In support of vaccinations
I have never wanted to talk about it publicly, and hardly ever in private, but when I was a teenager with a promising sports career, my life was sadly changed forever by a severe attack of paralysing viral poliomyelitis. My mobility, with all that means every day, has been severely compromised since then, worsening over the years. I therefore have strong views about vaccinations against poliomyelitis, which has been eradicated everywhere but Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Taliban have assassinated nurses administering the vaccine.
Can anti-vaccinators and those hesitant about having the Covid-19 vaccination please think logically and honestly about life as it was before routine vaccinations against previous widespread childhood diseases, such as measles, mumps, whooping cough, chickenpox, diphtheria and tetanus, brought an incredible change throughout the world?
It is illogical, selfish and unacceptable for anyone not to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus immediately. Those who do not are not only endangering their own lives, but also encouraging a greater spread of the virus throughout our community, resulting in widespread illness, multiple deaths and the destruction of so many hard-working people’s livelihoods.
Dr Hylton Le Grice, CNZM, OBE, FRCS
(Auckland)
CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION
So, micro-plastics are the latest mistake in pollution threats (“Chemical cocktail”, August 28). Prompt action is required again. We have had to react to DDT poisoning of nature, refrigerant gases damaging our protective ozone layer, lead in petrol poisoning people, green arsenic wallpaper poisoning people at home, asbestos insulation leading to lung diseases, and so on.
They do lead to action, but the actions taken to stop producing polluting greenhouse gases do not
