This is why Judith’s show of praying was concerning for me, as a believer. A genuine follower of Jesus’ teachings wouldn’t respond to a child’s question about taxes so cynically. Jesus’ teachings support radical giving to the poor (Mark 10:21) as well as taxes (Matt 22:21) /1
Across scripture there is a theme of not holding onto wealth, that wealth belongs to God, not to individuals, and wealth should be used justly for the benefit of others. The early believers sold their possessions, shared the proceeds & gave willingly to those in need (Acts 2:45).
Some may ask who am I to judge? For genuine believers, challenging those who would publicly be seen as Christians but who manifestly are against Jesus’ teachings is a core part of faith. Jesus himself reserved his strongest criticism for religiosity without heart (Matt 6:1).
Likewise Paul & the apostles challenged the early church to live up to Jesus’ teachings. To love one’s neighbour is to give what we have for the benefit of others, even (Jesus would teach) to bless our “enemies” (those we fear or don’t like much). I hope Judith understands this.
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More from @DrJinRussell

12 Oct
@sasanof @simonthornley30 @AucklandUni Yes, @simonthornley30 is academic staff at UoA. I’ll let Simon respond with whether he thinks his views are supported by other NZ epidemiologists. This rapid rebuttal suggests not
@sasanof @simonthornley30 @AucklandUni This open letter (unprecedented move) from the School of Pop Health academics are UoA came after Plan B came out: nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-co…
@sasanof @simonthornley30 @AucklandUni And this piece from one of our lead Pacific health researchers at UoA is also against Plan B:

Plan A leaves a better legacy moanaresearch.co.nz/plan-a-leaves-…
Read 7 tweets
11 Oct
If you’ve read a piece in @nzherald today about the WHO stance on lockdowns, and wonder if this is relevant for NZ - then read this piece alongside. The Herald really needs to select articles that provide better info for NZ, our lockdown was used to good effect as recommended.
People help read the Herald piece might be falsely led to think that the WHO is chastising countries like NZ for lockdowns - that isn’t the case. WHO has praised NZ’s response, BECAUSE we test, trace, isolate, distance and mask (when needed) and have successfully contained...
The virus, multiple times, and in the last Auckland cluster - at a lower alert level. Lockdowns are our “last resort”, we are using them exactly as WHO advises. So don’t be fooled by Herald piece (biased selection), *this* is the point:
Read 5 tweets
9 Oct
Royal Society DELVE economic report explains why NZ’s go-for-zero strategy wins:
“uncertainty and fear of infection [are] major drivers of reduced spending, alongside the lockdown itself...consumer confidence will only return when people’s perceptions of public safety improve.”/1
In our second outbreak, NZ chose to rapidly contain viral spread: 3 weeks of Alert Level 3 in Auckland, rest of country at Level 2. Slowly loosening restrictions allowed containment of two other potential outbreaks without further lockdown. We’ve now had 15 days of zero cases /2
In the community, which only increases public confidence to get out and support local businesses and events again. Rather than continual Level 2+ as seen overseas, we rapidly contain the virus, trust the process to work (it does), and reap the benefits. Keep it up NZ
Read 6 tweets
30 Sep
The @nzherald have just published a COVID-19 op-ed written by me and Dr Veronica Playle, on how "Plan B" is totally flawed, inequitable, and totally unworkable for our unique NZ situation.

nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/a…

For those who love details, here's a THREAD with references /1
First, why did we write this? Unfortunately, it is very likely that we will have to face-off with COVID-19 again in NZ (although I hope this is a long way away). When alert levels rise again, there will be dissenters. Plan B will be back in the news. We can't let that happen /2
We are 6 months into the pandemic. Yet Plan B is still a bare bones 10-point plan, hopelessly lacking in detail. We couldn't find any modelling on the Plan B website to show how it will impact our communities and hospitals. Yet they receive disproportionate news coverage /3
Read 43 tweets
23 Sep
The anti-lockdown crowd will try to tell you that this piece shows why lockdown is worse - don’t let them fool you. What it actually shows is how little healthcare capacity we would have to deal w a Covid surge if we didn’t suppress the virus hard. /1 nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/articl…
For those without premium, the piece covers a backlog of thousands of patients waiting longer for specialist appointments and treatment in Auckland from July/June DHB data. There are two key points to make: (1) this is “acute on chronic stress” - at status quo, our health /2
System works close to maximal capacity, so a three week disruption, can tip it over the edge. No doubt there are service delays and impacts from Covid-19 L3&4, no denying that - but there is no “status quo” scenario to us in a global pandemic. DHBs were already stretched prior /3
Read 6 tweets
21 Sep
I’m noticing there’s a lot less negativity on social media about our elimination strategy as our daily cases fall, as the cluster is contained, and testing/tracing shuts down the outbreak - as it works. “Let it run” means kiss Level 1 goodbye, stress++, more hospital headlines.
Under stress, news headlines point wistfully to (worse) situations overseas, where Level 1 is a dream, deaths are high, Plan B academics in the news again. Let’s acknowledge when the strategy is working. For instance, we could have the UK situation here: bbc.com/news/uk-542219…
Or we could be grappling with similar issues in hard hit Victoria (recognise these?) - where outbreaks amongst essential health workers have (probably) prolonged the necessary duration of the lockdown: smh.com.au/national/victo…
Read 6 tweets

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