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PoliticsDecember 7, 2020

Mass vaccination is beginning around the world, but NZ will wait for a Covid jab

Contributing writer

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The first people in the UK will be getting a Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, while in New Zealand, the wait could be for several more months. Here’s the government’s plan to vaccinate Aotearoa.

Mass vaccination efforts against Covid-19 are underway around the world, but in New Zealand the government is asking for patience as the first jabs are still months away.

The first Britons will receive a vaccine tomorrow and the Queen is expected to receive her first dose in the coming weeks. Clinics in Moscow began deploying Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine over the weekend. In the US, mass vaccination is expected to start before Christmas.

Globally, the coronavirus is entering a dangerous phase. The northern hemisphere is headed into colder months spent indoors as well as the holiday period. Over the past week, the United States broke a series of new records, with over 226,000 new cases of Covid-19 added on Friday alone. Hospitalisations have topped 100,000. In Canada, field hospitals are being set up before the arrival of snow.

Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins has said New Zealand’s first vaccines won’t be administered until the first quarter of next year, March or earlier. One of the reasons for the delay is that the country’s sense of urgency, and its willingness to take risks, is somewhat lessened.

“They are speeding things up in a way we wouldn’t necessarily do here because of the risks they face,” Hipkins told reporters. He added that countries facing “hundreds if not thousands” of deaths daily are willing to skip waiting for the end of clinical trials, something New Zealand won’t do.

The government only confirmed in late November that Covid-19 jabs will be free. There also won’t be any legal requirement that people get the vaccine, however Qantas has already said that it’ll require passengers to show proof of vaccination before letting them on international flights.

Unlike the UK, which was the first western country to approve a vaccine, New Zealand won’t be using emergency provisions to fast-track approval of any of the coronavirus vaccines the country will eventually purchase. As global vaccination programmes gain speed, there will be more evidence for the efficacy and safety of some vaccines than others.

Medsafe, the country’s medical regulator, has already started an approvals process for Covid-19 vaccines. One of the vaccines being looked at is the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that Britain is rushing to its citizens this week. Early results have shown that the vaccine, which uses a new form of technology, is highly effective.

Hipkins added that an emergency approval from the government for that vaccine, copying the work done in the UK, wouldn’t necessarily speed up delivery. “There is a global issue here where everybody wants the vaccine as fast as we can get it,” he said.

New Zealand expects to eventually purchase five or six different types of vaccines. Some will come through direct purchases from pharmaceutical giants while others will be delivered as part of large international coalitions.

While Hipkins mused last week that a humanitarian argument could be made to ensure the vaccines go first to countries that are hardest hit by Covid-19, he quickly added that New Zealand will be getting its doses as quickly as possible. There won’t be any unnecessary delay, he added.

In the UK, the first wave of jabs have been reserved for the over-80s and care home residents. In the US, authorities have said health care workers and the frail will be at the head of the queue. In New Zealand, the order will be decided by the evidence from a longer approvals process. Border-facing workers and people in aged care homes could be first, but the science will determine the sequencing, said Hipkins.

New Zealand’s vaccine programme will be unveiled later in December, but the government is planning to have a significant supply of vaccine in the country when Medsafe finally provides approval to proceed. As a result of that, purchasing agents are currently scouring the globe for the equipment the country will need to transport, store and administer the vaccines. New orders have already been placed for super-cold freezers needed for the Pfizer injection.

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Students march through the streets of Wellington during the climate strike. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

PoliticsDecember 7, 2020

A stake in the ground

James Renwick

Guest writer

Students march through the streets of Wellington during the climate strike. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The declaration of a climate emergency tells the people of New Zealand, and the international community, that this is who we are and this is where we are going, writes James Renwick, a climate scientist and member of the NZ Climate Commission.

Last week Jacinda Ardern tabled in parliament a motion to declare a climate emergency in parliament. What does it mean for us in real terms? And was it a good idea?

For all sorts of reasons, it was absolutely a good idea. To reduce global warming to a level that is even somewhat manageable, emissions have to reduce rapidly, starting right now. Getting to zero emissions by 2050, after decades of steady growth, means a massive turnaround in how the New Zealand economy, and the world economy, are powered. Every month that goes by without some kind of reduction in emissions is a month that makes the task harder.

This is a challenge the world community has to meet. If we don’t, the consequences will be catastrophic, in terms of displacement of populations, crop failures and food shortages, and conflict over resources. Defence forces all over the world are aware that climate change is a “threat multiplier” and could trigger conflict in any number of regions. Climate change is the biggest problem we face, and we must pull out all the stops.

A declaration in itself, however, does not change anything. There must be action to follow it up. New Zealand has taken some criticism lately for being big on the talk and small on the walk, and fair enough. Our emissions show no sign of decreasing yet, and carbon dioxide emissions from transport (from us driving our cars, mostly) have increased massively over the past 30 years. There are plenty of steps we could have and have not been taking. But the government has hardly been idle the past few years. The passing of the Zero Carbon Act, the setting up of the Climate Change Commission, and the passing of legislation to require the financial sector to report on climate risks (the first country to do this) are all positive policy steps towards the framework we need for reducing emissions. The next step is to see those reductions starting to happen.

Action does indeed seem to be on the table now. The announcement that the public service will be carbon neutral by 2025 is a great example of the kind of action we need to see. If the public service vehicle fleet was to become completely electrified by 2025, that would be a game-changer for the EV market in New Zealand and would really kick-start the move to a fully electrified vehicle fleet across the whole country. In the same way, if all the office space occupied by the public service was to be well-insulated, energy-efficient, renewably powered and heated, that would change the landscape for the commercial building sector across the country. Just leading the way has a lot of power in itself, and once the country starts moving in the right direction, I expect that action and innovation will take off.

If the whole country can become renewably powered by 2050, including electricity, transport, freight, industry, manufacturing, it would be a wonderful achievement, a demonstration that it can be done. What needs to happen alongside that effort is to work with other countries to help them on the same journey and to inspire action in other parts of the world. Just as New Zealand is seen as a leader in tackling terrorism and online extremism after the Christchurch mosque attacks, we can also be leaders in the green revolution and the transition to a renewably-powered economy that every country must make.

There will be costs up front, to electrify the vehicle fleet, invest in public transport, build more renewable electricity infrastructure, and all the things we need to do to get us where we need to go. But it is not all about cost. There are many opportunities as well, to innovate around renewable electricity, urban design, integrated transport systems, community action – innovations we can market around the world. Being a leader on climate change action will create a myriad of new jobs and is bound to be good for our economy as investors are attracted to share in our success.

The coming years must be ones of transformation for all of us. Starting next year, the Climate Change Commission will be providing advice to government to help New Zealand get to zero carbon as soon as we can. Declaring a climate emergency puts a stake in the ground, telling the people of New Zealand, and the international community, that this is who we are and this is where we are going.