The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The summer gardening season is upon New Zealand, and already there are warnings people for to protect themselves against Legionnaires' disease.
The potentially fatal disease, a form of pneumonia, was caused by legionella bacteria that live in moist organic material.
People caught the disease by inhaling airborne droplets or particles containing the bacteria.
It is more common in older people, particularly if they smoke, have poor immunity or a chronic illness - however, sometimes even healthy young people have died from legionella pneumonia.
NZ Plant Producers chief executive Matthew Dolan told Tim Dower that gardening is on a roll at the moment, with record sales happening at the moment.
"It's really important that people understand that there is a risk of catching it." 
He says that around 100 people get infected with it every year in New Zealand. 
Dolan says it is important to keep compost cool in your garage rather than out in the open, as the heat can make the bacteria grow.
He also recommends using a face mask. 
LISTEN ABOVE

The Silver Ferns have secured their first win over the New Zealand Men - and the timing couldn't have been better.
Not only has the 55-52 victory secured them the 2020 Cadbury Netball Series title, it gives them plenty of confidence four days out from their first international outing in nine months.
The world champions play England in a three-match Taini Jamison Trophy series starting Wednesday, with this week's series having been the perfect opportunity for head coach Dame Noeline Taurua to solidify selections.
Netballl commentator Jenny Woods joined Tim Dower to discuss Saturday night's match and previewed what's to come against England.
LISTEN ABOVE

You don't need togs or water, to try to a bit of "bush bathing" this long weekend.
New Zealanders are being urged to take up the New Zealand version of a Japanese practice known as Forest Bathing.
It involves tuning into your senses with a gentle walk through forest - with or without clothing.
Forest Bathing guide Vicky Kyan told Tim Dower a small amount of time in nature can have a positive impact on your health
"You just take a couple of breaths and you slow yourself down and you just walk out into nature, whether it's your garden or bush - bush is wonderful - and you just start to notice what's in motion around you." 
LISTEN ABOVE

There are calls for more resources to help people with eating disorders and other psychological issues.
There's been a surge of referrals to eating disorder specialists since the Covid-19 lockdowns, with many waiting lists more than three months long.
Eating Disorders Clinic co-director Kellie Lavender told Tim Dower we've underestimated how the lockdowns have affected people's mental health, especially adolescence.
She says we need to look at how people can be seen quicker.
"How can we train specialists in this area to make sure the services people have access to are evidence based and are consistent?" 
Lavender says demand has doubled at their clinic, as the lockdown period has been particularly isolating for some people.
"That means that their mood lowers and it could actually increase or change their eating behaviour towards possibly eating more, eating less, or possibly exercising more and eating less."
LISTEN ABOVE

The shortage of rural dentists is having alarming consequences in many rural communities.
A pop-up clinic in the Northland town of Kaikohe says it's been dealing with cases of people pulling their teeth out with pliers and ending up intensive care.
The Dental Association says it's aware of similar issues in other parts of the country as well.
President Katie Ayers told Tim Dower it's particularly an issue in remote and rural areas -- like Opotiki and the Gisborne Coast -- where it's difficult to recruit new dentists.
"You have a population with extreme need, but also a population with largely an inability to afford dental care, so you can imagine for a dentist it would be soul destroying."
Before the election, Labour said people on low incomes would be able to receive a thousand dollars' worth of treatment.
However, Ayers says 18 to 24-year-olds on benefits also need to be given routine dental care.
She says that's because 40 percent are Maori and 20 percent are solo parents.
"So that goes quite a long way to reducing inequalities and hopefully identifying the children that will be needing access to services as well."
LISTEN ABOVE

Act says there's a way to give workers the public holidays they want - without burdening employers with extra costs.
The party is calling for an overhaul to the current holiday laws.
It comes as cultural groups are calling for ethnic and religious communities to be able to celebrate their holidays. 
The president of Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, says the Government needs to revisit its public holiday policies as the country's demography has changed.
He said it's unfair for the Hindu community to be at work or school on their most popular festival and making it a public holiday would be "a step in the positive direction".
Zed said awareness about other religions created by such holidays like Diwali would strengthen cohesion and unity in the country.
Leader David Seymour says national holidays like Anzac Day and Waitangi Day should be mandated - but other holidays like Easter and Labour Day don't need to be.
He told Tim Dower making holidays flexible is better than creating more holidays.
"If you keep putting costs onto employment, you've got to apply some cause and effect thinking, because people who run businesses and employ people, they're going to absorb that cost."
Seymour says that the best option is to introduce some flexibility, with people able to trade out particular days.

Labour promised to make Matariki a public holiday during the election campaign.

When a young person dies suddenly, doctors can save other family members from the same inherited condition, says the lead author of a new study on sudden deaths.
Waikato Hospital director of cardiac electrophysiology Dr Martin Stiles has led the publication of an international paper on the best ways to investigate sudden unexplained deaths and sudden cardiac arrests.
Stiles said the study was focused on the sudden deaths of people aged between 1 and 40 and on helping their family members. Sudden deaths of babies were classified as cot deaths, while coronary disease was fairly prevalent among people aged over 40, he said.
After the sudden death of a young person, if the right tests were carried out on family members, two to three relatives could frequently be saved from suffering the same fate, Stiles said.
"That's the thing that motivates us to find the answers. It's tragic when somebody dies suddenly, but I do work with some families who have had multiple sudden deaths across families," Stiles said.
"If there are young deaths, even cot deaths or even intra-uterine deaths, and deaths unexplained in young people ... we do like to hear about them and we can investigate them."
The paper recommends post-mortems and genetic testing are carried out after people die suddenly.
This might alert doctors to conditions, such as long QT syndrome, where the heart output suddenly stops and people suddenly collapse or die. Doctors can then test to see if such genetic conditions affect other family members and offer advice to protect them.
Those who survive near-death incidents and their family members could have tests, such as ultrasounds of the heart, MRI scans, and drug tests that would bring out heart arrhythmias, Stiles said.
"One of the things about this document, what we've tried to do is really emphasise the importance of psychological care of patients who have survived a cardiac arrest or lost a loved one.
"The other thing is genetic counselling. For instance, if you have a malignant cardiac rhythm problem, probably a helicopter pilot is not the job for you, or a deep sea diver."
Sudden deaths could be caused by various conditions, such as heart abnormalities, epilepsy and aneurisms. Some people died young while exercising, in their sleep, while suffering a fever - of even after getting a fright, he said.
"There are certain conditions that might come out when someone is exerting themselves and particularly with swimming.
"Sometimes an unexplained death in a strong swimmer does raise alarm bells - do they have a heart rhythm condition that led them to become unconscious in the water?
"Then there are other conditions where there are certain situations, such as a fright, an unexpected visitor, anything unexpected can trigger a nasty heart rhythm.
"We tell these people they might not like to have alarm clocks next to the bed ... to minimise the chance of this, but of course you can't remove chance from your life entirely."
The paper is a consensus statement, gathering the views of 28 medical experts from 13 countries in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australasia.
"What I would like to see happen is that this international best practice document gets adopted within New Zealand and around the world.
"The difference with this document is we're potentially helping people we've never met and maybe in countries we're never going to visit.
"It's worth putting the effort in to provide an international framework so worldwide, the care and investigation of sudden death is improved."
Stiles said New Zealand was ahead of much of the world in having a multi-disciplinary approach and a national body - the Cardiac Inherited Disease Group - that could co-ordinate care for family members living in different regions.
The Expert Consensus Statement on the Investigation of Decedents with Sudden Unexplained Death and Patients with Sudden...

The rural health sector is the latest to put up its hand for more migrant workers.
Migrant healthcare workers are being allowed into the country under an exemption that's due to expire at the end of the year.
Rural General Practice Network chief executive Grant Davidson says he's worried what will happen after that.
He told Tim Dower the Government needs to either urgently loosen its criteria to let in migrant workers, or train more New Zealanders.
"Currently we've got 50 vacancies across the country sitting on our books waiting to be filled. 25 per cent of our rural practices constantly are vacancies." 
Davidson says there aren't enough New Zealand doctors willing to work in rural communities.
"You have to be prepared to drive long distances to service your community needs, and you need to have a partner and children committed to living in those rural areas."
LISTEN ABOVE

Frustrations have boiled over and Melburnians have lashed out at the Premier after he backtracked on a promise from last week to reopen today.
Victorians have lashed out at Premier Daniel Andrews after he announced today that Melbourne would see no easing of restrictions despite reaching its virus target.
Victorians took to Twitter to call the Premier's decision to withhold the announcements a "huge kick in the guts" and "beyond a joke".
Metropolitan Melbourne had been hopeful of further easing of restrictions on hospitality and retail, after the city's rolling 14-day average number of virus cases fell to below five today.
But today the Premier dashed those hopes of easing restrictions, saying the government would delay any announcements, pending more test results related to an outbreak in the northern suburbs.
He said further rollbacks will not be announced until Tuesday at the earliest.
"No changes to metro restrictions. This is a huge kick in the guts after constant talk of significant announcements on Sunday. This bloody never-ending year," 10 News reporter Emma O'Sullivan said on Twitter.
"This is beyond a joke," 7 News journalist Joel Crean wrote on Twitter.
"On Sunday we were told 2 Nov. Wednesday we were told that would be brought forward, announced Sunday. Today the carrot is dangled again. WE ARE DONE @DanielAndrewsMP … ENOUGH!"
"Ugh dear Melbourne," former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam wrote. "Hang in there you're so close to beating this thing."
Former Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos also took to Twitter, saying she was "so proud" of what Victorians had achieved — adding some thought the road map "was unachievable".
"The set reopening is gradual safe so any delay is unnecessary. It's paralysis in decision-making," she said.
"We had hoped today to be able to announce that metropolitan Melbourne would take significant steps, not from today but from midweek, round retail, hospitality and a whole range of other, important next steps," Andrews said.
"We are not in a position to do that today because we have at least 1000 test results from that Northern Metropolitan outbreak that are in the labs.
"We will get those today, probably the balance of them tomorrow, and they will be additional testing conducted throughout the day.
"This is not anything other than a cautious pause, to wait to get that important information, to get the results of those tests. Just to rule out whether there are, whether there is more virus there than we think.
"Ultimately, if we can link these cases together, if we can link different outbreaks, then we have confidence that we have contained it and we can move forward. This is not a setback.
"It is simply waiting and being led by the data, being led by the science, and following public health advice. That is what has seen these numbers go from thousands of active cases to now, 100 active cases. That is the approach that has seen us go from 700 plus cases per day to seven cases.
"This is the strategy, it is working, but it is appropriate just to be doubly sure that there is not more virus out there in the northern suburbs than we think."
Andrews said he hoped to assess the situation once the results were returned on Monday, and would "hopefully be able to make some announcements on Tuesday".
The Premier had earlier dampened hopes of sweeping reforms to his government's harsh lockdowns, saying Victorians shouldn't "bank" on all restrictions being eased during Sunday's press conference.
"I just want to caution people from, if you like, banking that tomorrow I'm making a whole series of detailed announcements about opening up," Andrews said.


Text by Phoebe Loomes, news.com.au

At least five people in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days, including chief of staff Marc Short, close aide Zach Bauer and outside adviser Marty Obst, sources told CNN.
There are concerns that more people within Pence's inner circle will test positive in the coming days, a source said. "They're scared," the source said of staffers in the vice president's office.
Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence each tested negative for coronavirus on Sunday, a White House official said. Despite contact with multiple people who recently tested positive, Mike Pence is refusing to quarantine in defiance of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Pence's office announced Saturday evening that Short had been diagnosed with Covid-19. Sources told CNN that Obst, who is a senior political adviser to Pence but is not a government employee, and at least three staffers in Pence's office have also tested positive for the virus.
Bauer, one of the staffers who tested positive earlier this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter, is Pence's "body man," meaning his job is to accompany Pence throughout the day and night helping him with a wide range of duties, putting him in close proximity to the vice president. CNN has reached out to Bauer for comment.
The duties of a White House "body man" range from handling a vice president's papers and speech texts to being ready to help facilitate phone calls and meetings to dealing with briefing books and pens for autographs.
Besides announcing the positive test for Short, the vice president's office would not comment on the identities of the Pence aides who tested positive for the virus in recent days or confirm the number of aides. The New York Times was the first to report on the Pence aides.
During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows refused to disclose the extent of the Covid-19 outbreak in Pence's orbit, and he said Pence will be wearing a mask and social distancing when he resumes campaign travel Sunday despite his direct exposure to the virus.
"Sharing personal information is not something that we should do," Meadows told CNN's Jake Tapper. Meadows said such disclosures are only appropriate in the case of President Donald Trump, the vice president or those in their inner circle.
"Anytime there's someone in harm's way, we have an obligation to let people know for contract-tracing," Meadows said.
Pence -- who is the head of the White House's coronavirus task force -- plans to continue traveling and campaigning every day in the final stretch to Election Day, an official told CNN.
After North Carolina later on Sunday, Pence is going to Minnesota on Monday and back to North and South Carolina on Tuesday. He's also expected to return to the upper Midwest this week. The official said Pence would continue to be tested but, like Trump, still plans to be on the road every day for the next week.
The developments raise new questions about safety protocols and transparency within the White House as the pandemic has killed at least 225,000 Americans.
The news comes just over a week before Election Day amid a blitz of campaign stops for Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, including the vice president's trips to Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire in the last week.
Pence, who is known to rarely wear a mask while flying on Air Force Two, traveled on Saturday to Florida for campaign rallies in Lakeland and Tallahassee. The vice president walked across the tarmac from Marine Two in a mask and boarded Air Force Two about an hour behind schedule.
Pence emerged maskless from Air Force Two in Florida, running down the steps and jogging across the tarmac, fist pumping as he approached the podium. The vice president's office released the statement on Short moments...