Tag: New Zealand

New Zealand has reported its first death linked to the Pfizer Covid vaccine, but health officials are keen to point out that they "remain confident about using it".

Who could've predicted this? New Zealand's COVID-19 Response Minister has acknowledged that the "zero-Covid" policy hasn't worked, as an outbreak of the Delta variant continues to spread across the country.

Advocates of zero-Covid have a lot to answer for. Jacinda Arden has just announced that the three-day lockdown imposed in response to one coronavirus case – you read that correctly – is being extended for a week.

We're publishing an original piece on the Daily Sceptic today by a senior executive at pharmaceutical company setting out the choices facing Australia and New Zealand. There are no good options.

by George Santayana *Spoiler alert*: There is a moment in one of the Mad Max films where Max and his band of tagalongs have successfully escaped from their pursuers and are striking out through the post-apocalyptic Outback in search of The Safe Place, a haven of security where they hope to live out their lives in peace. After much struggle, they crest the top of an enormous dune only to see an endless desert stretching out beyond the horizon. It is as this point that the true nature of their predicament becomes clear; do they continue on alone into the unending sea of sand in what may be the forlorn hope of reaching The Safe Place, or do they stay where they are until their pursuers inevitably catch up with them, or do they turn around and head back into danger but to somewhere where they know there is water and shelter? In many ways, this is an apt metaphor for the situation Australia and New Zealand now find themselves in with respect to Covid. Having apparently successfully escaped from the pandemic, what should they do now? Do they plough on in the hope of reaching some kind of Safe Place, which may or may not exist, or do they instead attempt to re-join the rest of the world? A ...

The whole of New Zealand is being plunged into another lockdown because of a single positive Covid test result. All schools, offices and 'non-essential' businesses will be closed for between three and seven days.

Countries that have permanently shut their borders in a misguided effort to reduce Covid infections to zero are heading for economic disaster. Thank God we ignored Independent SAGE and avoided this hair-brained strategy.

New Zealand and Australia are currently seeing a large number of children in hospital with respiratory illness, which doctors are blaming on the lockdowns for keeping them away from bugs.