Dr Lance O'Sullivan: It was when my daughter got sick that I realised how important immunisation is
Dr Lance O'Sullivan writes from the heart, and from the head: "It was 1996 and we were young parents. I was at medical school when I came upon an anti-immunisation pamphlet left in one of our lecture theatres.
"I was suspicious of the establishment at the time. You need to understand, I had grown up a welfare-dependent "half-caste" (I hate that term) boy living with his mother, escaping from a life of alcohol, crime and a level of violence that I would not tolerate for my daughters. An under-achiever, I was expelled from two secondary schools. I feel I had a reason to be angry at "the system".
"Then I became a father. It changed my life. I needed to be a responsible adult caring for a son, then a daughter – eventually seven children. We were young parents and wanted to do only the best for these precious beings.
"I read the pamphlet. It described "studies" in the Netherlands into communities that didn't look like mine, but I took little persuasion. I stated our second child, our little daughter Te Miringa, would not be immunised.
"At the time my wife Tracy was working as a nurse at the local medical centre and immunising children daily. Yet this was my protest against the establishment that I so mistrusted.
"Fifteen months later, we had a scare. Te Miringa became unwell with high fever and a body rash and the doctors were concerned as there was a measles outbreak locally. And I realised the information from the Netherlands did not reflect my reality.
"We got Te Miringa immunised."
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Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.7% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.7% Critical thinking
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29.8% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
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