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PAGE 8 THUR 18.11.21 - WED 24.11.21
EDITION 1053
Covid ruling: GP quits ānaka GP and former winter Mark Edmond has resigned over the Government’s Covid mandate. He left Aspiring Medical Centre this week after eight years saying freedoms were being taken away “for something that has not been shown to be particularly effective in the real world”. The Christchurch born 44-year-old has spent 17 years as a general family practitioner, and 20 years in medicine. He represented New Zealand in the two-man and four-man bobsled event at Salt Lake City in 2002, where his wife Angie also represented New Zealand in the luge. The father of five, who moved to Wānaka in January 2014, cannot continue in practice because he is not vaccinated. The Government announced a vaccine mandate last month. It will cover thousands of workers in healthcare and education who are required to be vaccinated by the end of the year. “This is my career, so it’s not a decision that I take lightly,” Mark Edmond said. Having to choose between his job or the vaccine was ‘highly coercive’ and a ‘breach of my personal freedom’. He said he had not expressed his personal views to patients as he tried to present them with objective and
W Olympian
informative advice. His concern is over the definition of the vaccine, which he says is disingenuous. “Technically it’s more a gene therapy… it’s a little bit misleading. They’ve since changed the definition of vaccine to include mRNA gene therapy, but it didn’t meet the old definition until Covid came along. “When you introduce genetic material to a cell and get the cell to do something, that is gene therapy. When you introduce something to the body and then you get the immune system to respond to that thing then that’s a vaccine. “The argument for calling it a vaccine is that your cells then produce something that your immune system then responds to. You can’t conflate the two things together, they’re a separate thing. It’s disingenuous to say the two are similar, so similar that you can call them the same thing.” He said he could understand why it is called a vaccine because it’s a term that people are familiar with, and the non-medically trained portion of the population understand. But he regards it to be misleading. “I think that if you say a term often enough then you stop thinking about it.” He said he has been vaccinated in the past and considered each treatment on its merits.
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Mark Edmond
He believed other freedoms had been denied New Zealanders during the pandemic. “There’s also the freedom of movement because of the lockdowns and of what people want to wear because they have to wear masks. There’s freedom of what to put in your own body, freedom of association that has been happening. Freedom of expression as well because I’m not
allowed to say anything that goes against the vaccine. “So, there are at least five key freedoms and I’m, like, enough is enough, I have to make a stand on this before everything is lost because its heading that way.” He said he was not the only employee at the medical centre to have decided against getting vaccinated, but he understood he was in the minority. – By Aimee Owens
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Ignite awards list revealed
Finalists for the Ignite Wānaka Business Awards have been announced, and judges say they have been impressed by resilience and innovation despite the challenges of Covid-19. More than 60 businesses from around Wānaka entered the biennial awards, sponsored by Milford Asset Management. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner in April at a secret location on April 30, 2021. The function – normally held in November – has been postponed due to Covid alert level restrictions. The judges are Wayne Hudson, Ann Lockhart, Charlie James and Meg Taylor. Finalists are: Infrastructure/trades (supported by Findex): Batchelar McDougall, Dunlop Builders, Mega Mitre10, R&R Plumbing, Uppercut Firewood. Professional services: Batchelar McDougall, The Film Crew, Ocula. Tourism (supported by Lake Wānaka Tourism): Hook, Lavender Farm, Wild Wire. Retail (supported by Logic 1): Lavender Farm, Mega Mitre10, Ocula. Hospitality (supported by Drive Accounting): Lavender Farm, Pembroke Patisserie, Red Star Burgers. Innovation (supported by Aspiring Law): Proppy.co.nz, R&R Plumbing, The Film Crew. Sustainability (supported by Queenstown Airport): Manage My House, Ripe, Wild Wire. Young enterprise (supported by Air New Zealand): The Next Chapter, The Napery, Village Gift Not-for-profit (supported by Queenstown Lakes District Council): WAI Wānaka, Community Networks/ LINK Upper Clutha, WAO Resilience and Diversification Award (supported by Todd & Walker Law): Pembroke Patisserie, The Film Crew, Wild Wire Employer (supported by EASI NZ): Breen Construction, Manage My House, Ocula Individual (sponsored by Cardrona Alpine Resort): Anna Van Riel, Waste Free Wānaka; Bridget Legnavsky, RealNZ; Mandy Bell, Wai Wānaka. People’s Choice finalists (supported by the Wānaka App): Dunlop Builders, Lavender Farm, Mega Mitre10, The Next Chapter, Ocula, Pembroke Patisserie, R&R Plumbing, The Film Crew, Village Gift.
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