John McLean

Ayesha Verrall is a classic of our times in “Aotearoa” New Zealand.

In 1997 Verrall was a member of the New Zealand Youth Parliament. She was president of the Otago Medical Students’ Association in 2001 and is currently the Minister for COVID-19 Response, for Research, Science and Innovation and for Seniors (old people).

Dr Ayesha Verrall

Verrall came into Parliament on the Labour Party list in the 2020 election. Her parliamentary career kicked off shortly after she conveniently found, having been commissioned by the Ministry of Health, that New Zealand’s national COVID-19 tracing programme was good, even though the programme had in fact not been rolled out (it never really was). Verrall’s audit report was delivered in April 2020, and in June 2020 Labour was delighted to insert her at 17th on their party list, guaranteeing her entry into Parliament.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr Ayesha Verrall was set for Parliament after she secured a very high ranking on Labour’s party list.

Verrall has been powerfully outspoken on a number of “progressive” health issues. She cried at the prospect that COVID-19 may somehow jeopardise her dream that by 2025 no one in New Zealand will smoke cigarettes.

She is especially animated about monkeypox, a rare disease that almost never kills but which tragically and almost exclusively affects men who enjoy promiscuous and/or group sex. Accordingly, Verrall has concluded that monkeypox “discriminates” against such men and must therefore be eliminated from this fair land. As Associate Minister of Health, she has secured special medicines for treating monkeypox and is looking to secure smallpox vaccinations, which apparently work for monkeypox.

By mid-October 2022 there had been a grand total of 20 cases of monkeypox in New Zealand.

Similarly, in July 2022 Verrall powerfully tweeted, “Thrilled to announce our ambition to eliminate HIV transmission in Aotearoa and ensure that all people with HIV enjoy a long life free from discrimination. We can do this.”

Naturally, COVID-19 remains an obsession for Verrall, discriminating as it does against those “vulnerable” and in desperate need of Labour’s wrap-around care and protection.

Curiously, Verrall now seems unconcerned about tuberculosis (TB), despite about 300 cases of TB being diagnosed in New Zealand every year (compared to monkeypox with 20 cases so far) and Verrall having completed her PhD in TB epidemiology. Worldwide, 1.6 million people died of TB in 2021 and 1.2 million children contracted TB.

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