The Wire with Caeden

Earlier today, the International Comparison of Modern Medicines published a report looking at the public funding of modern medicine in 20 OECD countries. The report showed that New Zealand was in desperate need of access to modern medicine. Patient Voices Aotearoa has long been campaigning for a double and triple in funding for access to modern medicine. The organisation presented their petition to parliament in May 2021, which called for immediate funding. Joe talks to Fiona Tolich from Patient Voice Aotearoa about this need for funding and why it’s so crucial amidst the current COVID environment.

This week on the Wednesday Wire, the show kicks off with our new producer Christina having her regular segment Dear Science with AUT Professor Marcus Jones. They talk about a new Pfizer antiviral to fight Covid-19; touch on the recent Glasgow Climate Pact; as well as discuss how nonsense words can make us think of specific shapes. 

Zazi then has her regular talk with ACT Party’s Deputy Leader, Brooke van Velden, where they speak about the APEC Leaders Summit that recently took place, as well as the 1 News Colmar Brunton poll. 

After that, Zazi talks to Professor Karin Stockin, Dr. Olga Pantos and Dr. Gabriel Machovsky about their recent research discussing how microplastics have been found in New Zealand marine mammals for the first time. 

And finally, Christina chats to Waikato District Deputy Mayor, Aksel Bech, and Vanessa Williams from the Hamilton Central Business Association, about Waikato’s shift to Alert Level 2.

Massey University recently published an article titled Microplastics revealed in New Zealand marine mammals for the first time, where scientists found microplactsics in all of the New Zealand dolphins they examined. The international team led by Massey University and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research, also known as ESR, discovered that all common dolphins examined post-mortem during 2019 and 2020 had ingested microplastics. 

Zazi spoke with the study’s first author, Professor Karen Stockin, the ESR lead Dr. Olga Pantos as well as co-author Dr. Gabriel Machovsky, about their recent dolphin study. The three researchers talk about microplastics, what they are, how they affect wildlife and human health, as well as explain in more detail what specific things surprised them when conducting their research. 

Today on the Tuesday Wire, Emily Bell brings us her first piece where she speaks to Police Minister Poto Williams about the government's new firearms unit. 

Jemima Huston interviews Deborah Hart, the Chair of Holocaust Centre NZ, about some of the comparisons that have been made by anti-vaccination protestors between the Holocaust and the government’s Covid restrictions here in New Zealand. 

Jemima catches up with Auckland Women’s Refuge Chairperson Tauafu Havili to see how the refuge has been coping in lockdown. 

Finally, Jemima speaks to Oxfam Aotearoa about the Covid support New Zealand has provided to Papua New Guinea.