Opinion

LETTERS: Making informed vaccine decisions for 5-11-year olds

Dear Editor, I implore parents, please ask the questions, and please weigh up the risk vs benefit of having your children injected with the Covid vaccine.

Kata: Inflation

LETTERS: ‘Oh, yes, we are ready all right’

Dear Editor, this writer has an abysmal school record when it comes to mathematics but, still, the “we are ready for Covid” numbers don’t seem to add up.

Kata: No Control

‘Distorted view’ of travel to the Pa Enua

I have noticed over the last two years of Covid the parochial mutterings from the Pa Enua to keep their islands closed to those who don’t live or reside there, writes Te Tuhi Kelly, Leader of the Progressive Party of the Cook Islands.

LETTERS: Covid-19 face mask mandate

Dear Editor, as an experienced qualified personal trainer l am concerned for the safety of my gym clients forced to wear a mask while training yet nightclubs can cram in 200 people without one?

‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are’

It interests me how many school drop outs have become nationwide intellects on ‘what to do’ remedies to combat every medical situation in the world because they have a phone, data and uncle google, writes Ruta Mave.

Kata: Clean-Up

LETTERS: Cannabis law ‘not fair’

Dear Editor, I’m going to make this really simple.

Kia Orana to the conscious traveller

Te Ipukarea Society says it’s time to think differently about how and why people travel.

Could Omicron be a good thing?

The reason some authorities view Omicron positively is that it has very high transmissibility (although interestingly not as transmissible as measles) but probably low pathogenicity, writes Associate Prof John Dunn FRACS (Ngati Terei).

LETTERS: We are all in this together?

Dear Editor, dear Prime Minister, please don’t keep using the phrase “We are all in this together”.

Health vs wealth: ‘We are all in this Vaka together’

The question remains, and one I also have thought long and deeply about, does the health of a country come before the wealth of a country, or does the wealth of a country come before the health of a country and its citizens., writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Kata: Work

LETTERS: ‘No place like home’

Dear Editor, Significant numbers left in the 70s with the opening of the international airport and another mass exodus in 1996 during the reform (Pa Enua population on the decline, January 26).

Kata: Covid-19

LETTERS: Learning to live with Covid

Dear Editor, things are getting amped up here on the island, as we prepare for the “Omicron” threat.

Kata: Local Bank

LETTERS: Prevention is better than cure

Dear Editor, when I saw the clip of flights arriving in Raro of the lady working at the airport with a face shield and no mask, it just showed they are definitely not prepared and putting themselves and others at risk.

Alpha then Delta, now Omicron

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has fuelled a rapid surge in cases globally. We asked a team of virologists and immunologists Sara Sawyer, Arturo Barbachano-Guerrero and Cody Warren from the University of Colorado Boulder to weigh in on some of the pressing questions that people are asking about the new variant.