George Anthony (76), Retiree/ Caregiver. Wellington, NZ.
My wife and I live in Featherston. I have five children all vaccinated my wife has two both vaccinated. My wife's eldest son is non-verbal and severely physically, and mentally handicapped, my wife is his Legal Guardian and I support her looking after him.
My wife and I are on a Plant Based Diet, (fruits, veggies and nuts)and chose not to have the vaccine, not that were ‘anti-vaxers' but preferred instead to demonstrate how good health through a good diet will counter most things, to date we have not had Covid despite our children having had it several times and many of our visiting friends also.
With regard to my wife's disabled son we believed, that if he was able to speak that he would do the same as his brother and my five children, and as we had a ‘Duty of Care' we choose that he be vaccinated.
He had his second vaccination on August 13th 2021, within days his feet turned blue and purple and became very swollen. Prior to the second vaccination he could, with the aid of a walker, walk around say Mitre 10. After the vaccine his legs became grossly spastic and he has no longer been able to stand or walk for the last two years and 8 months.
As I had said, I supported my wife in a caregiving role for which I was paid out of our Funding Package. When the ‘No Vac' ‘ No job' came into play I could not care for him and be paid, notwithstanding I had to continue my work supporting him and my wife paid or not.
The complete lack of discussion with people and communities advising of additional things that we could do to improve our health and recovery from illnesses, and how to deal with the psychological trauma has been appalling, and I have seen many suffering as a result.
To add insult to our injury was the complete lack of acceptance and any discussion from our medical Doctor that the Vaccine could have caused my step sons massive crippling, and to date has remained the same-no acceptance.
For the last 2 years and 8 months we have been fighting to keep him alive, his lack of mobility is putting more and more strain on us as we age as he needs a two person lift a lot of the time.
It has been amazingly traumatic and stressful for my with, as it would be for any mother watching her child go through this.
To put covid deaths in some sort of perspective we can compare the stats with deaths from non-contagious illnesses for instance; cancer, diabetes, heart disease stroke, dementia etc, of which there are over 30,000 every year in NZ alone, and yet no discussion regarding these either!
Ministers have an innate ‘Duty of Care' to the people for whom they serve; to date I see very little of it, as often business, profit and ego comes first.
