Ian Wishart on the Media and Covid

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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.

One thought on “Ian Wishart on the Media and Covid”

  1. Rob Berger

    The media pattern we are seeing:

    If the person has tested positive via PCR and is unvaccinated, the media trumpets their unvaccinated status. It agrees with their narrative, so they use it to push their point.

    If the person tests positive and is vaccinated, the media either omits that detail, or originally states it and later edits it out. It disagrees with their narrative, so they bury it and provide half-truths.

    Consequently one can almost assume that if the media does not state the detail, the person has been fully vaccinated. Evil state of affairs…but this is expected in these times of casting truth to the ground and trampling it. I expect it to get worse, not better.

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