NZDSOS: Cloudy with a chance of lockdown

It appears as though the fear is being ramped up so restrictions can be enacted again.

The beating of the lockdown drums appears to be getting louder. Hopefully, we are wrong, and it is nothing more than summer waves beckoning us. But hope has not kept the advancing clouds at bay so far.

A spokesperson for NZDSOS mentioned “we have been told about adverts for Contact Tracers, able to work full-time over Christmas and New Year. They haven’t been in business for months and there are other ad-hoc duties they are required to do. We wonder what those ‘ad hoc duties’ that they must be able to perform will include”.

We hear that corporate Christmas parties are being cancelled, and Santa Claus is being stood down or uninvited from some festivities. What does Santa know that we don’t? We’ve even seen an ad for mask packers on a local Facebook page. Why would we need more masks, since they don’t work and make things worse? Maybe Michael Baker wants to send us all a Christmas present?

The recent media update (the first in several months) where Dr Andrew Old, Dr Pete Watson and Chief Science Advisor Dr Ian Town addressed the journalists, was all about increasing case numbers, dire modelling predictions and uncertainty about how infections with the new ‘variant soup’ variants would unfold.

“The outlook for summer remains uncertain.” Sounds like a weather forecast. Speaking of weather, did they have their seasons mixed up? It was all rather ominous as we are heading into summer. They were providing the sort of advice one might expect in April/May as we dive into the damp winter months. A healthy population never has to deal with wild viral outbreaks in the summer. This pattern was maintained in ‘Pandemic 2020’ but the traditional seasonal pattern of viruses was lost once the rollouts started. Probably just another coincidence.

It is good to know that the Ministry is working on a summer checklist. They’ll be reminding us to whip out those Christmas masks if any one of the 3 ‘C’s applies – closed space, crowded, close contact with others. Perhaps going all the way with a whole-body condom might keep the bugs at bay.

Also, best to be safe and keep well up to date with those boosters. Even if you have had ‘Covid’. (Natural immunity is so passé!) Yes, the very same boosters that seem to be increasing hospitalisations and deaths.

The good news is if you are of Maori or Pacific heritage you can now get your 4th jab if you are over the age of 40. The rest of the population needs to be over 50 to access that fourth dose of medicine. A spokesperson for NZDSOS says “this is a deeply racist policy. Tangi – Maori funerals – are already devastatingly frequent in some areas”. For some immunocompromised it will be their fifth jab. The government did purchase an awfully large number of doses for each of us – can’t have them going to waste!

Also, before you go on holiday, pack your Covid kit which should include your RATs, masks and hand sanitiser. Make plans about how to isolate if you are abused, sorry caught, or away from home.

If you do get caught by that pesky virus and have to isolate, never fear Paxlovid (Pfizer’s new oral treatment) is here. And you don’t even need to see your doctor (we know you can’t anyway); a pharmacist or a nurse practitioner will do. No matter that it is one of the more complicated drugs out there with lengthy lists of interactions, contraindications and possible adverse effects and a need for the prescriber to know something about how your kidneys and liver are working. And never mind that, unlike safe and fully registered ivermectin, it only has provisional approval for use in NZ, with 21 conditions. You’ll be right as rain until you get your rebound infection.

We wonder too if GPs have noticed this seismic shift in the way pharmacists are being used? It is old news actually; some of us have seen general practice heading the way of the dodo for at least a decade. Not one word about sunshine, sleep, vitamin D or exercise was uttered during the briefing. Are they really health officials,” questioned the spokesperson.

Dr Pete Watson said “global health systems were still facing significant challenges, and our own health system continued to experience pressure and high demand, hospital occupancy was high and so was the length of hospital stay. Staff sickness and vacancies were having an impact”. This appears the New Zealand health system in crisis no less.

We have said it before, and we’ll say it again. We’re talking about the elephant that is…

Large numbers of staff are off sick due to adverse effects from repeated compulsory Covid vaccinations (on top of stress and burnout from overwork). Repeated episodes of covid-19 infection do not bode well…

Hospital demand is increased due to adverse effects of Covid vaccination – strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, myocarditis, neurological symptoms, auto-immune conditions, stillbirth, sepsis, cancer… and the above-mentioned apparent immune system compromise.

Numerous healthy naturally-immune nurses, doctors, midwives, and other health professionals are still mandated out of the health system for reasons that are devoid of science, logic or common sense.

“NZDSOS continues to smell a giant rat, said the spokesperson.

In addition to the imminent collapse of the health system, Dr Ian Town mentioned wastewater testing. At least all those using long drops over the summer will be exempt from that form of surveillance. Another expert to chime in recently is Dr Anna Brooks who remains incredulous that we have “absolutely no idea” how many symptomless infections slink in the shadows undetected. Perhaps if there are no symptoms, we could consider that to be a ‘state of health’, or ‘the immune system doing its job.

At least we’re not going to have the bivalent Omicron booster forced on us until next year and even Dr Petousis-Harris is shunning her next top-up. Pfizer doesn’t have enough anyway. Just as well, it was only tested on 8 mice before the Aussies got it. All trans-Tasman rivalry aside, we mustn’t forget our government kept all those restrictions in the back pocket in case they needed to be whipped out at a moment’s notice.

Is that moment just around the corner? Will you be happy to be restricted, locked down, frightened, tracked, traced, monitored and injected all over again – with no changes to the outcomes of Covid (if the past three years is anything to go by)? What is your summer plan?