How the Medical Council NZ (MCNZ) behaved during Covid is now clear: it acted on unreliable health advice from the WHO.
It’s not believable to claim the MCNZ did its best with what it knew at the time. If it was good enough for some members of the public, and doctors, nurses and medical specialists, to question the government’s Covid narrative, it should be expected that MCNZ would do the same.
There were no public debates about the health, social and economic gains and losses from border closures, lockdowns, social distancing, masking, vaccine mandates versus the advantages of natural immunity and repurposing of existing drugs such as ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.
The MCNZ has become so financially entrenched in the pharmaceutical industry that it was unthinkable to discard their directives to prioritise alternative health measures at negligible financial cost.
During Covid, with the exception of hand hygiene, our medical experts neglected the virtues of good old-fashioned sunshine, fresh air, nutritious food, sufficient sleep, daily exercise and reliable health remedies such as throat gargles and nasal sprays.
MCNZ forced doctors who refused to comply out of the NZ medical profession. Some left the industry entirely, leaving a shortage of skilled staff; some left to work in the alternative medicine industry, which is experiencing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.1 per cent “highlighting the shifting trends towards personal health and wellness that have boosted the market despite global economic challenges”, and some doctors simply abandoned the medical industry altogether.
Those who could not afford to leave the industry stayed by keeping their heads down and their mouths shut.
My preference is to consult doctors who recommend better lifestyle choices to address health issues rather than swallowing pills. Having surpassed the grand old age of three score and ten years in generally good health without daily medication, I am an anomaly. Workers in the health system ask me, incredulously, ‘What, no daily medications?’
Most New Zealanders over the age of 70 years are prescribed four or more medicines, and a small number take as many as 20 different medicines.
(Healthify NZ)
Pharmaceuticals are essential, that is not up for debate: medications and treatments save lives and prevent suffering, but has our medical profession become so financially dependent on Big Pharma that they dare not look elsewhere?
Obviously not all doctors. Former MCNZ Member Richard Aston testified in court about the non-public discord between MCNZ members facing the government’s Covid diktats. The MCNZ fully supported the government’s stance and disciplined resistant members, particularly those who criticised mandatory vaccination, including pregnant women and children, without the supporting safety data.
What alarmed me at the time was the majority of MCNZ members were aggressive in their response to all these ‘anti-vax’ doctors, calling for harsh, vindictive even, sanctions for even the most minor of cases.
Former MCNZ Member Richard Aston
Did the MCNZ fall into lockstep with public health officials after debating Covid policy behind closed doors and deciding to take a more lucrative financial route?
Did our public health decision makers consider the political and financial ramifications of Covid policies, including our affiliation with the WHO?
The Ardern Government spent $70.4 billion on its Covid response, which was money wasted on measures that failed to stop the spread of the disease and decimated the NZ economy.
To put the Covid spend into perspective, the total annual public health budget for 2024 is a paltry $5.72 billion.
While NZ businesses were forced into financial failure, the medical profession thrived from Covid.
A lot of money changed hands for MCNZ members to dispense masks, jab needles in arms, diagnose Covid with inappropriate and unreliable RATs and dish out experimental anti-virals with serious side effects.
Going forward, will the MCNZ redeem itself? It certainly hasn’t displayed any appetite for voluntarily admitting its mistake in the flawed Covid responses, despite being outed in the courts, for example in February 2022 when Justice Cooke ruled in the High Court that the vaccine mandates issued for New Zealand Police and Defence Force workers were unlawful, and more recently with ACC now accepting claims for Covid vaccine injury.
The MCNZ has given itself two headaches: the first is erosion of trust in the NZ medical industry and the second is the growth of its competition in the form of natural and alternative medicines and practices. Both problems are entirely of the MCNZ’s own making.
