The judgment granted guardianship of the baby in the case about the use of blood from donors vaccinated against Covid and detailed a meeting with parents overtaken by a support person who proceeded to “pressurise the specialists with her theory about conspiracies in New Zealand”, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday morning, sign up here.
Judge grants guardianship
In a judgment released last night, Justice Ian Gault granted health officials court guardianship of a baby, after his parents refused a blood transfusion and instead wanted a court order to receive blood from exclusively unvaccinated donors. The baby may receive the necessary surgery in the next 48 hours. The baby is to be placed under the guardianship of the court “from the date of the order until completion of his surgery and post-operative recovery to address obstruction to the outflow tract of his right ventricle and at latest until 31 January 2023.”
Doctors tried to work with the parents, meeting hijacked
As RNZ’s Rowan Quinn reports, the judgment outlined how doctors tried to work with the parents but the relationship broke down. A meeting on November 25 between Starship Hospital’s paediatric cardiac surgeon in chief, other specialists and the baby’s parents was hijacked by the parents’ support person who proceeded to pressurise the specialists with her theory about conspiracies in New Zealand. After several minutes the specialists asked to leave the meeting and walked out with the support person continuing to try to talk to them.
New US study shows Covid reinfections create higher risk of new and serious health conditions
Health officials are considering data on a vaccine designed to target two different forms of Covid to better protect people from the virus before the next winter. Reported Covid cases hit over 7000 on Tuesday, the highest number since July. As RNZ reports, it’s likely to be double that based on wastewater testing. There were 6,704 cases yesterday and 29% of those were reinfections. A recent study from the US, using the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ national healthcare database, showed that people with a higher number of Covid infections had a significantly higher risk of new and serious health conditions. In comments supplied by the Science Media Centre, epidemiologist Dr Amanda Kvalsvig said the study provided some very high-quality evidence about the impact of reinfections.
Questions about access to antivirals and public health measures
Health experts are also raising concerns about access to Covid antivirals. Dr Jin Russell said there was a lack of awareness and raised concerns about access and inequity. Matakāoa Covid response lead Tina Ngata said these difficulties are exacerbated in rural patches, in an “overwhelmed” health system. In Te Araroa and Hicks Bay, the most remote part of Tairāwhiti, it’s a 3½ to 5 hour trip to the nearest pharmacy or hospital. In comments supplied by the Science Media Centre, Dr Rawiri Keenan said increasing access to antivirals was important, but avoiding infection and reinfection in the first place is still the key thing that we can be doing right now.