"It is strange that bars and restaurants can open but churches are limited to just ten people", said Fr Pete Roe the Parish Administrator of St Francis of Assisi parish of Ohariu, Wellington.

Roe says the thriving parish normally has over 1,000 attendees and was already struggling with how to cater for congregations of what it thought would be one hundred.

"But now it's just ten, and it's the limit the Government has put on one table in a restaurant", Roe said.

He observed that Churches generally have more space than restaurants.

With no projection on when Churches might be allowed even one hundred Roe says that Churches are left in limbo.

"Do we have to wait for Level One?" he asked.

Roe is sensitive to those who at this point may feel uncomfortable about coming out of lockup straight back to church but says it is ultimately about people's choice.

He admits that some parish procedures will need to change. For example, contact tracing would be a little strange for parishioners but said that it is not an impossibility.

"We know it's not business as usual and there's an element of new wine and new wineskins in these times", Roe said, referring to Matthew 9:17.

Last evening the New Zealand Catholic Bishops also expressed surprise at Jacinda Ardern's decision.

"Many people will be disappointed in this news of more restricted gatherings than expected but others will be grateful for more time to prepare safely," the bishops commented on Facebook.

The bishops are inviting on the faithful to reflect on Romans 12:12, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer".

They say they are looking at the details of the announcement with urgency.

Little churches

The decision to limit church congregations to ten means the Wellington Ohariu parish will further its investigation into a concept it is calling Little Churches.

"Normally Churches are the opposite of little; they are for all-comers, yet we're being limited to in effect minister to the few," said Roe.

Roe acknowledges that not everyone will be comfortable with the Little Churches concept.

Little churches is an alternative way of gathering for worship based on the practice of the early Christians as recorded in The Acts of Apostles.

As part of a parish survey, the leadership team in St Francis of Assisi parish of Ohariu, Wellington is asking for parishioners for feedback on a proposal to establish little churches.

The little churches concept is a limited assembly of up to 10 of parishioners gathering in a home for worship that includes prayer and possibly to receive the Eucharist.

In support of the idea the parish notes The Acts of Apostles records:

• "Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people". (Acts 2:46 -47).
• "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah". (Acts 5:42)

"The model of Little Churches can be considered as being akin to a parish ecclesia (assembly) in which the gathering happens in many different rooms," the parish says in its newsletter.

The parish has identified several practical issues that need to be resolved, including:

• Identification of leaders
• Identification of participants
• Protocols around people meeting safely in homes
• Protocols around the safe distribution of the communion hosts
• Preparation of a worship outline that will give facilitators some direction and
  confidence in running such a group.

The St Francis of Assisi leaderships hopes that in facilitating the establishment of Little Churches, they will become like living cells, both nurturing and being sustained by the body as a whole.

The team say they realise that the implementation of the concept of Little Churches will need to develop.

They also acknowledge there are some whom it may pose too high a risk, and there will be some to whom the idea will not appeal.

Source

• Supplied; St Francis of Assisi Ohariu Parish
• Facebook
• Image: tuimotu.org

St Bernadette's Catholic Church in Mount Hawthorn, Perth had to stop the Mass after a police officer walked in to ensure every parishioner was masked.

The Perth and Peel regions of Australia imposed a mask mandate on January 16 in response to a surge in Covid-19 cases.

One parishioner said it was "troubling" to see a policeman interrupt the service.

He said the police officer stormed into the mass and demanded the pews' attention. There had been reports of people not wearing masks in the church.

"[They - the police] proceeded to check three or four parishioners' exemptions and then left, everything being in order."

An exemption is required from a doctor for somebody to skip the mask requirement.

"Everyone was sort of pretty stunned, I suppose. Then as soon as it started it was sort of over as he left."

People were left shaken by the incident, the parishioner said.

"It's just pretty confronting seeing police vests and stuff in church.

"He didn't remove his hat, which is pretty disrespectful in that environment."

Police have confirmed officers had attended the church and undertaken a mask check.

"Police responded to a report from a member of the public of people not wearing masks inside a church," they said is a statement.

"Upon attendance, five people were spoken to by police and complied in wearing a mask.

"One person provided proof of an exemption."

Since the pandemic erupted, Australia has been vigilant with a strict Covid-19 mitigation regime.

A priest from the church wrote a social media post after the incident reminding the congregation to comply with the Covid-19 order to prevent the church being penalised.

"Heavy fines on the parish priest, our parish and individuals will be incurred if you are caught not wearing your mask. Please co-operate with this request so as to avoid any complications," he said.

While supporting the need to be vigilant in complying with Covid rules, Catholic Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe is concerned that future checks will be handled without interrupting worship.

"It is highly regrettable that the police felt themselves obliged to intervene during a religious service in one of Perth's Catholic parishes in order to enforce the mask-wearing mandate," Costelloe said in a statement.

"The celebration of the Eucharist is the central act of Catholic worship and is sacred to all Catholics.

"It is my hope that other ways can be found to deal with this delicate issue in future and my office stands ready to co-operate with the police in this manner.

"It is a matter of regret to me that the police were placed in a position which led them to take the action they did.

"They should not have been placed in this position".

Costelloe said his office will continue to ensure all Catholic parishes and agencies have very clear advice as to their obligations in complying with the government‘s directives.

Source

• National Review
• news.com.au
• Image: The West Australian

Some might draw that conclusion looking at data from the 2023 census.

Reporting the results, one media headline said, "More than half the population has no religion".

It went on saying that the proportion of people with ‘no religion' has increased from 48.2 per cent in 2018 to 51.6 per cent in 2023.

So that's 2,576,049 people who claim no adherence to religious faith.

The number of people who identified as Christian (NZ's largest ‘faith' grouping), supposedly dropped from 36.5 per cent in 2018 to 32.3 per cent in 2023.

The Covid effect

During the Covid period, government implemented lockdowns, then mandatory vaccine passes for attending church services - alternatively limiting attendances to 50 people. It created considerable attrition.

A roll-on effect remains evident. Former church attendees found smaller, informal gatherings to their liking, never making their way back to corporate denominational worship centres.

Of course that preference wouldn't necessarily show up in a census as a retraction of faith, but it could account for people stating they'd left an organised expression of Christian faith.

The census ‘revelations' surprised me.

From where I sit, in many contexts I see churches letting their light shine and growing - though an imperfect work in progress, the true Church in its broadest sense remains bigger and more dimensional than any census could ever accurately disclose.

Many of us for example, aren't aware of numerous hui throughout the motu where faithful Maori believers worship Ihu Karaiti (Jesus Christ).

Not to mention the generation of spiritually hungry young people embracing authentic Christianity for truthful answers to the hopeless vacuous secular humanism that's rife today.

The future

I see a significant future for the Church. I understand people claiming zero interest in religion.

An important distinction sets true Christianity apart - Jesus did not come to inaugurate a religion. He is God's provision to save humanity from its lost sinful state. Continue reading

• Murray Smith is a journalist for Cambridge News

From surveys to reports, the statistics on young people's mental health seem to depict a generation in distress—sad, anxious and discouraged.
Professor Ludovic Gicquel, head of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Laborit Hospital in Poitiers, western France, sees this daily.
"We're dealing with serious adolescents who have lost their carefree spirit."

What's causing this?

Some psychiatrists blamed the harmful effects of screens and social media, while others pointed to the harshness of the times—wars, climate change, and distressing news stories.

All agree that the situation worsened starting in 2020, around the time of COVID-19, although the pandemic alone doesn't explain the scale of the problem.

"The mistake we made was blaming COVID too much. The health crisis is behind us, but the numbers haven't gone down," said Gicquel. He believes that the anxiety of this generation reflects that of society as a whole.

"We, as adults and health professionals, are also struggling. How could the youngest not be affected?"

A growing interest in psychology

"It's not that young people are more worried than before—everyone is," added Doctor Xavier Pommereau, a psychiatrist for adolescents and young adults in Talence, Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwest France.

"But young people are still developing. They're more sensitive and vulnerable."

Is it fair to talk about a psychiatric epidemic? Perhaps not.

"Some key indicators can't be ignored, especially the increase in suicide attempts," said David Gourion, a psychiatrist in Paris and author.

"But just as some parents tend to downplay severe psychological distress in their children, others dramatize what may just be a passing phase.

Ask a teen how they are, and they often say they're doing badly. Adolescence is inherently a time when one can feel tortured and may even express it."

Child psychiatrist Dr. Stéphane Clerget also noted an increase in consultations. "Personally, I don't see this as an aggravation of distress but as a growing interest in psychology and psychiatry.

Today's young people know there's someone to listen to them, and they seek that help more often," the doctor said.

The "obvious" challenges in psychiatry

Parents often feel helpless in aiding their children, whether it's minor or major distress. Many also feel responsible for their child's struggles.

"Responsible, yes, but not guilty," clarified Pommereau, emphasising the importance of the family environment.

"As an adult, the first reflex should be to consider any potential upheaval. Separations are one such event and can sometimes lead to acting out, with the adolescent hoping their parents will reconcile at their bedside.

"Proactively seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist, even for just one or two sessions, can have a protective effect."

The challenge is knowing where to turn when most child and adolescent mental health centers are overwhelmed.

"The difficulties in the sector are clear, but France has one of the highest densities of psychiatrists and child psychiatrists in Europe," said Gourion.

He believes the real issue lies in prevention, which should happen before Further reading: Pandemic takes toll on mental health in Bangladesh

"When we talk about young people's mental health, we often forget about prevention, yet you don't need to be a psychologist to do that. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers—these are the people who are in the best position to help," Gourion said.

Additionally, Doctor Clerget pointed out, "Nowadays, it's mostly parents whom children confide in, partly due to new parenting styles. They know every little worry their children have and get alarmed."

This trend can lead to overprotection.

"We must accept that zero risk doesn't exist, and it doesn't align with the level of risk adolescents need," said Gicquel.

"For this reason, I'm not sure it's advisable to buy a smartphone for a sixth-grader just to track their location." This practice is increasingly common and problematic, as it "invites the digital wolf into the fold," Gicquel continued.

"We shouldn't demonize screens, but just as there are endocrine disruptors, there are developmental disruptors that we should try to protect young people from, and smartphones are part of that."

As usual, it's all about balance.

"What's problematic is a teenager spending six hours on a couch with a tablet. This digital overload means we overstimulate the brain while under-stimulating the body, but both need to develop in tandem," said Gicquel.

"We need to dare to set limits," said Clerget. "In the 1960s, parents worried that their kids spent too much time outside; today, they don't go out enough. But they need to get out, be in nature, and talk with friends," he said, highlighting the harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

Rehabilitating conversation and connection

In short, seeking professional help isn't always the first step, and neither are medications.

Clerget expressed concern about the significant increase in prescriptions for psychotropic drugs—antidepressants, anxiolytics, and others. "It's madness," said the doctor, who believes "this reflects an inability to address psychological problems through conversation, interaction, and changes in the patient's environment."

Rehabilitating conversation and connection is the primary recommendation from these psychiatrists, who remain "resolutely optimistic." Paradoxically, social media platforms like TikTok can sometimes be their greatest allies.

"There's a partial but real movement to destigmatize mental health issues on these platforms," observed Gicquel.

"Celebrities have shown young people that you can be a huge star and still have psychological vulnerabilities. They save more lives in three minutes than we do in a year."

• First published in La Croix

The retiring politician, a Catholic, made the claim during a valedictory speech on Tuesday, reflecting on the government's response to the pandemic.

He suggested that the enforcement of the vaccine mandates impinged on individual freedoms.

"If the impact of vaccines on transmission was limited at best, as is now mostly accepted, the law should have left more room for respect of freedom" Mr Perrottet said during an interview with ABC Radio.

Perrottet, who served as NSW Premier from October 2021 to March 2023, argued that mandatory vaccination policies were misguided.

"Vaccines saved lives, but ultimately, mandates were wrong. People's personal choices shouldn't have cost them their jobs."

Trust people to make their own decisions

He regretted enforcing these mandates and highlighted the importance of trusting people. "We need to trust people to make their own decisions" he stated.

Mr Perrottet became premier in late 2021, replacing Gladys Berejiklian upon her resignation amid a corruption probe.

After taking over the top job, Mr Perrottet oversaw the state's emergence from pandemic restrictions.

"When I became premier, we removed [vaccine mandates] or the ones we actually could, but this should have happened faster" he told the legislative assembly on Tuesday.

"If a pandemic comes again, we need to get a better balance encouraging people to take action whilst at the same time protecting people's fundamental liberty."

Cemetery of reform

Mr Perrottet also used his speech to call for changes to Australia's federation system, saying Canberra was becoming a "cemetery of reform".

"If we established Australia today, no-one in their right mind would set up the federation the way it is" he said.

"We currently have federal and state health systems that don't even work alongside each other. Rather, they actively work against each other.

"If we can't reform the federal health system after a one in 100-year pandemic, we never will."

Sources

ABC News

CathNews New Zealand

Except that is in New Zealand, Australia and a few other countries. Here and in those places, the long-standing trend of people living longer continues.

The pandemic's toll

About 15.9 million deaths have been attributed to the Covid pandemic worldwide.

The latest Lancet medical journal includes a University of Washington study showing what Covid's toll on human health has been like so far.

The study found 84 per cent of countries and territories experienced sharp dips in life expectancy in 2020 and 2021. During that time, global life expectancy fell by 1.6 years.

"For adults worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters" the report says.

It demonstrates "the devastating potential impacts of novel pathogens."

The survival difference

Just 32 of 204 countries studied recorded an increase in life expectancy between 2020 and 2021. New Zealand was one, our Tasman Sea neighbour another.

Australia recorded a 0.01 per cent increase in deaths due to Covid. New Zealand, which had one of the world's strictest lockdowns, had one of the lowest excess mortality rates once demographics were considered, the report says.

It comes down to the approach to handling the pandemic, says Hassan Vally, associate professor of epidemiology at Deakin University.

It confirms how good Australia's response was, especially during the first two years of the pandemic he explains.

Strict measures including lockdowns were introduced to control Covid's spread before vaccinations were available.

"It doesn't mean every decision was perfect or we got everything right but it's certainly evidence that supports we had good health outcomes compared to other places in that really difficult early phase of the pandemic."

What the data says

• 2019 - global life expectancy was 73.3 years; women 76 years; men 70.8 years; Australia 83.2 years
• 2021 - global life expectancy was 71.7 years; women 74.8 years; men 69 years; Australia 83.4 years
• 2019-2021 - USA - over 1 million people are thought to have died from Covid; life expectancy - 79.1 years in 2019; 77.1 years in 2021
• 2020-2021 - global "unprecedented increase" in deaths among people aged 25 years and older
• 2019-2021 - global mortality rose by 22 per cent in men aged over 15 years, and by 17 per cent in women
• 2019-2021 - global mortality in under five-year olds largely unchanged - in fact, deaths decreased by 7 percent.

The study

The Gates Foundation- funded University of Washington study updates estimates in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.

It drew over 11,000 collaborators' expertise from 160-plus countries and territories.

Demographic trends using data about age and other factors was evaluated to analyse mortality rates and how these impacted Covid outcomes.

The report noted age-standardised rates showed Covid was disproportionately severe in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and Latin America.

There were "substantial" differences in the numbers of excess deaths between countries the report says. These differences may be linked to how they handled the pandemic.

"Vaccination efforts, public policies and individual behaviour changes likely influenced the severity of the pandemic across countries and territories at all levels of socio-demographic index" the report says.

Source

• SBS News

Published in Vaccine, the research estimates vaccines averted 4,000 to 12,000 deaths and 34,000 to 56,000 hospitalisations within 18 months from January 2022.

However, among the highlighted outcomes were the disparities in health outcomes for Maori.

The study pointed out that if Maori vaccination rates had matched those of Pakeha, up to 75 of the 292 Maori deaths could have been prevented.

Professor Michael Plank, a co-author and Covid-19 researcher, emphasised the importance of ensuring equal vaccination rates among Maori and non-Maori to save lives and lessen the pandemic's toll on Maori communities.

The authors say the Covid-19 elimination strategy meant most people were able to be vaccinated before being exposed to the virus.

New Zealand's early elimination strategy allowed widespread vaccination before widespread virus exposure, contributing to one of the lowest pandemic mortality rates globally.

This research reinforces the crucial role of vaccines in protecting health while also calling attention to the need for equitable health strategies in Aotearoa.

Source

• 1News

The report this week from NWEA examined test scores from nearly 7 million elementary and middle school students in about 20,000 public schools around the US.

The researchers found that "achievement gains in 2022-23 lagged pre-pandemic trends" in nearly all surveyed students, with numbers "falling short of pre-pandemic averages by 1-19% in reading and by 6-15% in math."

The NWEA noted that the decline was sharper than what was observed in 2021-2022. Reading in upper-level grades suffered the most, the researchers said.

Read More

"Student success is vital. It opens doors to life's best opportunities and allows school graduates to contribute positively to society," Shore told CathNews.

Acknowledging that the factors impacting state schools also affect Catholic schools, he remains optimistic that attendance numbers will improve. Shore's comments follow an earlier statement by the head of New South Wales Catholic schools, Dallas McInerney, who warned of the potential for school attendance not to return to its pre-pandemic norm.

"Government regulations meant our students were physically isolated from their peers and teachers.

"Too many were exposed to heightened levels of health and economic unease, through the media and in their homes," McInerney commented last week.

"There is a lasting effect on school attendance.

"We know that the workforce has not, and perhaps will not, return to pre-COVID levels of at-work attendance, and the same is true of students in NSW."

Shore acknowledges that areas worst hit by poverty and deprivation also suffer the most from truancy, and low attendance rates could result in several adverse outcomes such as a low-skilled workforce, poor social and relationship skills, and a perpetuating cycle of poverty and deprivation.

However, he added that an advantage of being a state-integrated school is that all support provided to state schools is available for Catholic schools as well.

Shore observed that historically, pre-pandemic data showed the attendance rate in Catholic schools was about 5-6% higher.

He attributes the difference to the community-shared values and beliefs that encourage strong relationships between home and school.

Catholic schools have generally been successful in creating powerful bonds with parents.

Citing a case in Northland where community support has boosted attendance rates, he said "Successful partnerships between schools, local iwi and the use of truancy officers is a recipe that works."

Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, acknowledges the negative effect that Covid-19 has had on school attendance.

Facing criticism for a $1m advertising campaign that did not increase school attendance, Tinetti told the NZ Herald on Wednesday that improving school attendance is multi-faceted.

She said that the Ministry of Education is using a range of initiatives to encourage children back to school, and engaging with the broader community, such as parents and employers, is a necessary part of the solution.

Reinforcing the multi-faceted approach, Tinetti told NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, "Every single initiative and effort they've made (the Ministry of Education) is making a difference."

Independently, Shore echoed Tinetti's Covid comments to CathNews, saying the pandemic has introduced many 'downstream' complications, such as students working to support families during tough times, disruptions causing students to disengage from education and fall behind in their studies, and poverty affecting access to schooling.

Shore is encouraged by Catholic schools and their pastoral support processes that focus on human dignity and which help create respectful and inclusive environments, fostering a sense of belonging.

Sources

• CathNews
• NZ Herald
• NewstalkZB
• Supplied

He wants an inquiry into the long-term consequences of shutting down schools during the pandemic.

In a speech to school leaders last week, McInerney said he had argued to keep schooling as normal as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also fought against the "easy option" of cancelling Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams, he said.

"As government regulation meant our students were physically isolated from their peers and teachers … it has been found that too many were exposed to heightened levels of health and economic unease, through the media and in their homes.

"We also have a lasting effect on school attendance … we know that the workforce has not - and perhaps will not - return to pre-COVID levels of at-work attendance, and the same is true of students in NSW."

Attendance decline

NSW most recent attendance data shows over 60 percent of its public high school students missed at least four weeks of class in 2022. That's the worst attendance level on record.

While community illness was higher than usual, indicators suggest wagging was up.

There was a rise in students missing school on Fridays, with no reason supplied.

The stats also show that in the public system last year parents failed to explain children's absence for the equivalent of 3.8 million days.

After the speech, McInerney explained why he backed an inquiry into the pandemic response.

He said the effects of pandemic-related decisions, including closing down physical schooling, are still being felt.

If another pandemic came along, he thinks there would be many benefits to a review to see "if we got it right" and "what happens next."

Inquiry

Australia's federal executive government, under Anthony Albanese's leadership, has yet to launch an inquiry into the federal and state governments' responses to the pandemic.

In a pre-election promise, Albanese's government promised to hold a "royal commission or some form of inquiry" into the country's handling of COVID-19.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has dismissed the need for a royal commission.

However, McInerney says any inquiry could examine how best to address the pandemic's effects, including increased mental health issues and school absenteeism.

The drop-off in school attendance "should be the biggest alarm bell," he says.

Higher School Certificate

In his speech, McInerney said he successfully argued for HSC exams to continue "when others considered the easy option of cancellation".

Sarah Mitchell, who was the education minister at that time, also wanted exams to proceed as normal.

Decisions to close schools to most students were made in line with health advice.

"We were also very conscious of the impacts of learning from home and how students were coping with the disruption and lack of routine."

Mitchell also prioritised enabling the HSC exams to continue.

A NSW Department of Education spokesman said COVID challenged schools across the globe.

"Teachers in NSW went above and beyond to support their students," he said.

Source

• Sydney Morning Herald

Those concerns have been aired in a series of just-released video interviews, as the Ministry of Health says it's impossible to quantify how many people are living with the post-viral condition today.

A constellation of persisting symptoms thought to accompany 10 to 20 per cent of infections, Long Covid can affect nearly every organ system in our bodies - yet there remains no universally-established treatment or cure.

A major study published earlier this year found that one in five participants reported Long Covid symptoms after their initial infection - and that many patients were still struggling to get help.

Read More

Far from it. It's still a global health and welfare threat, WHO officials say.

We can expect the same devastating health and social consequences will continue to plague us. The virus keeps evolving and spreading.

Many vulnerable communities around the world remain unvaccinated. This raises the risk of death and ill health.

As Dr Mike Ryan from WHO's Health Emergencies Programme says: "There's still a public health threat out there."

He says WHO sees that every day in terms of the way the virus is evolving, its global presence and continued vulnerabilities in our communities.

These are "societal vulnerabilities, age vulnerabilities, protection vulnerabilities, and many other things," he says.

Children are particularly at risk. Save the Children is very concerned.

Governments across the world must give children's health, education and protection greater priority now the global emergency is over, Save the Children says.

Dr Zaeem Haq, Save the Children Global Medical Director, says while WHO's announcement is a "crucial milestone", the virus is here to stay.

There are still enormous challenges facing millions of children worldwide.

"Over the past three years, COVID-19 turned children's lives upside down.

"Hundreds of millions of children are still facing the effects of the pandemic every day and will likely continue to do so for years to come.

"COVID-19 and the resulting lockdowns, global economic shutdown and disruption to services brought on an unprecedented crisis for children, putting their physical and mental health, education, protection and economic wellbeing in jeopardy.

"This, combined with the effects of conflicts and the climate crisis, exacerbated existing inequalities and hit the most marginalised children the hardest."

He gives some nasty statistics.

An estimated 100 million additional children were driven into poverty and the risk of hunger increased worldwide.

Over 1.5 billion children had their education disrupted

Children suffered an increase in violence when schools were closed.

An estimated 10.5 million children lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19.

The pandemic unleashed a global mental health crisis, with eight percent of children reporting an increase in negative feelings as a result.

Without urgent global action, years of progress for children will be permanently reversed. This will put the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals beyond reach, says Haq.

"It's vital that all governments prioritise and invest in children's physical and mental health, nutrition, wellbeing, protection and learning.

"They must also commit to invest in early outbreak detection systems and robust pandemic preparedness, strengthen health systems and ensure universal access to healthcare.

"The announcement by the WHO serve as a stark reminder that we live in a highly unequal world, one that is failing to protect children and their rights. Global leaders must work together to prioritise and finance the work that must be done."

Source

• CNN
• Catholic Culture
• NZ Doctor

The rising number of Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths suggest we could be in for another rough winter.

Although as of Sunday, the number of Covid cases dropped from the previous week's recent high, 14,242 cases, Covid isn't the only illness that Kiwis' have to contend with.

Otago University infectious disease expert Dr Jemma Geoghegan says other more established viruses must also be considered this year.

Open borders have led to larger outbreaks.

There was a big one last year. And many new flu cases have been introduced to New Zealand this year, Geoghegan says.

New Zealanders should take this as a warning to get up-to-date with not only Covid boosters, but also the flu vaccine, she says.

"Immunity has waned, and it's probably quite some time since most people have had a booster or vaccine."

Geoghegan explains that vaccine technology has moved on quite significantly from when most of us received our first batch of shots.

"The new bivalent vaccine includes not only protection against the original strain that first emerged in Wuhan, but it also includes the Omicron spike protein."

"With anything that includes Omicron, this [vaccine] should give better protection than the previous version of the vaccine."

While agreeing with Geoghegan about the importance of getting a Covid booster, University of Otago colleague, epidemiologist, and professor Peter McIntyre said it was time to ‘de-prioritise' the response to Covid-19, which will now be no worse than the flu for the majority of the population.

McIntyre says the focus should now be on getting those at higher risk double-boosted rather than worrying about infection control through increased mask-wearing or improved ventilation.

What lifted restrictions mean for Catholics

Parishes are free to offer Communion in both the form of bread and wine.

Many, however, have opted to keep the Covid restrictions in place.

For those who are offering the chalice:

• Ministers of the Chalice must "practise the usual procedures when ministering, including wiping the chalice both inside and out (with a clean part of the purifier) and rotating the chalice between recipients."
• Remind parishioners they may receive only from the chalice if they are well.

For those ministering to those who are sick, elderly or immunocompromised:

• People are free to offer a Sign of Peace with a handshake - or "a genuine word of peace and a warm smile".
• Masks are no longer required. Parishes may choose whether they want people distributing Holy Communion to wear a mask.
• Holy water can be made available at the entrance. This water should be refreshed regularly.
• Ministers of Communion to the sick and homebound are encouraged to ask those receiving the Sacrament if they would like them to wear a mask.

Source

• NZ Herald
• NZ Herald
• Palmerston North Diocese

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) estimates 13 million nurses will need to be replaced within the coming years.

ICNs March 2023 report says the global nursing shortage was as high as 30.6 million in 2019. That was before the pandemic.

The pandemic has exacerbated that shortage, the report says.

Back in its January 2022 report, the ICN pointed to the Covid-effect on staffing. It spoke of "burnt out" nurses leaving the profession or taking absence. Or going where they're better paid.

As an example, nearly 5,000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia since August.

Many are taking up lucrative short-term contracts of up to NZ$8500 a week.

Change is possible

Nursing may be in a profound staffing crisis, but this can be changed, ICN says.

"During recovery and rebuild, every working nurse deserves consideration.

"Three years into the pandemic, there are several key policy responses that are required to support the nurse workforce and therefore enable a health system rebuild.

"This includes investment in redeploying resources to other parts of the health system to enable the backlog of non-COVID-19 care to be dealt with.

"It will involve investing in a well-supported global nursing workforce - a necessity for global health systems to recover and be rebuilt effectively."

"Nurses are the professionals who can lead us out of this post-pandemic slump in healthcare, but they can do that only if there are enough of them, if they are properly supported and paid, and if the fragile health systems they work in are rejuvenated with large investments from governments everywhere," says ICN president Pamela Cipriano.

A lack of investment in nurse education has resulted in insufficient nurses being trained, globally.

Relying on the "quick fix" of international recruitment instead of investing in nursing education won't work either.

This contributes to staff shortages, even in countries like the Philippines and India that traditionally educate nurses to work in higher-income countries.

The report warns policy makers:

"To avoid ...nurses reaching breaking point, ... give proper attention to the impact of ... rebuild decisions on individual nurses and the nurse workforce.

"If policy makers focus only at the system level ... nurse retention and longer-term supply will worsen."

The global health emergency

Since the pandemic began, 40 to 80 percent of the world's nurses had experienced symptoms of psychological distress.

The number of nurses reporting they intend leaving their job had risen to 20 percent or higher.

Annual staff turnover in hospitals rose to 10 percent or higher.

"The worldwide shortage of nurses needs to be considered as a global health emergency and recovery from the current situation must be a priority for governments everywhere," says ICN chief executive Howard Catton.

"The recovery of the nursing workforce is an essential prerequisite to rebuilding our health systems, ... without a sustainable, properly distributed global nursing workforce, the realisation of the goal of health for all will only ever be a pipe dream."

Source

• The Daily Item
• Nursing Times
• Stuff

The parents of the baby at the centre of the "unjabbed blood" case are "realistic" that blood products from vaccinated donors may have to be used in the baby's heart surgery, their lawyer says.

But they insist that "the bulk" of the blood be unvaccinated, according to Sue Grey.

Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand wants the courts to take temporary custody of the four-month-old baby Read more

As videos of crowds holding up paper sheets and chanting slogans flooded the internet last weekend, Chinese-language social media posts have come to call the demonstrations in more than a dozen cities the "white paper revolution."

Authorities have since moved quickly to squelch the protests, arresting some demonstrators and sending university students home, in a bid to quickly snuff out the most overt challenge to Chinese leadership in decades.

Using blank sheets of paper as a symbol of protest is not new.

They were used during protests in the Soviet Union during the 1990s and in recent years in Russia and Belarus as well, Taiwan-based Chinese blogger Zuola told Radio Free Asia.

"In the current climate in China, you can be told off by the government for saying anything at all," Zuola said. "It's the ultimate kind of performance art protest — by holding up a blank sheet of paper, you are saying that you have something to say, but that you haven't said it yet."

"It's very contagious, so everything started holding up these blank sheets of paper to show dissatisfaction with the social controls imposed by the Chinese government, with their political environment and with [controls on] speech," he said.

Pent-up anger

The protests were sparked by public anger at the delayed response to a deadly fire on Nov. 24 in Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, that has been widely blamed on COVID-19 restrictions.

The incident, which left at least 10 people dead, tapped into pent-up frustrations of millions of Chinese who have endured nearly three years of repeated lockdowns, travel bans, quarantines and various other restrictions to their lives.

Videos swirled around the internet showing people in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities holding the white pieces of paper above their heads, demanding an end to the strict "zero-COVID" limits. Protesters also began to call for greater freedom of expression, democratic reforms, and even the removal of President Xi Jinping, who has been closely identified with the rigid policies.

According to an unverified document circulating on social media, officials in major cities were being told to take steps to control the supply of ubiquitous white printer paper, with a major stationery firm suspending online and offline sales.

Compared with the Post-it notes that formed the "Lennon Walls" of Hong Kong's 2019 protest movement, which showcased huge mosaics of diverse messages and creative personal expression, the blank sheets of paper are a more ironic reference to government controls and censorship, analysts said.

Striking a chord

Veteran Taiwan social activist Ho Tsung-hsun said the white paper revolution had quickly spread across the country, indicating it struck a chord with a wide variety of protesters in China.

"Some people pasted blank sheets of paper next to a statue of [late revolutionary Chinese writer] Lu Xu, and under Xi Jinping slogans," Ho told RFA.

"Some students sang the Internationale in their dorms at night, while others took their guitars to sing it on the streets, with blank sheets of paper pasted next to their guitars," he added, referring to the communist anthem.

"In Wuzhen, Zhejiang, some young women sealed their mouths shut, handcuffed themselves and held up blank sheets of paper," he said.

Ho added that people quickly started using other white items following reports that the sale of A4 paper - the typical size of printer paper in China and other countries - was being restricted by the authorities.

"I'm more inclined to call it the white revolution, because people have been very creative about expressing themselves through white objects, since reports emerged online that it was now impossible to buy paper, that sales had been restricted in a lot of places," he said.

"If they restrict sales of white paper, then other white materials and objects can be used, such as white cloth or white paint," Ho said.

Some online accounts have started replacing their avatars or profile photos with white backgrounds, while social media users have used the hashtags #whitepaperrevolution and #A4revolution to show support for the protests, alongside selfies holding blank sheets of paper in the streets or posting them anonymously on bulletin boards and in corridors, cafes and parks.

‘We want dignity and freedom'

A news and commentary account that uses the handle @citizensdailycn across several social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter said the white paper movement was "the revolution of our generation."

"We want to say what they don't want us to say: We want dignity and freedom," it said in an apparent rallying call opposing controls on speech and information, as well as the restrictions of the zero-COVID policy.

The Urumqi fire has coincided with a growing realization that the circumstances in China as it relates to COVID restrictions are unusual compared with other countries, according to Zuola.

"Since the start of the World Cup, the Chinese people have been discovering that no other country is taking [the] Omicron [variant of COVID-19] seriously," Zuola said.

"People are also angry that Sinovac and other [Chinese] vaccine companies won their licenses through bribery, and over the government collusion with business that has made it impossible to roll back pandemic restrictions over the past three years," he said.

Feeling their pain

"Then there was the lone protest by Peng Lifa," he said, in a reference to the Oct. 13 "Bridge Man" protest banners hung from a Beijing traffic flyover. "All of this has been fermenting for some time; it hasn't happened overnight. There has been a sense of long-running grievance over internet censorship in China, too."

When the Uyghur residents of the apartment block died in a fire after screaming to be allowed to leave the locked-down building, everyone in China felt their pain, he said.

"They were shouting that they were all from Urumqi, that everyone was a victim of the disease control measures, and that they couldn't allow those people to be left to die in silence," he said.

Ho believes there is also a mute reference to ballot papers — meaningless in China, where all "election" candidates must be pre-approved by the government — in the use of sheets of printer paper.

The blankness of the sheets also echoes the lack of clear aim or unified leadership during the weekend's protests.

"A movement without a leader is what those in power fear the most," Ho said.

• Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

But did some of them give up on God?

Sociologists like Michael Hout want to know.

Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University, has long tracked the decline of organized religion in America. So he was interested to see that several indicators of what he called "intense religion" declined in the 2021 General Social Survey.

In that survey, fewer Americans than in 2016 said they take the Bible literally, pray frequently or have a strong religious affiliation.

Even as church attendance had been consistently dropping off over the past decades, those more personal measures of faith had previously held steady or showed only slight decline.

"Then they fell off a cliff," said Hout in a video interview.

In a new, yet-to-be-published study, Hout and colleagues Landon Schnabel from Cornell University and Sean Bock from Harvard, raise questions about the rapid decline in those measures during the pandemic, which they argue may be more due to changes in how the GSS was administered rather than a sign of religious decline.

Founded in 1972 at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, the GSS, conducted every two years, has long been considered a gold standard for national surveys, in part because it has been administered in person rather than online or over the phone.

When the pandemic made in-person surveys unworkable, the GSS switched to a hybrid approach, with most participants answering questions online, while others took the survey over the phone.

Researchers also asked some of the participants in the 2016 and 2018 surveys to take part in the 2020 survey, which was published in 2021.

Hout and his colleagues compared past participants who agreed to retake the survey with those who did not and found that fewer "intensely religious" people retook the survey.

For example, they wrote, 36% of those who took part in the 2016 survey said they took the Bible literally.

That dropped to 25% among those who completed the follow-up.

They also found those who did not take the follow-up survey were more distrustful of institutions and more disconnected from civic society and the internet than those who did.

As a result, the change in survey format led to fewer religious people participating in the 2021 survey, which Hout believes skewed some of the results on religion.

That's unfortunate, he said, especially at a time when the religious landscape in the United States is changing.

"If you want to measure change, don't change how you measure it," he said. "In this moment of great change, we changed how we measure it."

Hout said that the 2022 GSS data will give a clearer picture of how religion in the United States changed over the pandemic. And he hopes the GSS will remain an in-person survey in the future — though he admitted doing in-person surveys is costly and difficult.

Overall, Hout said, surveys have become more difficult in recent years because of larger changes in American culture.

In the past, he said, surveys offered ordinary people a way to comment on larger trends in the culture. Now, he said, social media allows everyone to speak their mind. And people are more sceptical about talking to strangers.

"Before the internet, one of the things that kept GSS and other survey response rates really high was the fact that people said, ‘Oh yeah, I'd love to get a few things off my chest,'" he said. "Now they have a lot of other options that they control much more of."

A spokesman for the GSS did not respond to a request for comment about changes in methodology.

Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and author of "The Nones," believes a move online is inevitable for the GSS.

Burge, who often writes about religion and survey data, said most other major surveys, including those from Pew Research and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, now have embraced online panels.

Burge believes online surveys give a more accurate view of religion in America than in-person interviews, in part because people are less likely to lie to a computer about their faith.

Being religious, he said, is still seen as a social good for many Americans. That leads to the so-called halo effect, where people overestimate how religious they are because they want to make a good impression on the surveyor.

Burge argues previous GSS surveys have undercounted the number of Americans who are considered nones — those who have no religion. The 2021 survey, he said, gave a result more in line with other surveys, showing that about 30% of Americans would be considered nones.

"People are more honest when they are looking at a web browser," he said.

Burge says that there are losses in the move from in-person to online surveys.

There is more nuance in an in-person interview, as people can give an answer that's not on the survey. And not everyone understands all the denominational categories on surveys, he said, and might not know where they fit in an online survey.

Hout said that while organized religion in the United States is likely to continue to decline, much of the decline is among so-called Christians and Easter Christians, who only occasionally attend services.

That has led to what he called "all or nothing" approaches to religion — where people show up all the time and believe intensely, or they give up on religion. And people remain spiritual, even if they don't identify with a particular faith.

"Atheism is not what's happening," Hout said.

"If we think of organized religion as a conjoined thing, the quarrel is with the organized part, not the religion."

• Bob Smietana is a veteran religion writer and national reporter for Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

Choir practices and performances were forbidden for 18 months after a damning health report into one of the first US Covid-19 outbreaks among a church choir.

Fifty-three people who attended the March 2020 choir practice developed symptoms. The local health department concluded that one person who later tested positive — and who had shown signs of a cold beforehand — was probably the source of the infection.

Hundreds of scientific papers went on to quote the investigation.

All claimed the March 2020 Skagit Valley Chorale rehearsal was one of the pandemic's first so-called super-spreader events.

Three UK universities have been studying the so-called "super-spreader's" epidemiological curve. They found in most cases, infection occurred two to four days before the choir practice. In a nutshell, Covid was already rife in the community.

"We show it is vanishingly unlikely that this was a single point source outbreak as widely claimed and on which modelling has been based," says the study.

"An unexamined assumption has led to erroneous policy conclusions about the risks of singing, and indoor spaces more generally, and the benefits of increased levels of ventilation."

The choir ban affected innumerable people and caused great suffering to those implicated in spreading the virus, the study notes.

In the UK alone, there are more than 40,000 choirs and 2.14 million people sing regularly.

Led by public health infectious diseases specialist Professor Jackie Cassell from Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the team behind the new study is calling for the original claims to be re-examined.

"Ethically we think the original outbreak investigation should not [have] mentioned an index case," says Brunel University London's Dr Colin Axon.

"That's because everybody in that choir would know who the first person was. So mentioning it puts that person at risk, effectively saying they're responsible for the death of their friends. That's a massive and unacceptable moral burden."

TV choirmaster Gareth Malone, from BAFTA-winning reality series The Choir, said: "The outbreak in the Skagit Valley Chorale sent shockwaves round the singing world.

"I'm sure singers everywhere will welcome the fact that this is being looked at again. Singing with others is so good for us in so many ways, but some people are still fearful about singing because of Covid, so it's important that we are constantly re-evaluating the evidence.

"The Skagit County story is a good example of a familiar problem, where an early provisional study gets taken for granted and cited without critical re-evaluation," says Professor Robert Dingwall of Nottingham Trent University.

"There are likely to be many similar cases out there and the scientific community needs to find better ways of detecting them if policy mistakes are to be avoided."

Source

• The Tablet

It's the first sustained uptick since the "winter wave" of Omicron subvariant BA.5, University of Melbourne public health researcher Nancy Baxter told RN Breakfast on Friday.

"You have things like wastewater testing, sewage testing, and numbers are going up there [now]."

New Zealand is also experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases after experiencing two months of declining cases in August and September, following a Covid peak in July.

In Australia, fewer people are getting tested, but of those that do, a larger proportion are testing positive.

In some states, hospitalisations are increasing too.

"Those are all signs that actually the decline is over, and we're starting to see the start of the new wave," Professor Baxter said.

This wave is driven not by one new variant but a bunch of Omicron offshoots, signalling a "turning point" in the pandemic, according to Norelle Sherry, medical microbiologist and infectious diseases physician at the Doherty Institute.

"It's no longer one big wave of a single variant being replaced by another single variant.

"We're actually in more of a Covid soup - not my original phrase, but I think it's definitely apt."

What are the new subvariants in Australia?

The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been the sole "variant of concern" since Delta was downgraded to "previous variant of concern" in June this year.

And in the year or so since Omicron was first detected, it's spun off into more than 300 subvariants (that we know of).

The big one - BA.5 - might be on the decline, yet still makes up most cases reported in Australia at the moment.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health figures indicate that BA.5 is also the dominant variant in Aotearoa currently accounting for 78 percent of cases.

BA.2.75 - which was first detected in India in May and was nicknamed Centaurus - is still kicking around too.

In New Zealand, the Health Ministry says BA.2.75 and XBB variants were over-represented in terms of people getting reinfected with the virus.

Variant XBB is one of the new names popping up in the Australian context, along with BQ.1.

So far these new variants have mostly spread in different parts of the world: BQ.1 and its close relative BQ.1.1 feature heavily in Europe and the US, whereas XBB took hold in Asia, notably causing a wave in Singapore that peaked in mid-October.

They differ in how they came to be, too. BQ.1 descended from BA.5, so can be considered a sublineage of a sublineage.

XBB, on the other hand, is what's known as a "recombinant", the result of two different Omicron subvariants swapping parts of their genetic material - in this case, Centaurus and BA.2.10.1.

Other Covid recombinants have appeared over the past couple of years, Dr Sherry said, but XBB is the first to spread widely.

What BQ.1 and XBB do have in common is a whole bunch of mutations in their spike protein.

This means that even if you've had another subvariant of Covid or been fully vaccinated, the new Omicron viruses might be able to sneak past your immune defences.

It also means some treatments might be less effective. One study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found monoclonal antibody drugs, which work like antibodies made by your own immune system to fight a Covid infection, aren't as effective against BQ.1 and XBB.

How do XBB and BQ.1 compare to BA.5?

Overseas data suggest XBB and BQ1 transmit faster than the currently reigning BA.5, but there is some good news.

"We don't know for sure yet, but the signs are that their disease severity is similar to the other Omicrons," Dr Sherry said.

During Singapore's XBB wave, for instance, while case numbers rose, hospitalisations didn't follow suit.

In October, the Singaporean Ministry of Health reported that people infected with XBB had a 30 percent lower risk of hospitalisation compared to those with BA.5. Continue reading

In some areas principals warned it could take years for children to catch up on what they have missed, while others said achievement was no different from before the pandemic.

Schools visited by RNZ also described effects including poor attendance and more online abuse.

In Porirua East, Tairangi School principal Jason Ataera said it could take years to fix the damage to children's achievement.

"In our community I would say it would be rare for anybody to be at the same level they would have been had the pandemic not happened," he said. Read more