OPINION: It has become clear the Pfizer vaccine is the chosen one here in NZ - better, safer, fewer issues.
No wonder the Government put the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines on the backburner, although I note Medsafe is continuing the approval process for both.
But the decision to go with Pfizer and Pfizer only has been the reason the vaccine rollout has been slow.
That's the Government's call - they made the conservative call to use just the one vaccine and the side effects of that has meant it's been painfully slow. That's for the Government to own.
Pfizer warned us they couldn't send many batches for the first six months so this Government set disheartening low targets and at times we've had to slow down to meet the targets and this week we almost ran out of vaccines completely.
I think we've all had to work this out for ourselves, as the Government was too busy congratulating itself for meeting these ridiculously unambitious targets.
It's been a hoax and the Government has been slow to come clean because it didn't want to burst its own bubble.
Had we rolled out all three vaccines would we have seen a population hammered by the side effects? No.
As far as the Pfizer jab is concerned, there have been 451 new adverse events following immunisations from May 29 to June 5. Of these, 428 were dubbed non serious, 23 were serious (including two deaths) - but no one is suggesting the vaccines killed these two people.
So why would Michael Baker deny knowledge of any of the side effects when Amanda asked him on Monday?
Yesterday we put the same question to Chris Hipkins - different answer.
Let me make it clear I'm a vaxxer and I have no time for the hippies who slip into the slipstream and ride the herd immunity wave.
Truth is the side effects are very rare and mostly minor.
But don't take it from me, take it from Dr Nikki Turner from the Immunisation Advisory Centre. Listen to what she has to say.
Duncan Garner hosts The AM Show.
