Wednesday 17th of April 2024
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and don't mention the sheep...

ardern
New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern has shut the nation’s borders, interred the few still allowed to enter and now postponed the election for a month – but it’s all okay because she’s the ‘right kind of leader’.

Ardern has postponed the elections in New Zealand for a month so the country can deal with a new spike in Covid-19 cases. The Kiwi PM has become something of a darling of liberal outlets around the world who larrup praise on her progressive outlook, being a female world leader and, most recently, the way she has dealt with the pandemic. 

New Zealand has so far only had 22 deaths related to Covid-19, which is obviously all down to Ms Ardern and nothing to do with the fact that New Zealand is sparsely populated, over a thousand miles away from any other country and has five times as many sheep as people.

Nevertheless, due to her impeccable woke credentials Jacinda’s every action has been lauded by the Western liberal press. Her government’s pursuit of a “well-being budget” rather than actual economic growth was hailed as a “progressive beacon in a populist world,” she was lauded for bringing her baby with her to the UN General Assembly for no obvious reason whatsoever, and for saying all the right things about racism and the failure of capitalism.

For much of the West’s liberal media Saint Jacinda of Wellington can do no wrong, which is why now she has delayed New Zealand’s election for a month, from September 19 to October 17, it is obviously a righteous, splendid thing for her to do. According to the Guardian “By delaying the New Zealand election Jacinda Ardern appears magnanimous and conciliatory.” She is putting the health of the people first, rather than cynically chasing her own political ambitions. She is accepting that free and fair elections cannot take place if “longstanding electoral activities as door-knocking, public meetings, and generally having face-to-face contact” are suppressed. Who could argue that democracy was more important than dealing with a disease currently affecting 78 people in the country, just five of which require hospital treatment? People’s lives are at risk for God’s sake.


Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/498255-jacinda-ardern-donald-trump-elections/

 

Please, I said don't mention the sheep...

meanwhile in aussieland...

...

On Monday, Dr Coatsworth said Australian officials would stick to established processes around testing and approving a vaccine.

“I think that it would be an absolute requirement for us as health professionals, for our Australian therapeutic advisory group on immunisation,” he said.

“There will be no cutting of corners when it comes to safely demonstrating the safety and efficacy of any COVID vaccine in Australia.”

Dr Kerryn Phelps, former president of the Australian Medical Association and former federal Member for Wentworth, last week told The New Dailythat she hoped more details about a potential vaccine agreement would be made public.

“A new vaccine is not something you can rush. It’s better to continue all of the other preventive community measures like wearing masks, regular hand washing, physical distancing, avoiding crowds,” she said.

“It’s far better than the alternative of letting the virus run – but also better than lining Australians up for a mass immunisation program without rigorous testing.”

On Monday, Dr Coatsworth was also forced to address another brewing vaccine problem, after the Catholic archbishop of Sydney called for followers to boycott the vaccine on ethical and religious grounds.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher claimed the Oxford vaccine “makes use of a cell line cultured from an electively aborted human foetus”.

“Whether this vaccine is successful or not, it is important that the government does not create an ethical dilemma for people,” Archbishop Fisher wrote in a social media post on Facebook.

“Along with the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia, I have written to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, asking the government to pursue similar arrangements for alternate vaccines that do not raise the same ethical concerns, so that Australians will have a choice when it comes to vaccination.

“It is in the best interests of the community that vaccination is widely taken up and this deadly disease defeated, and this will better be achieved if the vaccines available do not create an ethical quandary.”

He told followers to write to their local MP and raise similar concerns.

The letter – signed by Archbishop Fisher alongside Dr Glenn Davies, the Archbishop of Sydney, and Archbishop Makarios, Prime of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia – asks Mr Morrison to consider another vaccine.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/08/24/no-cutting-corners-covid-vaccine/

 

Apologies-ish to our mates from Noo-Zeeland from Gus about the toon at top.

out of control new zealand...

outofcontrol

Can you believe that the [New Zealand] Government still isn't testing everyone on day 3 of managed isolation?

After all those times they promised us they're testing people coming back into the country twice before they're let into the community, they're still not testing all who come through our borders on day 3.

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Chris Hipkins admit that in today's 1pm press conference.

Mostly, because we've been here before. Mid-June, they were busted not doing the testing when Thelma and Louise left their Auckland hotel without being tested. Following that, the Prime Minister went on her Facebook Live and told us her expectations hadn't been met.

But we were assured everyone would now be tested. Twice. Day three and day 12.

But fast forward two months and their assurances aren't worth the time we spend listening to them. Still not happening.

Now, before they start spinning you that day three tests are not important, yes they are. That's why they assured us that day three tests would be done.

Day three tests are important so they can find the people who have Covid and move those people to other quarantine facilities so they're not still mixing with other people in the managed isolation hotel lobbies without face masks – like we're seeing in the pictures - and making them all sick too.

Because, by the way, if some of these people get sick just before leaving the hotel and coming into the community, their day 12 tests may not necessarily pick up the Covid which takes 5-6 days to incubate.

 

Read more:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12359877

 

 

Meanwhile Melania fights on:

 

First lady Melania Trump portrayed her husband as an authentic, uncompromising leader in a Rose Garden address Tuesday night as President Donald Trump turned to family, farmers and the trappings of the presidency to boost his reelection chances on the second night of the scaled-down Republican National Convention.

Trump's remarks, like much of the night's prime-time programme, offered a polished portrait of Donald Trump's presidency — at odds at times with the crises, division and unforgiving actions of his tenure in the White House.

Showing a more forgiving side with millions of voters watching, the president pardoned a reformed felon and oversaw a naturalisation ceremony for several immigrants in the midst of the programme, though he frequently states his vigorous opposition to more immigration, legal as well as illegal.

"In my husband, you have a president who will not stop fighting for you and your families," said Mrs Trump, an immigrant herself. "he will not give up."

 

Read more:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12359844