A hypothetical.
In about six months, under a new government in New Zealand, a new Covid variant comes into play.
Its primary symptom is severe muscle pain - enough to prevent work.
Additionally, people seem to recover for a few days, only to get worse again as time goes on.
(🧵)
There’s no masking requirements, and no isolation required, so the spread is quick, and within three weeks case numbers are well over 20,000 a week - according to wastewater results, because tests are no longer available.
Emergency Departments are having to triage who gets seen.
People quickly use up their sick leave.
Employers, not having provisions for chronic conditions, quickly start to terminate employment.
The number of people applying for the work and income benefit grows.
They encounter murky & inconsistent rules, & minimal financial assistance.
Our advice is hard to find and is part of a video transcript on the Covid-19 website saying “COVID-19 is generally a mild or even asymptomatic illness in children.”
There’s plenty of evidence to support that even mild illness can have profound impacts.
👇 phcc.org.nz/briefing/longe…
Cc @nzlabour, @NZGreens - it would be great to have focused comms on this please. @NZStuff, @nzherald, etc I think it’s newsworthy that the US CDC has updated its advice in regards to children.
Given this, it’s also relevant to ask why we are not moving rapidly towards clean air.
Just noting also this is a group of volunteers who are doing the job of public health - educating communities, talking about what the next focus should be in pandemic mitigation and preparedness (clean air) and ensuring that schools and workplaces have the tools to get there.
About a month ago a leader tried to talk about the violence of cis white men & every single man with power shut her down.
What would the justice experience of these women have been like if men in power acknowledged violence?
Would it have taken 5 years to convict John and Steve?
"The statistics out there don't tell the whole story because... it's working within a system that favours Pākehā men."
They tried to silence her because she is right - and that threatens the status quo that allows the activity in the news this week.
Calling it out threatens a status quo that is embedded in our culture - New Zealand is very comfortable with violence against women.
We dismiss it, minimise it, joke about it, enable it with overt & implicit acceptance - & by silencing those who speak up. i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131648…
“Poor ventilation, the committee heard, was a major factor in the spread of the coronavirus.
It recommended the establishment of an advisory body… to develop new national air-quality standards.”
Clean air should be a focus for anyone in business or school leadership who wants a healthy place for employees to work & for kids to learn.
It is baffling that whoever the “business lobby” are, this clearly isn’t being pushed - clean air means better productivity & bottom line.
For all the reasons clean air is vital in Aotearoa, listen to experts:
Increasingly so concerned about how winter is going to go. We’ve got so much clear, unequivocal data about the long-term effects of Covid.
It shouldn’t just be “does this land us in hospital?”
It should be “what is this doing to our quality of life?”
Why aren’t we asking this?
The few masks I am seeing are the old surgical ones.
We’re not communicating how to protect ourselves.
We’re not pushing for better ventilation.
We’re not acting to support workers with long term impacts.
We’re not acting to support those who can’t work because they had Covid.
Surely there’s someone responsible for this who should be actively looking at recommendations?
If so I’d really love to connect with them, because the lived experience is that this isn’t actually happening.
Ignoring the pandemic means ignoring those impacted - now and in future.