Close the border at the Cook Strait: now
COVID19 is now on the march down the country. With one brave action this virus can be halted, maybe for a few weeks, maybe more, but time enough to regroup, vaccinate and prepare.
Our team of five million needs a smart move. Close the border at the Cook Strait. Reduce the liability down to four million. The mathematics don’t lie. Take that extra one million pressure off the health service and free up some of the South Island’s health professionals to join the battle. Unaccompanied freight only on the ferries. Truck companies can adapt. Some won’t.
Queenstown will cry, so what?
Close the Strait, do it now. Peter Grant
Oamaru
WITH reference and thanks to Peter Yarrell (Letters, 16.10.21) for expressing some common sense in the whole Covid19 debacle.
I would be glad to see comparisons with the Covid19 death toll to deaths from flu and pneumonia for instance, and instead of quoting just the Covid19 yearly death rate, why don't we see annual death rates from all causes?
It might bring some balance and give a better perspective to the way the news is presented. Annette Wale
Wanaka
WHEN people are so antivax and claim it as their right, I wonder if they have had the diphtheria vaccination, measles, polio, Tb etc, or did their parents just give it to them, forfeiting their rights even then?
The vaccine is not just about ‘‘Me Me Me’’, it’s about protecting the community, the young, the elderly and the vulnerable.
Just get on with it! J. Park
Wakari
HOW can the Prime Minister urge a ‘‘be kind’’ message when she is not allowing any alternatives to vaccinations from reputable medical practitioners such as Dr Robert Malone who had concerns about the mRNA. Those concerned about this vaccine have the absolute right to be concerned as we don't know the longterm effects, and for those who do have serious side effects where do those people get help. My first Pfizer jab made me very unwell with chills and lethargy. As the clinical trials do not end until March 10, 2023, we will not know until then whether this vaccine is 95% effective. These people and patients, demonstrators are not conspiracy theorists, they are us, they have families, they use different medical approaches. To force someone to take a medicine is against the Human Rights Act 1990 and the Geneva Code compiled after World War 2.
Not all treatments are 100% effective, but I would advise the public to look into other medical options if they so wish.
New Zealand wants answers and not censorship or the silence of freedom of thought? Why is the world becoming so polarised by ideology at a time in history when the West has won so many civil liberties? These mandates and measures must stop, and soon. Tom McAlpine
North East Valley [Abridged] ...................................
BIBLE READING: There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you. — 1 Samuel 2:2.