The Wire with Alex

Various governments around the world are reportedly preparing to provide citizens with booster shots to their vaccines against Covid-19. Noah Ferguson-Dudding spoke to Professor Nikki Turner, Director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre which advises the New Zealand government on vaccinations. They discussed what boosters do, why they may be useful, and whether they are ethical given the struggles many other countries are currently having with Covid-19.

Level Four lockdown is difficult for everyone, but especially for students. Needing to study from home puts additional pressure on students, and there is not enough support out there for students, both mentally and financially. Conor speaks to Ishie Varma, Welfare Vice-President with AUSA, on the support options for students and the struggles they are facing.

In this final piece investigating Climate Change in New Zealand, Conor looks beyond Earth into space - to New Zealand's MethaneSAT space mission. He speaks to two familar voices, NIWA's Dr. Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher and the University of Auckland's Professor David Noone about the topic, going into detail about what the mission is and it's overall goals. They also speak about international connections and putting New Zealand on the world stage, scientifically.

For the first piece with Dr. Mikaloff-Fletcher, click here.

For the second piece with Professor David Noone, click here.

Earlier this week, on Monday morning, the Leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, tweeted out the vaccine access code for Māori people, that allows them to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at Whānau Ora locations, without needing to book in advance. 

The code was sent by Māori health provider Te Whānau o Waipareira through email, as part of a push to lift Māori vaccination rates that are less than two thirds of the non-Māori rate. 

David Seymour has been under scrutiny since tweeting this post. However, he stands by his tweet, and believes that the access code divides New Zealanders against one another. Other politicians, including those from the Māori and Green party disagree, and say that this decision from David Seymour to tweet the access code has resulted in putting people’s lives at risk.

Zazi spoke with Green Party’s Dr. Elizabeth Kerekere to get her perspective on the tweet. 

Zazi began by asking Dr. Kerekere what her reaction was to David Seymour’s tweet.

ACT Party's Brooke van Velden also spoke with Zazi about Seymour's tweet in today's Wednesday Wire show. If you would like to listen to that interview as well, click the link here.