New Zealand announces free masks, tests as health system struggles with COVID

The New Zealand government on Thursday announced free masks and rapid antigen tests as it tries to stem the spread of COVID-19 and relieve pressure on the country's health system which is dealing with an influx of COVID and influenza patients.

Guaranteed that in New Zealand the free masks will not be manufactured by a government contracted crony of Ardern and the tests will be easily accessible, free and give the government an accurate picture of the actual number of infections in the populace.

I was at my daughter's cheerleading competition on the weekend. Indoors and packed with people. Maybe I saw 10 people wearing masks out of hundreds. (Of course, I was.) I think people have given up being sensible, no wonder there has been an outbreak here in NZ and all over the world.

This circus will never end.

Unless we ignore the scaremongering.

Algernon LaCroix

This circus will never end.

Unless we ignore the scaremongering.

Well hospitalisations rates are spiking and long covid isn't something that you don't want to get, so not scaremongering, but solid public health policy.

2020hindsightsToday  02:03 pm JST

Algernon LaCroix

This circus will never end.

Unless we ignore the scaremongering.

Well hospitalisations rates are spiking and long covid isn't something that you don't want to get, so not scaremongering, but solid public health policy.

Funny how socialists are big on thinking they know better, then it all goes to hell when they put their plans into action. It happens with everything they do.

Geert Vandenbosch said it was madness to mass-vaccinate into a pandemic instead of only targeting the vulnerable. He's looking more right every day.

Algernon LaCroix

Funny how socialists are big on thinking they know better, then it all goes to hell when they put their plans into action. It happens with everything they do.

Who's a socialist? There are no socialists in this story.

And what are you talking about? Be specific.

Geert Vandenbosch said it was madness to mass-vaccinate into a pandemic instead of only targeting the vulnerable. He's looking more right every day.

Luckily Geert was wrong.

Funny how socialists are big on thinking they know better,

Something about a pot and a kettle

Exactly.

In my experience, nobody is more sure and confident in their opinions than the ‘alternative media’ types.

My personal favourite was one linking to ‘Louder with Crowder’.

2020hindsightsToday  02:31 pm JST

Algernon LaCroix

Funny how socialists are big on thinking they know better, then it all goes to hell when they put their plans into action. It happens with everything they do.

Who's a socialist? There are no socialists in this story.

Your posting history shows you have strong socialist leanings, and support mask mandates. Masks and mask mandates have negligible effect on slowing the spread of the virus, as Japan's figures prove.

WilToday  02:32 pm JST

Funny how socialists are big on thinking they know better,

Something about a pot and a kettle

What about it? I'm not the one telling people how to live their lives from a position of assumed but unearned authority.

Geert Vandenbosch said it was madness to mass-vaccinate into a pandemic instead of only targeting the vulnerable. He's looking more right every day.

Luckily Geert was wrong.

Geert knows a thing or two more than you about this, based on exxperience, reason and evidence.

Unless we ignore the scaremongering.

bury you head in the sand hope for the best, thats the anti science way

Algernon LaCroix

Your posting history shows you have strong socialist leanings, and support mask mandates.

I'm a free market liberal. Nothing like a socialist. Do you even know what that means? But this story isn't even about mask mandates. It's about free masks.

Masks and mask mandates have negligible effect on slowing the spread of the virus,

Not at all true. Wearing masks indoors, when in a crowd, is probably one of the best preventions of the spread of airborne viruses.

as Japan's figures prove.

How do you figure that?

Eastman

masks what for?

these cant stop covid at all.

Of course they can and do.

The public health systems are underfunded and that is the cause of long wait times

Last year in the UK it was the same but it did not mean that medical procedures were not available.

The wait times suddenly vanish when private health appointments are made

Those with money do not need to wait;even in a pandemic...

Doesn't the flow of money between corporations, the bodies that are supposed to regulate them, and the governments that make the laws give you an inkling that something just might not be on the level?

Being suspicious of the connections between big business and government , that business free market private/public synergy sounds very socialist to me Algernon.

One of the most lockdowned, vaccinated and masked up countries in the world.

Being suspicious of the connections between big business and government , that business free market private/public synergy sounds very socialist to me Algernon.

Dunno about that. One doesn't have to be a socialist to be suspicious of crony capitalism/corporate socialism... They're pretty much the same thing.

Not even close to a free market.

Pfizer et al get money shovelled at them by governments which probably borrow the funds from central banks that print it out of thin air, and leave the taxpayer to foot the bill. All the while they get to keep all the profits they make when their friends in government order hundreds of millions of vaccine doses and try to mandate people to get them. Masks, of dubious effect, are promoted as a complement to the dubious jabs as a marker of compliance more than protection, and the visual effect helps to reinforce the manufactured need for booster jabs that don't do much either.

Geert Vandenbosch said it was madness to mass-vaccinate into a pandemic instead of only targeting the vulnerable. He's looking more right every day.

How so? countless lives saved including in people not specially vulnerable would completely contradict what he thought.

What about it? I'm not the one telling people how to live their lives from a position of assumed but unearned authority.

Telling people they should not listen to accurate information just because you don't like that information is precisely assuming some kind of authority. Else you would be able to reference something to support your point.

Geert knows a thing or two more than you about this, based on exxperience, reason and evidence.

He should but he turned out to be completely wrong, and repeatedly. No supervariants appearing in well vaccinated population, all variants of interest (like Delta and Omicron) appeared in populations poorly vaccinated. He has offered no explanation about how things happened exactly in the opposite way he predicted.

masks what for?

these cant stop covid at all.

Masks have demonstrated use in reducing spreading.

Doesn't the highly coordinated messaging from media that all seem to read form the same script niggle your noggin?

Blaming the media as if the information were not coming from experts and professionals in public health is not an honest argument.

Doesn't the smearing of anyone suitably qualified who dares to question the authorities bother you in the slightest, even when those qualified experts present evidence through practice records, valid studies, and carefully reasoned hypotheses? 

That does not happen, those that have actually valid evidence are discussing it on the scientific channels without problems. The ones that are criticized and validly are those that try to mislead people with false information or invalid reasonings that can be proved so.

Anti-science is refusing to question,

Again something that is not happening, refusing to give a space to proved lies is not antiscience.

Algernon LaCroix

How does it feel to wake up in the morning and wait for instructions on what to be scared of today?

No. I don't fear knowledge.

Doesn't the fact that the authorities keep changing goalposts and definitions to suit their narrative tickle your spidey sense just a little bit?

Nope. Because I understand that at the start there are a lot of unknowns and gradually as more is known, we adjust our strategy. That's called intelligence.

Doesn't the highly coordinated messaging from media that all seem to read form the same script niggle your noggin?

Not at all. Why would this be different from everything else in life.

Doesn't the flow of money between corporations, the bodies that are supposed to regulate them, and the governments that make the laws give you an inkling that something just might not be on the level?

If you think every government around the world is in on a common conspiracy then I suppose you could be suspicious. But that would be absurd.

Doesn't the smearing of anyone suitably qualified who dares to question the authorities bother you in the slightest, even when those qualified experts present evidence through practice records, valid studies, and carefully reasoned hypotheses? 

Qualifications and hypotheses mean nothing. Peer reviewed studies are all that count. And none of the daring questioners theories have panned out.

Algernon LaCroix

Masks, of dubious effect,

Patently false, and one of the reasons that Japan has fared way better than other nations, especially considering the population density.

are promoted as a complement to the dubious jabs

One just needs to look at the death rates to covid in US states: red compared to blue that show that vaccines worked remarkably well.

Will that continue to be the case, is unknown. The existing vaccines were targeted against the original virus and there have been many variations since. Some more work probably needs to be done in this space.

as a marker of compliance more than protection,

Nope. Statistics proves you wrong here.

Not in New Zealand. More Covid related deaths have taken place in New Zealand after the vaccination program began. Compared to zero covid, when there were less than 20 deaths, according to statistical data and the medical experts of the world.

You mean after variants were introduced and cases were impossible to control. Vaccinated people still have a much lower risk of dying compared with unvaccinated people which would be impossible if the vaccines were not effective at saving lives.

So, do you have a source that says vaccinated people had the same risk? or that the increase of cases and deaths is not related to the much more transmissible Omicron? Because that is the evidence you need to demonstrate your point.

Also, a reference where the medical experts of the world say the zero covid would have been possible to keep in New Zealand, because none says this.

They have had more than two years to expand the health system in preparation for this. What does the Kiwi government do all day? Same for other governments. How long does it take to train someone to undertake basic care duties and construct extra capacity?