New Zealand Health Minister Criticized for Mountain Biking During Lockdown
David Clark, New Zealand's Health Minister, has been criticized for going for a mountain bike ride while the country is in lockdown. Clark had to apologise to Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister, after he was photographed at a riding location 2km from his house.
New Zealand is currently in a level-4 lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and citizens have been told that they may only exercise "locally and safely". On Thursday, a member of the public spotted Clark's van, which has his face and name on the side of it, at a car park next to the Signal Hill trails. They took a photograph and passed it onto local media.
Clark confirmed in a statement he had gone mountain biking and that it was an action he regrets. He said: "This was my only chance to get out for some exercise in daylight hours ... The track itself is not challenging, and is widely used by families and foot traffic. I know that now is not the time for people to be engaging in higher-risk exercise activities. I don’t want to give anyone the perception that I take these matters lightly. This is a reminder to me to think carefully about how best to fit some exercise into my new-normal routine."
Clark has apologised to Jacinda Ardern, who said in a statement: "It’s my expectation that ministers set the standards we are asking New Zealanders to follow. People can go outside to get fresh air and drive short distances if needed, but we have asked people to avoid activities where there is a higher risk of injury, and the minister should have followed that guidance.”
While Clark is facing calls from the media that he should be fired , no further action is expected to be taken.
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In the meantime PB allows comments like the one below without any penalty.
"And it's some fit of delusion for some reason every orthopedic surgeon I work with had to cancel surgeries despite the fact there are five patients with this supposed flu in the entire County. We are now firing , staff sending employees home and putting them all on unemployment. Genius. I really hope a ton of people die from this to Simply make it worth it that would absolutely make the Democrats and socialists happy."
Well done PB, you should be proud.
I wish there was a way to mute people so I wouldn’t have to see ShitStains boomer bullshit anymore.
@Upduro Yup, that would be good.
The page format is bloody terrible - that wouldn't pass Online Web Design 101.
Each poll widget is far too long.
The Alert with no introduction, article, background.. just log in an there's a screaming alert on your header bar - wtf is that?
They could have had a much more receptive response had it been rolled out differently.
I’ve been out this past week on my bike but only on the road as the local woods are now closed for lockdown as dog walkers etc were grouping together f*cking it up for the rest of us! So now I can’t hit my local trails for a ride, but tbh I felt that there were too many people out and about so I’m now fully locked down at home, and stuck pottering about annoying the wife and my 4yr old son at home.
Yeah. The poor bastard is simply out riding his bicycle just over a mile from his house.
"course, he didn't have to plaster his photo on the side of his vehicle....
I don’t want to get too deep into this but it was fascinating for me to watch the rise of Jordan Peterson Lectures and how varied was the reaction to him by educated people in the West. Can’t speak for the big part of educated people in Europe but at least for me and many people of my age it can be described as: ndaaaa?! Off course marxists caused awful lots of suffering and death, and it is hard to call them any better than nazis, and overblown ideas of equality, particularly equality of outcome are a bullshit leading to mass genocide. Off course new marxists in the West, students in particular are thinking they are in for a right cause. Can you imagine Stalin did all that without thinking he is doing the right thing? Off course he thought well of himself!
So... yeah, let’s be careful which stories are we feeding our brains with. Currently West went into the state of Russia/ Eastwrn block from 1980s. In a way that Yeah things are getting better but no matter what we do, no politicoan can be trusted they are all lying anyways, there’s no point to fight for anything. And now we have the culyberspace we can emigrate to.
Please watch Adam Curtis documentaries. With a pinch of salt but still, amazing food for thought. Hypernotmalization Is his latest but it’s good to first watch The century of self and Bitter lake
To me, the faux pas was driving 2 km to ride. NZ is for the first time ever experiencing roads safe enough to ride on!
Oh f-it - I give up.
he should have just ridden to the trailhead! c'mon dude..... no such thing as a 'stealth' ride with your mug plastered to the side of your vehicular transport.
Just jumping in here because I am listening to Erblicket die tochter des firmaments at this very moment, but I doubt Varg’s (very interesting and sadly banned from youtube) ‘perspective’) would hold much sway over a freethinker like Waki. I think TP is still available on the sketchy Bitchute site.I love the first 3 songs off Filosefem and still play often. One-man, super-primitive BM at its zenith made by a killer & churchburner. Im in. I found his Thulean Perspective video series hilarious, abhorrent, and laced with many truths. Especially about the nature of christianity and the healing of topsoil ravaged by agribusiness.
K bye
I don’t make excuses for Varg’s many abhorrent views but his TP video series was amusing.
“They say I am a Nazi - let’s find out...”
Spoiler - he's not.
I think you missed the whole story here. But its all out there. I'm not his proponent. He and his French noblewoman have published many books about Norse paganism. If you are interested, while you are self isolating, I suggest you begin with the history of the band Mayhem. If not, no worries. There are many more interesting life arcs to learn about out there. Jesus Tod.
Cutting your own vegetables (you could get hurt if you're clumsy enough to chop your toe off)
Drive that car (loads of people get hurt/killed in car related accidents annually)
Eat something that is not super healthy (especially if moderate activity is considered dangerous)
Yoga (what if you end up in a pose you can't get out of, no one is there to help you and you nearly starve)
Get on social media (which could massively affect your self esteem and lead to failed suicide attempts).
Please health minister, drag your bed and teddybear into your bomb shelter and stay there. Everything else is risky.
I'll tell you what it is. Jobsworth, power hungry spastics with itchy shutter fingers, just dying to throw other people under the bus in their role as the self appointed arbiters of Corona justice.
#clarkdonenothingwrong
The whole situation is a perfect storm of media sensationalism, junk data on the virus, and a social justice obsessed public who are incapable or critical thinking. When people face uncertainty and are fearful they gravitate to the mainstream narrative like a religion.
@slothez exactly, it’s not difficult to understand stay at home. Only leave your house for food, medical reasons or to exercise. Assume you have covid 19 and act like it and don’t take any unnecessary risks and this definitely includes mountain biking of any description.
Yes the economy has ground to a halt and many are loosing the jobs and businesses unnecessarily. Your point is?
The WHO has no empirical data to base those predictions. Iceland has done by far the most testing per capita and they have shown that 50% of cases are asymptomatic. Who is vulnerable to the disease? The elderly and those with pre-existing conditions that can be compromised. So here’s what you do, you isolate those people. Currently the elderly etc are having to venture out into the population and face exposure while the majority of the population who would barely show any symptoms are crashing the economy due to quarantining. It’s absolutely pointless as many of the worlds leading epidemiologists are now saying.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=QUvWaxuurzQ
The riding bit’s about not getting injured.
If people move between neighbourhoods it makes contact tracing exponentially harder.
Do you think the younger cases are due to pre existing conditions? How are so many people who have contracted COViD 19 asymptomatic? Blood group?
Sorry for the questions, great to hear from the frontline without the media filter.
It does sound like the younger serious cases are mostly in people with pre-existing conditions based on what we've heard from other parts of the world. It's only a few cases that I know of directly, but we were all surprised when two younger ED staff, both very fit with no prior medical problems, were admitted to the ICU, one here and another at a nearby hospital. We all suddenly felt like none of us are safe. I'm not kidding when I say we all checked how much life insurance coverage we had.
But as you can see, I'm just talking about small numbers we're seeing directly. Why most but not all people are asymptomatic isn't clear. It's frustrating to be honest. That's why I was serious when I said thanks to you for posting the video by a respected epidemiologist whose job is to make sense of the bigger picture. We're all trying to make sense of this.
Good luck out there and thanks for taking the risk for us.
www.facebook.com/198924864617/posts/10158067135899618/?vh=e&d=n
And a huge thanks to @fpmd for all the help he is providing to others.
The "don´t do anything stupid"-part is just down to it being a bad time to be in need of the medical system, both for your own and others sake
I agree, why drive only 2km to the trail, unless you maybe have a dog you want to ride with? I wonder if he does not want to wear down his nobby tires on the pavement, but with this pandemic, it's definitely not the time to worry about that? The biggest problem he made was transporting his bike using the van with his name and picture splattered across it. Seriously, what did he think, no-one would notice? Politicians are not always the brightest, so maybe no other explanation than that...
Bikers & Hikers are the only ones who are still allowed (and encouraged) to exercise their sport.
The combination of working from home and playing teacher for a 6y old however is not ideal to find time to go for a ride...
With my bike vertical on the rear wheel I can just about roll it through the garage door so that makes it taller than I am (so over 183cm/6ft, would probably be 190 or so) which implies that if someone else is riding in front of me or behind me, I'm unlikely to manage to get closer to other riders on singletrack, unless we overtake. My commuter bike is even longer though obviously you're also more likely to overtake in traffic. Either way, I think unless you're doing BMX/4X/DS racing you won't break the 1.5m distance recommendation.
If this minister bloke had ridden to the trail head...he would have been totally fine?
I have only a faint light to guide me.
A stranger appears and says to me:
“My friend, you should blow out your candle
in order to find your way more clearly.”
This stranger is a theologian.
-Denis Diderot
Firstly, this should be called physical distancing not social distancing. I’ve waved to people from a more than safe distance and people turn their heads and have a panic attack.
We’re humans we need human contact! If we become paranoid of one another and decompressing we will have lost ourselves!
So.. take away some people’s retirement savings ( market crash), their jobs and social engagement system and then outdoor recreation / ways of decompressing... I think we have conditions rife for PTSD/ CPTSD and other serious mental illnesses.
This guy WAS setting a good example. Mental health and physical health ( mind and body) are connected. How the fack can one fight off this virus if their nervous system is already jacked up and running at 100% capacity? This is a traumatic event and part of trauma involves decompressing and releasing. So, people watch CNN for 12 hours a day, eat trash and have generally terrible heath which is TOTALLY fine. But try to bolster your immune system and maintain mental health .. no don’t do that!!!
In Alberta Canada parks are closed for social distancing ( and because of littering). Don’t we want people spread out? I’ve been laid off.and I could be looking at a career change... the loss of these trails was definitely hard on me. - as hard as the career.
#bikesaren’tcancelled
Yeah, I can’t ride either...it’s too dark outside !
No Car
No Far
But in all seriousness.. anyone know what he rides? Can @pinkbike contact him and do a bike check on his setup?
thanks for the balanced post.
I wonder if they think they actually need ventilators, or if it is an overeaction;
Imagine the Headline; 'Patient not placed on ventilator deteriorates in local hospital"
Seems a lot of this situation is driven by fear, and the biggest fear is doing the 'wrong thing'
Also i wonder how many as percent were under 40 yrars old, and if they had compromised immune systems.
Quote from WHO site: "Symptoms are generally mild especially for children and young adults"
Furthermore, hospital ICU's will become full and more people will not be able to be saved due to lack of ventilators if we do not practice safe social distancing.See what happened in Italy, Spain and now the U.S.. Who wants to be told by the hospital that they cannot help you, as they do not have enough ventilators. In fact 40% of people being hospitalized for the COVID-19 Virus are between 20-54 years old, so yes, younger people are not immune to this, as some ignorant uncaring people seem to think. Here's the link: globalnews.ca/news/6704349/us-cdc-report-coronavirus-hospitalized-younger-adults
Sorry for my rant, but this shit is real!
Please everyone, do you part and STAY AT HOME, practice social distancing (6.5ft apart) and wash your hands over and over and we can all get back to some kind of normal lives (hopefiully this summer), which includes what we all love, mountain biking...
Has local been defined, or are we now at vigilante stage where the mob decides. 2 kays sounds local to me, and for a guy probs working 20 hour days for the good of the nation, yet can not go somewhere local to exercise and maintain mental health practicing social distancing as his own health directive? Socialsm. Tick.
Has this country as other progressive woke jurisdictions rolled out energy and other policies that are off in the never never, that they never never can afford. Tick.
Has the PM taken on cult status while presiding over some pretty abysmal records in terms of population and risk events, yet taken no blame. Tick
Has it been widely acknowledged that the infection and exposure rate across he globe may be way way higher than recorded and thus this hysteria while partially justified in terms saving lives is way over done, is inconsistent in terms of application to the standard vanilla middle class and removal of basic and constitutional rights including forced electronic monitoring, lack of sunset clauses in emergency legislation introduced, and in consistent application to disadvantaged or cultural groups that naturally socialise or huddle and despite it all continue to do so. Tick
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
If you take the time to seek out more honest news sources you'll find there are a significant number of scientists and doctors speaking out. The media and some governments are hyping up the fear for their own self interest and the economic fallout will be severe and cost many lives. It's lives compared to lives, not lives compared to dollars.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UO3Wd5urg0&feature=emb_title
Here in the US, the CDC is telling hospitals to error on the side of reporting deaths as being caused by Covid 19.
"It is important to emphasize that Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death."
www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-1-Guidance-for-Certifying-COVID-19-Deaths.pdf
That is not conspiracy BS.
twitter.com/ColumbiaSurgery/status/1245476381938630656
And this is happening while the city is essentially on lock down for two weeks straight. Imagine what things would look like without any mitigating efforts. Wuhan was shot down for 51 straight days, literally people not being allowed out of their house. As the health systems is overwhelemed, the case mortality skyrockets, as well as overall death rates because other emergencies can't get treated.
www.economist.com/sites/default/files/20200404_GDP101.jpg
Again. Stop. This. Nonsense.
Who is suggesting we ignore it? I certainly am not.
I don't believe chastising a person for going for a mountain bike ride is the correct thing to do. He's not harming anyone nor is he spreading Covid 19 on the trial.
@roma258:
Rational discussion regarding Covid 19 outbreak and what we should do is not nonsense. Are we not supposed to discus important issues of the day?
How did I cherry pick sources and miss context?
If we look at Italy we see that the region hardest hit routinely overloads its medical system in the winter months. We've also seen studies siting that 99% of the deaths in Italy had severe underlying health conditions (www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/99-of-those-who-died-from-virus-had-other-illness-italy-says). It will be interesting to see an update to that statistic as time goes on.
Your Dr. from Columbia's daily updates don't provide much data, at least not the ones from the last few days I looked at. This guys twitter feed posts the projected ICU bed demand in NYC and the actual beds being used. So far the predictions have been a few multiples higher then realized. Hopefully that trend continue since that would mean less people in the ICU than expected (hopefully we can agree on that part).
twitter.com/YossiGestetner/status/1246208954801303556
Your one picture from the Economist lacks context. Do you have the rest of the article to provide it?
It appears you actually looked at one or more of the links I provided. Thank you for doing that and not simply calling me names. The article below, by a scientist in Germany, discusses the whole situation and also references the situation in Spain and Italy. It's a good read and should be compared to the CDC memo I linked to above regarding the methods for reporting cause of death. After all, it's that death rate that people keep citing. Please let me know what you think.
scientists4wiredtech.com/2020/03/covid-19-open-letter-from-prof-sucharit-bhakdi-to-german-chancellor-dr-angela-merkel
If you're using US statistics then compare covid 19 to the flue, where the cdc estimates for 2019/20 are:
- 39 to 55 million flu illnesses.
- 18 to 29 million hospital visits.
- 400,000 to 730,000 hospitalizations.
- 24,000 to 63,000 deaths.
I understand Covid 19 is new and I think some caution was reasonable, but if the data is correct that shows overall death rate for c19 is no worse then a bad flu year a total lock down and chasing people off bike trails is the wrong thing to do. The economic fall out all ready is going to cost many many lives, probably more than covid 19 will or ever would have. Additionally, covid 19 is out. It's not going anywhere. It should be discussed if it would be better to ask the very very old and immune compromised to stay home while c19 passes through the healthy population and natural heard immunity is built. No economic calamity necessary then and few lives lost that are associated with that economic fallout as well.
Other medical doctors and scientists around the word are reporting a death rate at or well below 1%... even in Italy. Average age of death in Italy was over 80 years old and 99 % of those had 1 or more chronic diseases.
Even in NY City, they are not even at half of capacity for ICU beds.
Things may change for the worse, but so far the data doesn't seem to indicate the closing of the economy or the lives that will be lost because of that was the right thing to do.
At least let people ride their bikes in peace. Cyclists are not spreading Covid 19!
As for the driving there bit, driving somewhere for riding or walking has been recommended against; but a health minister is probably quite busy at the moment with not a whole lot of free time...
"If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 196Cool rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.2"
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
No doubt you don't.
"If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 196
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
If you take the time to seek out more honest news sources you'll find there are a significant number of scientists and doctors speaking out. The media and some governments are hyping up the fear for their own self interest and the economic fallout will be severe and cost many lives. It's lives compared to lives, not lives compared to dollars.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UO3Wd5urg0&feature=emb_title
Here in the US, the CDC is telling hospitals to error on the side of reporting deaths as being caused by Covid 19.
"It is important to emphasize that Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate for all decedents where the disease caused or is assumed to have caused or contributed to death."
www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/coronavirus/Alert-1-Guidance-for-Certifying-COVID-19-Deaths.pdf
They are doing ^ that when we have other reports stating that 99% of deaths due to covid 19 had other morbidity ailments and 88% would have died within the year due to those ailments anyways.
I watch the news and I can think think for myself. Covid 19 is real and it's killing some people, but there is more going on then that.
My whole point is it appears we are experiencing a major over reaction that looks like it will do a lot more harm then good. Lives vs Lives. Go on with your insults if that's all you care about I guess.