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Speaker 1: Now former Finance Minister Stephen Joyce is backing a call

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Speaker 1: for a comprehensive vaccination program for pensioners. A new report

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Speaker 1: has found that a publicly funded VAX program for the flu,

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Speaker 1: shingles and RSV for people over the age of sixty

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Speaker 1: five would create an economic benefit of over one billion

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Speaker 1: dollars over four years. And Stephen Joyce's with us. Now,

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Speaker 1: how Stephen?

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Speaker 2: Hello, how are you? I prefer the term older New

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Speaker 2: Zealanders to pensioners.

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Speaker 1: Have you got your Gold card already?

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Speaker 2: Have you? No? No, not yet? But I know people

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Speaker 2: that have. Yeah?

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Speaker 1: It does you know what it feels like? It's kicking

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Speaker 1: in nowadays? It's too young to call the sixty five

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Speaker 1: year old pensioners. But such as the truth.

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Speaker 2: Now fix a while ago. But I didn't have the

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Speaker 2: right number of votes from the right number of older

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Speaker 2: people matter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine which one now listen on this,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this seems perfectly reasonable, it makes sense. But

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Speaker 1: should we be skeptical about a report that's been commissioned

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Speaker 1: by GSK given that they provide all of these jabs.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean obviously they've got an interest in

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Speaker 2: upfront about it. But I think the idea is very valid,

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Speaker 2: and I've got a reputable economic consultancy to actually do

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Speaker 2: the numbers about what's saved, and in a way that

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Speaker 2: obviously that they couldn't come up with themselves. And it

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Speaker 2: impressed me because I thought, well, actually, that is quite

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Speaker 2: a clever move. We've got a health system, not just

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Speaker 2: here but all over the world. It's completely under pressure

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Speaker 2: all the time. Every government ends up dipping a lot

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Speaker 2: more money into it, never seems to meet the demand.

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Speaker 2: We need some I think fresh thinking about it. And

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Speaker 2: so what attracted me to this was that, well, hang on,

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Speaker 2: we know about the benefit of vaccinations to children, the

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Speaker 2: huge increase in life expectancy that occurred as a result

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Speaker 2: of that, and then you look at it this one.

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Speaker 2: It's actually just about as much as a no brainer

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Speaker 2: because you've got all these common preventable diseases that older

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Speaker 2: people get caught up with, and they can make their

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Speaker 2: other ailments worse, can prevent them from doing work in

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Speaker 2: the community and up the health system. So it seems

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Speaker 2: like a good ideamy.

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Speaker 1: What does it cost to save a billion dollars?

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Speaker 2: It's a very good question, and it's in the report.

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Speaker 2: Is my answer to that it's a couple of hundred

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Speaker 2: million over four years, and it depends on uptake. I

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Speaker 2: mean they did their initial work on a sixty percent uptake,

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Speaker 2: which is roughly what it is now for the flu vaccine,

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Speaker 2: and effectively what it is is RSV plus the flu

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Speaker 2: plus plus shingles vaccine, and it's the idea is that

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Speaker 2: it's sixty five you'd become eligible for those, all three

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Speaker 2: of them. And if you did a public health campaign

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Speaker 2: alongside that which was able to lift it to eighty percent,

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Speaker 2: it's thousands of doctors visits no longer needed, GP visits,

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Speaker 2: a huge number of hospital visits not needed, and then

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Speaker 2: leaves the hospitals to focus in on the frankly, what

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Speaker 2: is the more serious and intractable diseases like cancer and

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Speaker 2: a heart disease. So it seems to make quite a

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Speaker 2: bit of sense.

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Speaker 1: Do you watch Parliament today?

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Speaker 2: No? I didn't see Parliament today. I actually in Parliament now,

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Speaker 2: which is quite a spooky experience for somebody who was

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Speaker 2: there for so long and so intensely. But there we are.

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Speaker 1: So have you caught up on the sea bomb being

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Speaker 1: dropped in Parliament?

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Speaker 2: I haven't caught up on that, but I am familiar

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Speaker 2: with the issue with the sea bomb and the media.

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Speaker 1: What do you make of it?

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Speaker 2: By the way, I don't think we need to lie

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Speaker 2: media or parliamentary standards anymore, would be my view. Long

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Speaker 2: enough and some words should be left out of the

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Speaker 2: public discourse. And I'm disappointed actually that it's happened, putting

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Speaker 2: a media hat on which I may have to do.

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Speaker 1: I was about to ask that, because you're obviously everybody's

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Speaker 1: loving the idea of you being the chair of ends

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Speaker 1: in me, do you reckon you'll you'll be pretty confident

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Speaker 1: you've got the votes.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think everybody sort of got together and decided, well,

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Speaker 2: this is a this is a slate that can win

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Speaker 2: work at the meeting that's coming up in a couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks. And we now have the required number of

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Speaker 2: directors for the required number of spots. So I think

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Speaker 2: that's a good, good step forward.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to basically, you know, look after your

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Speaker 1: favorite children being radio at the expense of hero like, No,

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Speaker 1: don't worry about the herald Stephen nobody they get way

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Speaker 1: too much attention.

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Speaker 2: That sounds sounds like a pitch heare, But I can say,

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Speaker 2: what is that of course that is and of course

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Speaker 2: I also think, he said, getting back to the subject

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Speaker 2: of the interview, I also think that the politicians should

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Speaker 2: look really closely at this opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Hey, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Steven Joy's former finance minister, who by the way, has

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Speaker 1: been mooted as the chair of this company ends and

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Speaker 1: be as obviously owns News Talk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks EDB from four pm weekdays,

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