Long Covid

[Basil]

So there's more of this special medication available, (I have read it was quite limited supply for a while), so instead of making it available for free or even at a cost of thousands to anyone obese aged 50 or above they make it available for free to certain favored ethnicities aged 40+.  Hmmm

In my opinion until we start treating "everyone"as equal we will never heal the rift. And what's more concerning is the rift seems to be getting worse by the day. Shareguy

I agree 100%.  This Government are asleep at the wheel or in complete denial about the divisions their policies like for just one example, the proposed co-governance of three waters, is creating.  Whatever happened to Sir Douglas Graham's $1 Billion full and final settlement?

The problem with racial profiling for allocation of healthcare resources is where does it end ?
Should I still be grateful I am eligible for the free Bowel screening program ? (that was a "fun" little job today). How would people feel if the Govt suddenly said oh gosh, there's only limited dollars to go around and Maori and Pacific Islanders are more likely to get Bowel cancer so other ethnicities are no longer eligible for free treatment and we won't process testing even if you pay for it yourself.  Where does this end ?

[Plata]

Not even being able to buy the medicine with your own money is not on (assuming there is no shortage). However, funding medicine based on risk factors (of which race, socioeconomic status etc may be some) makes sense when a health system with limited resources is trying to maximize the benefits of those resources. Should children (who as a group have very low risk with covid) receive fully funded covid medicine at $1000 each? Isn't it special treatment that only older people can have it?

[arekaywhy]

yaaaay! apartheid...

also, I got the bot and stuck in bed for 3 days, 3 more to get energy back.

Wouldn't worry about it chaps, unless you're a fatty, or have 4 other things trying to kill you.

[KW]

I remember back when the drug was first made available, and there was no age limit on it - just race. If you were Maori you could get the drug no questions asked, but if you were European you had to have five co-morbidities to qualify.  
Then they introduced an age qualification for non-Maori - it was 75 years of age.  This was at the same time when the average age of hospitalised covid patients was 64. So basically the Govt chose to deny treatment to vast numbers of European and Asian patients, even while knowing that those younger than 75 were ending up in hospital.  
It was only recently (after the Omicron outbreak was practically over) that they dropped the age limit to 65.  

But this health policy is not limited to Covid - its throughout the entire health system.  Non-Maori are now de-prioritised on surgical waiting lists. Access to free bowel cancer screening is also based on race.  Who knows what else is is racially determined and we just don't know about it - chemotherapy appointments, radiology?  An acquaintance of mine was told he had to wait 4 weeks for someone to read his brain scan results, meanwhile he was having seizures every day and couldnt work or drive.  

[Basil]

Oh my goodness KW...you are confirming my worst fears.  Just as well I have a few quid set aside so I can get private medical treatment.  I did get a free Bowel screening kit the other day.  Wonder if that will be the last time I am eligible for that ?

[kasper]

A lot of South Africans i know including my wife can't believe that many Kiwis are so blind they can't see that we are now in a planned/developing Apartheid regime under the current Govt, medical Apartheid as seen by what is being discussed here is just one branch of the growing tree.

[Shareguy]

Oh my goodness KW...you are confirming my worst fears.  Just as well I have a few quid set aside so I can get private medical treatment.  I did get a free Bowel screening kit the other day.  Wonder if that will be the last time I am eligible for that ?

In Australia free from 50 for all with national screening.

https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-bowel-cancer-screening-program/getting-a-bowel-screening-test

[Basil]

A lot of South Africans i know including my wife can't believe that many Kiwis are so blind they can't see that we are now in a planned/developing Apartheid regime under the current Govt, medical Apartheid as seen by what is being discussed here is just one branch of the growing tree.

Without any doubt whatsoever this the most divisive and Woke Government in my lifetime.

Welcome back, you took quite a long break from the forum.  Hope you're doing okay.

[arekaywhy]

A lot of South Africans i know including my wife can't believe that many Kiwis are so blind they can't see that we are now in a planned/developing Apartheid regime under the current Govt, medical Apartheid as seen by what is being discussed here is just one branch of the growing tree.

All foreigners I know say the same.  They see things clearly. 

It is almost as if (in general) Kiwis are completely apathetic or have been lulled into a false sense of security that the gumbint means them no harm.

What is almost as sad is when those folks get red pilled...usually when it is too late and they are left to fend for themselves...how privileged

[Waltzing]

Magna Carta and 1689 bill of rights should be taught in this land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689

instead the lastest education act of 2020 seems to try and bring that patchy piece of parchment  into the class room as having a higher precedence than statue laws going back hundreds of years before that agreement.

the people of this land have no say over what their children are now being taught in schools.

want your child to be an international person? no chance if they arnt learning an international language by the age of 5.

[Basil]

Nice to see Sir Ashley Bloomfield honored for his service.  I don't agree with everything they did, especially the 107 day lockdown for the Auckland region in late 2021 and using Auckland hotels for quarantine centers close to the largest population base in N.Z. but he did have a lovely calm and professional manner about him in all the press conferences I saw that I think was VERY helpful.  Interview here. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/focus-new-year-honours-2023-sir-ashley-bloomfield/J3KWUS7L45IRTMITJI64SJL4SI/

[Minimoke]

Nice to see Sir Ashley Bloomfield honored for his service.  I don't agree with everything they did, especially the 107 day lockdown for the Auckland region in late 2021 and using Auckland hotels for quarantine centers close to the largest population base in N.Z. but he did have a lovely calm and professional manner about him in all the press conferences I saw that I think was VERY helpful.  Interview here. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/focus-new-year-honours-2023-sir-ashley-bloomfield/J3KWUS7L45IRTMITJI64SJL4SI/

If his advice and management was valid, reliable and successful it would be repeatable. How many covid cases and deaths do we have today?

He ran a department that couldn't manage PPE, was incapable of gathering accurate data (upon which modelers created their fanciful predictions), couldn't organize vaccine distribution, took nurses out of critical areas and into higher paying vaccination centres, introduced mandates that took health care workers out of the system, prevented people who needed health assessments from getting those assessment and creating a logjam of healthcare that will stretch way into the  future.

He was a part of the team that forgot humanity and lacked economic nouse.

I have never really understood why people get honours for doing their jobs for which they are paid handsomely to do. Unless its a way of ensuring the skeletons stay buried.

[KW]

So this was just published today.  Turns out that we were all locked down, locked up, excluded and ostracised, and forced into taking an experimental gene therapy all for nothing.  Turns out that all that was needed was targeted protection of elderly and seriously unwell people.  Now we get to spend decades paying for the socio and economic destruction that was wrought on the general population (particularly children) for no good reason.

From the data above, Median infection fatality rate (IFR) during the PRE-VACCINATION ERA was:

• 0.0003% at 0–19 years
• 0.002% at 20–29 years
• 0.011% at 30–39 years
• 0.035% at 40–49 years
• 0.123% at 50–59 years
• 0.506% at 60–69 years

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512201982X

[Hectorplains]

So this was just published today.  Turns out that we were all locked down, locked up, excluded and ostracised, and forced into taking an experimental gene therapy all for nothing.  Turns out that all that was needed was targeted protection of elderly and seriously unwell people.  Now we get to spend decades paying for the socio and economic destruction that was wrought on the general population (particularly children) for no good reason.

From the data above, Median infection fatality rate (IFR) during the PRE-VACCINATION ERA was:

• 0.0003% at 0–19 years
• 0.002% at 20–29 years
• 0.011% at 30–39 years
• 0.035% at 40–49 years
• 0.123% at 50–59 years
• 0.506% at 60–69 years

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512201982X

Xi Jinping's trying to sell this to China now in a complete reversal of the most severe lockdowns in the world. 

[Basil]

A 1 in 200 chance of death for those in the 60-69 age group is a pretty serious risk of death and I can attest that for Mrs B and I it certainly was a very serious illness.  It grinds my gears more than a little bit when some people simply call it a cold.

Most young people I have spoken too about it have shaken it off easily in a few days so I can understand from their perspective its nothing to be concerned about.  What I deduce from the above statistics and my discussions with young people is that if you own a retail stock like HLG with its primary target market being young people, you have little to fear from the current resurgent third wave in terms of its impact on limiting young's people's propensity to shop.

On the other hand I have noticed a definite increase in the number of older people wearing masks at the supermarket recently.  These people are not being fooled by the Govt's manipulation of the seriousness of this third wave by only reporting Covid numbers weekly.

Absent from the above statistics are the mortality rate for people in their 70's 80's and 90's.   They have plenty to be concerned about with Covid.