The Wire with Joel

The holiday season is approaching us, but one thing that’s not on anyone's Christmas wish list is Covid-19.

Health officials have warned that over the summer, Covid-19 case numbers could peak at more than 11,000 a day with a hundred hospitalisations each day. 

News and Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker about how people can minimise the risk of catching and spreading Covid-19 this summer. 

She started off their interview by asking what is expected to cause this influx in case numbers?

For Tomorrow's World, Stella Huggins speaks to Professor in Critical Health Psychology at Massey University, Sarah Riley about Menstruation Tracking Apps.

And the Wire team brings you the best of the Monday Wire, recapping the year that was in news and current affairs.

This year, Stella Huggins spoke to former Auckland Deputy Mayor, Penny Hulse about an ongoing review on the future of local government. 

We revisit Aotearoa becoming the first country in the world to have explicitly legalised drug checking. Spike Keith spoke to Know Your Stuff’s Brin Ryder about drug testing services at summer festivals. 

Spike also interviewed the NZ Drug Foundation’s Sarah Helm about their findings that overdose deaths in the past five years have increased by 50%.

And finally, we look back at Stella's interview with Chris Wilson, a Senior Lecturer of Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland, about his report on his colleague James Halpin, infiltrating Action Zelandia, a far-right extremist group in Aotearoa.

For years, politicians and scientists have been talking about a future of migration caused by climate change. In Fiji this migration has already begun. The question is now how to exactly do it.

Daniel spoke with Merewalesi Yee who is pursuing a PHD at the university of Queensland in Brisban Australia. Her project seeks to understand human migration in Fiji caused by climate change and the role of mobility in climate change adaptation. 

Leba Gaunavinaka is a climate change adaption specialist at the Fijian ministry of climate change. She helped creating the plan that tries to tackle one of the most urgent problems of the climate crisis: how to relocate communities whose land is soon inhabitable.  

Biogen has announced that SPINRAZA (nusinersen) – a first-of-its-kind medicine – is the first medicine funded by Pharmac for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the number one cause of genetic death in Kiwi children under two.

SMA is a rare genetic disease that can have a devastating and life-changing impact. In its severe forms, SMA can cause paralysis and difficulty with the most basic functions of life, like breathing and swallowing,3 with babies and children possibly unable to hit major motor milestones like rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, or walking.

Joe spoke to Fiona Tolich a long-term campaigner and advocate for SMA, and a Trustee of Patient Voice Aotearoa, about how significant this is.