The Wire with Sara

 A survey involving 1200 Construction Workers was published recently, showing the mental toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the workforce. Joe speaks to Victoria McArthur, the CEO of Mates in Construction, about the mental health of Construction Workers over the course of the pandemic. 

On their weekly chat, Justin and Health and Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little talked about overseas nurse recruitement, home isolation, and revisiting past treaty settlements.

Neighbourhood Watch reports on an Australian of the Year being told not to badmouth the Prime Minister, and the passing of a controversial bill.

Justin also spoke to Paul Callister of Save Our Trains about their campaign for intercity rail.

Joe talked to Victoria McArthur from Mates in Construction about construction worker mental health.

He also chatted with Allergy NZ's Mark Dixon about a new free EpiPen campaign.

Today on the Wire, we start with Dear Science. Christina Huang asks AUT Professor Marcus Jones about how Omicron affects children, the concerning rise in methane levels in the atmosphere, astronomers taking a stand against an the massive number of satellites in space.

Christina speaks to the National Party’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop live about the party's ten point plan to tackle Omicron.\

Aneeka Moheed reports on her conversation with Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon about his call for compulsory Te Reo Māori classes to be introduced in schools.

Christina talks to Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the University of Auckland Social psychology department about the recent antivaccination protests, anti-government attitudes and how our mindset towards the pandemic has shifted over the past two years.

Finally, Jemima speaks to ACT Party Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden about the first three months of the End of Life Choice Act 2019 and the second reading of the bill that would ban conversion therapy in Aotearoa.

Two years into the global pandemic, the world has faced a lot of changes: from new variants of the coronavirus running rampant, to the rollout of vaccines to protect us against Covid-19. We have seen nations mobilise to tackle the virus but we have also seen a small minority of people pushing back against the health measures that have been enacted. And in our digital age, it is no surprise that social media is fuelling the spread of fear and misinformation alongside the virus.

So why exactly does a global crisis invoke such strong reactions? 

Christina Huang spoke to Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the University of Auckland Social psychology department about the recent antivaccination protests, anti-government attitudes and how our mindset towards the pandemic has shifted over the past two years.