Letters: Vaccinations, consent and what we need to learn when looking at New Zealand’s performance during Covid
The lesson we need to learn from Covid
There has been a lot of news coverage recently about vaccination for Covid and specifically the vaccination of young teenage men, given the risk of myocarditis, which can be fatal.
While media coverage is focusing on who authorised the vaccination, there is no attention to the key dynamic.
That is the loss of focus on informed consent. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world to have a law mandating informed consent. That came out of the events at National Women’s Hospital where research was carried out on women and their babies without their knowledge or consent.
In public health programmes like the Covid vaccination programme, there is always the risk of sidelining informed consent in the drive to reach optimal coverage of the population.
I was an elected person on the Waitematā DHB at the time and saw this happening. People were actively recruited for vaccination, often using inducements such as money, vouchers or gifts. This is inimical to informed decision-making by the consumer.
Given that vaccination was being offered to healthy, young people, there was even more responsibility to ensure that participants were aware of the risks and benefits, and were able to make their own decisions without being influenced or pressured to do so.
Within that context, the mandates operated as a source of pressure and should have been more restricted.
That is what we need to learn when looking at New Zealand’s performance during Covid.
If people had been able to freely make their own decisions on vaccination, there would not be the same case to answer.
Sandra Coney QSO.
Trump’s hypocrisy
If ever the world needed proof of the hypocrisy of the President of the United States, he has offered it for all to see in his speech following a potential threat on his life, when he beseeched fellow Americans to “recommit with their hearts to resolving our differences peacefully”.
A classic example of the proverb, “Do as I say, not as I do!”
Brian Milestone, New Plymouth.
Anzac services
It was wonderful that Anzac Day services around the country were so well attended, and that so many young people were there paying their respects.
Seeing the red poppies worn as a symbol of remembrance always brings to mind the moving poem In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae during World War I. Learned years ago in high school, unfortunately, with the passing of time only the first two lines are easily recalled! But how powerful they are.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
On dawn parades
Another Anzac Day has passed and it was good to see the number of people who came for the dawn parade. Auckland Museum was magnificently lit up as we approached some time just after 5am.
However, it seems as if the dawn parade has become more of a performance and less of a service of commemoration.
Let’s have some words from someone addressing the nature of the Anzac tradition and what it means in today’s world.
Let’s have a hymn that we are all encouraged to sing.
Let’s make it clear we should all sing the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia.
Times change but some things deserve to stay, affirming the tradition and mana of the dawn parade.
Let’s keep Anzac.
Christine Tyler, Devonport.
Make the boat faster
We won the America’s Cup by focusing solely on “the things that made the boat go faster”.
Liam Dann (April 26) writes of New Zealand’s “crucial productivity issues” and he is correct in saying that we are “just talking about increased productivity but the country is still going backwards”.
All of our major future economic decisions by all political parties must be made contingent upon them speeding up “our boat” and significantly increasing our nation’s lagging productivity.
Larry N. Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
Rugby time-wasting
Wasn’t it great to see the powers that be deciding to try to speed up the rugby and stop time-wasting at stoppages?
It started well but now the refs look like they have given up and the players are just wasting time as they always did.
Every stoppage results in a long break when someone goes down injured as water boys and medical teams all run onto the field.
When was the last time a penalty for time-wasting was awarded?
Jock Mac Vicar, Hauraki.
No cover for Auckland
Christchurch now has a covered modern stadium, as does Dunedin.
Why is it that these South Island cities with smaller populations can provide facilities that Auckland cannot?
Garry Wycherley, Awakino.
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