A sacred principle

The decision has been made.

We are to have our district wards split along ethnic lines.

While I haven’t seen any convincing arguments advanced as to why this is a good idea, much less one that required the denial of democratic input from the demos, that is not my main concern or the purpose of this letter.

We have, or did have, a sacred foundational principle: the principle of equality before the law and before God.

Sometimes even foundational principles have to be questioned, and, in extremis, rejected for the greater good.

Remarkably, I’ve seen no wrestling with this fundamental age of 42 years.

Professor Ronald Jones and his colleagues became known as whistleblowers, being the voices for those women who had no idea they were being used by this professor of gynaecology Herbert Green, bringing forth the truth for change and to make sure this never happens again to women.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the whistle-blowers as they were known were persecuted and tormented, along with their families, for speaking the truth.

Prime Minister, I ask again not for an apology, as this has already been given, but to formally honour our dilemma from the proponents, no sign of recognition or acknowledgement of the precedent set or the potential consequences of what has just been done.

Once we choose to ignore this, what other bedrock principles are to be so casually ignored?

“On that same day, observing one working on the Sabbath, Jesus said to him: ‘Oh Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blest, but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed, and a transgressor of the Law.”’

Jordan Peterson explains: “If you understand the rules - their necessity, their sacredness, the chaos they keep at bay, how they unite the communities that follow heroes Dr William McIndoe, Dr Malcolm McLean, Dr Ronald Jones and statistician Peter Mullins, and applaud their efforts in upholding the values of the New Zealand health system, namely that women be treated with fairness, transparency, respect and the best possible care, and for intervening when they saw these values being transgressed.

I see through these programmes being introduced by your Government the commitment to doing its utmost to ensure no such medical misconduct occurs again, and that every New Zealander has the best quality of health care thanks to the heroic works brought about by them and the price paid for their establishment and the danger of breaking them - but you are willing to fully shoulder the responsibility of making an exception, because you see it serving a higher good (and if you are a person of sufficient moral character to manage that distinction), then you have served the spirit, rather than the mere law, and that is an elevated moral act. But if you refuse to realise the importance of the rule you violate

... you are appropriately and inevitably damned.”

Our councillors have chosen to knowest not.

David George

Kerikeri

Dr William McIndoe, Dr Malcolm McLean, Dr Ronald Jones and statistician Peter Mullins, never forgetting, as they were forgotten, our mothers, grandmothers, aunties, daughters and sisters.

Please, Prime Minister, give them all the recognition they truly deserve and bring peace to the families.

Porline Ginty

Kaitaia

Non-believers

I noticed the other day a report that mentioned the escalating prices for Florida properties - Florida Real Estate Market Forecast 2021

Mashvisor. Apparently wealthy Americans are not petrified by rising sea level alarmists.

Then I noticed a report in your august organ of May 11. David

Baguley, of Bayley’s Real Estate, reports that there is overwhelming interest in a cottage in Mangonui that he has just listed. And he also mentioned that there is “massive” interest in a beachfront house in Taupo Bay.

If Cindie hears about this she’ll be so mad that her team of 1.4 million are turning a deaf ear to her frantic warnings.

Oh dear. There are gonna be tears before bedtime.

Leo Leitch Benneydale

No idea

In response to the two obstinate climate change deniers with their letters, Bruce Bell (Both guns firing) and Leo Leitch (Tuvalu’s growing), May 11.

True to form, Mr Bell still believes with his misaligned and rather insulting view that Ross Forbes and I share an ideology with regards to the science of climate change. Sadly, with his entrenched beliefs he has shown to have no concept on how science works, how all the evidence is collated, peer-reviewed and assessed for proof.

I find it pointless to debate his firmly-held beliefs, found in the Bible, that contradict the findings made through scientific discoveries. I am fortunate not to have been indoctrinated to believe everything in the Bible, but allow myself to question many parts it teaches. Just as I agree with many parts of Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, but leave room to be open to thought and allow respect for religious beliefs.

Also true to form, Leo Leitch alleges that those who fail to accept his cherry-picking and misrepresentation of data are blind, or show the effect of left-wing brainwashing. Oh dear, really!

Recent studies have shown quite the opposite when it comes to the spreading of misinformation. Results reveal far-right groups are 20 times more likely to misinform than those that hold centre or slightly left views. Obviously it is the far-right that is uncomfortable with the facts.

I suggest he reads by going to dependable sources, but doubt that he will, as he might find it uncomfortable by it being too informative. In Rising Waters, about how Nasa is monitoring sea level rise, one will find global sea levels are currently rising at 3.3mm per year, an increase of 30 per cent since Nasa launched its first satellite mission to measure ocean heights in 1992. Apart from Nasa, other agencies have partnered with other missions to monitor with exquisite accuracy concerning the sea level rise.

About two-thirds of the sea level rise is attributed to the meltwater off Greenland and the Antarctic, as well as from other receding glaciers around the world.

Thermal expansion accounts for the rest.

We can therefore expect not only sea levels to continue to rise but the rate to accelerate. The future depends on how well we curb our carbon emissions.

Ray Paterson

Kaimaumau

Who is Dr Fauci?

In his opening sentences Carl Mather exposes his biased attitude to sound medical science by calling Dr Anthony Fauci a “creature” (Who’s blathering? letters April 29). Dr Fauci is the leading US expert on infectious diseases.

He is now chief medical adviser to US President Biden.

Carl Mather then quotes excerpts from Headline Health in support of his wrong claim that Covid-19 PCR tests are unreliable owing to false positive problems.

His Centers for Disease Control reference was a fact sheet for health providers specifically about KorvaLabs’ Curative SARS-Cov-2 Assay. This was updated on June 11 last year. The fact sheet was mainly about false negatives, not false positives, and the need for scrupulous adherence to recommended guidelines in processing tests.

The fact sheet clearly says that the Curative SARS-Cov-2 Assay has been designed to minimise the likelihood of false positive test results.

Dubious websites and viral posts falsely claim that the World Health

Organisation changed Covid-19 testing protocols for political reasons, but, like the CDC’s fact sheet, WHO’s guidance merely reminded labs to follow instructions provided by the manufacturer of each test.

Carl Mather need not go far from home to be assured that PCR tests are reliable.

Our Ministry of Health states that the viral test for Covid-19 is accurate when taken in ideal conditions.

A recent laboratory study found that different Covid-19 testing kits correctly detected Covid-19 in samples with more than 95 per cent accuracy, and frequently 100 per cent of the time, and when tests were done on samples without the virus, the tests correctly gave a negative result 96 per cent of the time.

Earlier this year, in response to an Official Information Act request, ESR reported on the total number of processing cycles required to exceed the established threshold to call a Covid-19 result positive is specific to each test platform.

That is, the cycle threshold or Ct value. ESR reports that Covid-19 is detected when two different PCR targets, i.e. regions within the SARSCoV-2 genome, have Ct values below 40 cycles.

These parameters have not changed since the start of testing in New Zealand.

University of New South Wales virologist Professor Bill Rawlinson says that his lab and other labs are doing thousands and thousands of tests every day, and are seeing a couple of false positives only. “It’s really a rare event,” Rawlinson says.

Dr Christian Drosten MD is acknowledged as a leading developer of tests for emerging viruses. As a doctoral student in Hamburg in 2003 he discovered that the outbreak of SARS was caused by a coronavirus. Later, as head of virology at the University of Bonn, his team developed tests for the Zika flavivirus and the coronavirus behind MERS.

In January 2020, Drosten, along with other virologists in Europe and Hong Kong, published in the journal Eurosurveillance a workflow of a PCR diagnostic test titled ‘Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR.’ This diagnostic test was accepted by the WHO, which distributed it widely.

Carl Mather declares that this report, commonly known as the Corman-Drosten report, which is the basis of current Covid-19 PCR diagnostic testing, has been

“dismantled” by a challenge to have it withdrawn from publication by a group of 21 disaffected anti-lockdown adherents, most of whom are mainly described as proof-readers of the challenging paper.

In its February 2021 response to the retraction requested, and allegations of misconduct and scientific flaws by Borger et al, Eurosurveillance said consulted experts confirmed that the CormanDrosten paper was scientifically adequate for its purpose and for the limited data and material available at the early stage in the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is also stated that with more data and evolving knowledge, laboratories have since further improved the initial method, as per usual practice.

Eurosurveillance concluded that after a thorough investigation, in which scientific advice was collected from various sources, including several external reviewers, the criteria for a retraction of the article had not been fulfilled.

Misinformation from Carl Mather, like stated in ‘Who’s blathering?’ could endanger national health. He should desist from such statements.

Ross Forbes

Kerikeri