Dr Liz Gordon: No vaccine passport for me
I have registered on ‘My Covid’ but I won’t be getting a certificate any time soon. This is because my record shows I have only had one jab, despite copious evidence that I have had two.
The problem started on 30 July when I turned up for my appointment. Somehow I had been signed up as Linda Gordon from Hawkes Bay (if anyone knows Linda, say hi from me). At the reception I noted that this was incorrect, and helped the receptionist find the real me. After I had the jab, at 12.29 pm according to the paper record card, the jabber (err I mean vaccination nurse) tried to input the data but again the system insisted I was Linda. She managed to put it right but told me I may need to ring up and correct it.
I rung up and corrected it. The teleperson was not sure whether this would be enough, and told me that if I was contacted again, to let the people know. This did not inspire my confidence!
Time passed. I had my second jab on 10 September and they thought it was my first jab. Oh dear. I told them it was my second. They told me they were not using the little white cards anymore but I insisted they fill mine out. I had premonitions of danger. I have kept the little card in the pocket of my phone cover ever since.
So I logged on last week to the ‘My Covid’ site. It showed that I had received one jab, on 10 September. Of course it did.
There was a form to be filled out if I thought the information was wrong. I filled it out. I filled out my personal details, including my NHI number (which I now know off by heart). On the second page, I told them all the dates, times and batch numbers (oh that lovely little card!) and attached a copy of the little card. Massive amounts of information.
On the third page, I again inputted all the data from the first page, using a slightly different format. My heart sank. Their data form is a hot mess. How can they possibly get anything else right?
I sent the form off. The next working day, I received an email from Joel. His email address was jira@moh-c19-support.atlassian.net. He signed himself Joel, Ministry of Health. No logos, no contact information. I was sure it must be a scam of some sort. The email read:
Kia ora,
Thanks for sending this through to us.
We will get this sent off to the team to investigate. Please be aware we have an increasing backlog but will work to fix this as quick as we can.
Turnaround time may be around 2 weeks so please bare with us and know we have your request. Sending the form again will only create more work for the teams.
Kind regards
Joel
Ministry of Health
How many of you think this is fishy? You noticed the interesting spelling mistake and lack of formality? Would you trust the correction of your vaccine record to this lot?
It brought up another interesting issue. There are others, perhaps many, many others, in the same situation as me. One needs to be a little understanding about this, as there are going to be mistakes with so many vaccination centres, pop-up services and the like.
But so far I have had five attempts at putting the record straight, which has taken a lot more time than the original error. I have tried to get the mistake corrected, over and over again. Linda Gordon of Hawkes Bay is probably desperately trying to get her second jab and being told she has already had two.
Let’s see how long it takes to put right, or whether I am forever to be condemned to the ranks of the unvaccinated.
Dr Liz Gordon is a researcher and a barrister, with interests in destroying neo-liberalism in all its forms and moving towards a socially just society. She usually blogs on justice, social welfare and education topics.
I seriously question if the same people are responsible for the growing list of debacles involving the all important urgent applications for compassionate leave from MIQ to be with a dying loved one before they pass. Despite the obvious distress of this situation, being fully vaccinated and having proof of a very recent negative Covid test result, we have faceless / nameless bureaucrats displaying complete indifference and repeatedly dismissing / declining these applications. If this is any guide to our Ministry of Health operates with New Zealanders at their time of greatest need, they are an epic fail.
The senior camels are being very adult @Thinking man and during this pandemic, they’ve decided to put aside their natural instinct to preserve their tribe and fiefdoms they usually adhere to. MoH, MBIE and Defence have all come together to ensure their own mutual survival. I think they might even spend extended lunch hours together at times perusing the Unity Books shelves in the self-improvement and business management theory sections.
I’ve noticed a couple of them haven’t appeared in the media of late so at least they have the decency not to show their faces amongst the public they profess to serve. Their record hasn’t really been that spectacular although that won’t matter when it comes to embellishing their C.V’s as they try to move on to better things. LinkedIn even has a few uber-ambitious peons extolling their virtues.
While you wonder if it’s the same people who’re are responsible for the growing list of debacles, I often wonder whether it’s the same people intentionally trying to sabotage this gummint.
But if so – more fucking fool the lot of them.
A camel is a horse designed by a committee with a number of breakout focus groups comprising the ‘team’.
Baby camels usually do the hard graft while their seniors run the committees and handle the PR
Like you, I’m definitely holding on to the original card that shows both dates, the NHI number, the name of the vaccine and batch numbers, and the date and time vaccinations were given.
One good thing about this is that we can still complain. But once the universal Digital ID system is locked in, nothing short of absolute compliance will be tolerated from this neoliberal-led, bureaucratic system.
This system is never wrong and this system will not tolerate disobedience. Welcome to our soon-to-be new normal.
Yeah, but at least your credit rating in still intact.
But I might not be able to spend anything if I am a pariah!
Well, if you do have to bare with it, at least the weather is getting warmer, so you should not catch a chill.
Wow, this must be a thing with the moh, Linda…… oops sorry, I meant Dr Liz.
I turned up at Waikato hospital for an appointment last year and there was another woman’s notes in my file. (similar christian name that’s all) My doctor then got an email to say I hadn’t attended the appointment , which I most definitely had, so it looks like the root of their problems goes back a ways to the days when we thought computers could fix anything ….https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/116112460/auditor-general-releases-damning-findings-into-waikato-dhbs-smarthealth
(https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/116256227/no-healthtap-under-me-new-waikato-dhb-boss-says)
jira (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlassian) is software used for bug tracking (apparently writing code is like knitting; if you drop a stitch/ character/ parameter the whole thing will unravel/error/decay) but just like space travel, gene tech and brain/computer interface tech, all this uncharted territory appears as a lawless free for all.
Whanau Ora can’t get their data because maybe it is not there/gone/deteriorated, idk: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/454950/covid-19-ministry-seeks-extra-time-to-release-maori-vaccination-data
Britain’s Post Office postmasters’ tragedy: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10196485/Delivered-hell-Wronged-Subpostmasters-branded-criminals-jailed-driven-suicide.html could be the same kind of animal and a potential disaster.
The huge mortality rate on newly built ‘smart’ motorways in the UK demonstrates the costly inefficiencies and dangers of buying into leveraged systems in a rush to be first up best dressed.
Pre-Disney folk tales such as Aesop’s fables and Grimm’s fairytales seem to provide many instances of perennial human folly; the story of the tortoise and the hare springs to mind around this emperor’s new clothes classic; however the boy with his finger in the dyke may have been, this time around, too long tortured by the elite scum of the technocracy. enuf said. thank you for pointing this out Dr Liz 🙂
Perhaps you should go for third jab, which would then constitute an early “booster”. I have to wait until March for my booster.