ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Mike's Minute: Do we actually have a vaccine rollout plan?

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 30 Mar 2021, 10:07AM

Mike's Minute: Do we actually have a vaccine rollout plan?

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Tue, 30 Mar 2021, 10:07AM

You know why National want a vaccination target? Because they know full well this government can't run a bath, far less a vaccine rollout.

They exported measles to the Pacific Islands. And last year's flu jab rollout, a rollout they do every year was a mess.

And a lot of correspondence, by the way, from people being told by their doctors there is no roll out for flu so far this year, because Covid has basically taken all the time and all the equipment.

Add to that that last week's Christchurch DHB mess over access to private details, and you can see the chances of us making this happen at pace are virtually zero.

In their defence, a lot of vaccine rollouts have had trouble internationally. It seems to be some sort of pattern, that you start slow, make some mistakes, and then once its oiled, you're off and running.

But the fact the world is well under way, and we have barely scratched the surface should be of concern to every one of us.

But is it? I get the increasing impression a lot of New Zealanders are in a go nowhere kind of fog these days. And the government, no matter how inept, isn't going to rile them out of their introspective slumber.

The closest thing we have to a vaccine target is an A4 piece of Ministry of Health paper with the broadest of timelines, which hasn’t really been challenged by anyone other than the opposition.

There is the bit we are just wrapping up, border workers and health workers. The irony of that is we haven't even done that properly, given last week it was at 93 percent, not the 100 % they said it would be. And that deals with a handful of people.

We have half a million older folks with health issues coming next over the next three months, and then the vast majority of us by the end of the year, starting in July, all things going to plan.

In that is the danger, what plan? Surely there is more than the A4 piece of paper.

Mind you, if you’ve seen how the Ministry has done PPE, flu jabs, MIQ, contact tracing, and border testing, we are probably lucky it got as detailed as a single piece of paper.

I assume those who still think this is world class and the best health response on the planet, might wake up in the coming months when entire countries finish their programme and hundreds of thousands start jumping on planes as borders come down, and ours don't.

All anyone has asked for during all of this, is a plan. What's the plan? In this case, as part of the plan, what's the date?

As National say it's not rocket science. Yet this seems to be a Ministry and government that take the smallest of things and make rocket science seem simple.

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you