Dame Jacinda Ardern says she will provide evidence to assist the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response.
This week there was speculation about whether the former prime minister, who is living in the United States, would be called to give evidence at the inquiry, which resumed in Auckland this week.
A spokesperson told The Post she had every intention of providing evidence, if asked to.
“When did you first become aware that the Pfizer vaccination, while very effective at reducing harm from Covid-19 to the recipient, did not significantly reduce risk of transmission for the Omicron variant?”
This is critical as the vaccine mandates and restrictions were based on numerous statements by the PM that they were necessary not to protect yourself, but to protect you from infecting other people. Traditional childhood vaccinations do indeed prevent you from getting infected and infecting other people, but the Covid-19 vaccine did not. Hence the policy rationale for the mandates and restrictions was very flawed.
It looks likes the impact of being vaccinated reduces Omicron transmission by between 15% and 30% which is not zero, but not much.
Now it was more effective (but now 100%) at preventing transmission for earlier variants, so I think the initial decisions were made in good faith. But my criticism is that as the virus evolved, the policy response did not follow the science.
So this is why I want the RC to look into when the PM and Govt was first aware that the impact off transmission was relatively low, and the time that lapsed between that awareness and what they were saying in public and their policy response.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
This is critical as the vaccine mandates and restrictions were based on numerous statements by the PM that they were necessary not to protect yourself, but to protect you from infecting other people. Traditional childhood vaccinations do indeed prevent you from getting infected and infecting other people, but the Covid-19 vaccine did not. Hence the policy rationale for the mandates and restrictions was very flawed.
It looks likes the impact of being vaccinated reduces Omicron transmission by between 15% and 30% which is not zero, but not much.
Now it was more effective (but now 100%) at preventing transmission for earlier variants, so I think the initial decisions were made in good faith. But my criticism is that as the virus evolved, the policy response did not follow the science.
So this is why I want the RC to look into when the PM and Govt was first aware that the impact off transmission was relatively low, and the time that lapsed between that awareness and what they were saying in public and their policy response.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
No comments:
Post a Comment