General Debate 30 December 2021

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CJames

In something that should cheer KB readers, the deplorables & gammon are fighting back and winning.
The Guardian started running a poll mid-December for their “Person of the Year”. Then suddenly, it was shut down without a result or even an explanation. Rumour is that the votes already cast were already markedly in favour of JK Rowling. So rather than admit that their journalists and editorial staff are so out of step with public opinion, they have pretended it never happened. The memory hole exists.
Like Warner Brothers were going to do a 20 year Harry Potter special without mentioning JK – the Voldemort of the intelligencia’s literary world. Public reaction was so strong that they suddenly had to recant and include an archive interview with her and the actors praising her. Still not allowed to appear in person. The producers realised the intended audience was going to vote with their feet. Of course, the reason was hidden in corporate speak but the people quite clearly don’t share the views of the virtue signallers. Funny that.
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December 30, 2021 8:00am
- Simon
  
  “So rather than admit that their journalists and editorial staff are so out of step with public opinion”
  
  Public opinion doesnt come into it. Gates and his climate fraud agenda own the guardian. Guardian is a propaganda mouth piece for climate fraud. Thats it and nothing else.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:25am
CJames

In the UK, the left-wing Scottish and Welsh governments have introduced lockdowns. England has refused to lockdown – credit to Boris for going against the modellers. So what’s going to happen New Year’s Eve? All those young ones are going to drive across the border to party. The pubs are estimating they will have an extra 100,000 customers. And the regional tinpot dictatorships are left fuming, as they are starting to realise that the people are getting antagonistic about being bossed around. The SNP are thinking about more draconian rules and travel bans, but know this will lose them even more support. I suspect demanding devolution votes are no longer on the agenda.
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December 30, 2021 8:00am
- Scott
  
  CJames – I’m not sure that the Scottish and Welsh leaders are losing support for reintroducing a partial lockdown.
  In Britain, as in NZ, there has been a deliberate attempt to frighten the public about covid so that they will accept restrictions and lockdowns.
  
  Many people believe this messaging and are terrified of covid. Just keep me safe! I see polling in Victoria Australia has daniel andrews riding high even though he has locked down Melbourne more than any other city on earth!
  That’s how afraid people are.
  
  Sadly unless we get either sick of lockdown or get some courage these covid tyrants will carry on doing the same thing.
  I’m pleased Boris has stood firm. Hopefully we can get some better leadership here in NZ at some point and we can resume normal life.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:13am
- Nickc2
  
  Good on em! Boris now assumes the role of Leader of the Free World.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:16am
  - Clownworld
    
    Borris …
    
    #don’ttrusthimasfarasstrongestmancouldthrowhim
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:34am
  - kowtow
    
    Boris is only going with the polling .
    
    He’s crashed , the party looks ready to roll him so he was forced to do something popular , which he wouldn’t have other wise done.
    
    He’s no leader , he’s a buffoon .
    
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    December 30, 2021 1:31pm
  - Jim
    
    Don’t be fooled. BoJo has failed to introduce the vaccine pass (employed in Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and will soon be replaced if he doesn’t use baseless fear of in order to get the job done.
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:00pm
- I remember when
  
  Interestingly, while case numbers in the UK are skyrocketing upwards – the totals for deaths are trending downwards.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:35am
  - kowtow
    
    And the hospitals haven’t crashed , strange that.
    
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    December 30, 2021 1:32pm
    - Jim
      
      Yep it looks like Mother Nature has intervened.
      
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      December 30, 2021 8:01pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Did the British DJ pick up Omicron in the MIQ facility?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/12/covid-19-uk-dj-dimension-confirms-he-has-omicron-says-he-thought-he-d-completed-self-isolation.html
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December 30, 2021 8:12am
- septic skeptic
  
  No, according to the pink haired science lady, Omicron can have a longer incubation period.
  According to the rest of the scientists, it reproduces much faster and has a shorter incubation period.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:24am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    So now 11.11am Hipkins supposed to address the Nation at 11.00am . No show. Pretty much sums up this Governments incompotence. All picture shows is mics at ready but no Hipkins. Unless lot of tossers.
    
    Why the F are you allowing people with Covid into the country but not allowing 3 yo to see her mum dying of cancer. Sums you callous lot up.
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:13am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep..
    
    The evidence points to an incubation period less than that of alpha or delta.
    
    Around 3 days.
    
    Investigation of a SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant Cluster — Nebraska, November–December 2021
    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm705152e3.htm
    
    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/world/omicron-covid-contagious-cdc.html
    
    Wiles is just speculating… evidence-free mush.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:17pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Possibly Maori Science?
      
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      December 30, 2021 12:26pm
      - septic skeptic
        
        Probably. So now the incubation period can be both longer and shorter at the same time. Like some sort of quantum incubation, it can be measured differently but with equal validity by a standard timepiece and matauranga Maori.
        
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        December 30, 2021 12:47pm
  - Jim
    
    Did you really expect anything else from her?
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:04pm
- rouppe
  
  Had to have done. Pink hair is trying to blame him
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:35am
- Justitia
  
  What was the Pommy DJ even doing in MIQ when so many Kiwis can’t get home? Was he an “essential worker”, on his way to The Wedding?
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:33am
- Surely Knott
  
  Surely there is some paper work you have to sign for self isolation showing how many days and text messages to confirm you are following rules at the very least.. In canada their is a legal agreement to be signed and a fine if you fail to follow the rules.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:57am
  - DeepBlue
    
    The DJ says he did his 10 days (Waiheke was his approved isolation) and the positive test didn’t come through until Day 12. I put this back on the system. The MIQ tests should have been prioritised for people home isolating.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:17am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      There appears to have been a breakdown in communication between MIQ officials and DJ Dimension. Was the 10-day isolation absolute, or was he required to remain in isolation until his Day 9 test result came through? And if it was the latter, was this communicated to him verbally or in writing?
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:23am
- Fletch
  
  Apparently, the govt are going to make an announcement today at 11am about the whole thing. If it’s lockdown I would expect people to just say forget it, we’ve had enough. The booster is still being pushed as necessary for Omicron.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:13am
  - PeeJay
    
    I doubt it will be lockdown……yet – frowny face isn’t scheduled to appear and she seems to like being the one to ‘communicate’ over putting us on the naughty step. I suspect, as a few others have said, that the lockdown will be later in January, possibly even after the ‘royal wedding’.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:51am
- maggiemay
  
  We need further explanations on how this breach happened. Did he knowingly break the rules or is this a miscommunication of requirements for self isolation. Ie: self isolate until the final test is clear. Maybe he got sick of waiting for the result. Looks like 2 days to get the result. There also seems to be missing locations of interest. If he was self isolating in Waiheke (one report i read) how did he get there and back to Auckland.
  If he knowingly broke the rules he should be fined and deported. Restaurants are getting hefty fines for not complying and so should guests to our country willingly not complying, if that is the case. If it a Miscommunication then that too should be identified in order to ensure that doesnt happen again.
  In the long run we might be thanking him but in the short run 11am looms with CH.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:21am
  - PeeJay
    
    From what little I’ve seen of this, looks like the info pack they are given is quite clear – they wait for the day 9 test to come through.
    
    Suspect he broke the rules – sounds like a bit of a party guy and after 10 days in ‘prison’, a delayed day 9 test, I suspect he just thought to hell with it – if it was bad, they would have told me, party’s on!
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:55am
  - mawm
    
    It certainly seems like we should be thanking him. Just look at the latest UK figures – cases up, deaths down. It’s a live attenuated virus – let it spread.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:37pm
  - OlderChas
    
    How did he get there and back? Maybe in one of Clarke’s boats?
    
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    December 31, 2021 9:48am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Hard to imagine anyone more suited to becoming a super-spreader. Will be very lucky to contain this one. And it surely is cross contamination in MIQ so there will be more coming soon. Now will come panic about their tardy booster rollout. The circus continues.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:20pm
- CJames
  
  Note how the Minister blamed him for not following clear instructions. That sounds familiar. Remember the PM doing it for the fast food worker at the start of the South Auckland outbreak. Then it turned out the PM had lied and the poor unfortunate had followed the rules.
  Is this a rinse and repeat?
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:43pm
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Except everyone in MIQ is fully vaccinated and tested.
  
  So how did it get past a “very effective ” vaccine?
  
  How can you have not 1, not 2, but 3 negative tests and still be infected?
  
  Faulty and imperfect comes to mind.
  
  Sooner or later we are going to have to learn to live with covid, the sooner the better.
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:43pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Been saying that for 18 months now.
    
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    December 30, 2021 7:44pm
Yvette

Will the New Year finally see covid-19 updated to covid-22?
Asking for a Friend
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December 30, 2021 8:14am
- C-Town
  
  Then we can catch ’22
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:31pm
Tomtoddy

There is a noticable drop below average in weekly death numbers in the UK following a spike “caused” by Covid. In other words Covid is bringing forward deaths that statistically would have happened in the next few weeks.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/deaths#deaths

When the dust settles the stats will show that the “extra” deaths “caused” by Covid were nowhere near what the media portrayed. They were simply “redistributed”.
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December 30, 2021 8:16am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yes, but …
  
  The ONS announced last week that there were 48,180 deaths registered in England in November, which is almost 5,000 more than in October, and 15.6% more than the five-year average.
  
  November therefore saw a non-trivial rise in deaths. Interestingly, much of the increase seems to be accounted for by non-Covid causes. A comparison between last month’s breakdown by leading cause of death, and this month’s breakdown, is shown in the figure below.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:37am
  - Lee C
    
    Perhaps people denied treatment, or delayed detection as a result of an overstretched health system are now appearing in the stats…
    
    Pesky mortals – if only we could pin ‘covid’ on them…
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:55am
    - Jack5
      
      North American researchers are reporting a drug, fluvoxamine, used for treating obsessive-compulsive disorders, is effective at preventing hospitalisation in Covid-infected patients.
      
      It was approved for medical use in the United States in 1994 and is often prescribed for anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.
      
      The Wall Street Journal reports a small trial last year by psychiatrists at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis was a spectacular success.
      
      None of the 80 participants who started fluvoxamine within seven days of developing symptoms deteriorated. In the placebo group, six of the 72 patients got worse, and four were admitted to hospital.
      
      Canadian researchers ran a clinical trial in Brazil last northern winter. Fluvoxamine reduced the odds of hospitalisation or emergency care by 66 per cent and death by 90 per cent among unvaccinated patients.
      
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      December 30, 2021 9:21am
      - gravedodger
        
        Now it will come down to is fluvoxamine on or off patent, if off forget it it will not comply with the secret Pfizer contract!
        
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        December 30, 2021 10:37am
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Why on earth are we prevented from making informed choices of medication ourselves? Enough of health fascism.
        
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        December 30, 2021 12:24pm
      - ISeeRed
        
        Quick! Restrict it! Suppress it! Ban it!
        
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        December 30, 2021 2:04pm
  - Fletch
    
    I wish I could find it again now, but saw a story with figures the other day showing that deaths from regular diseases (cardiac, cancer etc) had gone down in the last year while Covid deaths had gone up. It’s easy to see that deaths have been taken from one column and added into the Covid deaths column. There’s no way to explain why the last year should bunk the trend and there be markedly fewer deaths from heart disease, cancer and the like. It’s just being dishonest.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:28am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Winter months have more deaths. Poor comparisons. Need to compare year on year not to other months.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:48am
    - mawm
      
      I wonder when we’ll see the rest of the annual 600 ‘flu deaths that have not been culled by Covid?
      
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      December 30, 2021 12:44pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  On the matter of Covid. I’ve been thinking as Richard Prebble used to say. Some weeks ago Brian Tamaki organised a series of anti vax protests in Auckland. they were attended by some thousands of unvaxxed unmasked people in close proximity of each other. I said to She Who Must be Obeyed Oh Dear the hospitals will be overflowing with the dead and the dying.
  Now AFAIK this didnt happen. So either the Good Lord was watching over the Bish and his flock or……………………………………………………..
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:28am
  - amospicton
    
    It’s very difficult to catch covid outside – like using flyspray at a barbecue.
    
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    December 30, 2021 9:59am
    - Surely Knott
      
      It’s very difficult to catch covid outside – like using flyspray at a barbecue…..yet Tamaki was charged for holding an outside protest. And the unvaxxed are banned from sitting outside at a cafe.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:24am
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        The result of gross deliberate failure to follow the science.
        
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        December 30, 2021 10:49am
  - mawm
    
    What’s it been – just over a year since vaccines were rolled out? I don’t see any vaxxed people falling over dead from being in contact with the filthy unvaxxed. How much longer are we going to have to wait….
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:47pm
- altiora
  
  It really doesn’t matter. As long as people think they’re “saving lives”, the facts are dispensable. Was reading a post on LinkedIn (now a middle age equivalent of Facebook). A woman denouncing everyone who didn’t support the lockdowns. Her 91 year old mother with dementia is on her final innings (obviously) but this led into an extraordinary rant that “my Mother’s life is not dispensable!” So business destroyed, children’s education disrupted, operations and diagnosis services delayed and now backlogged, domestic violence and stress, mental health issues exponentially increase etc etc but no her 91 year old mother’s life is inherently precious that it must be preserved at all costs — even if those costs are borne by people who will never know this mother and whose costs will be far greater and far longer in duration than the extra weeks or months the 91 year dementia patient will “enjoy”..
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:33am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Did you tell her to get her Mum fully immunized? That must sort it.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:28am
- Surely Knott
  
  In Australia the respiratory deaths during a covid outbreak drop markedly, and then the covid deaths appear instead. So it looks like respiratory deaths are just coded as covid. There is no increase in respiratory deaths or overall deaths during a covid outbreak or just after.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:59am
  - PeeJay
    
    Whether you die with covid or because of covid, it doesn’t really matter as you are dead either way!
    
    However, I thought the best way to capture the big picture, statistically at least, was through excess deaths.
    
    I note that where the media, overseas at least (our media is a F-ing joke) were previously reporting on excess deaths, presumably as it fitted their narrative, this measure is not really receiving the same focus at the moment – presumably as it’s no longer matching their narrative?
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:05am
Maggy Wassilieff

How did a visiting British DJ manage to score a MIQ spot over NZ citizens?

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/why-a-group-of-stranded-new-zealanders-are-suing-jacinda-ardern-s-government/2af7bc5b-4454-44c5-8f45-8fd66803db41
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December 30, 2021 8:16am
- Nickc2
  
  A gig at a pending wedding perhaps?
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:20am
  - Matt Long
    
    However he got in, it is probable that the displacement of Delta with Omicron will end the pandemic and save a lot of lives.
    So if he has managed to spread it we will owe him a considerable debt.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:14am
    - Nickc2
      
      Where does Cindy fit into the narrative? No doubt, she will want to claim some of the accolades?
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:31am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Given that he most likely caught it in MIQ it can only be a matter of days before one of the workers there starts spreading it. Then once it the community it is game over as most infections will be asymptomatic or indistinguishable from a common cold.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:32am
    - Man Among the Ruins
      
      How do these so-called “new variants” keep magically making their way through all of the defensive measures we are told are necessary to “protect us” (at great cost, inconvenience and denial of rights)? How does Omicron suddenly leap out of Africa and into every other country? I think it’s all theatre, but, if we are to believe the official narrative, then why do officials get to just shrug their shoulders, and move into the next phase of draconian “protective” measures, without anyone attributing any fault to these people and asking for some accountability?
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:44am
- pdm
  
  Maggy – just another of the many escapees.
  
  Just like Kelvin’s Prisons MIQ seems to work on a – `walk in, walk out’ system.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:22am
- Julie
  
  According to Herald he got a special place reserved for those who going to make a significant economic impact.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:23am
  - amospicton
    
    He’ll make a special economic impact alright – by bringing omicron to NZ he has inadvertently helped speed the end of this fiasco. The sooner omicron is endemic the sooner we’re free. Give the man a knighthood!
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:14am
- Chuck Bird
  
  He was probably going to entertain at Ardern’s wedding.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:25am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Not any more he isn’t!
    
    Adhern is a lot of things including being a contender in the ‘as two short planks’ award’ but stupid she isn’t.
    
    Well, maybe a bit, well maybe some, well not as much as she is conceited and believing her own hubris . . .
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:19pm
- CJames
  
  Probably the same way Lorde got a premium spot. And there were the Wiggles. But the Ministers assure us they have no influence over the decisions. What is most depressing is they have no shame in lying yet the public accepts it.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:26am
  - lifesgood
    
    SOME of the public accepts it.
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:30am
    - pdm
      
      `SOME of the public accepts it.’
      
      A reducing number if polls can be believed.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:56am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Are the Wiggles to replace Labour’s failed Parliamentary front bench?
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:49am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The same way that cricket teams & other sporting visitors get in – there’s an allocation.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:29am
- G152
  
  Not what you know or what citizenship you can claim.
  Its who you know.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:34am
- alloytoo
  
  I suppose one must ask, how are non-citizens/residents allowed in the queue at all?
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:39am
- namron
  
  How did Lorde [singing at jacinda’s wedding] also got unexpected quick MIQ spot also!!??
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:39am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Is this special privilege for a private function?
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:38am
    - Nickc2
      
      Cum-on Kev, ya know this a corruption-free country, someone in Govt said so. Surely, no one in or associated in this current Govt would intervene in the management of our MIQ system for the likes of:
      – The Wiggles,
      – A Green Mexican List MP,
      – A Co-Leader of the Green Party,
      – A UN Covid infected mate of Helen Clark’s,
      – A singer who calls herself Lord and
      – A Pom Disk Jockey who may attend the PM’s wedding.
      Nah, that couldn’t possibly happen in Lil-Olde-NZ could it Kev?
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:51am
  - Clownworld
    
    The elite corrupt cabal doesn’t exist in NZ. Nothing to see here. All a coincidence that famous lefty witchy people get to front of the queue.
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:46am
- rouppe
  
  I’m pretty sure there are now “buckets” in MIQ, and one bucket is for special luvvie cases. MBIE will be able to quietly distribute spots in those buckets in a more “nuanced” manner.
  
  When you think about it, this isn’t too dissimilar to the old Soviet Union, where everyone had access to supermarkets. But there were a few supermarkets that only the politburo could get into.
  
  Fits the national socialist authoritarian theme anyway
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:39am
- Stellaboxer
  
  How did James Shaw and entourage manage to leave and return to a schedule whilst NZers are trapped overseas? When this corrupt arrogant regime are finally ousted I want to see prosecutions.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:59am
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    I always thought the furore over James Shaw and his team going to COP26 and as a consequence getting priority for MIQ was a completely over the top political criticism.
    
    Whether you agree that climate change is occurring or not, it was obvious this was the major international conference for 2021. New Zealand had to be represented at ministerial level. In fact many developed nations, including Australia, sent their head of government.
    
    The idea it could be attended by Zoom was absurd. It was embarrassing to see National run such an argument. I am pretty certain that you won’t see Chris Luxon going in for such cheap populist stunts.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:29am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      It wouldn’t have been so over the top except for the quality of the of the NZ Minister attending.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:41am
      - rouppe
        
        And the fact he arrived after the major announcement he was touting as justification for his presence.
        
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        December 30, 2021 11:49am
    - gravedodger
      
      @ Wayne, Talkfest, Junket, world stage event maybe, Major international Conference not so much, have you ever come across tele conferences, Zoom, perchance, Btw did Jimmy not arrive a little late, your sycophancy is showing again, hitch your shorts up a bit, Happy New Year to you as well.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:46am
    - Alboy
      
      Yea Wayne that may be true, however those other countries aren’t telling their countrymen and women that they can’t come home at the same time. Quite a difference.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:47am
    - mandk
      
      And yet it was Shaw and the other Greens who did not want our Parliament to meet because of the Delta outbreak.
      
      Hear that noise? It’s your argument collapsing around your head.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:48am
    - Man Among the Ruins
      
      Ah, spoken like a man who has attended many such lavish pointless wine and cheese opportunities on the taxpayer dime. If we are in a so-called “climate emergency” as they breathlessly claim, then you’d think Zoom meetings would literally be the difference between millions of dead and not, wouldn’t you? If not, there is a grave danger of them all appearing to be totally full of shit and hypocrites.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:51am
    - pdm
      
      Wayne.
      
      I agree with you somewhat – the focus should have been on the number of Public Servants he took with him.
      
      Especially as they only got to Glasgow a week after the main part of the conference was concluded and nothing was achieved anyway.
      
      Waste of time.
      Waste of Taxpayers money.
      Waste of Isolation places.
      
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      December 30, 2021 11:01am
    - Nickc2
      
      Come on Wayne, the fiasco that was COP26 was all over before Jimmy Shaw got anywhere near the Podium. All the Big Heads had already left and the only people remaining were those who wished to worship St. Gretta and the Cleaners/Removalists who were waiting to put out the trash (to coin an oft used Australian term).
      BTW, what did Shaw’s team do?
      
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      December 30, 2021 11:04am
    - PeeJay
      
      I admire the centrist line that you take. Your views are often unpopular but you keep returning and I think that’s very admirable. While i don’t often agree with you, I do appreciate you expressing your views.
      
      However on this one, I think you are wrong, and I suspect a lot of other voters also think you were wrong. In ordinary times, this wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow – a regular part of normal government business. But these, as we are constantly reminded, are not normal times. Even so, if Ardern had gone, like a lot of other heads of government, then your defence would have been just – I would certainly have agreed with that, regardless of how pointless the latest COP turned out to be (as all previous have tended to be sadly). However, Shaw didn’t even attend the main event. He was a bit part. There was literally no point in him being there. He contributed nothing as by the time of his arrival, it was pretty much all done and dusted by the big players.
      
      In these ‘extraordinary times’ where the wider population have to adapt, meetings have to be held online, sacrifices have to be made for the ‘greater good’, Kiwi’s overseas have been denied their basic rights under the Bill of Rights to return home, for Shaw to go overseas at this time was ridiculous and showed there was one rule for them and one rule for everyone else. Again, while no fan of Ardern, as head of the NZ government, had she gone to the conference, I don’t think too much criticism could be made but Shaw? This was why National and Act raised concerns – it was so unnecessary, especially when almost a third of the NZ population was under lockdown! This was not a populist stunt by National as you claim – this was a politician wanting to get on the junket (jet setting to a climate conference – how ironic!), despite huge numbers of people suffering under a lockdown. It was selfish, it served no purpose and it was completely irresponsible. Remember – this government wouldn’t even go to Auckland because of Covid yet went to the other side of the world to Glasgow where there were much higher infection rates – it was pure hypocrisy and he rightly got called out for it.
      
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      December 30, 2021 11:26am
    - Clownworld
      
      Green..trough..privilege.
      
      Of course it makes sense, some animals are more equal than others.
      
      Put more imported coal on for more power please.
      
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      December 30, 2021 11:48am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Wow Wayne. NZ Government functions at lots of levels have been run via Teams or Zoom sessions for the best part of two years…. But Ministers are special? Really?!
      
      Shaw going all the way to Glasgow at a cost of tons of CO2 emissions to present a short speech and do nothing of consequence and then getting the special treatment on re-entry while people can’t get back to see dying relatives or attend funerals is a special type of nasty and hypocrisy…
      
      Politicians – present and former – seem to have a special sense of hubris…
      
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      December 30, 2021 1:42pm
    - david
      
      Be that as it may Wayne but you seem to have missed the fact that Shaw missed week One of the conference when the heavy hitters were present and supposedly negotiating the future of the planet. He turned up for week two when the bit players were performing and in consequence had nothing of substance to contribute or come away with.
      Shaw was bleating into the teeth of a Nor-wester and even with a rugby team worth of supporters was never going to amount to anything of meaning or substance.
      You well might claim that it was “necessary” and that we were again “punching above our weight” but frankly from the outside as one who has his pocket raided to pay for it I cannot see progress or value in Shaw traipsing across the world to big-note with a bunch of second rate politicians – most of whom are as corrupt as they come.
      
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      December 30, 2021 3:16pm
  - rouppe
    
    Because he didn’t use miq. He used the “trial” home isolation which seems to now have conveniently been dropped.
    
    Lorde and that DJ must have been darn lucky though /sarc
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:51am
  - curry4me
    
    Stellaboxer: Different strokes for different folks.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:27pm
- DeepBlue
  
  81 out of 130ish musicians with approved border exemptions have arrived in NZ after securing an MIQ spot to play at summer festivals etc. Approved because event organiser could show economic benefit. So the Govn is agreeing to this category.
  
  But isn’t it just sweet how they win the desired pre Christmas MIQ spot just a few days out from their gigs.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:02am
- Tony Stuart
  
  He’s just one of 81 to have been given border exemptions this summer Maggy.
  
  https://twitter.com/camrynpetebrown/status/1476298022543781889/photo/1
  
  Imagine how much better our health system would be if 81 ICU nurses and GP’s were able to enter New Zealand. It’s hardly likely they’d be going to dance parties when they were supposed to be self-isolating until their nine-day test result came through.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:12am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Or just give the unjabbed NZ ICU staff members their jobs back because the gene jab is only provisionally approved and doesn’t stop transmission
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:58am
  - Clownworld
    
    Or even better just let all NZ citizens and residents in without MIQ. (Ministry of Imaginary Usefulness and Incompetent Quarantine)
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:55am
  - rouppe
    
    I reckon it’s another example of poor communication and execution.
    
    The process seems to be 7 days miq then 3 days home isolation. He did that.
    
    Having a day 9 test result back on day 10 is always an ask, and especially when it lands not only on a weekend but a public holiday as well.
    
    So the question is: was he given clear written instruction to remain in isolation until the day 9 result came back, or was he given general “3 days at home and take a test on day 9” instructions?
    
    If the latter, what would you do after doing your 10 days and having already returned 3 negative tests and being double jabbed…
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:57am
- JohnRidd
  
  He was one of the performers at Rythym and Alps in Wanaka.
  
  https://rhythmandalps.co.nz/line-up/
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:39am
- Colville
  
  He got in because he paid a coder to get him in.
  The 2 weeks in NZ is probably worth $100k to him expenses paid. Nice summer holiday!
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:21pm
Simon

One last point about the formulaic Bongino profile: it used to be that a @TheNewYorker
hit piece by a CNN writer would be harmful. Now: it doesn’t matter. They’ve so whittled their credibility that the targets of their smears have larger audiences than they, making them impotent.

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1475857612411486211

Bongino has a bigger audience than any single MSM outlet and he can counter MSM lies. Would that work in NZ? Could say an ACT MP have wider coverage outside of MSM?
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December 30, 2021 8:19am
- mawm
  
  I barely scan the Herald headlines – check for earthquakes, Tsunami’s, etc and then head to Kiwiblog GD where I get better news exposure. Then I head to a US news aggregator that has already culled the leftwing propaganda.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:56pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I follow Dan Bongino on FB. He rips the left open
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:06pm
Paulus

Must be friends on high places – he was to appear in a pop concert in Queenstown.
Others get cancelled but R & ? gets through with overseas jigs.
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December 30, 2021 8:20am
Chuck Bird

“What is most depressing is they have no shame in lying yet the public accepts it.”

That will change. I can hardly wait for the next poll.
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December 30, 2021 8:29am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  You’re a Winston fan, aren’t you, Chuck? Think NZ First will figure strongly in the next poll?
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:39am
- cmm
  
  There’s still 2 years to spin it as “we did it for your own good”… somehow blaming it on anti-vaxxers.
  
  Disappointingly, nor is it apparent that National would have done anything different.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:42am
- pdm
  
  Will Roy Morgan do one at the end of December do you think Chuck?
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:42am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Hopefully.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:05am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Didn’t the major polling companies used to release annual pre-Christmas polls? (I could be wrong)
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:44am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Hardly matters. Jessica Mutch McKay was assuring us the people would be back loving Jacinda after their Christmas festivities and new found freedom
    
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    December 30, 2021 8:51am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Freedom from Jacinda? Yeah!
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:44am
- Other_Andy
  
  1. You are putting too much faith in your fellow citizens and most Labour voters will always vote Labour, no matter what they do.
  2. No matter what the polls say, we are stuck with this lot for another two years. Long enough to destroy what is left of New Zealand.
  3. And if they are replaced by National in 2023, what is going to change? History has shown us that they keep all Labour’s policies in place and continue the move to the left and more state control, just at a slower pace and not as openly as this lot.
  
  New Zealand is stuffed, no matter what happens.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:02am
  - PeeJay
    
    All the more reason to ensure that every disaffected centre right vote goes to Act rather than Winston-first. I just hope that the idiots (sorry to be harsh, but you were idiots) that enabled Ardern with their ‘Winston will keep National honest’ belief will have learned from their mistake in 2017.
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:41am
  - Clownworld
    
    Indeed Other_Andy, NZ is the winner of Venuzela of the Pacific.
    
    It will all work out ok when Dan Andrews and Jacinda become the UN co-dictator supreme chiefs of Oceania.
    
    You will own nothing and be happy…or else.
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:57am
  - septic skeptic
    
    I hope ACT have a substantial representation at the cabinet table and make meaningful changes. Would like to see Seymour as PM.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:55pm
- cjn
  
  Talking about the next poll. Has there been no Curia public political poll since October 2020? That is what the chart on this page shows.
  
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  December 30, 2021 4:32pm
I remember when

Rellies in the UK (well London actually) have both got covid at present.
One had a cold, or cold like symptoms, for about a week.
Had tested negative three times before venturing out for social gatherings.
Now has a home test that shows definite positive but is unable to get a PCR as there is now a shortage, Boris being blamed.
Both report loss of smell and taste although they are almost certainly omicron.
So the next two weeks should give us the answer as to whether omicron marks the beginning of the end of covid, at least this time.
As it is winter in Northern Hemisphere the result should be fairly obvious.
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December 30, 2021 8:31am
- I remember when
  
  Russia, Poland and the Ukraine must be hoping omicron arrives as soon as possible.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:41am
- emmess
  
  Slightly disagree
  It’s always two weeks away
  It been about eight weeks since it was first discovered and five since it become a big thing in media.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:53pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  I am sorry your relatives have covid and hope they make a good recovery.
  
  However, I am afraid I do not understand how you can be confident that the experience of a couple of individuals who may or may not have the omicron variant, in a distant country where conditions and government restrictions are different from here, will “give us the answer to whether omicron marks the beginning of the end of covid”.
  
  I hope indeed that it does. But the fact that we want something to be true means we are biased, and we should lean against that by being even more cautious and stringent in drawing conclusions from early and fragmentary evidence.
  
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  December 30, 2021 1:27pm
Pongo

Was the DJ told to wait for a clear test result? If so why hasn’t he been charged yet and if not where is Bloomfields resignation.
Why does it take 3 days to test someone who has just arrived from a country ravaged with Omicron? Why hasn’t Bloomfield resigned over this
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December 30, 2021 8:35am
- Chuck Bird
  
  The question should be was his instructions in writing and did he sign that he read and understood them?
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:07am
  - Clownworld
    
    What free informed consent? In NZ?
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:59am
NeverMindTheBollocks

On getting covid twice: it’s been announced that Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, has been diagnosed with covid – presumably Omicron. He previously tested positive back in March 2020, just before initial lockdown – presumably original Covid.
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December 30, 2021 8:37am
- JimBobJoe
  
  but is he desperately unwell? Or was he unaware he had Omicron?
  
  EPL teams and staff are tested daily! So its not surprising that someone like Mikel Arteta is diagnosed as having Omicron given how transmissible it is and how regularly he is tested.
  
  the key question is – was he sick or felt unwell or did he have no idea he had the bot?
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:30am
- Man Among the Ruins
  
  Headline: “Man contracts Covid. Perfectly fine.” Many, many such cases. Most of them in fact.
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:00am
- PeeJay
  
  Read that as well. He gave a good account the first time of his experience so it will be interesting to read his experience second time round. Obviously anecdotal evidence is not true evidence, but will be interesting nevertheless.
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:44am
ecco

Skeleton staff on at the testing centres over holiday period. Peoples’ results taking far too long. Not to mention spread of the virus as a result of test result delays over the holiday period.

If you are going to ban rapid antigen tests then the turnaround for testing results needs to be 24 hours. Not two days, 3 days and more. And also people need to be able to ring the testing centre and get a clear indication of when their overdue test result is coming through.

If Ardern couldn’t get enough staff over the holiday period for her testing centres then she should have offered triple time pay to get this done. Not winged it with short staffing. Where is the budget going to come from for that, you ask? Maybe cutting back on the special payments to iwi of $120m in the name of vaccination inducement would be a start.

Why doesn’t Ardern figure this all out herself? Oh that’s right, she’s never had a proper, real world job in her life. It figures. Wonder if all the female sycophant voter base Ardern has will ever get it that she’s doing a lousy job? What does it take??
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December 30, 2021 8:45am
- Alwynn
  
  It isn’t only the Testing Centres. In Rotorua the main vaccination centres aren’t just running on a skeleton staff. They have closed down completely.
  
  The people in the Rotorua area had better hope that we don’t have any outbreaks of the disease as their vaccination centres have closed down for the holiday period, according to their local paper .
  
  “The Rotorua Vaccination Centre closed on Christmas Eve and won’t reopen until January 5th. The Te Arawa Covid Response Hub closed on December 26 and will reopen on January 17.”
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/covid-19-coronavirus-holiday-closure-of-rotorua-vaccination-and-maori-response-centres-criticised/OAQDRY2NRSD46F6UL65C6Z2LZY/
  
  Way to go baby. I’m sure the virus is happy to shut up shop for the holidays. After all, if it is good enough for the Government to shut down for the Summer Holiday season why shouldn’t everything else?
  I am tempted to try and ask Andrew Little what the health system is up to but he is no doubt far to busy at the beach.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:17am
  - Alwynn
    
    Sorry but a minor correction is required. The Te Arawa Covid Response Hub actually closed on December 16 (not 26) and will reopen on January 17. That is just a couple of days short of five weeks.
    
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    December 30, 2021 10:40am
  - Surely Knott
    
    West Auckland Vaccination is also on holiday during a pandemic back Jan 24th.
    
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    December 30, 2021 11:00am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Savage
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:09pm
ecco

They really need to relocate the main MIQ base to Wellington, out of Auckland. Auckland’s too big to fail. Doesn’t matter so much if Wellington gets taken down hosting all the incoming miq though.
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December 30, 2021 8:46am
- alloytoo
  
  Vast improvement, one would think.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:29am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Bear in mind Ecco that not everyone in Wellington is a public servant; and that those of a Kiwiblog frame of mind have to put up with in-your-face wokeness on a 24/7 basis.
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:54am
- Alwynn
  
  Let me guess. You are a resident of some little city just north of the Bombay hills?
  I, on the other hand, live in Wellington. If you want to have the only real International Airport in the Country you are just going to have to put up with the problems that go with it.
  
  What am I saying? That bloody lot of fools in the Government have got us fighting between ourselves rather than against them.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:02pm
mikenmildagain

Just for Jack5, it’s happy 60th birthday to Sir Bill English.
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December 30, 2021 8:46am
Lee C

This is what a ray of common-sense looks like:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/19/are-covid-booster-jabs-necessary
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December 30, 2021 8:47am
- Fight4NZ
  
  Interesting and seems in line with what the stats are showing.
  But is this the same Guardian that Simon told me above is owned by Gates and an evil mouthpiece? Does that mean it must be a lie?
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:27pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  A ray of common sense from the Guardian? Holy F#(k!!!
  
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  December 31, 2021 4:42pm
bronny1

that self promoting media whore Baker has fallen to a new low in gaslighting
Covid-19 Delta outbreak: Fears unvaxxed party hosts could spark New Year’s Eve spread
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-fears-unvaxxed-party-hosts-could-spark-new-years-eve-spread/CR6Z4BUBAO6BGR4ZR47AHFRD5I/

How do they get to spread this sort of misinformation when everyone knows now that anyone can catch and pass on the virus, and what’s more, you are many times more likely to do so (per Data shared yesterday on GD) if double jabbed or boosted!
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December 30, 2021 8:47am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “and what’s more, you are many times more likely to do so (per Data shared yesterday on GD) if double jabbed or boosted!”
  
  I would like to see more evidence for the “many times” hypothesis.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:40am
  - Fight4NZ
    
    Data was shared in GD. Open and shut case.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:21pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    You will. It’s popping up all over the world that something is wrong. Give it another 2-3 months and if it continues there may well be riots.
    
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    December 30, 2021 4:56pm
- Ed Snack
  
  It isn’t many times more likely, the figures suggested up to 50% or so if Pfizer jabbed, lower (around 15% from memory) for Moderna.
  
  And I think still skewed by the inclusion of the naturally immune but no jabs group in the unvaccinated.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:03pm
I remember when

“This chap didn’t win at Awapuni the other day either.”
Like many present I was unaware of the incident.
However, nude gallops down the straight at Awapuni races have become relatively common as a result of the annual ‘undies’ races.
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December 30, 2021 8:49am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/127367149/thirtynine-buses-hit-parked-cars-on-wellington-streets-this-year–and-the-neighbours-caught-one-hitandrun-on-camera

Never mind: the new WCC parking regulations should sort this out !

https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2021/11/parking-on-footpaths-to-end

Just how stupid can some councillors and council employees be?
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December 30, 2021 8:50am
Yvette

7:45am – Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist from the University of Auckland, is urging Kiwis to prepare for Omicron.
“It’s just really important that we don’t think that seven days is okay and that people are still cautious,” Dr Wiles told RNZ. “After receiving several negative tests, people could still be incubating the virus and that’s what it shows us.
7:30am – The British DJ accused of breaching self-isolation has confirmed he has the Omicron variant of COVID-19 but says he understood he’d completed his self-isolation requirements.
Dimension – AKA Robert Etheridge – says he’s “devastated that after 10 days of isolation, I tested positive for Omicron in New Zealand”.
Etherirdge says he showed no symptoms throughout his time in quarantine.

Where does this leave the “72 hour test document”, that is supposedly an alternative to a “Vaccination Pass” – or has that already gone?
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December 30, 2021 8:51am
Lee C

If you know the right people, you get a pass from the Ardern administraton – who recalls Sroubeck’s successful ‘lobbying’ of Galloways-Smith to secure immigration status?

According to Ardern, you’d have to ‘read between the lines’ to get any clarity about how these decisions get made.
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December 30, 2021 8:54am
- Ruahine
  
  Same when the Auckland ‘Border’ was closed. If you knew the right people you got the right piece of paper.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:00am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Did depend on why you wanted to travel, there were specified exemptions. I was able to pass through to retrieve my younger son and bring him home without a special exemption. There was documentation required and a negative Covid test result needed.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:07pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Or patch, another word beginning with the letter p . . .
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:27pm
- riffer
  
  Well that’s interesting anecdata but not easy to prove with evidence. I would wager the truth is more like those who have large commercial interests behind them, with the ability to both lobby and work the system fully are more likely to achieve results which work for them. Just like how business works.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:06am
  - Observer of Life
    
    I spoke to a young Maori guy before Christmas about a trip he and a large number of fellow Maori are taking to an event in Dubai this January. I asked him how they were going to get a rare MIQ spot in the lottery. His reply “oh we are being looked after by the government..”. Me:”so you are a privileged group then” … Him: “oh yes, the governments looking after us”. Me: “Privileged then”. Him: (looking confused as to why I’d repeated that) “Yes, we’re being looked after by the government “. No clue. It was a given that they were being taken care of by the government… of course!
    
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    December 30, 2021 9:25am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Only white people can privileged.
      
      I honestly think Chinese people in New Zealand confuse many Maori. Chinese are a rapidly growing minority who excel in society. Yet Chinese have faced many periods of trauma, including in New Zealand for 60 years when a poll tax separated family.
      
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      December 30, 2021 10:51am
    - kevn
      
      @Observer… Prob part of a maori concert group. There are bunch of them that flit around the globe attending events showing off the culture.
      
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      December 30, 2021 1:33pm
      - Observer of Life
        
        Kev: Yep, of course the show “must” go on. Even during a “pandemic” when 1000’s of stranded Kiwi’s can’t return for a variety of (in my opinion) way more important reasons – funerals, extremely sick relatives on their last legs etc. But that shoeing off of our ever so special “culture” trumps it all. ?
        
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        December 30, 2021 8:24pm
    - ISeeRed
      
      Really need to know some specifics. “Being looked after by the government” for a Maori = guaranteed MIQ spot? What exactly was promised? He might be in for a very unpleasant surprise.
      
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      December 30, 2021 2:18pm
  - Stellaboxer
    
    So that makes it alright then Riffer ?
    
    12 0
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    December 30, 2021 9:25am
  - Ruahine
    
    That would be right. This Gov’ts modus operandi is basically corruption and bribery in large amounts.
    
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    December 30, 2021 9:57am
slightlyrighty

https://scontent.fpmr1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/269880512_10159784185821798_1181619587130719879_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_rgb565=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=ktTExsq9sTwAX-0e0Tc&_nc_ht=scontent.fpmr1-1.fna&oh=00_AT-AqVmPMyW9H0ChSDn6zk9r8Bnva2aIV2ncdpWMTh_PgA&oe=61D1AD6B

Hooten nails it….
15 3
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December 30, 2021 9:04am
- Local Miller
  
  Some info on what he nails would be nice, so one can decide if the link is worth following.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:51am
Truman lodge

I thought getting vaccinated meant ending lockdowns. If we go back to level 4 to stamp out omicron I’m not complying or getting a booster.
33 1
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December 30, 2021 9:04am
- Benedict Yu
  
  There will be no more lockdowns.
  
  14 8
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  December 30, 2021 10:52am
  - Man Among the Ruins
    
    How many times do I have to point out that what you personally think is reasonable bears no relationship to the what the government thinks is reasonable, and therefore their intentions?
    
    10 1
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    December 30, 2021 11:08am
  - PeeJay
    
    I’d say that’s a close one to call at the moment.
    
    Unlike some on here, I don’t think their actions are a deliberate ‘communist dictator’ type machiavellian strategy, at least not always, but rather just a result of a woefully unqualified group of individuals being in charge at precisely the wrong time.
    
    I think they just don’t know what to do, they completely freak out and keep going back to the good old days when lockdowns worked. It’s a temptation that is hard to resist – especially when egged on by the media, Baker, Hendy, Wiles etc.
    
    For that reason alone, I wouldn’t completely rule out a lockdown at some point in the future. Obviously, it will be rebranded by their superb marketing & comms team (and I mean that – they have really effective comms), but a lockdown of sorts may still be their go to when omicron runs rampant, the lack of capacity at hospitals is shown and they freak out.
    
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    December 30, 2021 12:03pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      PeeJay: AKL hospitals are struggling now and we aren’t even overloaded with Covid patients. Any excuse for a good old controlled lockdown.. ay Cindy?!
      
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      December 30, 2021 8:29pm
  - Reid
    
    If I was you I wouldn’t conflate should with would.
    
    As in, the fact there should be no more lockdowns doesn’t mean there won’t be.
    
    It all depends on the politics you see.
    
    There are still some small businesses hanging on by their fingernails, and how else are the corporates going to take over the economy if we don’t have any more tools like lockdowns to screw down their competition?
    
    If health had any bearing then I’d agree, there won’t be a lockdown. But it doesn’t, so it’ll be lockdown away, come Jan.
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:10pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      Reid: Jan 17th I think. Don’t know why. But just “feel” it’s a good date.
      
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      December 30, 2021 8:27pm
7kiwi11

The Blue and Yellow Wiggles will be forced to become Red Wiggles
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December 30, 2021 9:10am
NeverMindTheBollocks

The Guardian reports that Indonesia will push back out to sea a boatload of Rohingya refugees. Muslims rejecting Muslims.

If Australia did this, there would be a chorus of righteous condemnation from the usual suspects. But, …. crickets.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/indonesia-says-it-will-push-back-rohingya-refugees-adrift-on-leaking-boat
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December 30, 2021 9:14am
- mikenmildagain
  
  From the article:
  “UNHCR is deeply concerned for the safety and lives of those onboard,” it said in a statement on Tuesday. “To prevent needless loss of life, we strongly urge the Indonesian government to allow safe disembarkation immediately.”
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:58am
I remember when

Total vaccinations to date 9.07 billion.
How many in this total are in the very low risk category, being under 40 or 50 (take your pick) and without co-morbidities.
Making everybody get vaccinated, while the poorer nations do without, doesn’t seem very left wing.
If we are looking at the science based approach is this the most intelligent way to use vaccination.
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December 30, 2021 9:16am
- I remember when
  
  Mind you, if you are likely to get killed by a crocodile while crossing a river, catch malaria, are trying to escape terrorists or suffering from starvation –
  is vaccination your most important decision.
  
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  December 30, 2021 9:20am
Stellaboxer

I anticipate strict SNP type restrictions being applied after the wedding as the regime attempts the same trick they pulled off, much to their own surprise, in March 2020. Unlike 2020 we have information and comparisons now so I expect they’ll get the same reception as clown Sturgeon is getting in Scotland. Regardless of the politicians and media outlets whose interests lead them to predict otherwise the gig is indeed up. Celebrate Omicron it’s the end of the pandemic as we have known it good news for freedom lovers and bad news for pharma and politicians.
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December 30, 2021 9:23am
Jack5

India blocking international funds for Mother Teresa’s charity in ~~Calcutta~~ Kolkata shows how intense religious discrimination is becoming in India under the present Hindu-nationalist government.

Hardline-Hindu groups have accused Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity of leading religious conversion programmes.

Since Narendra Modi’s government took power in 2014 several Indian states have passed laws banning religious conversion.

This comes as conversion to Christianity has been rising among India’s Dalits, the caste system’s bottom class.

Muslims in north and north-east India are also reporting they face increased discrimination.

In adjacent Myanamar (Burma), persecution of the Christians has followed atrocities against the Muslim minority.

Churches have been shelled or burned, and Al Jazeera reports:

Myanmar soldiers gunned down Cung Biak Hum, a 31-year-old Baptist pastor, while he rushed to help put out a fire caused by military shelling. As his town of Thantlang in Myanmar’s northwestern Chin State went up in flames, soldiers sawed off the pastor’s finger and stole his wedding ring.
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December 30, 2021 9:46am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I don’t seem to recall you being upset about religious persecution in India or Myanmar when it was only Muslims who were being targeted.
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:16pm
  - Bea Rossini
    
    Jack5 is an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
    
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    December 30, 2021 9:40pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

If you allow a Govt to break the law during an emergency, they will create emergencies to break the law
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December 30, 2021 10:20am
Tony Stuart

I’m usually sceptical about the veracity of Facebook group posts, but this one from the NZ Community Pharmacy Chat page, a closed group, raises a very serious issue:

https://twitter.com/TonyStuart55/status/1476264191983898628

Mr Gayford is well known in dance music circles, and it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that he has a network of contacts within that particular community. Will any journalist have the cahones to question Hipkins about it at the 11am presser?
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December 30, 2021 10:20am
- lifesgood
  
  Didn’t Jacinda moonlight as a DJ? Bet he’s one of her buddies.
  
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  December 30, 2021 10:56am
- Surely Knott
  
  Hipkins just said at the press conference that the musicians had rapid antigen tests before flying by private chartered plane to the Hidden Valley Concert (28th). So why did they get RAT tests? Presumably because they knew they were close contacts. Got RAT tested and flew to play the concert..
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:30am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Probably because none of them had New Zealand vaccine passports, and they would have had to provide Air New Zealand with negative tests before boarding their flight.
    
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    December 30, 2021 5:54pm
    - Surely Knott
      
      If they didn’t have vax passports then I’m not sure how they were all having dinner at the sky tower restaurant.
      
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      December 30, 2021 6:37pm
- David Garrett
  
  Tony S: Not knowing anything about “dance music circles” I don’t have much to say re Mr Gayford and his attempted intervention.
  
  But I say this: anyone who thinks the Omicron infected DJ got an MIQ spot in a lottery should contact me re a bridge I have for sale…one careful owner, and well maintained for its age.
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:44pm
- Fight4NZ
  
  Hope this gets some coverage. Something really solid for Luxon to get his teeth into.
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:24pm
- Bea Rossini
  
  Wow – just wow.
  
  #dirtypolitics
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:24pm
Loddenthinks

The pink-haired attention-seeking hypocrite has been wheeled out again, I see – or more likely barged its way in.

Since she has so much credibility on the subject, not being a hypocrite in any way, I’m sure everyone on NY Eve in Auckland will adhere to her sincere advice:

“Wiles urged Aucklanders to be “really cautious” and for close contacts to isolate.”

If fake-Susie’s idea of adhering to her own lockdown advice involves breaching lockdown regulations in three different ways, I can hardly wait to see what “really cautious” looks like!
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December 30, 2021 10:22am
- ex-golfer
  
  She was probably the only one they could find.
  Most people are enjoying their holidays – she’s likely hiding under the bed terrified of catching a bad cold.
  
  I see all the usual suspects are quick to blame him for being out in the community a day early.
  But here’s the obvious deflection at work…….
  HE MUST HAVE PICKED IT UP IN MIQ!!!!!
  
  How else can numerous negative tests be explained only to test positive at the last opportunity. Therefore, once again, MIQ has failed to do what it is meant to do – keep COVID out of the community.
  
  But you won’t hear Hipkins admit it.
  Nor will any journalist point this inconvenient fact out.
  
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  December 30, 2021 11:42am
- Lee C
  
  Dear Siouxsie,
  
  No one gives a shit about your self-important, pompous blow-hard ‘advice’.
  
  signed
  An admirer
  
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  December 30, 2021 12:41pm
Its only I

Keep Calm and have a coffee…

The Last few vids give me hope… will it end in 2022?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2VgBm9pTI
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December 30, 2021 10:30am
alloytoo

Lastest John Campbell.

Very good news about England’s hospitalizations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM2VgBm9pTI

(Apologies if someone has already posted.)
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December 30, 2021 10:34am
zubrick

and somewhere a drunk named whoremonger k thuckrutter lay facedown in the gutter quietly singing……..
6 2
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December 30, 2021 10:40am
fernglas

If it’s any help to anybody, I have my second bout of Covid under way; almost certainly Omicron because of where I live. (No, I’m not stupid enough to stand in a queue for 3 hours to get it pointlessly confirmed). It is also worse than it should have been because I just had a booster, before realising I was ill. I feel like shit, but I am not going to die even though I am well over 65. Stop panicking, get over it, and start living again. This virus is at the end of its run. Get back to normal.
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December 30, 2021 10:57am
hullkiwi

How can we take this sham of a govt seriously? When that p**t Hipkins can’t even turn up to his live stream news cast on time?

Yes, it is the holidays, but we’ve been told we are meant to take Omicron seriously.

Well if a clown who is paid $300k plus can’t show on time, how can we take Jacinda and her circus seriously?
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December 30, 2021 11:11am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Apparently he was caught short without his suit and was stuck in traffic fetching it. In politics appearance is everything, on the real world not so much.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:49pm
curry4me

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/12/28/joe-bidens-top-25-worst-moments-of-2021/

Bidens 25 Worst Moments of 2021.

President Joe Biden spent his first year as president making one embarrassing mistake after another on issues important to Americans and while representing the United States.
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December 30, 2021 11:14am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5X3eZj7MG8

US Navy Warship Suffers Virus Outbreak Among ‘100 Percent Immunized’ Crew | Facts Matter.

So the vaccinated are now unvaccinated. Doesn’t matter whether they’re on a warship, or a cruise ship. Omicron 1 Big Pharma 0. [16:06]
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December 30, 2021 11:14am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyDpx9yEII

After discarding China, Singapore makes a strong semiconductor push.

Singapore wants to damage China and has decided to hit the paper Dragon where it hurts the most— semiconductor production. [6:36]
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December 30, 2021 11:15am
Man Among the Ruins

It’s noteworthy how, despite vaccination, people are still encouraged to behave the same as if they weren’t. What’s up with that? It’s as if there is no practical point being vaccinated at all, other than as a badge of compliance.
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December 30, 2021 11:15am
nathie

Hang on a minute, so this “DJ Dimension” who has tested positive for Omicron …. does not appear to be sick!

So why all this “fear” about Omicron (from the usual suspects – covid modellers etc)?

Judging by his SM posts and MSM reporting, the chap seems to be ok regardless … so is it time to “let it rip”???
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December 30, 2021 11:26am
Fletch

I see that Dr Robert Malone, one of the main inventors of mRNA, has finally been banned from Twitter for not going along with the pro-vaccine narrative.
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December 30, 2021 11:38am
CAKE FACE1

I don’t believe that Cindy will ever voluntarily open the borders.

Now is the optimal time for Omicron to spread, it being the middle of summer.

This government incompetence with MIQ offers New Zealand our best chance of returning to normality.

I hope that Omicron gets out of control, and runs through our population fast, ending this pandemic. Looking overseas, it doesn’t seem that many people will die.

The alternative (50 odd “Deadly Delta” cases a day) will see us trapped in our island prison forever.

If we could also have a lockdown timed exactly to stop Cindy’s wedding, this would be the icing on the cake…
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December 30, 2021 11:46am
TT500

My washing machine cannot spin faster than
Hipkins
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December 30, 2021 11:51am
ex-golfer

So has everyone fallen for today’s deception?
DJ Dimension’s name rolled out and blamed for putting Omicron into the community when in reality it is once again, the useless MIQ that has allowed it to escape.
How else can you explain him being negative for numerous tests, including before departing the UK and then, at the last test, he is positive.
This means he can only have contracted it while in MIQ. I say again, he contracted in while in MIQ.
So what is the purpose of MIQ?

Stay in MIQ – get COVID.
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December 30, 2021 11:54am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Yep, pretty obvious cross contamination in MIQ. Won’t be the only one or last.
  
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  December 30, 2021 8:51pm
Yvette

• Three of Omicron case’s four Waiheke housemates test negative. The Ministry of Health is still awaiting the whole genome sequencing results of the fourth positive case.

• Dimension arrived on a flight from the UK via Doha on December 16 and returned three negative tests before testing positive on December 27, as a result of a day nine test.
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December 30, 2021 12:10pm
Truman lodge

We are getting lockdown in the next few days..
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December 30, 2021 12:16pm
Rich Prick

I think this is the third motel to spontaneous combust in as many months.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127408980/golden-glow-motel-goes-up-in-flames-in-rotorua

See what we get in return for our “kindness”. My bet is a meth cook-up that didn’t go too well.
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December 30, 2021 12:56pm
- David Garrett
  
  RP: I don’t think you’d get many takers against that bet mate…either a cook up gone wrong or they were all smoking the product and were too out of it to notice the curtains going up in flames.
  
  You know what really gets me about this situation? Even if this was happening every day at the hands of HNZ “clients” the pack of clowns in the Beehive would still say housing “people with high and complex needs” in a motel is a good idea.
  
  At least the owners will be heavily insured…I hope they have paid extra premium to cover fire due to P cookups.
  
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  December 30, 2021 1:20pm
  - Inandout
    
    DG, typical wording for meth problems insurance wise.
    
    ‘Landlords or property managers need to regularly check for any signs of Meth during and between tenancies. We have tighter conditions surrounding this, refer to the comprehensive meth booklet here for warning signs of meth and our landlord obligations’.
    
    I understand WINZ cover losses like holes in walls and fixtures ripped off walls, so presumably they use our money also to cover meth.
    
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    December 30, 2021 1:35pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    My second wager is that we, the taxpayers, fully indemnify the owners as a term of the HNZ agreements with the owner, in which case WE are the hapless insurer.
    
    11 2
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    December 30, 2021 3:44pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    You do have to wonder at the gene that causes the homeless, recently homed, only to make themselves homeless all afresh. Why the hell do we bother?
    
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    December 30, 2021 9:57pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Golden Glow motel. How apt.
  
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  December 31, 2021 7:24am
Rusty

I might keep harping on about this — but over 300 road deaths this year — yet our govt, health people, and media still think the covid flu strain is the most deadly killer in NZ — what is the death total for covid 60 odd people since 2020?

The Christmas period isn’t over and more people could die on our roads before it finishes.

Could our high road deaths and drownings (70 deaths) be linked to Nzers spending too much time in lock downs and forgetting basic safety routines when driving and swimming?
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December 30, 2021 1:10pm
Pharmachick

@Maggy from last night,

yes I did, the biennial CAAT prize for Reduction and Refinement. Thanks for noticing. It came with $USD6K, ($CAD 7500) prize, which I simply turned around and dumped into a Uni account so I could fund an undergrad researcher stipend for last term (August – December) and gave him an opportunity to try research science. Pity though, the Bulgari bracelet was mighty tempting 😉
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December 30, 2021 2:18pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Pity we don’t get much info here of NZ scientists working overseas.
  
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  December 30, 2021 2:49pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Something, something, guest posts… I’m on it (sure would like a few hours extra in the day though).
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:22pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Turns out I don’t need a guest post to get started.
    
    KBers, meet Regan J. Thompson, one of NZs best Scientists of whom you’ve never heard.
    
    Regan was my second-year university CHEM bench partner (1996). He is a phenomenal scientist, has a great wit and is an excellent person. The last time I saw Regan was in Honolulu in 2011 he was there for a conference, and we met for drinks and good food. He continues to excel, because that’s who and what he is.
    
    https://chemistry.northwestern.edu/about/newsletter/2021-newsletters/winter-2021-newsletter/faculty-spotlight-regan-j-thomson.html
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:55pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Great contribution and character, Pc!
      
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      December 30, 2021 9:00pm
Fletch

Apparently, the news media in Michigan are saying NZ is going back into lockdown (word of mouth report). Either they have it wrong or they know something we do not.
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December 30, 2021 2:50pm
Maggy Wassilieff

.
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December 30, 2021 2:59pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Oh For Goodness Sake!!!!!!

this DJ chappy is on his 3rd MIQ exemption stay in NZ.

Who the FUCK is he?
Who is he CONNECTED to?

WHO is giving him such priority status?

WHAT am I missing here?

WHY can’t I read between the LINES?

DJ Dimension – New Zealand’s first Omicron
community case – is on his third border exemption to New Zealand since the start of the Covid pandemic, the government has confirmed.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300488326/covid19-dj-dimension-on-third-border-exemption-to-nz-since-december-2020
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December 30, 2021 3:00pm
- Pharmachick
  
  I’m so glad the English music chap can just waltz in and out of my country… when I cant. /s
  
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  December 30, 2021 3:06pm
- Lee C
  
  Like Solzhenitsyn said “They know they’re lying. We know they’re lying. They know we know they’re lying. Yet still they lie.”
  
  Alternative theory is
  
  They know covid is bullshit, and you can know them by their deeds.
  
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  December 30, 2021 3:14pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    They still lie and don’t give a fuck
    
    20 1
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    December 30, 2021 3:25pm
- Pharmachick
  
  Also, thanks for the link Maggy, according to $tuff,
  
  “Hogg said Immigration New Zealand assessed him as having ‘unique experience and technical or specialist skills that are not readily obtainable in New Zealand’ …”
  
  If that’s the criteria I CAN COME HOME!!!! [yeah, right].
  
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  December 30, 2021 3:15pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    You should apply immediately. I’m sure you would be able to find worthwhile work here that qualifies for a border exemption.
    
    3 9
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    December 30, 2021 3:26pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Mike, not sure if that was real, tongue-in-cheek, or just the usual nasty.
      
      I have been offered work in NZ in several places:
      
      (1) You can’t afford me
      
      (2) You *definitely* can’t afford Mr Pharma
      
      (3) The crap (and debunked) idea of a “paradise tax” for living in NZ with its low wage/salary and high cost economy, “but, but, but… we’re so awesome” is thoroughly debunked by the fact that I have lived in HONOLULU and VANCOUVER … not exactly horrible places to live.
      
      (4) If you now call me out for “but you family lives here and that ‘s the price you pay” I seriously would call “international law = breaking = making citizens [effectively] stateless, and [effectively] taking away our voting rights.”
      
      (5) There are lots of emergency measures that need to be done to protect countries and sovereignty in extreme cases such as COVID. That is a given. Now NZ needs to stop offing around, it has gone too far IMO.
      
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      December 30, 2021 5:58pm
      - Mike
        
        A little bit tongue in cheek. If you don’t want to live or work here, you effectively become a visitor and subject to the present, temporary, restrictions. You may have noticed that holidaying around the world is a bit troublesome at the moment. I sincerely hope that you are soon able to resume the lifestyle to which you are accustomed.
        
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        December 30, 2021 6:39pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        @mikenmild, mike
        
        OMG, you are fucking kidding right? I could come home and work for NZ and help out the tech/biotech/pharma sector. I was pointing out how NZ lags most of the rest of the OECD in thinking in this way – that includes remuneration.
        
        MY GOD KBers, is this for real…. how far has the average kiwi fallen in their own expectations for themselves???
        
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        December 30, 2021 9:05pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        That snark didn’t do much for your reputation, M.
        
        9 1
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        December 30, 2021 9:06pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Pc, everything this Government does makes the country poorer but its voters are too economically illiterate to realise that or even care. Mike is one of them
        
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        December 30, 2021 9:13pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Specialist skills is a technical term for political power wrangler.
    
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    December 30, 2021 5:03pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Perhaps you should ask our cool, hipster Prime Minister who apparently is/was a DJ herself.
  Maybe they all belong to a club with a secret handshake which allows special privileges.
  
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  December 30, 2021 3:16pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    You lift the left leg up, put your hand under the knee, and shake hands with you guest – also whilst holding a cone of ice cream in the left hand.
    My Dad told me that about secret handshakes
    
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    December 30, 2021 3:24pm
  - greybeard
    
    If he had not stupidly “outed” himself maybe we would have seen him perform at a New Year’s wedding?
    
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    December 30, 2021 5:17pm
Lee C

Wow two examples of common sense in one day: https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2021/12/peter-hitchens-after-two-years-of-mass-hysteria-are-we-finally-coming-to-our-senses.html?fbclid=IwAR0FwqX_4W1zJkEK0-S3Uuu2J92xfnJIHyFTDMAXncNOnmR2LVHcoBP8u6I
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December 30, 2021 3:10pm
PeeJay

Anyone else having issues with the mod’s today?

I’m getting close to 5 hours for a few comments.

Appreciate it’s a difficult time of the year and the mod’s efforts are appreciated, but 5 hours for fairly vanilla comments? Goodness knows how long it would take if i said something controversial!
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December 30, 2021 3:42pm
- Bridgenag
  
  [complaining on and on about moderation will get you a holiday. After all, it is holiday time – Mod] When there were only 7 posts ………. If only the mistreatment was shared equally
  
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  December 30, 2021 7:19pm
emmess

UK govt says pandemic is over
https://youtu.be/bqg5W7suWiQ
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December 30, 2021 3:44pm
All_on_Red

https://babylonbee.com/news/after-conviction-for-sex-crimes-ghislaine-maxwell-announces-new-job-at-cnn
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December 30, 2021 4:34pm
Gravelroad

$tuff never ceases its determination to support the Labour Party and deflect potential “news” which might not be favourable to them.
Their top website story at the moment is not about the seriousness of DJ Omicron affair, but Minister Hipkins’ antics coming out of a bush track to give an explanation.
Apparently this ranks as hilarious. His mum even gets a mention. Finding a suit for him is reported.
He is pictured holding up a stupid novelty mug.
It is shameful really that $tuff chooses to so blatantly make a serious situation into a bit of a laugh.
But then I guess that is what they are paid to do.
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December 30, 2021 6:57pm
- fernglas
  
  I missed the press conference because I couldn’t be bothered watching, but did anyone ask Hipkins why it took 2 days to test the swab and get a result? Or whether it is likely that the result was in fact a false positive from a previous infection?
  
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  December 30, 2021 7:43pm

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