The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis released Wednesday by U.S. regulators that sets the stage for a final decision on a new and easier-to-use shot to help tame the pandemic.
The long-anticipated shot could offer the nation a third vaccine option and help speed vaccinations by requiring just one dose instead of two. Food and Drug Administration scientists confirmed that overall the vaccine is about 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, and about 85% effective against the most serious illness. The agency also said J&J's shot is safe.
The analysis is just one step in the FDA’s evaluation. On Friday, the agency’s independent advisers will debate if the evidence is strong enough to recommend the shot. With that advice, the FDA is expected to make a final decision within days.
The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. topped 500,000 this week, and the vaccination drive has been slower than hoped, hampered by logistical and weather delays. So far, about 44.5 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine made by Pfizer or Moderna, and nearly 20 million of them have received the second dose required for full protection.
Tests showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 95% effective at protection against symptomatic COVID-19.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is part of the FDA advisory panel that will scrutinize the J&J data on Friday and cautions that none of the vaccines have been directly compared. Still, he was encouraged that one dose of the J&J vaccine appears as good at preventing serious illness as its two-dose competitors.
“This is a vaccine to prevent you from going to the hospital and dying at a level that’s certainly comparable” to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, he said.
J&J tested its single-dose option in 44,000 adults in the U.S., Latin America and South Africa. Different mutated versions of the virus are circulating in different countries, and the FDA analysis cautioned that it's not clear how well the vaccine works against each variant. But J&J previously announced that the vaccine worked better in the U.S. — 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19, compared with 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa.
South Africa recently began giving the J&J vaccine to front-line health workers on a test basis after deciding that a vaccine from rival AstraZeneca had not shown strong enough study results against the particularly concerning variant spreading there.
“I was reassured” that despite different variants, the J&J shot still protected against serious illness, said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. “That's pretty robust data.”
In case the vaccines eventually need to be updated, manufacturers are working on adjustments to their recipes. Moderna announced Wednesday that it is ready to begin testing experimental doses that better match the South African version of the virus.
Across all countries, the analysis of the J&J vaccine showed protection began to emerge about 14 days after vaccination. But by 28 days after vaccination, there were no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccinated group compared with 16 hospitalizations and seven deaths in study recipients who received a dummy shot.
The FDA said effectiveness and safety were consistent across racial groups, including Black and Latino participants.
All of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible. It would not be surprising if one dose turned out to be a little weaker than two doses, and policymakers will decide if that’s an acceptable trade-off to get more people vaccinated faster.
J&J has another large study underway to see if a second dose of its vaccine works better, raising the prospect that countries could eventually add a booster if one turned...

Quick suggestion, why don’t we just ask Adrian Orr to be the Finance Minister? Grant Robertson seems to have given up.
The latest "Robertson to Orr" letter asks the Reserve Bank to take housing into account when they make their various statements and announcements. That on top of inflation and employment.
The Reserve Bank used to have a sweet job. The cash rate. What is the cash rate? What will the cash rate be? Is it going up? Is it going down? And they decided that on all the stuff that was going on in the economy around them, none of which they had any control over.
To be fair, a lot of people quite correctly thought it was slightly unfair that the Reserve Bank had such authority with so few tools. That's why they called the cash rate such a blunt instrument. And it's why, of late, you've heard the phrase "tools in the tool kit” a lot more.
We have seen movement from the bank no one has seen before. The talk of negative rates, printing money eloquently dressed up under the term QE, and LVRs coming and going.
The Reserve Bank has never been more vital and more involved, but then never it has been asked to do more by a politician clearly out of ideas. Especially on housing.
You'll remember Robertson was due to give us his magic bag full of tricks on tilting the housing market towards the first home buyer. That announcement was due by now. It's been delayed, I suspect because Robertson made the announcement with no idea of what the actual action entailed. Where have we seen that trick before?
Robertson has already written to Orr before about this, and Orr put the letter in the bin, so to speak. So now the instruction, solve employment, fix inflation, and tell us how housing works.
As Cameron Bagrie, quite rightly, says this goes too far. Unless, of course, you want to draft Orr into cabinet, flag the Reserve Bank's independence and just return to the days of Rob Muldoon.
The rotten thing here.is not the abdication of responsibility from the government by palming off yet another of their worries, it's the fact they’ve done so because they won't admit they're stuck. They’ve over-promised and they're stuck.
Progressive housing this week, Kiwibuild last term. Housing and labour, water and oil, they don’t know how to make it work.
But you don’t make it work by making it someone else's problem. That's not what you go into government to do, passing the buck should not be government policy.

The Auditor-General is launching an enquiry into emergency housing grants, after paying up to $3000 per week for private rentals.
From November 2017 until June last year, the Ministry of Social Development paid more than $38 million to landlords and property managers.
The grant is meant to be a short-term solution for seven days while a permanent house is found.
But Monte Cecelia Trust chief executive Bernie Smith told Mike Hosking some landlords were cashing in on getting hotel rates for a three-bedroom house.
"Property owners were evicting tenants to take advantage of the emergency housing payment."
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Grant Will Fix It/Mark the Week/The Cuomo Conundrum/Cheese Is the New Superfood

More support could be on the way for the tourism regions most affected by the closure of international borders.
New figures show tourism spending in Otago dropped by almost a quarter last year, while many tourism businesses in Fox Glacier are operating at 20 percent normal capacity.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says the Government is looking at a number of support options.
But he told Mike Hosking any support will need to be targeted to protecting a core, long-term tourism sector, while we wait for a trans-Tasman bubble.
"The Government won't be able to save every business, but it wants there to be a tourism sector ready to go,  when borders eventually reopen."
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I was slightly disturbed at reportage that Judith Collins was trying to bring Simon bridges into line over his Coster ‘wokester’ comments
I hope it’s not true, because what this country needs - all countries need - is strong opposition.
Not opposition for opposition’s sake, but well thought through critique.
The trick to good opposition is not just that the government are wrong, it’s why they are wrong and what is the alternative.  You have to give people an “out” or an “idea”.
Collins herself did well over this nutty person refusing a Covid test in MIQ, calling to deport them. It’s something the government hasn’t done and it’s a good idea,
Simon Bridges on Coster, there is no question gangs are a major issue and a concern to many new Zealanders, and there is little if any doubt that once Coster appeared to support Māori-led road blocks that kind of thinking at the top might just be a problem.
National have been suggesting MIQ out of down town Auckland, a purpose built facility. It’s a logical sensible eminently doable idea, and that is what opposition is about, the contest of ideas.
ACT too has carried on where they left off pre-election. Their revelation that Matariki is a $400 million proposition not $200m as stated is the sort of information the government were never going to tell you, if left to their own devices.
Opposition is hard. It is well known that most of the time the wider public are not hyper tuned to the minutiae of political life.
It’s been made even harder these past few years with the increasingly partisan role of the media who refuse to look for balance or anything that isn’t officially headlined as a press release by the government  
But let us never forget, that half the country didn’t vote for the incumbents.  The concept that labour romped to victory is an out working of the electoral system.
the same way it was from 2017 to last year - cobble together three parties or one party gets all the spoils - the fact remains only half want the outcome, the other half don’t.
Both halves though deserve service and good service at that.
This is a weak and lazy government that is being found out daily on its Covid response.  They refuse to change, they refuse to listen, they refuse to be pro-active and, most sadly, they refuse to want better for us all.
That’s fertile ground for those charged with looking out for the interests of half the country. It’s never been a better time to be the Opposition. More please.

Actor Ido Drent may have perfected his craft on Shortland Street, and garnered attention in Aussie series Offspring, but his latest show has seen him go global.
Local crime drama The Gulf – focusing on a series of crimes taking place on Auckland’s Waiheke Island – is back for a second season on Three from Monday March 1st.
The show was a success in New Zealand, but thanks to production input from Germany, the show has become a global hit, being featured on international streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Acorn TV.
Drent joined Mike Hosking in studio to discuss filming the show, it's international success, and what's different about working on a show with international input.
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A sacrifice of time and energy lies ahead for the New Zealand men's rowing eight and quadruple sculls without knowing if they'll compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
Both crews must contest what's known as the sport's regatta of death at Lucerne from May 15 to 17 to earn the final Games qualifying spots.
Presuming the Olympics are still on at that point, they'll stay isolated from families and friends through until a fortnight after the Tokyo event.
Rowing New Zealand boss Simon Peterson joins Mike Hosking to talk about the difficult decision to make ahead of the Tokoyo Olympics.
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Far more New Zealanders could be soon be getting fluoride in their drinking water.
The Government is expected to shift the decision over whether to fluoridate water from city and district councils, to district health boards.
It could mean about 85 percent of the country having fluoride in water supplies, compared to 50 percent currently.
The law change could also reduce the highly charged debates councils currently have about fluoride.
The Government also wants to introduce free toothbrushes for all preschoolers.
Dental Association president Kate Ayers told Mike Hosking fluoride on its own in the water supply can reduce decay rates by 40 percent.
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In a career filled with remarkable comebacks, Tiger Woods faces perhaps his toughest recovery of all.
Woods was driving alone through a sweeping, downhill stretch of road through coastal suburbs of Los Angeles when his SUV struck a sign, crossed over a raised median and two oncoming lanes flipped several times before coming to rest on its side. Its airbags deployed.
A sheriff's deputy poked his head through a hole in the windshield to see Woods, still wearing his seatbelt, sitting in the driver's seat.
A crane is used to lift a vehicle following a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods. Photo / AP
The crash caused "significant" injuries to his right leg and he underwent what was described as a "long surgical procedure" at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Anish Mahajan, the chief medical officer, said Woods shattered tibia and fibula bones in multiple locations. He suffered "open fractures," meaning the skin was broken.
The bones were stabilised by a rod in the tibia. He said a combination of screws and pins were used for injuries in the ankle and foot.
A statement on his Twitter account said he was awake, responsive and recovering.
"I will say that it's very fortunate that Mr. Woods was able to come out of this alive," said Carlos Gonzalez, the deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department who was the first on the scene after a neighbour called 911.
No charges were filed, and police said there was no evidence he was impaired.
The golf world was stunned by the news.
"As if his body hasn't endured enough," Jon Rahm, the No. 2 player in the world, said from the Workday Championship in Florida. "I just hope he can get out of the hospital after recovery and he can still play with his kids and have a normal life."
In this aerial image take from video provided by KABC-TV video, a vehicle rest on its side after a rollover accident involving golfer Tiger Woods. Photo / AP
Dr Joseph Patterson, an orthopedic trauma surgeon at Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, said injuries like those sustained by Woods are among the most common seen in hospital emergency rooms.
Patterson didn't treat Woods and wouldn't comment specifically about the golfer's injuries but said the risk of infection is extremely high for patients with open fractures.
"Tissue can be exposed to bacteria, dirt and clothing. The outcomes can be a lot worse if that tissue gets infected," Patterson said. Open fractures can require multiple surgeries to repair.
Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith suffered an open fracture to his lower leg while being tackled. He nearly lost the leg due to infection but made a remarkable recovery and played last season.
The crash was the latest setback for Woods, who at times has looked unstoppable on the golf course with his 15 major championships and record-tying 82 victories on the PGA Tour. He is among the most recognisable sports figures in the world, and at 45 with a reduced schedule from nine previous surgeries, remains golf's biggest draw.
He won the 2008 US Open with shredded knee ligaments and two stress fractures in his left leg. His personal life imploded on Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 when he was caught having multiple extramarital affairs and crashed his vehicle near his Florida home. He returned to win his 11th award as PGA Tour player of the year and reach No. 1.
And then after four back surgeries that kept him out of golf for the better part of two years, he won the Masters in April 2019 for the fifth time, a victory that ranks among the great comebacks in the sport.
A vehicle is towed away from the site of a crash involving golfer Tiger Woods. Photo / AP
Now it's no longer a matter of when he plays again — the Masters is seven weeks away — but if he plays again.
Woods was in Los Angeles over the weekend as the tournament host of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club. Monday and...