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Speaker 1: And GPS are noticing an increase in people being hit

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Speaker 1: with respiratory illnesses right now and fair warning, a variety

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Speaker 1: of influenza A called super K is on its way

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Speaker 1: to New Zealand, likely to take off over winter. So

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Speaker 1: joining me now to talk about this is general practice

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Chairman Dr Brian Betty Brian, good afternoon.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Andrew, nice to be here.

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Speaker 1: So is this new.

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Speaker 2: Look? So this variant it's called a subclad K, so

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Speaker 2: it's a variant of influenza A, something we get every year.

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Speaker 2: It emerged late last year and is now a dominant variant.

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Speaker 2: We know it's in New Zealand, but the cases haven't

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Speaker 2: increased yet. What we think is going to happen is

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Speaker 2: there's going to be a takeoff as soon as winter comes.

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Speaker 2: So we're likely to get a very early flu season

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Speaker 2: that is going to go for quite a long time.

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Speaker 2: So potentially a lot of people could be affected with

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Speaker 2: this particular flu variant and that's a concern.

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Speaker 1: Is it different from other strains and is it more virulent?

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Speaker 2: So it's more transmissible, so it's your typical influenza A variant. However,

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Speaker 2: that this this what we call call sub variant is

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Speaker 2: a lot more transmissible, so it can be spread a

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Speaker 2: lot more easy. Now, the unusual thing here is that

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Speaker 2: it appeared late last year, in spring last year, so

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Speaker 2: we know it's in the country. So as soon as

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Speaker 2: winter comes and people start to go indoors, the virus

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Speaker 2: starts to spread very quickly, and you can get a

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Speaker 2: sudden up swing in flu cases very early on in

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Speaker 2: the winter season. That's what could be unusual this year.

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Speaker 1: And that trans transmissibility, that's why GPS are expecting it

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Speaker 1: to hit harder than other flu strains that we've had recently.

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Speaker 2: That's the worry that it is going to be early,

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Speaker 2: it's potentially going to be prolonged, and potentially a lot

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Speaker 2: of people could be affected by it. So the worry

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Speaker 2: with that is obviously that starts to potentially clog up hospitals,

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Speaker 2: clog up GP practices. And actually we know that flu

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Speaker 2: is for some people, especially the oldly and those with coma,

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Speaker 2: is potentially deadly. That's the concern.

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Speaker 1: So we probably know what to do already, but tell

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Speaker 1: us what should we do?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I mean I think this year in particular,

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Speaker 2: vaccination is really really important. Look, the vaccine has been

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Speaker 2: designed to try and take care of this. But if

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Speaker 2: we know, we've got reasonably low vaccination rates in New

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Speaker 2: Zealand at the moment with flu. So what is really

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Speaker 2: really important is those people, especially at risk, get vaccinated

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Speaker 2: early rather than late. Don't hold off. You need to

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Speaker 2: get in there and get your vaccination because that will

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Speaker 2: prevent severe disease. And that's probably the key message.

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Speaker 1: Here doctor Brian Betty I thank you. General Practice New

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Speaker 1: Zealand chairman said it's just like COVID junior, isn't he.

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Speaker 1: Brian's back on the radio again. And while we're on

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Speaker 1: this subject of health and New Zealand has formally rejected

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Speaker 1: amendments to international health regulations put forward by the World

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Speaker 1: Health Organization. We told them who overnight on Monday, makes

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Speaker 1: New Zealand one of just twelve nations to reject the

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Speaker 1: rules of the eleven nations that have rejected the rule changes.

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Speaker 1: Only for the US, Italy, Israel and Argentina did so

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Speaker 1: without indicating that they still accepted or intended to accept them.

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Speaker 1: Later on in the Peace So Health Minister Simeon Brown

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Speaker 1: was asked to comment. He said, talk to Foreign Affairs

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Speaker 1: Minister Winston Peter's in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said no,

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Speaker 1: go and talk to the Ministry of Health. So no

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Speaker 1: one wants to talk about this. But they've done it.

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Speaker 1: They've rejected the World Health Organization second time we've done this.

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Speaker 1: Back then only four nations rejected them, and that was Iran, Slovakia,

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Speaker 1: the Netherlands and US. I remember that Winston's position at

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Speaker 1: the last election was that these sorts of rules from

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Speaker 1: who the World Health Organization would take away independent decision

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Speaker 1: making from sovereign countries, which is simply a mistruth. It's

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Speaker 1: such a mistruth, it's almost a lie because nothing that

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Speaker 1: the UN or the World Health Organization suggests takes away

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Speaker 1: our sovereignty. We can choose to accept them or not.

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Speaker 1: We don't to put them into practice, so they don't

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Speaker 1: take away sovereignty. And my question is why would we

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Speaker 1: not accept device and help from the rest of the

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Speaker 1: world who have mostly signed up for this. After all,

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Speaker 1: we're a small country and don't we need all the

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Speaker 1: help we can get for

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Speaker 2: More from hither Duplessy Allen Drive Listen live to news

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Speaker 2: talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the

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Speaker 2: podcast on iHeartRadio,