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Play in the Hutt has won the Outstanding Project award at the Recreation Aotearoa - Te Whai Oranga Awards!
A huge congratulations to our Active in the Hutt and Healthy Families Hutt Valley teams for their mahi on this movement.
A special thanks to residents who have helped things like Play … View morePlay in the Hutt has won the Outstanding Project award at the Recreation Aotearoa - Te Whai Oranga Awards!
A huge congratulations to our Active in the Hutt and Healthy Families Hutt Valley teams for their mahi on this movement.
A special thanks to residents who have helped things like Play Streets become a core part of the movement, as well as schools who use programmes like Build & Play and Pukutākaro to grow physical activity through play.
Thanks also to the community groups who are increasing access to play by giving their time and space, and sponsors who make these projects sustainable
Try explaining milkboys/girls and milk in bottles delivered to your milkbox to a teenage grandchild.
Then her mother piped up, that was was she did back in the 1980's.
Dear neighbours,
Every month, NZ Gardener runs a series of tested reader recipes using a seasonal crop. We are now on the hunt for persimmon recipes, so send your best ones to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz before April 29, 2022.
Every published recipe wins a copy of our special edition Homegrown … View moreDear neighbours,
Every month, NZ Gardener runs a series of tested reader recipes using a seasonal crop. We are now on the hunt for persimmon recipes, so send your best ones to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz before April 29, 2022.
Every published recipe wins a copy of our special edition Homegrown Recipes.
World Creativity and Innovation Day provides people with an excuse to try to solve old problems in new ways, with the potential of finding better and more effective methods to accomplish our goals!
Hutt Central
5.45am - Parade assembles at the Cenotaph outside the War Memorial Library
6am - Dawn service begins on the Anzac Memorial Lawn, Queens Drive
Taita
10.45am - Parade outside Naenae Hotel
11am - Service held at Naenae Bowling Club
12pm - Luncheon
… View moreHutt Central
5.45am - Parade assembles at the Cenotaph outside the War Memorial Library
6am - Dawn service begins on the Anzac Memorial Lawn, Queens Drive
Taita
10.45am - Parade outside Naenae Hotel
11am - Service held at Naenae Bowling Club
12pm - Luncheon
Wainuiomata
6am - Flag raising at the Cenotaph, Queen Street
6.15am - Flag raising at the Memorial Gardens
10.55am - Parade assembles at the BP service station
11am - Wainuiomata Community Memorial Service at the Cenotaph
Stokes Valley
11am - Service at Stokes Valley RSA, Hawthorn Cresent
Due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, commemoration services for Anzac Day will look a little different this year. There will be a scaled-back dawn service to remember the conflicts of our past and present, and to honour those who served.
Public are welcome to attend, but please remember to follow COVID-19 guidance, and do not attend if you are feeling unwell.
There is also a pop-up poppy field on Andrews Avenue from 18-26 April, where the public are welcome to lay poppies and pay their respects.
There will be no civic service in 2022.
Age Concern advise those aged 65 and over are being offered a potentially less effective vaccine than they were last year.
Under a four-year supply agreement for the 2020 to 2023 influenza seasons, independent drug-buying agency Pharmac is funding the flu vaccine Afluria Quad – making it free … View moreAge Concern advise those aged 65 and over are being offered a potentially less effective vaccine than they were last year.
Under a four-year supply agreement for the 2020 to 2023 influenza seasons, independent drug-buying agency Pharmac is funding the flu vaccine Afluria Quad – making it free for the eligible groups. But last year, supply delays of Afluria Quad meant that for over-65s, Pharmac temporarily funded an alternative. Called Fluad Quad, it’s the only available flu vaccine that works with an immune enhancer or adjuvant – an ingredient that improves the immune response to the vaccine in people aged 65 and over. But Pharmac hasn’t yet agreed to fund it permanently, meaning those who want Fluad Quad this year must pay for it.
Last week an Auckland woman, ahead of her vaccine, which was advertised as free, she was asked “did I want the free one, or the one specially made for older people who may need help making the antibodies?” That vaccine, Fluad Quad, would cost $35. “I was told that it was the one given free last year,” she said.
She paid the $35 for Fluad Quad and said her concern is not that she personally had to pay for the vaccine but that she’s worried “that this seems like a two-tier system: one for those with money to choose, and one for those without”. She’s also concerned that others may not be informed of the choice or variation between the vaccines.
Pharmac’s chief medical officer Dr David Hughes said in an emailed statement that in 2020, Fluad Quad was placed on the “cost-neutral list”, which, according to the Pharmac website, means “it may get funded if we can negotiate a deal that saves money, or at least doesn’t cost more than something already funded”.
In 2021, “the supplier marketed it as a more effective vaccine”, said Hughes, “but it has only been recently that they have supplied more evidence to Pharmac to support their application for Fluad Quad being more effective than Afluria Quad in people over 65 years of age”. The Immunisation Advisory Committee that advises Pharmac will be considering the more up-to-date evidence and providing advice on it at their meeting next month, he said.
The data to date on the Fluad vaccine suggests it does to some extent give the best immune response for elderly, explained professor Nikki Turner, the director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at the University of Auckland. Because the traditional flu vaccine is less effective in older adults than in younger people, the Fluad vaccine has an enzyme specifically designed to make it more effective for elderly. But, “it’s tricky”, said Turner. “We can’t simply say this vaccine is better than this vaccine.” Turner would like to see Pharmac continue reviewing the data to “better quantify the gains for the cost”.
The data to date on the Fluad vaccine does show it ‘to some extent’ gives the best immune response for elderly (Photo: Getty Images)
Associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist at the University of Auckland, agreed, saying the decision to not fund the potentially more effective vaccine was a symptom of budget constraints within the drug-buying mechanisms. “I like the idea that you have the best vaccine available, but it’s difficult when you have a constrained budget,” she said.
Studies that compare the enhanced Fluad vaccine with the regular vaccine “consistently show that it provides extra protections”, she said. But Petousis-Harris wanted to reassure over-65s that the difference between the vaccines is only slight. “What’s most important,” she said, “is that the vaccine is a match with the flu that’s circulating”. Both the Fluad and Afluria vaccines protect against the four strains of the virus identified by the World Health Organisation as circulating this year.
“It’s important people know they have other options,” Petousis-Harris added. However, even if they were notified of the difference, “it’s inequitable because people can’t afford it”, she noted.
At the same time as this "SpinOff" item I got a Greypower email with a two page Min Health leaflet stressing importance of flu vaccines this year but not a word about two vaccines. A two tier system indeed We need a welfare system that works better.
Anzac Day commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and honours our returned service personnel.
National commemorations to mark Anzac Day will take place on Monday 25 April in Wellington.
If attending:
- Please follow all relevant COVID-19 guidelines.
- Face masks are … View moreAnzac Day commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and honours our returned service personnel.
National commemorations to mark Anzac Day will take place on Monday 25 April in Wellington.
If attending:
- Please follow all relevant COVID-19 guidelines.
- Face masks are recommended.
- If unwell, please stay home.
Both the Dawn Service and National Commemoration Service will be broadcast live by TVNZ1 and RNZ National.
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry made of short, unrhymed lines that evoke natural imagery. Haiku can come in a variety of different formats of short verses, though the most common is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Have a go and share your Haiku in the comments below!
Putting a tasty and nutritious meal in front of our families each night is important for many of us, but with work, school, and activities in the way, it can also become a stressful chore.
Dinner Sorted delivers a week's worth of delicious, satisfying recipes that should please the whole … View morePutting a tasty and nutritious meal in front of our families each night is important for many of us, but with work, school, and activities in the way, it can also become a stressful chore.
Dinner Sorted delivers a week's worth of delicious, satisfying recipes that should please the whole family, sent to your inbox on Saturday mornings. As a bonus you'll also get our Weekend Baking collection, perfect for filling the baking tins, lunchboxes, or just that 4pm gap.
Sign up here it's free!
A lovely picture of a tarāpuka by Louise Thomas.
"Our beautiful endemic and endangered black-billed gull/tarāpuka (Chroicocephalus bulleri). Sometimes I've found them a little confusing to identify as in non-breeding plumage, black-billed gulls can have a two-coloured brownish and black… View moreA lovely picture of a tarāpuka by Louise Thomas.
"Our beautiful endemic and endangered black-billed gull/tarāpuka (Chroicocephalus bulleri). Sometimes I've found them a little confusing to identify as in non-breeding plumage, black-billed gulls can have a two-coloured brownish and black bill and red legs, but they always have a longer, finer bill than a red-billed gull - that said there is also a little variation in the bill sizes. The two species sometimes hang out together as well to make it more confusing. Bird #57 in 2022."
This week a picture from Rosa Marie.
"Here are a few 'birdie' shots while I was on the 10 minute boat ride at Zealandia on Friday! I had never been on the boat, so it was such a joy to see the shags from another angle."
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