pn861.Dr Guy Hatchard: all part of a Machiavellian conspiracy

Not yet peaked. 2,846 new Covid cases today, Tuesday, and 142 in hospital. 

Dr Guy Hatchard

My friend Peter visited the protester site outside Parliament this weekend with his son and daughter-in-law neither of whom are vaccinated. He was impressed by the visit, even with Kelvyn Alp, one of the more violent leaders who protested he had been misquoted. Peter  sent me three links Link 1.  Link 2.  Link 3. which had led him to question his earlier pro-vax position.

They were all by or about  Guy Hatchard PhD who claims to have a background in statistical analysis and was once an employee of Genetic ID, a food testing laboratory. In one he was interviewed by Liz Gunn who stated Jacinda Ardern pays the scientists who report to her what she wants to hear. She called this pseudo-science and brainwashing. Damien Vento in the NZ Herald called it "The sad spiral of Liz Gunn down the conspiracy rabbit hole "

The NZ anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists (pn701)

See also UPDATE to post below (pn700).

 Jamie-Lee Ross's  ultra-right wing Advance NZ has paid for a 100,000 copies of a new, very professional-looking 40-page anti-vaccine magazine that it says it does not edit or own, which is questionable to say the least. The magazine's  arguments are based on conspiracy theories*, not science. Health professionals are worried that the gullible will be persuaded not to take the vaccine, and some have called for prosecution.  Read the full TVNZ article here.

* "Conspiracy theories are almost always offered in bad faith because they are non-falsifiable. The moment you provide evidence disproving a conspiracy theory, the response is invariably to resort to an even deeper conspiracy theory — or to accuse the debunker of being “one of them.”-- Jonah Goldberg,editor-in-chief of The Dispatch. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.