Gordon Campbell on fostering the culture of Covid complaint
Success can be its own worst enemy. If the plane doesn’t crash or the ship doesn’t sink, that doesn’t prove the safety measures were unnecessary, […]
vaccination
Gordon Campbell on farmers playing the victim, plus Chile’s right turn
Among the farming lobby groups, the good cop/bad cop routine has been working a treat. It suits Federated Farmers to keep daylight between itself and […]
Gordon Campbell on the politics of anger, plus a music playlist
Angry? Are you talkin’ to ME? Of late, the Code Red levels of resentment inspired by the government’s Covid policy almost make one hanker for […]
Gordon Campbell on the politics of vaccine toughlove
Vaccine mandates begin to kick in today for education and healthcare workers. All of them will need to have taken a first dose step towards […]
Gordon Campbell on the politics of hoping for the best
As the new daily Delta case numbers surge upwards, it is getting harder for the captains of Team Five Million to make decisions that still […]
Gordon Campbell on the calls for “freedom” from Covid restrictions
Free markets, free minds, free choices, Freedom Days. In recent years, has any notion in the English language been so overused and so abused as […]
Gordon Campbell on juggling Covid, and France’s Trump-like populist
It is the age-old Covid problem. How to balance the needs for firms (and schools) to re-open against the need to protect public health. In […]
Gordon Campbell on the perils of declaring premature victory
Sure enough, Saturday’s Vaxathon was a barrel of fun and a throwback not merely to the Telethons of the past. It also revived memories of […]
Gordon Campbell on Covid mandates, and the Covid pill
The cliché about “living with Covid” will not mean life as we’ve known it, Jim. Vaccination is fast becoming a condition of employment, and also […]
Gordon Campbell on lifting the lockdowns, and the Covid pill
One can sympathise with firms struggling under the financial stress caused by Covid restrictions. Yet business (and other critics)appear to be demanding that the government […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s Covid re-opening plan
After banging for what has seemed an eternity about how the government doesn’t have a plan for removing restrictions and re-opening the country, National’s own […]
Gordon Campbell on Covid vaccine inequality, plus Cowboy Bebop
Plainly, the Big Pharma model – where vaccine development, distribution, and pricing is left in the hands of the private sector – is not fit […]
Gordon Campbell on the moral and scientific case against Covid booster shots
A year ago, a Covid vaccine was still on humanity’s wish list. Now, we’re basing our economic planning – and the safety of opening our […]
Gordon Campbell on the Covid exit plan, and 9/11 media memories
Is it OK to feel nostalgic for the period only a couple of months ago, when the government seemed to have a plan for exiting […]
Gordon Campbell on the messaging to the vaccine hesitants
While the recent surge in vaccinations has been welcome, we’re still in the low hanging fruit phase of the journey towards 80-90% rates of protection. […]
Gordon Campbell on Labour’s cave-in to the business lobbies
At a time when New South Wales is in crisis over the Delta variant, it seems bizarre that our government is willing to risk heading […]
Gordon Campbell on why the J&J vaccine isn’t an ideal back-up option, and Haiti
The news that Medsafe has given approval to Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine means the government is finally putting a backup plan in place, after the […]
Gordon Campbell on whether we’re anywhere near ready for our mass vaccine rollout
As the commencement date for New Zealand’s mass vaccination rollout looms and recedes– and it has now been pushed back until late July at the […]
Gordon Campbell on why China’s pact with Iran is a big deal, and why a vaccination target isn’t
One of the most significant developments in global politics in a generation has flown in almost entirely beneath the radar of the Western media. On […]
Gordon Campbell on why we’ll need three doses of the Pfizer vaccine – and on Rocket Lab’s work for the Pentagon
Yesterday, the government finally released a four part timetable setting out which groups will get vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and in what sequence …And […]
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s superior ways of communicating about its vaccine rollout
It isn’t only on the cricket field that Australia performs better. The clarity and degree of detail in Australia’s published schedule of the priorities for […]
Gordon Campbell on why the public doesn’t always do what its told, even in 24 different languages
Today we were told that the Covid vaccines available to New Zealand are both halal and kosher. Good to know. And good to officially recognise […]
Gordon Campbell on who decides on the priority list for Covid vaccines
During the past week, the nation has gone through a range of mixed feelings about south Auckland. Understandably, there’s been a hankering in some quarters […]
Gordon Campbell on welcoming Pfizer’s vaccine, and saying goodbye to Afghanistan
Good news, meet bad news. Co-incidentally, on the same day that New Zealand delivers its first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to our frontline border […]
Gordon Campbell on leaving women out of the job creation plans, plus the current vaccine blues
Women workers have taken an unequal impact of the job losses caused by the pandemic but so far almost all the government’s job creation efforts […]
Gordon Campbell on the risk of being short changed by Pfizer
Who knew that the delivery of the Covid vaccines was going to be such a headache? All the predictions had been around the likely distribution […]
Gordon Campbell on Northland’s Covid case, and Biden’s battle lines
T he South African variant at the centre of the Northland case of community transmission calls for a reset of several aspects of our Covid […]
Gordon Campbell on the demise of the Tokyo Olympics
As the Covid vaccines roll out around the world, the Tokyo Olympics are looming as a major test of when (and whether) something akin to […]
Gordon Campbell on the mixed outlook for our Covid vaccine supplies
As PM Jacinda Ardern explained at yesterday’s press conference, the government has signed supply contracts for delivery of four Covid-19 vaccines, in numbers sufficient (on […]
Gordon Campbell on whether we should be betting quite so heavily on Astra Zeneca’s Covid vaccine
According to this week’s Speech from the Throne, maintaining public safety during the pandemic will remain the government’s top priority. Next year will (hopefully) bring […]