Lucinda Baulch has been at the Grand Mercure in Wellington for 25 days while she waits for scientific evidence of the PCR tests safety and effectiveness.
The woman, who is a qualified vet nurse, said she had requested additional information from the facility - but had so far not been provided with any.
Once presented with that information she would get a Covid-swab - but until then she could not give informed consent, she said.
"As someone with a medical background and knowing the importance of informed consent, for my own peace of mind I really need that informed consent, I'm entitled to it, it's a right, it's an obligation of the party offering a consent form. For me, that's quite an important step."
Baulch said the longest they could keep her in isolation was 28 days and once released she planned to take it to court.
"The New Zealand government is clearly very confident in the protocol they are using, and that's fantastic, get me on the same page.
"Because if you can prove with evidence, I am a loyal advocate, that's the thing, at the moment I just haven't had the assurances.
"I was very surprised with the lack of response or attempt to provide me with the information."
Baulch said she had seen research from Portugal where a court had ruled the PCR swab was 97 percent ineffective.
If there was strong scientific evidence that proved the theory otherwise, Baulch said she would consent to the swab.
She wanted to know if New Zealand was using the same test as was mentioned in the Portuguese ruling.
Baulch is also a foster carer and said Australian Child Services organised for her to bring three children over to caregivers here.
The three children she travelled with tested negative for Covid-19 and were allowed to leave - and despite being in the same bubble she was not.
Baulch argued everyone around her had no symptoms and was 14 days free during the 14 days so she should be allowed to return to Australia.
She said she believed the children's results were accurate, but did not consent to one herself.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the swab used was considered the optimal sample type for RT-PCR testing which was consider the gold standard for the detection of Covid-19.
"This swab type will obtain the optimal sample required and is the preferred collection method for both symptomatic and asymptomatic testing due to its higher sensitivity in detecting the virus.
"If someone does not have a PCR test or a heath check at all, it is not possible to assess whether they are Covid free.
"A total of 1.6 million tests have been taken in MIQ facilities, staff at our borders and in the community. It is safe and effective."
MIQ conditions
A Managed Isolation and Quarantine spokesperson said in a statement that "everyone entering an isolation or quarantine facility is provided with a welcome pack, which includes information about the tests they are required to have, when and how they are taken, and what happens if the results are positive or negative". It is currently being updated to include information about day one testing and recent changes to processes.
"When returnees arrive at an isolation facility they are given information that they are legally required to stay in the isolation facility for a minimum of 14 days. This starts from the time and date they arrive in New Zealand."
In nearly all cases they need a negative Covid-19 test and confirmation from a Medical Officer of Health or a Health Protection Officer that they are a low risk before being allowed to leave the facility, they said.
If a person refuses a day 12 test they have to stay in isolation or quarantine for at least another 10 days, this also applies to anyone else who is in their isolation bubble.
"People refusing their day 12 test are offered a test each day of their extended stay. If they agree to a test, return a negative result and meet the standard exit health criteria ... they would be able to leave without having to remain the full 22 days.
"After 22 days, they would still have to meet the standard exit health criteria (without a test) in order to leave. The maximum time a person who is in a bubble of one and is asymptomatic can be required to remain in an isolation facility under the Quarantine Order is 28 days."
This is Jacinda's "offer" - from last year
Both the Australian health authorities and the US CDC inform people about the limitations of the PCR tests.
This is what the NZ Ministry of Health information says.
I don't think it is going to mollify anyone asking real questions
The accuracy of test results
The viral test for COVID-19 is accurate when taken in ideal conditions. A recent laboratory study found that different COVID-19 testing kits correctly detected COVID-19 in samples more than 95% (and frequently 100%) of the time. When tests were done on samples without the virus, the tests correctly gave a negative result 96% of the time.
But it is important to remember that tests don’t work as well in the real world. No viral test is 100% accurate. In real-world use, the viral test for COVID-19 is not 100% ‘sensitive’ (meaning able to correctly identify people with the disease all of the time). This means that if 100 people who have the disease are tested – some will have a negative result (i.e. a false negative result).
Reasons for a false negative test result could be because:
the sample was taken at the wrong time (too early or too late)
the swab did not pick up any pieces of the virus, or
the sample of mucus (or liquid from the lungs) wasn’t big enough.
This means that it is very important to isolate yourself if a health professional asks you to, even if your test result is negative.
The viral test for COVID-19 is much better at correctly identifying people who don’t have COVID-19 (this is known as a higher ‘specificity’). We expect very few (if any) false positive test results (a false positive being a positive test result for someone who does not have the disease).
What the test results can and cannot tell us
Even when we take the uncertainties of testing into account, the results can tell us a few things.
The following statement is inaccurate - SMR
A positive test tells us that a person either has COVID-19 (whether they have symptoms, or not) or has had COVID-19 recently. We may not be able to distinguish whether the person is currently infectious or not so we will take a precautionary approach.
A positive test cannot tell us:
if the person is currently infectious
how ill the person is likely to become.
A negative test can tell us:
the person was unlikely to be infectious at the time of the test.
A negative test cannot tell us:
if the person was exposed to the virus or not
if they are in the early stages of incubating the disease
if they caught COVID-19 in the past
if they were infectious in the past
that they will not get COVID-19 in the future.
Note: if a person has a negative test result and they are at a higher risk of having COVID-19, they may be tested again.
Israel will soon allow ‘Green Pass’ holders who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine to access public spaces including sports events, restaurants and hotels while those who haven’t had the shot will remain on lockdown.
The two tier system will go into effect from Sunday onwards, when those who have had two doses of the vaccine or can prove they’ve recovered from the infection will display the certificate on their phone which will allow them to resume normal life.
“With some 43 percent of Israeli citizens inoculated with at least one shot of the jab developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the cabinet moved to permit malls, open-air markets, museums and libraries to reopen next weekend, gradually scaling back controversial restrictions brought in late December,” reports RT.
However, for people who refuse to take the vaccine, lockdown will continue indefinitely, making taking the jab de facto mandatory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the remaining people aged over 50 who haven’t taken the shot to get vaccinated.
“If those 570,000 people over 50 get vaccinated, it’s not only the last lockdown, we’ll be done with Covid, period… We’re leading the world on vaccines; we’ll be the first to emerge from the coronavirus,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israelis who don’t get vaccinated could see their identities put on a list by local authorities under a new proposal.
As we highlighted yesterday, despite initially vowing not to introduce a vaccine passport, authorities in the UK are now indicating it will be required for international travel while also refusing to rule out a domestic vaccine passport that will be required to enter public venues, restaurants and bars.
In a rare bit of actual journalism, Radio NZ highlights the situation for the underplayed and unsupported workers in the quarantine detention facilities.
These are the people who are first in line to get the Pfizer jab.
No training or support for those making critical decisions - ex-MIQ worker
One of the main managed isolation administration teams has been described as a "shambles" by a former employee who came from a temp agency and claims she had minimal training.
A managed isolation and quarantine booking voucher. Photo: Supplied
Decisions about who can skip the queue for managed isolation, complete it at home or have their fees waived are made by 35 full-time allocations, fees and waivers officers employed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
The former worker told RNZ it was such a poorly organised and "toxic" work environment that a whole tranche of emergency allocation applications was accidentally left unanswered for weeks.
She was among two to be dismissed, while two others walked off the job because the subject matter was "too distressing".
No temporary staff remain on the team, and the ministry says it is confident improvements have been made.
Speaking on the condition her name has been changed, Carol* said she started there in a 'triage' role in November and was quickly put to work dealing with emotional pleas from desperate returnees.
She said she and about 10 other temp staff had "almost zero" training and very little ongoing support, with one leaving after just two days.
"The trouble was, everybody was asking questions of other team-mates, because there was no one to ask. That was very distressing," she said.
"I was doing my work badly because I was being distracted by people behind me asking questions. I'd always say: 'I don't know, I don't know' ... it was stressful 'cause you could sit there for an hour at a time and have no one help you."
Before being fired in December, Carol dealt with people trying to get home quickly, or to leave managed isolation early, to be with dying family members.
"The palliative care team can't do that. They can't say in two weeks' time this person's going to drop dead. So that was really stupid... and then people started sending pictures of their dying relatives, which wasn't pleasant," she said.
Brisbane man found communications slow, frustrating
Brisbane man Eugene Paul recently had to go through that process, in an attempt to leave the Sebel managed isolation hotel in Auckland for one hour to see his father, before he died last week.
He was unsuccessful, despite support from the hospital and staff at the facility where he was staying.
Paul said the back and forth he had with the applications team was slow and frustrating, and he was held up further due to the doctor's letter being misread.
"The replies just took so long to come through. In most cases that would be fine but in my case my dad literally had hours, days, to live. At that stage it wasn't known that he had less than a week," he said.
"To explain your case via email when you're already stressed out, financially wrecked, you're in quarantine, it's very hard."
Late last year, people seeking emergency allocation - to skip the queue for managed isolation because they're sick, dying, or want to see loved ones - were facing weeks'-long wait times.
Carol said that was likely because of a mistake which saw staff dealing with applications closer to the top of their email inbox sent more recently.
"No one was looking at the first applications. For weeks and weeks, they didn't get an answer because no one had looked at it," she said.
Carol said she was yet to understand what she got wrong leading up to her dismissal in December.
"I've done a lot of temping. I've been temping for years and years and years... over 10 years. And I've never, ever worked in a place like that before. And I've never been given the sack. I've always been told I'm a good worker."
Training and support provided - MBIE manager
In a response, MBIE's deputy chief executive for managed isolation and quarantine Megan Main told Morning Report there had been "pressure for staff", and delays for people contacting the team, as low numbers of applications surged to about 400 almost overnight last year, and the workforce was stood up "at speed".
"We are still building this plane while we're flying it ... it's one of the hardest jobs in managed isolation and I would like to recognise the work that team does."
She said it was due to that early demand that temporary staff were brought on - with three since deciding to apply for other roles with MIQ.
"That tells me that the work environment was positive and in fact, most found the environment of managed isolation to be somewhere they were proud to work," she said.
She said there was support and advice for staff, including "on the job" training and induction on their first day, regular training sessions, and one-on-one times to raise any concerns, and discuss their progress.
"But this is also a job where you learn by doing, so we had them processing applications after they started," she said.
She said the turnaround time for applications was now the same or next day, provided the ministry received all the documents it needed.
Carol hoped better leaders were now in place, with staff given all the support and training they required.
"Someone who has been in front of a team before, or has the time and expertise to train people. There's no point employing 10 people and having no one to train them," she said.
- RNZ has agreed to use the name Carol* for a woman who was only willing to speak about her experience working on managed isolation requests if she remained anonymous.
Risky work: MIQ cleaners underpaid and undervalued, union says
A managed isolation cleaner says she's afraid to join the gym, limits her trips to the supermarket and worries all the time about passing Covid-19 onto others.
MIQ cleaners are treated "like any old workers" despite their stringent daily practices that are protecting the country, their union says. Photo: 123RF
She and her colleagues are the forgotten border workers - overlooked and underpaid for the work they are doing to keep the country safe from Covid-19, she said.
Her job had changed massively since Covid-19 but her pay had not changed at all.
And unlike the job before her hotel took on managed isolation, the stresses followed her home.
She has two showers a day and washes her uniform every night - to avoid it sitting around in the washing basket. She keeps two weeks of food in the house in case she ever has to self isolate.
"It has had an impact on my whole life, it's changed my routines and the way I go about things and how I interact with people. I want to start going to the gym but I'm really afraid of bringing the virus outside of the gym and into the community," she said.
At work, there were rigorous PPE and hygiene requirements and she was paranoid about cleaning well enough to keep the next guests safe, she said.
If a guest tested positive, cleaners had to stay in the room until every surface was cleaned, often missing breaks, she said.
But despite the risk and stress she still earned the same as before, just over $19 an hour, a fraction over the minimum wage.
'It's just not fair' - union
Unite union's national hotel organiser Shanna Reeder said some managed isolation hotels had paid their workers more since Covid-19 but they were in the minority.
Cleaners were starting to get fatigued after nearly a year of the coronavirus and were at the bottom of the heap when it comes to recognition for the risky work they do, she said,
"These people are on the front line. They're actually the ones that are protecting everyone, the whole country, from catching Covid by their really intense, stringent daily practices, and they're just treated like any old other worker. It's just not fair," she said.
Many nurses had extra payments for working in managed isolation and the security guards at the woman's hotel were paid a living wage.
The government should be leaning on the hotels to make them pay cleaners more, Reeder said.
"They have made a couple of comments here and there but that doesn't put dinner on the table does it?" she said.
The cleaner worried that if the hotel did not renew its MIQ contract she would lose her job - and she was proud of the work she and her colleagues were doing.
But they were often forgotten for their work role in keeping the "invisible enemy out", she said.
In a statement, the Ministry of Business Employment and Innovation, which oversees managed isolation, said it was incredibly thankful for all those who worked at the border, including hotel cleaners.
It regularly talked to managed isolation facilities about paying a living wage to their employees wherever possible, a spokesperson said.
As the result, a least two hotels providers either had, or intended to, pay all workers a living wage, the spokesperson said.
The Prime Minister says managed isolation cleaners need better recognition for the work they do.
Jacinda Ardern said she does not know contract details, but the mindset about the work they are doing needs to change.
She said it needed to be valued and she would like to see that happen at all levels.
The ministry which runs managed isolation says it encourages the hotels to pay a living wage and some now have.
John Pilger talking about Australia
When I contemplate the following wease words from Minister of Health, Chris Hipkins I think of this analogy given by Vinny Eastwood yesterday:
He tells the story of a woman who drove her car into a
river killing her two children and then goes to the police with
the story of a tragic accident. When challenged whether she
killed them or not she replies "do I look like the sort of
personwho would do that sort of thing".
So it is with politicians and officials; when asked a simple "yes-
or no" question they can never answer but can only
obfuscate.
Have you EVER seen any politicians, officials or media EVER present concrete evidence?
There is no acknowledgement by the minister that the vaccine
is described by Pfizer themselves as a gene therapy, NOT A
VACCINE.
It is a gene therapy and experimental and this time the guinea
pigs are you and me
NZ's first Covid-19 vaccine due
in a week - Hipkins explains
As the country prepares for its first Covid jabs, quarantine free trans-Tasman travel remains a looming possibility as long as Australia doesn't pull the plug over small outbreaks, Chris Hipkins says.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today that the first batch of the Pfizer-
BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in New Zealand next week, earlier than
expected.
The first vaccinations should be able to be delivered to border workers from next
Saturday, she said.
Covid-19 Response Minister Hipkins told Checkpoint that the country is prepared
for the rollout with a suitable supply of freezers for storing the vaccine as well as
syringes with more ordered. The jabs would be administered by an existing task
force who would just need a two-hour training module specific to the Pfizer
vaccine.
He agreed the Pfizer vaccine is complicated to prepare so the rollout would not
start the day the plane landed.
"There is a period of time where you have to separate out the vaccines, you have
to quality check them to make sure they've been kept at the right temperature for
the entire duration of their transport to New Zealand and to the cold store...
"They then need to be broken down so that they can be distributed in smaller
amounts. Now that will take us a little bit of time which is why, even though we are hoping to get the plane arriving early in the week, we've said that Saturday is
when we'll kick off..."
Photo: AFP
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today that the first batch of the Pfizer-
BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in New Zealand next week, earlier than
expected.
The first vaccinations should be able to be delivered to border workers from next
Saturday, she said.
Covid-19 Response Minister Hipkins told Checkpoint that the country is prepared
for the rollout with a suitable supply of freezers for storing the vaccine as well as
syringes with more ordered. The jabs would be administered by an existing
taskforce who would just need a two-hour training module specific to the Pfizer
vaccine.
He agreed the Pfizer vaccine is complicated to prepare so the rollout would not
start the day the plane landed.
"There is a period of time where you have to separate out the vaccines, you have
to quality check them to make sure they've been kept at the right temperature for
the entire duration of their transport to New Zealand and to the cold store...
"They then need to be broken down so that they can be distributed in smaller
amounts. Now that will take us a little bit of time which is why, even though we are hoping to get the plane arriving early in the week, we've said that Saturday is
when we'll kick off..."
The first recipient would definitely be a border worker - a nurse, cleaner or a
security person - members of the at-risk workforce who needed to be vaccinated
along with their close contacts, such as family members, as quickly as possible.
How do COVID-19 vaccines compare with other existing vaccines?
The clearest explanation I have found is this that explains that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are not what the media and popular explanations say. If you look at the material from both Pfizer and Moderna they describe their products as “gene therapy” and is an experimental medicine that has either developed in undue haste or was already been developed. As best as I can ascertain the Oxford AstraZenica vaccine is what they say it is, albeit with some caveats.
THE NEW MRNA CORONAVIRUS VACCINES WILL LIKELY CAUSE IMMUNE CELLS TO ATTACK PLACENTA CELLS, CAUSING FEMALE INFERTILITY, MISCARRIAGE OR BIRTH DEFECTS: no
Flu vaccine has been shown to increase the chances of infection by sars-coV-2 by 33%. Why push it?
This is a little-known piece of research cited by Robert F.Kennedy Jr indicating that people in the US military are 36% more prone to being infected with covid=19.
KENNEDY: Pentagon Study Shows Flu Shot Raises Risk Of Coronavirus By 36%, And There’s More:
What follows are some of the more important statements I have come across recently about covid-19 and the vaccines
Mike Yeadon has the perfect credentials and what he says corresponds with the information I got about the immune system while training to be an acupuncturist as opposed to what I get from the media. This is worth, to my mind, a very close listen.
Ex Pfizer Vice President Mike Yeadon Blows The Whistle
More than a third of a subset of people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in the U.K. in December reported experiencing side effects, a study released Thursday suggests, though symptoms were largely confined to local reactions and rarely lasted beyond a few days.
According to the findings from Zoe, a British health science company that built a phone app that researchers are using to study the pandemic, 37% of a group of roughly 40,000 vaccine recipients who were mostly healthcare workers reported they experienced local side effects such as swelling or pain near the injection site after their first vaccine dose, and that the figure rose to 45% of people after the second dose.
Systemic, or full-body side effects like fatigue, headaches, chills or shivers, were more rare: 14% of respondents reported at least one systemic side effect after the first dose, but that number rose to 22% after the second dose.
Women (19%) were slightly more likely than men (13%) to report feeling a systemic side effect within a week of their vaccine, and people over 55 years of age (14%) were less likely than someone younger than 55 (21%).
The side effects reported in the Zoe study occurred at a far lower rate compared to FDA trials for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which found 84% of people experienced injection site reactions and also reported higher proportions of people also had systemic side effects like fatigue, headache and muscle pain (63%, 55% and 38%, respectively).
Given that the Zoe study was largely of healthcare workers, there may have been population differences between it and FDA trials
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