Community
Anti-mandate protestors continue to camp around the country, including in Invercargill, despite numbers of active cases of Covid-19 in the city heading towards 900.
whatsoninvers.nz has been involved in balanced coverage of COVID from the beginning, and continues to bring our readers up-to-date with the latest reports relating to the virus and the vaccine.
Southern District Health Board chief executive Chris Fleming told media today hospitals were bracing for immense strain and pressure over coming weeks, with nine people in hospital in Southland and Otago – predicted to climb to 70.
He said patients were presenting with more complex and serious illness, and staff were also impacted by increased sickness.
Anecdotal evidence around the community indicates even when people are symptomatic their RATS tests are coming back negative. The Ministry of Health has indicated that people should still stay home and monitor, with some testing positive on the third and fourth test.
Meanwhile, a world-wide vaccine tracker https://covidvax.live/location/nz shows some interesting data where only 77% of New Zealanders have completed both their jabs, this compares to the 94% reported by the Ministry of Health. While 83% have had at least one jab.
Medsafe New Zealand’s latest report on adverse events following vaccination, now also includes the AstraZeneca vaccine.
There were 5,272 non-serious and 357 serious reports since the last update in January, including 13 more notifications of death.
AstraZeneca became available on November 26, 2021, and there have been 209 non-serious and 13 serious reports of adverse events following vaccination.
So far a total of 147 deaths have been reported to CARM after the administration of the Comirnaty vaccine, but following medical assessments by CARM and Medsafe it has been determined that:
- 60 of these deaths are unlikely related to the COVID-19 vaccine
- 64 deaths could not be assessed due to insufficient information
- 21 cases are still under investigation.
- 2 deaths were likely due to vaccine induced myocarditis (awaiting Coroner’s determination) Read more here https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/media-releases/statement-covid-19-vaccine-independent-safety-monitoring-board
We think it’s very important to note that Medsafe has pointed out in its reports that ‘by chance, some people will experience new illnesses or die from a pre-existing condition shortly after vaccination, especially if they are elderly.’
Medsafe continues to monitor ‘adverse events of special interest’ which are pre-specified medically significant events that have the potential to be causally associated with the vaccine, and must be carefully monitored.
There are currently 16 of these being monitored at present, including blood clots, appendicitis and pregnant women.
In the latest report there have been 561 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis, 136 haemorrhage, 291 herpes zoster and 53 abortion/miscarriage.
A large number of the 50 people arrested during the last day of the Wellington protest have pleaded not guilty to trespass and destruction in the Wellington District Court.
Our post-analysis of the Wellington protest (prior to the rioting and fires) was that a majority of people and groups represented were finally starting to be listened to, with mainstream media making more of an effort to report on who and what was going on.
whatsoninvers.nz staff were watching live footage from many different streams last Thursday when the riots broke out, and it was clear the majority of those causing violence were not the original protestors.
Police also commented several times over the past week at the protest that there was an increasing presence of new violent perpetrators coming into the village.
It was a real shame that these people ruined it for the protestors who had worked so hard to bring it all together, and that the mainstream media then went back to labelling them as all ‘one and the same,’ as it was quite clearly not the case.