 22, 2021 10:00am
- Master Mariner
  
  @ Artemsia at 0806, Reply.
  
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  September 22, 2021 10:02am
- artemisia
  
  Also the Yuwi freight train from China to Spain and the UK. Also part of the Silk Road and a lot faster than maritime.
  
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  September 22, 2021 3:48pm
I remember when

Some mention previously about the 65s getting someone to pick up their groceries as mentioned during Monday’s gospel.
I suspect that someone suddenly remembered all the work done during lockdown one.
This time the whole ‘support’ system was left to charity operators, maraes, etc., without mention of government help.
Local councils were involved last time – this time they don’t seem to have been.
Or, at least dependent on individual councils opting in – many not.
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September 22, 2021 10:02am
freemark

Show your support today to anyone you know in Melbourne. Tell them to join the protest or be complicit. Free people can start to win, right now, against this insane tyranny.
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September 22, 2021 10:18am
thirteenstars

Incredible report from Rebel News Australia as union members lay siege to and then brawl with their own union officials, condemning them as traitors over COVID lockdown work arrangements. The police are caught in the middle, at times firing upon both groups.

It’s quite a thing to see a union headquarters attacked by huge numbers of its own members, as pepper spray is shot from within the headquarters, and while the hired thugs of the officials surge out to battle the protestors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIWfRmZ-Ww
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September 22, 2021 10:25am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Conspiracy or not? Alternative to the lying MSM.
https://theexpose.uk/2021/09/18/fda-experts-reveal-the-covid-19-vaccines-are-killing-2-people-for-every-1-life-saved/?
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September 22, 2021 10:33am
Rusty

Do we ever hear from the Govt on the homeless people living under lockdowns?

Are they taken off the streets, vaccinated, and put in temporary accommodations or what?

And if so, are they back on the streets again when the levels drop?
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September 22, 2021 10:41am
- Ehlana
  
  Homelessness, like child poverty and all other social ills, can only exist under a National government Rusty. We have a Labour government now, who, as you know, are kind, caring and transparent. Therefore none of those things are problems anymore…
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:09am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Is closing down Rotorua to tourism not a social ill too? Who/what is going to replace those lost commercial opportunities which provide the revenue which pay for the support of the homeless?
    
    Command economies fail through lack of wisdom and ambition of their commanders.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:49pm
- NoFax
  
  Short answer is they are not put in temporary accommodations as I have seen the usual around town.
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:05pm
Yvette

Considering –
Data collected from 18 states between March and August suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 by 91% in the first four months after receiving the second dose. Beyond 120 days, however, that vaccine efficacy drops to 77%. [1]

By the time Ardern’s vaguely confirmed target of 90% vaccination of those eligible – so if 100% of that group is indeed vaccinated (very unlikely [2]), and that is actually 84 % of all New Zealanders – by the time that is done, how many of that utmost 84% will have had their vaccination wain in efficacy, dropping to about 77%?

Like repainting major world’s bridges (with the exception of the Golden Gate) – even if sold by kiwiblog commenters to kiwiblog idiots – painters start one end of a bridge to finally complete the other end in time to start the first end again, when will the possible 84% with their vaccinations’ efficacy dropping to 77%, with a requirement of boosters, allow Ardern to make her next move, whatever in hell that may be, to get out of the corner she has painted herself and the country into?

[1] Los Angeles Times – https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-09-17/study-finds-big-gap-between-pfizer-moderna-vaccines-at-preventing-covid-hospitalizations
[2] One in ten (13 per cent) say they have no intention to get vaccinated, while 22 per cent remain neutral – https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122665893/survey-shows-one-in-four-kiwis-remain-hesitant-about-a-coronavirus-vaccine
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September 22, 2021 10:51am
Stu2

Nature Briefing has a link to a very interesting Atlantic article on the pandemic and vaccinations.

A short excerpt on concentration:

“The more unvaccinated people are concentrated, the more easily the virus can find its next victim. Imagine three out of four people in every household are vaccinated; the unvaccinated person is unlikely to spread the virus very much at home, says Graham Medley, an infectious-disease modeler at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Now imagine three out of every four households are completely vaccinated; the virus will spread through the unvaccinated households. The overall vaccination rate is the same, but the results are very different.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/09/six-ways-think-about-pandemic-now/620129/?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=b1e8359524-briefing-dy-20210921&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-b1e8359524-45276622
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September 22, 2021 10:52am
Jack5

Gangs to retain edge in firearms ….

No routine arming of police.

That was the nub of the announcement by Police Minister Williams and Police Chief Coster this morning.

First, the mandatory introduction in Maori language, followed by thanks by Williams and Coster to Maori and ethnic groups consulted …

Then an announcement that boiled down to more tactical training and creation of “tactical prevention teams” that won’t be routinely armed. And dog handlers, who are vulnerable in their typically lone work, get teams (but not pistols).

But no to routine arming of police, which working police have they want.

The announcement as broadcast, at least the one via Stuff, ended before any questions from the audience.

As citizens, can we accept sending generally unarmed police into our streets against armed, meth-dealing criminal gangs?
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September 22, 2021 11:03am
- westernScientest
  
  While the gangs are an issue, looking at what the cops have been doing over lockdown breaches, and what they are doing in aus, do you really want them all to be armed all the time?
  
  It seems like just having a few dedicated gang units, and really going after them hard, rather than giving them tax payers money would be a more sensible approach.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:48am
  - Jack5
    
    But the police who are getting shot aren’t the ones in special squads.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:29pm
Mark

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Any idea ,you fearless right wing warriors why Crusher would not go on her regular wednesday gig on RNZ,this morning.I quite enjoy her for sugar fix of spite and bile ,so I was disappointed.Took me back to 2011 when Key used to regularly get eviscerated by Kim Hill,big brave boy he was too for about a month,then cried injun.Newsflash.3 of her staff have resigned ?????.Reminds me of Muldoon ,does not play well with others.
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September 22, 2021 11:14am
- westernScientest
  
  Its ok Mark, Ive got your back. Here is a right wing extremest for a full hour:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6FJRoTf-Us
  
  Enjoy, you might learn something.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:44am
  - westernScientest
    
    So this was clearly just a troll of a troll, it is a link to an interview with Friedrich A. von Hayek (author of the road to serfdom, and arguably the top classical liberal thinker of the 20th century), I just left it running in the background. Something that is really striking is the interviewer, and the differences to today.
    
    The interviewer is quite intelligent, creates counter arguments and articulates them well, presses back quite hard without being rude or shutting the guest down. It is a real shame this integrity has been lost.
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:04pm
- kevn
  
  @mark.. Top marks for garble.
  Using old last century Muldoon. Yawn…
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:55am
  - Mark
    
    Firkk .He was a self proclaimed economic genius at the timeand promoted by no less than Sir George Chapman and various other sycophantic twats ,which does seem to be the National Parties modus operandi.How did that work out possums .
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:54pm
- Jack5
  
  Don’t recall Hill “inviscerating” Key.
  
  Her interviews didn’t seem to affect his popularity. But then Hill preaches to the Woke.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:14pm
  - Mark
    
    Cannot see how Hoskings full throated attacks on the Sainted Lady have affected her popularity much either.I do not think I am particularly woke ,the family farm is going trailblazers ,I financed the adjoining 150 acres to make the existing farm much more viable ,given floods, drought pestilence and National govts.Still have a Joinery shed and marketable skills to come to OZ to earn a very very good buck.Happy days .
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:46pm
- BeaB
  
  Guyon Espiner has stated that John Key turned him down only once on Morning Report and that was when he needed time to look at the Panama Report.
  Key always made himself available so I think the Left are fomenting an urban myth.
  As for Judith, I think I’d avoid that Scottish fishwife too. Puerile giggling over bac0n butties doesn’t inspire confidence in a political interviewer.
  Sad we no longer have a professional Radio NZ.
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:23pm
Master Mariner

So let me get this straight.

Air NZ to trial Hydrogen in its aim of carbon neutral.

https://aviationnews.eu/news/2021/09/airbus-and-air-new-zealand-to-study-potential-for-hydrogen-powered-aircraft/

There is one problem that I can see. Where is the Hydrogen going to come from?
https://www.tradewindsnews.com/esg/airbus-asks-for-shipping-s-help-so-hydrogen-fuelled-planes-can-take-off/2-1-1070733

“Of particular concern, Bondergaard said, is how hydrogen could be transported to airports in the remotest parts of the world.”

Can anyone see a problem here?

Or is it just me ?
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September 22, 2021 11:25am
- rangitoto
  
  No problem. Hydrogen can be easily produced from natural gas or somewhat less efficiently from coal via coal gas.
  
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  September 22, 2021 11:35am
  - kevn
    
    @rangi… Except for captains calls likely to spoil that scenario.
    
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    September 22, 2021 11:52am
  - Ehlana
    
    Lucky people who live in countries with their own supplies of natural gas and coal then.
    
    I wonder if we will ship in hydrogen, or just the coal to make it?
    
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    September 22, 2021 12:02pm
    - Jack5
      
      In addition to natural gas, mainly inshore and not far offshore, we have:
      
      – Heaps of coal. The huge lignite fields of Southland alone could generate enough electricity for the whole country for at least 400 years.
      
      – Substantial reserves of coal-seam gas. This resource demonstrated its energy in the terrible Pike River mine explosions.
      
      But, of course, we won’t use these. Future, less-green citizens likely will use them.
      
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      September 22, 2021 12:12pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Hydrogen is not very safe for airships.
  Hope is at hand. Rolls Royce have begun testing an electric driven plane. Hydrogen may yet power aircraft but it likely to be in the molecular form of water or hydrides. Much work is underway presently world wide to economically do that.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:37pm
  - cmm
    
    Molecular form of hydrogen in water is no damn use as fuel. Anyone stalking like that doesn’t understand high school chemistry.
    
    Hint: try set a cup of water on fire.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:13pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      There is a lot of research evident at present on how to get the hydrogen atom freed from its bonds. I don’t seem to have archived it but a recent paper announced a catalytic process of promise. (Very low cost.)
      Expect more, this is hot research topic.
      
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      September 22, 2021 6:26pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  The energy needs of our civilisation are about to be fixed for good.
  
  Helion energy is within 1-2years of running a cheap compact commercially viable hot fusion machine that smashes plasma rings together at enormous speeds. They’ve demonstrated all the plasma conditions needed (within very close distance of commercial parameters needed), just working to integrate everything in a final slightly larger demonstrator machine being built now. They’re confidently predicting electricity prices competitive with gas from a power station sufficient for a small city that fits on a 1/4 acre section with no superconductors needed. It’s direct drive (no steam cycle, generates electricity directly from fusion plasma expansion) and running on readily available deuterium and lithium (generating tritium and helium 3) .
  
  In a couple of decades it means no need for national grids, hydropower, wind power, utility PV, coal or gas power.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:47pm
  - cmm
    
    Fusion has been “real soon now” since the 1960s. It really isn’t.
    
    There have recently been a lot of press releases about “breaktroughs”. Progress, perhaps, but “breakthrough” no.
    
    At this stage the most impressive results are getting out 70% of the energy that they are putting in. It needs to be over 100% to even break even, so that is far from a breakthrough.
    
    Big hype: Fusion experiment blasts out 10 quadrillion Watts! That is about 10 times the power of the whole USA grid!
    
    Small print: It was only for 100 trillionth of a second. 1.3MJ in all, requiring an input of 1.8MJ of electricity.
    
    So how much is 1.3MJ? Enough to run 1 electric kettle for 10 minutes. No, not 1 for every person in USA. Just 1.
    
    Still, 10x the power of the USA grid sounds impressive on the press releases if you’re fishing for funding!
    
    That’s how far we’ve come in 60 years of fusion research.
    
    https://www.livescience.com/fusion-experiment-record-breaking-energy.html
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:28pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      -ICF laser fusion like NIF is very unlikely to pan out, low efficiency and expensive targets.
      -Tokomaks like ITER are too expensive and have horrendous wall heating and neutron damage issues. There is an outside chance that superconducting tokomaks (smaller and cheaper) like MIT Sparc may eventually be economic
      -Magnetised target fusion strikes most economic balance between powerful input power devices (like multi billion dollar lasers) and expensive confinement vessels (like tokomaks) . Field reversed configurations (plasma toroids compressed in various devices) MTF systems like Helion, Tri Alpha Energy and General Fusion are now the leading technologies and are all likely economically and technically feasible and only 1-5 years from reaching economic breakeven. White elephant boondoggles like ITER and NIF are going to be rendered irrelevant in a year or two (but will stagger on for a decade through bureaucratic inertia)
      
      Excitingly the FRC systems like Helion are also ideal for space propulsion- could make visiting out planets possible with trip times of only a year or two, and asteroid mining would also become economic for precious metals.
      
      At larger scale pure deuterium fusion power plants are possible using heavy ion fusion ignition systems – big many-km long linear accelerators attached to 100GW fusion power plants using high efficiency and cheap 1980’s level particle accelerator tech to ignite Deuterium targets, but scale is beyond what can be economically attached to existing grid – though could work nicely for synthetic fuel production, cement and metal smelting.
      
      Lots of reason for optimism, the technological future for energy looks bright :), those nutty environazi concerns will soon be rendered null and void (of course they’ll just move to next misanthropic cause, given the problem is psychological rather than scientific)
      
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      September 22, 2021 4:12pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/126225348/the-burning-question-why-do-ev-battery-fires-happen

I found this article interesting, because while the date of publication purports to be today, 22nd Sept 2021, the comments at the bottom are dated 2 days ago and 3 days ago.
So there has been some editing since first publication.
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September 22, 2021 11:31am
Master Mariner

Quote.
“The difference between Monday’s decision and all the other Covid-related decisions is that Cabinet believed throwing everything at eliminating Covid-19 was no longer the best political option.

Why then didn’t the Prime Minister just say that, instead of going to great lengths to emphasise the fact Cabinet followed Bloomfield’s health advice?

This is fair question. Ardern’s commentary sounded disingenuous.

https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/112358/jen%C3%A9e-tibshraeny-government-still-trying-eliminate-covid-19-has-made-political
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September 22, 2021 11:49am
- septic skeptic
  
  Most of what I hear from the podium of half-truth is disingenuous spin.
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:55pm
kevn

Ok… Rob Fyfe, Ian Taylor, Steven Joyce and Tony Ryall.
Give them the reins and ‘lets’s do this’.
The incumbents are just mired in their own bullsh*t.
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September 22, 2021 11:50am
Surely Knott

This is an old article from Canada but I’m not sure it was reported here.

Dr. Qiu, her husband Cheng and her students from China were removed and escorted from Canada’s only level-4 gain of function lab over policy breach. Documents show they sent 20 vials of ebola as requested to the Wuhan lab in July 2019 before the coronavirus outbreak. Apparently the reason they were escorted from the lab wasn’t because of the shipment but that reason is still withheld..

Canadian epidemiologists say “We have a researcher who was removed by the RCMP from the highest security laboratory that Canada has for reasons that government is unwilling to disclose. The intelligence remains secret. But what we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximize the genetic diversity and maximize what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments. And that has links to the Chinese military.”

“”I am extremely unhappy to see that the Canadian government shared that genetic material.””

The independent article goes into detail re the military links.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/canadian-scientist-sent-deadly-viruses-to-wuhan-lab-months-before-rcmp-asked-to-investigate-1.5609582

https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13660
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September 22, 2021 12:10pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Meh, ebola is widely available in the wild, and China has a tonne of operatives in Africa
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:24pm
Jibber NO Jabber

Enjoy this homage to the great Aussie Larrikin tradition during yesterdays Tradie protest,
https://twitter.com/AllanP1/status/1440212214057562120

Every so often in hostile dark times, we sometimes witness a bit of good old Aussie larikanism that makes us smile or laugh.
This is important.

???
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September 22, 2021 12:30pm
Maggy Wassilieff

For those who haven’t seen the latest “Spitting Image” portrayal of our Dear PM

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/09/satirical-show-spitting-image-lampoons-ardern-new-zealand-s-latest-lockdown.html
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September 22, 2021 12:38pm
- surfing
  
  Hilarious.
  
  I imagine it could be captured under the new hate speech laws… They should put this to Faafoi …
  
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  September 22, 2021 12:42pm
- krazykiwi
  
  That is brilliant. And great that Newshub ran it. Good on them.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:34pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Even bad adverts are good adverts for the inflated ego
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:12pm
rangitoto

Mag 6 earthquake in Victoria:

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-news-live-fears-melbourne-protests-may-continue-lockdowns-begin-for-northern-nsw-lgas-20210921-p58tku.html
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September 22, 2021 12:48pm
- Cinematic
  
  Hmmm not good. I hope it’s not followed by the big one as in Chch.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:16pm
Cinematic

At now well over 1,000 cases Delta is looking less and less like a killer virus.

Would it make our hospitals busy, perhaps very busy? Yes.

Is it worth locking down for and bullying people into vaccinating against? No.
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September 22, 2021 1:08pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Last week, UK ministers confirmed that the IFR of Covid-19 is now just 0.096 per cent. This is based on diagnosed infections, while we know that only a fraction of infections are diagnosed, meaning the true IFR will be lower still.
  
  This stopped being about health some time ago. It’s now political theatre where the deliberately terrorised audience applaud their tormentors.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:30pm
  - Cinematic
    
    I don’t believe it is political theatre.
    
    But I do believe this government and it’s advisors are suffering from a severe case of tunnel vision.
    
    I also believe they have demonstrated an almost reckless inability to adjust or change direction based on emerging/current evidence.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:36pm
  - dcrane
    
    “This is based on diagnosed infections, while we know that only a fraction of infections are diagnosed, meaning the true IFR will be lower still”
    
    Will there also be undiagnosed covid deaths missing from the stats? There only needs to be one missed death to cancel out 1000 missed infections and leave the rate unchanged. Perhaps this is less of an issue in the UK where everyone has health care.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:40pm
    - cmm
      
      “There only needs to be one missed death to cancel out 1000 missed infections and leave the rate unchanged. ”
      
      Yes, that is correct, but the deaths are being overstated, not understated.
      
      If you die in a hospital of cancer and you happen to test positive for PCR at the time, then you’re classified as a CV19 death.
      
      The majority of deaths are something along those lines: massive comorbidities and the CV19 is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
      
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      September 22, 2021 2:10pm
      - dcrane
        
        No doubt, but I think both are happening, in the US anyway. Some people have such poor healthcare coverage they may die at home of cardiac arrest never having had a test. And, in the other direction, hospitals had a financial interest in declaring deaths to be due to covid in uncertain situations, since then they got paid regardless.
        
        The hard part is being sure which bias is more important.
        
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        September 22, 2021 2:43pm
      - septic skeptic
        
        I heard a very good explanation of the “died with/died from” issue on a Medcram youtube video.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp-nPZETLTo
        The relevant section is about 16 minutes 30 secs into the video.
        
        What he says is that the death certificate records the most proximal cause of death at the top of the death certificate. So if you have a car accident, the cause of death might well be “rupture of the pulmonary artery”, but it really was that car crash that killed you.
        Same with covid. You don’t die “of” covid. The cause of death should be recorded as respiratory failure. But make no mistake, covid has caused the death.
        
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        September 22, 2021 3:52pm
  - cmm
    
    We also know that the IFR is also pushed artificially high because anyone popping their clogs for whatever reason is a CV19 death if there is a hint of CV19 involved.
    
    Combine an inflated enumerator with a low-ball denominator and the IFR stats are hugely inflated.
    
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    September 22, 2021 1:58pm
- dcrane
  
  Don’t forget we’ve also had only one death for all 1300 or so cases that have come into MIQ from outside the country.
  
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  September 22, 2021 1:42pm
  - fernglas
    
    No we haven’t. That guy was a terminal cancer patient who was allowed home to die, and when he was admitted to hospital, at deaths door from his cancer, he tested positive for Covid. As Bloomfield said at the time “so of course he is another Covid victim”
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:35pm
Fletch

Over 65 people I know getting phone calls, letters in the mail, txts etc, all the time. They really are pushing it…
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September 22, 2021 1:31pm
- Fletch
  
  ps, I mean people over the age of 65 – not the number 65 people.
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:30pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Good correction Fletch. Wankers on here could get confused – like they do with Jaspindaspeak.
    eg repeated: ‘I have been in negotiations about electric utes. Toyota (the only likely ones) said no. I guess Jaspinda was in negotiations with Jethro, about how to tow his boat – and ego
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:05pm
- Littletramp
  
  The people doing the phoning are getting a commission for each vaccination they “sell”.
  
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  September 22, 2021 4:00pm
  - Inandout
    
    Little, only if the target turns up for the jab.
    
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    September 22, 2021 5:44pm
I remember when

Those new buzz words ‘Household Contacts’:
Useful term now that says, “There are new cases but they were isolated with a known case.”
Why is that important.
It is because it informs that, “We are in ‘control’, nothing to see here.”
But surely there were ‘household contacts’ when we had people locked up together in the first outbreak.
Yes, but that wasn’t the tricky, extra virulent, super contagious Delta strain.
So as long as we knew where the cases would be (at the homes of earlier covid sufferers), it allowed time to ensure eradication.
Now the household cases allow us to minimise the possibility that there might still be virus in the community.
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September 22, 2021 1:38pm
- Cinematic
  
  I like the reference of late to “large households”. These of course are gangs. Hence the long tail that isn’t going away anytime soon.
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:00pm
  - Jack5
    
    Gangs, or ethnic groups that like living in multi-family “households”.
    
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    September 22, 2021 2:27pm
Stu2

The vaccination numbers continue to drop
The weekly MoH dataset shows that the daily averages are dropping:

– for the week 8-14 Sept 58,398 per day
– for the week 15-21 Sept 52,808 per day

Looks like the shipment from Denmark is surplus to requirements, we were getting deliveries of 50,000 a day routinely in Sept
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September 22, 2021 1:55pm
- krazykiwi
  
  There’s a Farr’s Law for epidemics. Perhaps it also applies to vaccinations 🙂
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:17pm
- ecco
  
  Will be sending them off to some other country soon at half the price we paid for them,
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:21pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Could be used for buying votes from da ilands.
    Free shit works wonders
    
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    September 22, 2021 4:45pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Phark, who can we dump these on and make some money?
  
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  September 22, 2021 4:07pm
- Prince
  
  But they only need 30,000 a day to get to 90% by year end.
  
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  September 22, 2021 5:03pm
Chuck Bird

It looks like Trump was right.

Covid-19: Wuhan scientists planned to release coronaviruses into cave bats 18 months before outbreak

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-wuhan-scientists-planned-to-release-coronaviruses-into-cave-bats-18-months-before-outbreak/FNOF4GO4NULPSWUYW3DLMKFYVM/
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September 22, 2021 2:20pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Sky News host Sharri Markson is a proper investigative journalist. It is to our shame that New Zealand’s media is so filled with lightweight lickspittles.
  
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  September 22, 2021 2:29pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    You can access some videos showing the virus came from Wuhan.
    
    https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/china/chinese-whistleblower-warned-america-about-covid19-in-november-2019-the-chatrooms-are-filled-with-it/news-story/d3b063b061949b9db001015c6762c0a7
    
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    September 22, 2021 3:27pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Exactly krazy. Sharry and Miranda Divine are probably two of the better investigative journos around today. They sure make our shower of shit masquerading as investigative journos look decidedly second-rate.
    
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    September 22, 2021 3:55pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    NZ Media got paid to STFU, end of story
    
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    September 22, 2021 3:57pm
ABS4EVA

PIG BROTHER is Watching you

The Unions in the Communist Police State
are turning in each other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uunTftOZfuI

So good to see people who Vote Labour
devouring each other

Check it out
Riot Police and Earthquakes in Melbourne today

What next a MOUSE PLAGUE?
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September 22, 2021 2:24pm
Observer of Life

Here’s the link to the MOH website form to apply for your “proof of vaccination” letter.

https://customervoice.microsoft.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JMfOIyBt0Uuf6dxER-3R-p4xILeWi8ZIqFpxwSrxY19UMlZDRTBBTjA2M1BER0ZXV1JBMURMUENLNy4u
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September 22, 2021 2:27pm
- greybeard
  
  Don’t bother.
  I submitted my request for a letter on 24th August.
  No sign of it after 2 weeks, asked them why, got this reply:
  ” Kia Ora XXXX,
  You requested your letter be sent by post. Due to the restrictions, we have not been posting letter. Once we are able to, we will post you your letter.
  Regards,
  Vaccine Status Team ”
  
  Asked them again today ( 22nd Sept ) and got this reply:
  ” Kia Ora XXXX,
  You requested your letter be sent by post. Due to the restrictions, we have not been posting letter. Once we are able to, we will post you your letter.
  Regards,
  Vaccine Status Team ”
  
  I have no idea what the “restrictions” may be, some problem licking stamps due to Covid-19 perhaps.
  
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  September 22, 2021 4:00pm
  - fernglas
    
    Ask for it by email, then. I got mine within a couple of days
    
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    September 22, 2021 6:37pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Why is a “proof of vaccination” needed?
  
  If we’re allowing the government to implement another segregation dimension (to add to ethnicity) then we’re simply accelerating our societal demise.
  
  9 1
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  September 22, 2021 4:03pm
  - greybeard
    
    A printed letter is a hell of a lot better than a tattoo.
    
    3 1
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    September 22, 2021 6:16pm
  - zulumonster
    
    Apparently the Speaker of the House unilaterally decided he wants only vaccinated people at parliament. He may have had to walk that back a little as I’m sure there would have been pushback from a number of quarters.
    
    3 0
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    September 22, 2021 6:18pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    Well just in case a country you want to visit demands it. You have it!! Yep.. living in hope a miracle will happen and we’ll be able to travel freely abroad soon.
    
    2 0
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    September 22, 2021 9:46pm
- Observer of Life
  
  Get it emailed. Mine arrived the following day.
  
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  September 22, 2021 9:43pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING….

‘Member for Tijuana’ mulls over following JK’s example, in pledging his entire government salary towards whanau applying for hardship grants.

Sez he has become increasingly concerned about ‘the ever growing demands’ Labor places on hardworking-taxpayers during these straitened times….

https://twitter.com/RMarchNZ/status/1440472831507140616
10 1
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September 22, 2021 2:51pm
- Jibber NO Jabber
  
  Yeah, Nah, when he sez “labour” he means work, real physical work not the Lazy Indolent Labour Green Party and its supporters.
  
  9 0
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  September 22, 2021 3:01pm
  - Mark
    
    I am 68 serious health issues and still working as a specialist carpenter .What was your point again.
    
    3 2
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    September 22, 2021 6:26pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Fauci and Wuhan. He is donkey deep in this and should be at Gitmo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFoAczoHbV0
16 1
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September 22, 2021 2:51pm
Tauhei Notts

My wife tells me that what David Seymour said on radio Newstalk in the 12 to one slot; about Damien O’Connor’s fruitless campaign for a trade deal in England; that it was awful.
I would welcome any comments on that.
11 0
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September 22, 2021 3:29pm
- kevn
  
  @Tau… Bound to be useless. Put money on it.
  
  6 0
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  September 22, 2021 4:24pm
igm

Can you imagine Ardern’s taxpayer-funded MSM running with this article?
https://thebfd.co.nz/2021/09/22/a-new-zealand-embassy-in-israel-3/
They will, like one or two lefties on here, deny this being correct.
8 1
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September 22, 2021 3:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

During a routine police patrol, an officer parked his car outside a bar in Angleton, Texas.
After the last call, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so apparently intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing.
After what seemed an eternity, in which he tried his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to find his car and fall into it. He sat there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off.
Finally, he started the car, switched the wipers on and off; it was a fine, dry summer night, flicked the blinkers on and off a couple of times, honked the horn, and then switched on the lights.
He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little, and then remained still for a few more minutes as some more of the other patrons’ vehicles left.
At last, when he was the only car left in the parking lot, he pulled out and drove slowly down the road.
The police officer, having waited patiently all this time, now started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, and promptly pulled the man over and administered a breathalyzer test.
To his amazement, the breathalyzer indicated no evidence that the man had consumed any alcohol at all! Dumbfounded, the officer said, “I’ll have to ask you to accompany me to the police station. This breathalyzer equipment must be broken.”
“I doubt it,” said the truly proud Redneck …
“Tonight I’m the designated decoy.”
17 2
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September 22, 2021 3:54pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  That’s a real oldie.
  
  1 1
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  September 22, 2021 9:02pm
Nickc2

Victoria’s (Aust’s) Dictator Dan Andrews calls home for assistance.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/09/richtator-dan-with-head-office.html
7 1
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September 22, 2021 4:13pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Lots of noise about ‘gain of function?
Is Labour looking into this? Their current function could do with a 500% gain
10 1
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September 22, 2021 4:15pm
- Ehlana
  
  I think you overestimate the capabilities of science Steve.
  
  4 0
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  September 22, 2021 4:55pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Steve – can’t figure how 0 x 500% increases it above 0% 🙂
  
  3 0
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  September 22, 2021 7:34pm
Boutique Avo Orchard

Yet again Deborah Russell makes a complete hash of it. This time at a select committee. Remember last years debacle “thats not Jacindas way..” This MP is a train wreck with no real life experience outside of academia and politics and the Prime Minister should rid herself of her. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/labour-mp-deborah-russell-clashes-with-speak-up-for-women-over-bid-to-only-allow-sex-self-id-for-transgender-men.html
8 3
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September 22, 2021 5:14pm
Wired-one

So the six Covid-19 buses have vaccinated approximately 400 people in the last week. That’s 65 people per bus for the week or 11 people vaccinated per day for each bus. Wow.
17 0
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September 22, 2021 5:20pm
- fernglas
  
  Where did you get that information?
  
  1 1
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  September 22, 2021 6:39pm
- [email protected]
  
  Another failure in the making?
  
  1 0
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  September 22, 2021 7:19pm
RW Capitalist

Crisis
Fear
Control
sound familiar?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-reichstag-fire-and-nazis-rise-power-180962240/
Hate speech
Accusations of racism
turning people into criminals, for disobeying rules invented by the govt.
9 1
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September 22, 2021 5:20pm
ecco

Just went for a walk down my Auckland suburb’s main commercial area. Feel so sorry for all those restauranteurs and retail shops. How on earth are they supposed to make ends meet having to trade like that? The sales won’t come close to covering their wage costs and overheads. They are truly taking one for Ardern’s ‘team of 5 million’.

I’d like to see Ardern show some pragmatism next week and lift the lockdown in Auckland by next Friday. Give these people a break. We all know the gangs are the problem and the numbers are going nowhere if it’s in their hands.

I heard an expert on the radio yesterday saying the last two weeks of lockdown haven’t made any difference to case numbers etc. Ardern doesn’t need to admit she was wrong, or anything like that. Just give these guys a break.

I’d also like to see some announcements from Ardern in the next few days about how she’s going to move MIQ out of the Auckland area. Auckland businesses cannot sustain another lockdown like they have endured for the last 5 weeks. Now extended for an unneccessary extra 14 days. It’s just going to tip more of them over the edge.
18 0
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September 22, 2021 5:31pm
- greybeard
  
  Of COURSE she has to admit that she was wrong.
  And she has been wrong on so many other things, starting from the time Winston gave her her free pass.
  She knows it: we know it.
  Nothing since the 2017 election has been done correctly, nothing has been subjected to proper scrutiny and cost/benefit calculation, nobody in this current so-called “government” has earned the right to make decisions affecting NZ.
  In my humble and uninformed opinion, everything this government does appears to be a deliberate attempt to destroy the viability of the country, to make as many people as possible dependent on welfare and therefore slaves to the state, and worst of all – to alienate NZ from our traditional and natural allies.
  Go on, tell me to calm down and keep taking my meds….
  
  6 0
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  September 22, 2021 6:30pm
- [email protected]
  
  I would like the leaders of this country show sympathy with businesses by accepting the wage subsidy of $600 per week as their sole income in place of their normal salary.
  
  3 0
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  September 22, 2021 7:04pm
- dcrane
  
  Good thing Ardern doesn’t need to admit she was wrong first. Hell will freeze over long before that ever happens!
  
  5 1
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  September 22, 2021 7:48pm
Littletramp

Newshub website headline says “Govt considers mandatory jab for healthcare workers.
Really – healthcare workers don’t want the vaccine?
If our healthcare workers don’t want the vaccine isn’t the basic question why not?
No, the answer is to force them all to inject themselves against their will. This is getting crazy!
14 1
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September 22, 2021 5:35pm
- Inandout
  
  Little, when some don’t turn up for the jab the vaccines are rapidly dispensed before they expire. Usually thrown into any front line workers.
  
  2 1
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  September 22, 2021 6:04pm
- [email protected]
  
  I think that healthcare workers tend to be more attuned and knowledgeable about health issues than the average punter.
  
  What is the government going to do to healthcare workers who have made their informed decision not to get the jab? Fire them so there are fewer healthcare workers?
  
  That is really not going to help the rest of us stay healthy would it?
  
  3 0
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  September 22, 2021 7:00pm
- kevn
  
  @LItle… Not anti vax, maybe they are waiting for Novavax?
  
  3 0
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  September 22, 2021 8:05pm
ABS4EVA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqegTsi6SiE
[Honest Government Ad | Visit Timor-Leste!]

EAST TIMOR helped AUs in WW2
5 2
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September 22, 2021 5:44pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  All of Timor helped. The Timorese did not particularly respect arbitrary lines on maps drawn by colonialists, whether those colonisers be Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, or Australian.
  
  2 0
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  September 22, 2021 9:35pm
Warren

What a piece of crap our Speaker of Parliament Trevor Mallard is with his announcement of rules for thoset MP’s not fully vaccinated to the media without discussing it in Parliament first.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/speaker-trevor-mallard-acknowledges-anxiety-caused-by-comments-on-covid-19-vaccination-requirements-at-parliament.html
This man is not fit for Parliament let alone being Speaker of the House.
23 3
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September 22, 2021 5:52pm
- Boutique Avo Orchard
  
  Mallard is a MUPPET pure and simple. The rules never apply to him, he is happy to spend taxpayer money on his own faux pas but will the pm ever get rid of him?!?! Yeah right.
  
  6 1
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  September 22, 2021 6:08pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Doesn’t the Nuremburg convention apply to MP’s?
  
  8 4
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  September 22, 2021 6:29pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Great, yet another subject of which Kev is ignorant.
    Stick to zero-point energy…
    
    2 7
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    September 22, 2021 6:38pm
- zulumonster
  
  I wonder how this fits with the latest suggestion that the 90% vaccination rate will be measured against the eligible Maori population – not the general population. Apparently because they are more vulnerable and the system has somehow discriminated against them getting vaccinated at the same rate as anyone else.
  That will go down like a cup of cold covid …
  
  4 1
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  September 22, 2021 6:33pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Re Mallard, the nasty vindictive prick is not fit to steal oxygen from the rest of us.
  
  4 1
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  September 22, 2021 9:07pm
Boutique Avo Orchard

Do not normally agree with most of what Kieth Locke says but in this instance, have to say he is imo bang on the money. Also to add if it ever did get to nuclear missiles being hurled around, where do you think the fallout cloud from those launched against Australia by China would end up ?!?!. Time for Ardern to stop playing Kindergarten and tell it it how it is. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/09/20/many-anti-nuclear-reasons-to-oppose-aukus/
4 1
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September 22, 2021 6:02pm
septic skeptic

Have National started the fightback? Tova reports that National MPs have been banned from talking to Newshub. Great move! I am in full support. Perhaps these lefty churnalists will start to sweat a bit now, if they realize their jobs are in jeopardy as soon as their beloved Labour lose an election.
12 1
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September 22, 2021 6:19pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Memo to any Nat MPs. These guys have been at war with you for at least 7-8 years already!
  
  1 0
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  September 22, 2021 9:41pm
Mark

Warren suck it up buttercup.
2 8
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September 22, 2021 6:28pm
Maggie Pie

Partner’s mum called earlier to say she finally succumbed to peer-pressure and went for her first jab yesterday.
Threats being made of….. ‘no Vax – no Bingo’ 🙁
Said it was no big deal anyway. In fact she was quite excited about the side-effects. Her right shoulder was a bit swelled this morning, but the skin looked ‘a lot less crepey’.
Likened it to the 6 monthly Botox injections she gets in her forehead. Roll on 4 November she reckons. Will get it in the left shoulder next time.
9 5
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September 22, 2021 6:51pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  When’s your shot due Maggie? Thought all of you 60-plussers would have been done by now.
  
  2 13
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  September 22, 2021 6:53pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Why you seem sooo upset milky?
    Was it recent refences to Narks, Gays…or AAA Batteries?
    
    Or all three maybe 😛
    
    2 2
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    September 22, 2021 9:36pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Why would I get upset with your ravings from Manurewa?
      
      0 0
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      September 23, 2021 4:44am
Mark

Sheeeit yous peeps is so pathetic it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
1 10
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September 22, 2021 7:00pm
wairarapapaul

Found this on George Monbiots column in The Guardian, looks like the Labour Party playbook.
“In the 1960s and 70s, European fascists sought to reinvent themselves, using themes developed by revolutionary anarchists. They found fertile ground in parts of the anarcho-primitivist and deep ecology movements, which they tried to steer towards notions of “ethnic separatism” and “indigenous” autonomy”
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September 23, 2021 6:35am

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