This government is making you sick
So many of us are sick. And there's a reason for it.
So many of us are sick. And there's a reason for it.
Tāmaki Makaurau just recorded its worst week for flu hospitalisations in a decade, with ten-hour waits for hospital beds. Hospitals are cancelling surgeries so beds can instead be used for emergency patients. Healthline has had to call in reinforcements. The St John Ambulance service received a record 2,562 calls through 111 on Saturday, a 34% increase from a typical day. That's one call made every 20 seconds. One school in Whakatane had 125 of its 431 students away sick, along with 10 staff members.
People are ill with different strains of influenza (mostly A). There's also plenty of Covid 19, RSV and rhinovirus in the mix.
But that's nothing new. Flu and flu-like illnesses always circulate in winter. The question everyone's asking is: why is this year so much worse?
Some people really aren't going to like the answer.
It's the Government's fault. And let me tell you how I know.
I've had a medically fragile child for more than a decade now. "Flu season" has always been an 'all-hands-on-deck' time for our family. We have always monitored strains, and as a family we get vaccinated and take precautions. Since my son was born with a chronic illness and diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, it's been vital - potentially lifesaving - for me to keep up-to-date on what the government is doing around preventable illnesses.
These days, it's more like what the Government isn't doing. Or are actively undoing.
For the last three years I've watched the coalition dismantle our flu defences. Here's how they did it:
They narrowed access to the seasonal influenza vaccination
This year, as we paid $36 for each family member to be vaccinated, I thought: we're going to have a terrible, terrible flu season. Under the previous government, my entire family was funded for a flu vaccination.
Under the Labour government, and as a carer of a disabled child, I was funded; my husband was funded because he's Māori (meaning he's at higher risk for severe illness or complications from influenza); our youngest son is eligible (all children under 12 were but he also qualified due to his disability); and our eldest was funded as he has Type 1 diabetes.
Now, only our eldest son is funded. We paid because we weren't choosing between eating dinner and a flu vaccine. And we paid because we know the vaccine works.
But if you were on the fence about a vaccine, would you pay more than $100 to vaccinate your family? And if you had to choose between the vaccine and one or more meals?
RNZ | Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa
The Seasonal Influenza vaccine is a fantastic vaccine. It doesn’t just reduce the risk and severity of the flu, it also reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. It reduces them by ONE THIRD. That’s on par with many of the daily heart medications routinely prescribed to high-risk patients. Last year, flu contraction rates were 69% lower in vaccinated people than in unvaccinated people
Flu is a killer. Around 500-700 people die from influenza each year. Māori and Pacific peoples were around twice as likely to be hospitalised with influenza than non-Māori/non-Pacific people. Last year the government took away free flu vaccines for children under 12, and Māori and Pacific people aged between 55 and 64.
Pregnant people, elderly people, disabled people, and people with mental health issues are also more likely to be hospitalised or die from influenza.
So, in my humble opinion, there's a reason why this government doesn't care about the influenza outbreak. The people who look most like them are least at risk.
If the Government acted now, they could still make a difference. A massive difference. The flu vaccine can still be taken - the national influenza immunisation programme runs from 1 April to 31 December each year, so those who are yet to get their flu vaccine can still do so. You can also get a Covid-19 vaccine at the same time. It ain't over yet.
Despite that, no funding has been allocated for a snap vaccination campaign. There has been no widening of the criteria for free access to the vaccine.
And you know what else the Government has done to make all this so much worse?
They said no to expanding the universal RSV vaccination programme
Each year, 1800 to 2000 children under five are hospitalised in Aotearoa from RSV, with around half of those infants. It's a devastating and serious virus.
International evidence shows RSV immunisation programmes can reduce hospitalisations by up to 90 per cent. When Australia rolled out the vaccine, it halved hospital admissions in the first year. Halved! Australia joined the United Kingdom, the United States, Chile and most of Europe in adding infant RSV immunisation, maternal vaccination, or both, to their national immunisation programmes.
Aotearoa has some of the world's highest rates of serious illness caused by RSV.
But because she's in Australia, she was vaccinated while pregnant. Which means her tiny daughter had immunity too.
Neither of them got so much as a sniffle.
That's why Government action is so vital - and why this piece of Emily's is so important. We have to ask ourselves: why is a "blogger" (the NZ Herald's term) the only journalist making the explicit link to this deadly mega-flu season and the Government's deliberate choices that have made it so much worse? If you can, please take out a paid subscription or make a donation towards Emily's mahi. It really is incredibly important.
Donations have been a game-changer since I switched to Ghost. If you can give a koha to the kaupapa, every little bit helps so much.
Thank you!
They cut funding to the FluTracking programme, so it stopped
FluTracking New Zealand used to survey about 40,000 people year-round. They were asked weekly if they had any flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough or sore throat. They also monitored testing and vaccination status.
More than 142,000 people have participated in our country since May 2018 - I was one of them.
To save just 57,000, the government scrapped this programme leaving a massive data gap. Epidemiologists were aghast.
The government ignored them.
When you're facing redundancy you're not going to risk not being at work
We all know we're living through a cost-of-living crisis. The government is laser-focused on addressing this by pushing the unemployment rate higher and higher (to record levels in fact).
Thousands of jobs have been lost from the public sector alone and right now many public servants know that their bosses are pulling together plans for more job cuts due at the end of this quarter. So, they're going into work sick. Because there is so much pressure, so much work, not enough sick leave, and nobody wants to be seen as 'slacking off' because their jobs are on the line.
People are sending their sick kids to school because of David F-ing Seymour
Parents afraid of David Seymour's bizarre and nonsensical truancy rules are sending their kids to school unwell. Others are unsure of when they're even allowed to keep their kids home without getting in trouble with the Ministry.
Schools are pleading with parents to keep their unwell children at home. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has put out official guidance saying children with a mild cough or runny nose can and should attend school.
Yes, those are symptoms of influenza. And Covid-19. And more.
We still don't have clean indoor air standards
The recommendations of the Covid Inquiry were clear. It recommended upgrading ventilation in hospitals and healthcare facilities, and also improving ventilation and filtration in other public places. Like schools.
This government knows these recommendations because they were recommended two years before as well. Aotearoa Covid Action and Long Covid Support has been calling for national indoor clean air standards, with a strong evidence base, for years.
The government continues to ignore them all.
The Government has not called for a return to masking in high-risk settings
If, as is increasingly likely, you find yourself in a pharmacy, doctor's waiting room, or facing the long hours waiting to be seen at the Emergency Department, you are unlikely to see even one mask. Why? They're full of seriously sick people and transmissible illnesses! It's a recipe for disaster. The Government could easily have mandated masking by healthcare workers and patients - one of the most beneficial and inexpensive healthcare interventions - in these settings.
It has not.
Finally, our health system is falling apart
Thanks to relentless underfunding, our health system is cooked. Health NZ data shows some EDs are in "a state of failure". An Auckland Hospital doctor told RNZ that there is near-constant overcrowding in the emergency department and it's leaving staff demoralised and putting patients at risk, But it's not just there - Hospitals everywhere across the motu are descending into crisis.
Could it be because of the enormous issue of under-hiring nurses (and the fact that National lied about how they're under-hiring nurses)? I mean, I feel like you need nurses to run a hospital well, but what do I know? I'm not an evangelical Christian guinea pig of a man who - in my honest opinion - seems to hate women.
RNZ | Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa
There are too many stories to keep track of, arriving almost daily. A diabetic patient collapsed and died while searching for food in hospital. We have just a third of the number of cardiologists we should.
GPs have said we are at the 'predictable beginning' of health system collapse. Researchers have said the health system needs $1.4 billion just to maintain existing services, and the government's response has been to tell Health bosses to save money.
This government has insisted on impossible cost-cutting measures that have caused massive IT stuff-ups, leaving doctors and nurses having to use pen and paper. Clinics were cancelled as Waikato hospitals were also hit by a major IT outage
For a lot of us, this government has made us feel like we're losing our minds, so I guess it's no surprise that their reign is ruining our physical health, not just our mental health. But really, this is serious stuff.
We're going to lose precious lives, irreplaceable people, to this flu and RSV outbreak.
A grandmother won't make it to her granddaughter's wedding.
A beloved father who is a pillar of his community will never coach his child's footy game again.
Someone's new baby will be buried with their knitted blanket.
Let's not normalise deaths from preventable illnesses. Let's not accept this silent war waged against our most vulnerable citizens. We are a wealthy country. We can and should look after each other. And we deserve a government that will make our health system better, instead of actively making it so much worse.