Judith Collins explained the response she gives to people in her electorate who express vaccine-hesitancy.
Video / Mark Mitchell
National Party leader Judith Collins has come up with a unique way to try to reassure the vaccine hesitant: a comparison with the secret herbs and spices of KFC.
Judith Collins said National would support the October 16 "Super Saturday" vaccinations push the Government announced today, and had even sent her deputy Dr Shane Reti back up to Northland to give vaccinations in the region.
Northland is lagging behind on the vaccinations table, and Reti is a practising doctor and will be part of the Ngati Wai health provider vaccines team.
Collins said she had often come across those who were vaccine hesitant, including in her Papakura electorate. She told them that she had been given both doses of the vaccine had suffered no ill-effects. She also pointed them to information on websites such as MedSafe.
"I tell them I do trust the science. Even though I do not understand all of the science, and the mRNA work that has gone on, but I am aware that I don't have to understand everything to trust it.
"One of the things I say to people is that a lot of people like KFC. I don't, by the way, but a lot of people do and who knows what is in those secret herbs and spices? And yet people still eat it."
Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins announced the plan for a big, nationwide push for vaccination.
"This will culminate in a National Day of Action for vaccination on Saturday 16 October," he said.
"A bit like Election Day, we will be asking all our political and civic leaders to contribute to a big collective effort to turn people out."
The drive comes as the Government tries to boost the vaccination rates and Delta spread to more cases outside of Auckland.
Health officials are also now asking New Zealanders to bring forward their second doses if possible, less than two months after the gap between vaccines was moved from three to six weeks.
At that time, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield had said that was to free up capacity for more people to get the first dose and be at least partially protected. It was also in line with other countries as well as advice from the Covid technical advisory group.
National's Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop said the inconsistency in the messaging around the timing of the vaccine doses risked confusing people. "Consistency of information I think is very important in this regard."
Collins also questioned uncertainty and confusion around the rules for the easing of restrictions in Auckland's level 3 settings, which has seen rules made and then changed overnight.
Collins said it reeked of rules being "made up on the fly."
She said the Government should have made sure the rules were set before it announced the changes.
Bishop agreed, but urged people to follow the rules, saying it was clear that it was harder to transmit Covid outside.
"But this should have been in place and ready to go from when the Government decided to announce its road map."
Those changes kicked in on Wednesday, and allow people to spend time outdoors with one other household, up to a maximum of 10 people.
The changes have also allowed more outdoor recreation activities, including boating, fishing, tramping, hunting, golf, tennis, bowls and exercise classes in parks.
Slightly different rules apply in different circumstances – including a rule not to use an indoors toilet when visiting someone else.
