Answers Please? Tribulations Of Getting A Covid19 Vaccine '2nd Booster'

Thursday, 28 July 2022, 1:34 pm
Article: Keith Rankin

I try to write about general issues of importance, in a general – indeed global – context. This time I will write just about me.

I am the same age as Phil Goff, Mayor of Auckland. And I want to be appropriately protected from Covid19. I have had three shots of the Pfizer Covid19 vaccine. My most recent vaccination – the so-called booster – was on the first of February this year. On 27 June I enquired about getting another 'booster' shot on Tuesday 28 June, before going away 'on holiday' on 30 June. I was not allowed to, because of a set of rules that have never been adequately explained. (RNZ's Kathryn Ryan tried to ask an expert on 13 July, but gave up in frustration.) The best I could do was to get a vaccination booking at my local Health Centre, for Wednesday 3 August.

(Between 28 June and 3 August, about 700 people in New Zealand will have died with Covid19. The substantial majority of these are Pakeha aged over 70 who received a booster vaccination ahead of the March wave of Covid19, and who have died (or will soon die) of Covid19. How many of these are dying for want of a vaccine booster? A rhetorical question. But the answer will be that at least one of these would have had a booster had they been allowed.)

I am classed as being in the 'vulnerable age group'. Now, I'm not 'very old'. But if I was the same age as Joe Biden, or even Jimmy Carter, I would also have been refused. I'll bet that Jimmy Carter faced no impediments in getting a fourth vaccination shot. But Jim Bolger will have had to wait.

Anyway, I continue to be one of the dwindling number of people who has yet to get Covid19. Today, I asked if I could get my vaccination booking brought forward to Monday 1 August. "No", they said, "we only do Covid19 vaccinations on Wednesdays and Thursdays".

So I went to the local shopping mall. At the first pharmacy, I asked if I could come in for a vaccine on Monday 1 August? They said I could 'walk-in' any time from Tuesday 2 August. Why not Monday I asked; after-all Monday will be six months since my previous shot. They said I had to wait six months plus one day!! I asked why the Ministry of Health (MoH) requires that I wait that extra day. They had no answer.

So I went to another pharmacy and asked the same question. They said that "I could try coming in on Monday", and that they can sometimes override the MoH computer. It was a roundabout way of confirming that I am meant to wait 'six months plus one day'. I further questioned the Ministry of Health's reason for this extra day's wait, but the pharmacist had no explanation. He did say, though, to come in on Monday 1 August, implying that he would be able to do the system override.

At first impression, this situation – the needlessly long six-month wait – is a case of 'bureaucracy gone mad', killing a significant number of New Zealanders. And, regardless of the answer to that question, why must I wait that extra day beyond the six months?

MoH: Please just answer – not necessarily to me personally, but preferably to this publisher – these three questions? [Reminder: I got my third 'first booster shot ' on 1 February 2022.]

• What is the medical reason why I cannot get my Covid19 'second booster' on Friday 29 July?
• Why was I told by a health professional that I will not be allowed to get my Covid19 'second booster' on Monday 1 August?
• Given the large number of people who become eligible for another vaccination in August, when and how will you tell the vaccination-willing New Zealand public that the rule is that they must wait 'six months plus one day'?

-------------

Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

© Scoop Media

Keith Rankin

Political Economist, Scoop Columnist

Keith Rankin taught economics at Unitec in Mt Albert since 1999. An economic historian by training, his research has included an analysis of labour supply in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and has included estimates of New Zealand's GNP going back to the 1850s.

Keith believes that many of the economic issues that beguile us cannot be understood by relying on the orthodox interpretations of our social science disciplines. Keith favours a critical approach that emphasises new perspectives rather than simply opposing those practices and policies that we don't like.

Keith retired in 2020 and lives with his family in Glen Eden, Auckland.

Contact Keith Rankin

• Website - Kieth Rankin