As many of our regular readers will have noticed, we have been a bit thin on the ground with content lately. A number of us have been busy dealing with the consequences of tyrannical government on ourselves or others. We do aim to get back into the swing of things in the very near future. Watch this space.
Monday Meme
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Theonomy or Autonomy?
The choice is theonomy (God’s law) or autonomy (man’s self-law), and autonomy leads inexorably to either anarchy or totalitarianism.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God
Monday Meme
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Vocations and Kingdom Life
Instead of laying before men their calling in Christ to minister God’s Kingdom life in every area, in their families and vocations, as priests unto God, they are told that their family, work, money, the education of their children and leadership in society and culture is merely a ‘creation mandate’ that is not related to our redemptive calling – it is ‘law’ not ‘gospel.’ Men are drilled instead to believe that the kingdom work is the work of churchmen in their institutions (the sacraments) and that their ‘secular’ role in life is to be kind and ‘loving’ at work, to be a sanctified husband and father in personal piety and then pray for the return of Christ, and if possible, on route, snatch a few brands from the burning.
Joseph Boot in The Mission of God
Comply and Be Free?
Ian Wishart on the Media and Covid
Ian Wishart is asking some good questions at the moment. This is taken from his Facebook page.
Some of my media colleagues don’t like the criticism… but again I have to call them out for leaving key facts out of covid stories.
Late this morning news broke of a “fully vaccinated” person who tested positive in Christchurch after returning from a visit to Auckland.
Initially, media reported the case was fully vaccinated. All good.
But by the 6pm news that detail was missing from stories… and curiously missing from the Ministry of Health media release.
In fact tonight you will be hard-pressed to find any current news stories discussing the vax status.
Why is it relevant? Because the patient is a mother with three children under the age of 11. It’s highly likely she was fully vaxxed less than three months ago.
This scenario of the vaccine wearing off much quicker than the assumed six months is becoming all too common – I pinged Stuff last week for telling the story of a fully vaxxed Auckland man catching covid but failing to mention WHEN he had been fully vaxxed: JUST SIX WEEKS EARLIER!
A thunderstorm always begins with a few spits of rain… and then suddenly there’s a deluge. I think a covid thunderstorm is coming and many who have been vaxxed are going to get a surprise.
The media are constantly running talking points from immunologists and science communicators assuring the public that they will get at least six months protection from the vaccine and really minimize the risk of passing it to others. Clearly the communicators are not up to speed with the latest studies. Even the CDC has admitted this week that the vaccines are not preventing spread of the virus as expected and are not good enough to end the pandemic.
And yet, the Government, the Opposition, business leaders, talkback hosts and the news media are marching in lockstep to promote vaccine passports as the key to freedom. Or is it really a pathway from the frying pan into the fire?
1.6 million Aucklanders, with Delta silently infesting them, are about to get their vax passports and be unleashed on all corners of the country… unaware that the vaccines are not going to prevent them catching covid and spreading it – clearly as early as just six weeks after the jab.
National was right. We ARE going to have a covid Christmas after all.
If there was ever a time for the media to be asking hard questions about the unexpectedly short duration of protection from the vaccine, that time is now.
I really do feel like a spectator in the crowd as the naked emperor rides past to cheers from a crowd who have been let down by news media too timid or uninformed to investigate vaccine efficacy.
Don’t get me wrong…we can’t lock down forever and as I have said before, the vaxxed should be able to avoid the worst outcomes personally (albeit despite my calculations that most of the recent NZ Delta deaths have actually been double jabbed)…. but ironically it’s the vaccinated who are about to seed the biggest explosion of covid that New Zealand has seen yet… and the unvaxxed are going to cop it. Sure, most are unvaxxed by choice, but that just illustrates how surreal this crisis has become.
The bitter irony is that we have just divided the team of five million in the name of promoting a vax passport system that even Blind Freddy can see is going to be a Christmas super spreading disaster… and when school resumes in the new year everyone’s children will become fuel and it’s game on.
I hope I am wrong, but based on the UK, Israel and the USA I am not holding my breath.
The vax will help protect you from acute covid… but it won’t prevent you passing it on when you hug grandma at the bach. If anyone reading this seriously believes their vax passport is proof of immunity I have got last week’s winning lotto ticket for sale.
And finally., just as proof that the Christchurch case was fully vaccinated… here’s this morning’s story.
Memo to news editors: publish ALL relevant facts in every story. Stop forgetting to mention that the vax is wearing off early. Stop forgetting to mention that the double vaxxed are still dying. You want public trust? Tell all sides of the story.
No to Coercion!
Check this out. Police opposed to mandated vaccination.
Monday Meme
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Grant Schofield on the Vaccine Mandates
Taken from Professor Grant Schofield’s Facebook Page. He is Professor of Public Health at AUT University and director of the University’s Human Potential Centre.
This post has taken me too long to get up the guts to write.
You see I’m a Professor in Public Health. One of the most important things in public health is “to do no harm”. Or at least in a more practical sense, have the good by far outweigh the harms you cause with whatever intervention you choose.
This is about vaccine mandates. It’s a complex and emotive issue.
The brutal truth is that there are no harm free choices here. All choices will have some harm.
But, deadlines are coming – here’s our Ministry of Health’s advice under public orders “Any health and disability workers (employed or voluntary, private and public) who fall under these roles must receive their first dose of the vaccine by 11.59pm 15 November 2021. They must receive their second dose by 1 January 2022.”
That’s Monday folks.
I’m not an “anti-vaxxer”. I’m fully vaccinated.
But some people will choose not to follow these orders for various reasons. Some of them may be logical based on the data that there is no protection beyond 200 days, and the data on reductions in transmission are limited, and they are concerned about adverse events.
We all make different decisions given similar data because we are all different and have different ways of weighing risks and benefits. They may see the futility of a public health system which would on current evidence have to boost every 120-150 days to maintain vaccine efficacy. Or maybe they just don’t like being told what to do, or have a more complex theory which may be spurious. Who really knows?
Anyway, the point is that there will always be a group who for whatever reason decides that, in this case, their bodily sovereignty, is sacred to them and they will refuse a public health order like this.
What this means is on Monday kids will turn up to school and their classroom teacher will no longer be there, that their mid-wife will no longer be working, that their doctor is no longer able to practice.
This will cause serious harm. It almost certainly will mean that our already overwhelmed health and education systems will not have the staff to carry out normal duties.
This debate has already caused substantial harm and division in our beautiful country.I believe in the context of the recent Swedish data showing vaccine waning, that it’s now obvious to any thinking person the futility of these mandates.
We can predict that the exact thing we are trying to avoid “overwhelming the health system” is exactly what we are going to do by firing health workers.
What government puts on its own handcuffs on and throws away the key?
This isn’t us.
So sorry I can’t stand by silently and watch this. I have to say something.
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to pluck up the courage.
Sorry if this upsets you, but come Monday I know of real teachers, real GPs, real mid-wives, real physios, real people without jobs. Real communities without their beloved teachers and health professionals who are here to care for them. These are my communities, my friends, my school.
These are mostly not lunatic fringe anti-vaxxers. They are people often making their own rationale decision. Yes its different than mine, but it is theirs.
I fear we are choosing more harm than good, and in my field that’s just not acceptable. In fact it’s unethical and immoral.
Please think about what your thoughts are on this matter. It is really an important one for our society right now. Saying nothing when you think there will be more harm than good is complicit in supporting that harm.
Please comment, share, or do whatever you think is right here. Please if you do comment think about what you say and please confront the issues not the person.
Thanks for reading this,
Grant Schofield PhD
Professor of Public Health
*disclaimer – these views are mine and don’t represent those of anyone else, including those who employ me.