Dear Editor, headlines I would never have dreamed to see in the Cook Islands this week.

Firstly, ‘No jab, no church’, and then ‘No jab, no job’. And we read, possibly no food shopping. Although I’m sure this can’t be legal, as even in NZ’s traffic light system, vaccination status cannot be asked for at essential services such as supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, convenience stores.

It was emphasised from the beginning “it’s voluntary, it’s your choice”, and even now with the rollout to the kids “it’s voluntary, it’s not compulsory”.  Something that carries risk should never be mandatory. That is so wrong. The reasoning that that unvaccinated are more likely to spread Covid is wrong. Who do you think is going to be bringing in Covid to the country when we are only allowing fully vaccinated visitors? It’s on the news, the new variant Omicron is being spread by double vaccinated and in some cases triple jabbed. Pfizer is saying a fourth booster may be required sooner than expected.

What is the difference now, with an unvaccinated local going to church or to the shop, or from January 13^th when the borders open to vaccinated visitors only, for an unvaccinated local going to church or to the shop? Is it because from Jan 13^th the unvaccinated person may catch Covid from the vaccinated visitor and spread it? That makes no sense.

NZ Ministry of Health even said this last month on a position statement on pre-consultation testing of unvaccinated individuals in healthcare settings dated 19 Nov 2021, “When there is high covid19 vaccine coverage (ie., above 80% of eligible people are fully vaccinated) transmission is more likely to occur from a vaccinated than an unvaccinated individual.” It also said “when the rate of community spread is zero or very low… the difference in risk of transmission between vaccinated and unvaccinated people will be negligible.” The position statement has since been removed from its website.

Even the WHO chief has warned that some people were falling into a ‘false sense of security’ after being vaccinated against the virus.

Shall we look at Gibraltar, population of 33,000, over 118% vaccinated (beat that), and facing a surge in cases, or Waterford in Ireland 99.7% vaccinated, but didn’t prevent it from having one of the country’s highest Covid incidence rates. There are other countries with highly vaccinated populations in similar situations. (Editor: According to Reuters, COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Gibraltar, with 20 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 16% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on January 6).

We really need to wake up to what is going on around the world, and realise it is not a disease of the unvaccinated. We need to realise it is a disease of the unhealthy (obesity is a huge risk factor for severe Covid disease and death, as are other co-morbidities). 

Let’s focus on getting our population healthy instead of trying to put the blame on a tiny percent of the population. Let’s also remember the ‘vaccine’ is not a magic bullet and there are treatment protocols saving people’s lives.

Serena Hunter

Muri

---

Editor’s note – According to Aljazeera, studies show that while both the vaccinated and unvaccinated can have similar levels of the virus in their bodies, the vaccinated are less likely to pass it on to others. According to USA Today fact check team, while vaccinated individuals can get COVID-19, experts and public health officials say they are less likely to contract the virus than unvaccinated people. That means they’re also less likely to spread the virus to others. When vaccinated people do get sick, the chances of severe illness, hospitalisation or death are low. Research indicates they also get better faster than their unvaccinated counterparts.