Further to my June 30 post headlined The Hillman Hunter option, I feel it’s only fair to record that my wife and I had our first Covid-19 vaccinations yesterday in Masterton.
A sluggish system suddenly lurched into action last Thursday, only a day after that post, with a text message inviting us to ring an 0800 number. This I did, and we were given an appointment yesterday afternoon with a further booking for the second jab in three weeks.
We joined dozens of others in a temporary vaccination centre and the process was conducted with admirable efficiency. It would be stretching things only slightly to say there was an almost festive atmosphere.
So it took a while, but in our little corner of the world the vaccination programme finally seems to be working. The same can’t be said, unfortunately, for other parts of the country where vulnerable people are seething with frustration at the lack of reliable information, still less action.
While my wife and I have been taken care of, that doesn’t alter the perception that the vaccination rollout has been characterised from the start by delay, uncertainty, confusion and false assurances. This will add to a mounting pile of resentments against a government that consistently over-promises but under-delivers.
7 comments:
Congrats on your lottery win.
In another corner of 'Aotearoa',to paraphrase an old radio ad, 'an old man waits.'
Living in the Far North can have its advantages. Wife I got our second dose over a month ago. Of course it was only because they were so bad at hitting targets up here, they just threw it open to anyone that could get through on the help line.
Ha - health officials in your area must know you as Karl du Fresne, Masterton's well-known freelance journalist - who for weeks has been harping on in his blog about the unhappy process of Covid vaccination in New Zealand.
Somebody made sure you got specially cared for!!
Well done, "a squeaky wheel gets the most oil"? I knew the vaccination rollout was prioritized by race but it appears the authorities are politically aware as well. Meanwhile another pale, stale male sits in a corner and waits...
As flattering as it might be to think I exerted some mysterious power (Ha! Faint chance),
then the same would have to be assumed of the dozens of others who lined up with me.
So at the golf club today this loudmouth pakeha guy was boasting about how he was fully vaccinated, thanks to his wife having had a Maori grandparent. Racial preference for medical treatment is being implemented up and down the land by this vile government and we smiling zombies allow it to happen. Isn't Jacinda wonderful?
I see another report (Otago university?) has been published accusing the health system of "systemic racism" against Maori. Why don't medical professionals sue the authors of these scurrilous lies?
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