New Zealand Minister of Education, the Public Service and COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins appeared on The AM Show last week (July 6) to discuss the COVID vaccine.
When asked about the rollout and the availability of vaccines, the below was his response. Start from approximately 3:55 in the video.
I think early next year we’ll be in the phase of chasing up people who haven’t come forward to get their vaccination or who have missed their bookings and so on. So, er, everyone will be able to get a vaccine between now and the end of the year. But of course, you know—and I want every New Zealander to come forward—but human behavior suggests that there will be some people that we have to actually really go out and look for. And some of that may spill into next year. But our commitment is: everyone will have the opportunity to get the vaccine by end of the year. Everyone will. But I can’t say that, you know, that we’re not get some hesitant people or some people who just haven’t come forward that don’t have to go out and find next year.
Right. So, NZ will be chasing up people, to really go out and look for them. Wow, that’s really first-class public service there.
The next question was regarding side effects and the like linked to the vaccines.
Amongst other things, he said that “a few people who have experienced side effects ... that applies with any almost vaccine...”
How nice of him to use a generality to dismiss a specific. It gets better. Apparently, some people get an “allergic reaction, not to the vaccine, but to the solution the vaccine is mixed in with, for example…”
Again, that may be true in some cases. Adjuvants are known to cause problems in some recipients. But it’s not necessarily the vaccine that is causing harm, just the solution that it’s mixed in. Phew, what a relief. And I thought it was the vaccine that’s harmful.
By the way, according to New Zealand’s Medsafe website, there are 1,105,922 doses administered with a total of 5,738 adverse events reported as of 26 June 2021. (Of these, 251 are considered “serious” and 16 deaths are listed.) Anyway, below is the math on the napkin:
1,105,922 doses administered with 5,738 adverse events reported:
~518.8 adverse events per 100,000 doses, or 1 adverse event per 193 doses.
Yeah, no worries. Just a few adverse events. Apart from the fact that it’s worse than at least some of the other figures out there.
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