Don't mention the C word
Christmas 2021 is shaping up to be a memorable one. Along with the usual dramas that happen during the festive season there are new considerations to be taken into account, and some of them are still as clear as mud. The long-awaited traffic light system will
be operating unless there is a sudden upsurge in Covid cases or Omicron has arrived and we go into a sudden lockdown. The My Vaccine Pass will be needed in some places and not others, unvaccinated people will be banned from some establishments and not others, masks will be mandatory in some situations and, of course, there's record-keeping and scanning to contend with.
If conversations about Covid along with religion, politics and money are banned from family celebrations there's a chance all could go well.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
Living at an airport
I don't understand why helicopters are allowed to come and go to private properties within suburban Auckland. Limiting them to coastal properties makes no difference. They still approach low and slow. The sound carries deafeningly over water.
We have a few near neighbours with consents to fly helicopters in and out of their properties.
Most days in summer I feel like I live at an airport, especially when the jet fuel fumes waft through the house.
Auckland Council does not seem to consider the cumulative effects of granting consents to all those who request it. Can they explain why they think it's necessary to disrupt the lives of so many for the benefit of so few?
Kate Lawless, Herne Bay.
Audacious revision
Jim Bolger and John Key have every right to speak out about their disappointment with the turmoil their National Party is in and who they think should lead. What is so hard to understand though, is their criticism of poverty levels today, showing a complete denial of their own contribution in its cause. In 1991 Jim Bolger stood alongside his Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, supporting her call for $20 per week to be taken from welfare recipients, a lot of money at the time, which left women with young children scrambling to make ends meet. What John Key did for our country, apart from wooing us, was to spend a decade paying back money borrowed to cover rebuilding Christchurch, with little investment toward maintaining Health and Education facilities. They also ignored an obvious growing poverty level within our country, which has passed into the hands of this Government to deal with.
Do they really believe we forget these things?
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Taxed into poverty
There has been discussion in the media recently about the increasing wealth disparity in New Zealand. Much of it has focused on taxing the wealthy. But, here is another perspective: People on low incomes have not been compensated for the introduction of GST, nor for either increase to 12.5 per cent then 15 per cent. Nor for the multiple levy increases since then. Hence, we are taxing poor people deeper into poverty.
In my opinion, people on minimum wage should not pay any income tax. They pay enough in GST and levies. That would be nil income tax on the first $50,000. Every couple, each earning $50,000 or more would be better off by $12,500 every year. And people on minimum wage would find it very useful for food and housing.
Brian Taylor, Lynfield.
Child vaccinations
Our health managers during this Covid pandemic have appeared slow. They were late in ordering vaccines; slow establishing the vaccination programme; late targeting minority vaccination groups; and very slow implementing saliva testing.
They allowed an unfortunate MIQ system to continue without improvement for far too long.
The country has paid steeply for these delays - a longer lockdown, billions of extra government subsidies to business, and personal distress from MIQ inadequacies, being just three.
Have our health workers speeded up their approach? Your article (NZ Herald, November 29) suggests not.
NZ is expected to approve vaccinations for children 5-11 years, by April 2022. In another five months. Too late to vaccinate most kids before the infectious 2022 winter period.
Use of the vaccine for children was approved by the US Federal Drug Administration on October 29, 2021 "...after a thorough... evaluation of the data that included input from independent experts... who overwhelmingly voted in favour..."
Medsafe in NZ is not going to reject what the FDA has consented. Approval here is a formality.
Health officials need to show urgency. We need vaccinations for NZ children available before the 2022 school year begins. Dr Bloomfield: please crack the whip.
David Schnauer, Milford.
