The Mike Hosking Breakfast

The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to hold a campaign rally in one hot spot.
Fauci and other top health officials also said they have not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trump’s claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he wasn't kidding when he made that remark.
“We will be doing more testing,” Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, pledged to a House committee conducting oversight of the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.
The leading public health officials spent more than five hours testifying before the committee at a fraught moment, with coronavirus cases rising in about half the states and political polarization competing for attention with public health recommendations.
Fauci told lawmakers he understands the pent-up desire to get back to normal as the U.S. begins emerging from months of stay-at-home orders and business shutdowns. But that has “to be a gradual step-by-step process and not throwing caution to the wind,” he said.
“Plan A, don’t go in a crowd. Plan B, if you do, make sure you wear a mask,” Fauci said.
Troubling surges worsened Tuesday in several states, with Arizona, Texas and Nevada setting single-day records for new coronavirus cases, and some governors saying they’ll consider reinstating restrictions or delaying plans to ease up in order to help slow the spread of the virus.
Arizona, where Trump was headed for a rally at a Phoenix megachurch, reported a new daily record of nearly 3,600 additional coronavirus infections Tuesday. Arizona emerged as a COVID-19 hot spot after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey lifted his stay-home orders in mid-May. Last week he allowed cities and counties to require masks in public places and many have done so.
Texas surpassed 5,000 new cases for a single day for the first time — just days after it eclipsed 4,000 new cases for the first time — as America’s largest pediatric hospital began taking adult patients to free up bed space in Houston. The infection rate in Texas has doubled since late May. And Nevada surpassed a record one-day increase for the fourth time in the past eight days. Other states also were experiencing worrisome surges, including Louisiana, Utah and South Carolina.
Another worrisome trend: an increase in infections among young adults. Fauci said while COVID-19 tends to be less severe in younger people, some of them do get very sick and even die. And younger people also may be more likely to show no symptoms yet still spread the virus.
If people say, “’I’m young, I’m healthy, who cares’ — you should care, not only for yourself but for the impact you might have” on sickening someone more vulnerable, Fauci said.
About 2.3 million Americans have been infected and some 120,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Republican Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia asked if Fauci regretted that the American public wasn’t urged sooner to wear face masks, and then interrupted before the visibly annoyed scientist finished answering.
Fauci said he didn’t regret the change in recommendations. Early in the pandemic there was a “paucity of equipment” for health workers “who put themselves daily in harm’s way” and “we did not want to divert” those scarce supplies, he said.
Scientists eventually recommended the general public use cloth masks, after they better understood that people with no symptoms could be spreading the virus — even though they don't offer as much protection as the sophisticated masks reserved for health workers and aren't a substitute for staying 6 feet away from other people.
Trump,...

There is division around Parliament as to what degree officers' actions should be reviewed after last week's fatal police shooting.
Multiple investigations are underway after Constable Matthew Hunt was killed when he and another officer were shot at in Auckland.
Police Minister Stuart Nash told Mike Hosking the incident will be looked at.
He says there will be a number of investigations into what happened, and if Police could have done things differently.
But those comments have irked National's Mark Mitchell - a former officer himself.
Mitchell told Nash not to put the incident back on Police, and says the officers did exactly what they should have.
Listen to the audio above as MPs Stuart Nash and Mark Mitchell join Mike Hosking to debate the issues of the week.

I am glad the forestation of this country at the expense of good, productive farmland finally appears to be getting the sort of attention it deserves. The trouble with a crisis, is it takes your eye off all sorts of balls, and  various issues would have had far greater scrutiny if we hadn't had a virus to deal with.
Planting trees to allow us to meet our Paris accord deal is potentially a catastrophic mistake that is unfolding before our eyes.
Firstly, because our calling card to the world is not our climate credentials, it’s the food we sell. For that you need productive land. Under the Emission Trading Scheme changes, the price of carbon lifts. As it lifts, it becomes more attractive to buy land to plant trees.
Planting trees is easy, and people always take the easy path. And what makes this worse is many who invest in these trees have no intention of harvesting them. They're simply there to clip the ticket.
The answer is simple, limit conversion. We limit all sorts of things these days. Foreigners can't buy certain houses, some companies can't buy other companies, or some companies can't take over other companies. There are rules everywhere, whether they make sense is a matter for another day, but the unfettered conversion of farmland to forest land can easily be controlled.
What's interesting is whether those who are more obsessed with climate than our future really want to.
That’s where James Shaw comes in. It seems a strange thing that a bright bloke like him, doesn't see all of this. Unless, of course, he does, but he doesn't really care. He's happy to have trees, not sheep. Also unusual that someone of the left wouldn't understand, if not sympathise, with the community aspects of all of this.
The beef and lamb numbers are stark. Money from farms outweighs money from trees, whether you harvest them or not. If you don’t, the money from farms far outweighs trees. It outweighs forestry on jobs, on income, and community spending.
The farmers have to play their part too. There's no point bemoaning the end of an era, if you’ve flicked the farm off to pocket the profit. And I'm surprised National, as a party of the farmer, haven't been working this for months. By the time you look at this government's record with the rural community, there are votes aplenty, not to mention a way of life to save. Isn't that what they're in politics for?
As for the trees, it's relatively simple. You don’t solve one problem by creating another.

National is standing by its story of a homeless man posing as a new arrival to stay at an isolation hotel.
Ashley Bloomfield and Minister Megan Woods doubt the story, suggesting it's an urban myth.
But National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse says he still believes the source of the information is reliable, and provided sufficient detail.
He told Mike Hosking he can't work out how Megan Woods knows the story isn't true, but doesn't know how many people have finished isolation with a coronavirus test.
“Woods is diving deeply into the records of 1706 people who have been through the facility, but she hasn’t got the wherewithal to go through those same records to see whether or not they were tested on departure.”
LISTEN ABOVE

The Ministry of Health has finally revealed how many of the 55 people who left managed isolation early on compassionate leave were not tested for Covid.
The answer is 51.
Of the 55, 39 have now tested negative, seven won't be tested for medical reasons or because they are children and one was wrongly counted because their leave application was withdrawn. Of the remaining eight, four are awaiting test results and four still haven't been tested.
Right up to last night, neither Health Minister David Clark nor health chief Dr Ashley Bloomfield could provide these specific details, following revelations last week that two sisters from the UK had left an Auckland hotel early, without being tested. They made a road-trip to Wellington where they tested positive for Covid.
As the Government announced new border testing moves, Clark and Bloomfield faced more questions about why, after a week, they still could not say how many of the 55 had been released early without having had a test.
National leader Todd Muller described it as a "national disgrace".
The answer finally came through last night – 51 of the 55 had left early without a test, the Ministry of Health said.
And of the four that had had a test, two were tested on the day of departure so they must have been released by staff without knowing they were negative.
Auckland University medical professor Des Gorman said it was hard to imagine so much liberty was allowed at the border. While many of the early-release people might not be found to be infectious now, that did not mean they were not infectious at the time, he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.
He said the system failures were extraordinary.
"I have just been dumbfounded that all of this stuff wasn't in place in February."
Gorman agreed with Hosking that the total 2159 people who left managed isolation between June 9 and 16 would not be tracked down now. "While we don't want to over-egg the souffle, we have to make the assumption these people have reseeded the infection in the community. We have to act accordingly to quickly re-achieve the elimination."
Gorman said in order to stay safe, people needed to retain hygiene habits - including washing hands and, if they felt unwell, staying at home and getting tested in more serious cases. "I think we can rely on the military to get the border right. They don't have the same lack of discipline you have among many health officials."
He said rest-homes, retirement villages and the elderly had to be properly protected "this time", with proper boundaries for the vulnerable.
The Government also needed to sort out contact-tracing, Gorman said. It was taking days to find people's contacts - a "ridiculous" amount of time.
The Government has ordered regular mandatory testing of people working at the border including air crew and people working in quarantine and isolation centres as it faces continued pressure over past failures.
Clark said the new testing regime would also include such people as drivers who ferry arrivals from the airport to isolation, cleaners, immigration, customs, and biosecurity and security staff.
Air New Zealand crew would be regularly tested, Clark said, but he could not say whether air crew from non-New Zealand airlines flying from hotspots such as India or the United States would be tested.
Two new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday, and with one of the sisters from Britain recovered, the current number of active cases is 10.
Six are from India, one from Britain, two from Pakistan and one from the United States.
All are in quarantine except the sister from Britain who is in self-isolation in the community in the Hutt Valley.
The failures in testing at day three and day 12 of 14-days managed isolation came to light only after the sisters were released early but tested positive after driving from Auckland to Wellington.
They were two of 55 people...

Top European Union officials on Monday pressed China's leaders to open the country's markets further to European companies, show stronger leadership in reforming world trade's governing body and step back from the brink in Hong Kong.
With criticism mounting that the EU has been kowtowing to Beijing, European Council President Charles Michel and EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen attempted to strike a tougher tone than usual, after video talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
The 27-nation bloc is China's biggest trading partner, but also an economic competitor, and as Beijing has become more assertive in recent years, the EU has struggled to balance its commercial interests with a country that it also sees as "a systemic rival."
"Progress is needed in many areas to re-balance this relationship, and we made clear that we need to resolve concrete problems," Michel said, firing off a list of outstanding issues like market access, subsidies, regulatory issues, public procurement, the forced transfer of technologies and WTO reforms.
No Chinese officials took part in the news conference.
Von der Leyen said Brussels and Beijing hope soon to sign an agreement on geographical indicators that would protect national producers, but she lamented the general lack of progress, particularly on lifting market access barriers, since last year's EU-China summit.
"We continue to have an unbalanced trade and investment relationship," she told reporters. "We need to follow up on these commitments urgently. And we also need to have more ambition on the Chinese side in order to conclude negotiations on an investment agreement."
In a statement after the meeting, the Europeans expressed "grave concerns" at China's decision to impose its security law on Hong Kong, saying that Beijing's actions contravene its international commitments and "put pressure on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the population."
They also raised concerns about human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as reports of people who disappeared after expressing their views on China's handling of the coronavirus. The "continued arbitrary detention" of Swedish citizen Gui Minhai and two Canadian citizens – Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor - was also highlighted.
"For the European Union, human rights and fundamental freedoms are non-negotiable," von der Leyen said.
She also raised concerns about a disinformation campaign by China linked to the coronavirus, and noted, without elaborating, that "we've seen cyber attacks on computing systems, on hospitals, and we know the origin of the cyber attacks. "
While Monday's video summit did not produce concrete results — no joint statement was issued — the Europeans hope it will boost slow-moving talks on an investment agreement they have been working on at technical level, and build some common ground for tackling thorny political issues at a face-to-face meeting, hopefully late in the year.
The meetings come at a time when China stands accused of trying to influence European officials and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who also took part in the meetings, has twice denied in recent months that the External Action Service — a kind of EU foreign office that he leads — has bowed to Beijing's pressure to alter documents.
Von der Leyen described the EU-China relationship as "not an easy one, but one we're working on."

High school students will now be able to gain NCEA credits by learning about money.
The Commission for Financial Capability's 'Sorted in Schools' programme for secondary school students is now NZQA accredited.
The programme covers saving, debt, money management, as well as insurance, investing and KiwiSaver.
The Commission's director of learning Nick Thomson told Mike Hosking the programme's content is designed to be taught across the curriculum.
"Teachers can start using the programme from today, meaning students can get NCEA credits from the programme's assessments."
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A prominent American philosopher believes the Black Lives Matter movement has been partially fuelled by the coronavirus uncertainty.
As many parts of the US struggle to contain Covid-19, the killing of George Floyd has triggered unrest and brought racial injustice back into the spotlight.
Harvard University professor Cornel West told Mike Hosking the pandemic lockdown helped fuel momentum for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It’s partly the result of people feeling locked down, and having no other distractions that led them to exert their energy to.”
Protests have swept over America as calls for racial justice gain momentum, but West doubts either Donald Trump or Joe Biden can lead a permanent movement.
“There's tremendous energy around entrepreneurial and technology activities, but when it comes to fundamental change, America is a profoundly conservative country.”
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Thousands of New Zealand citizens are now returning home, as flights from around the world resume.
More people are also expressing an interest in moving here.
Recruitment Agency Randstad's New Zealand director Katherine Swan says many people are probably only planning to remain in New Zealand for the short-term.
But she told Mike Hosking others may never return to where they were before.
“Many people who plan to spend one or two years in New Zealand end up staying here for the rest of their lives."
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A man's detached hand was preserved in ice onboard the helicopter flying him to hospital after a serious attack in broad daylight near Whakatāne.
Liam Brettkelly, a pilot for the Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter, was called yesterday afternoon to fly a critical patient with a severed hand and a serious head injury from Whakatāne Hospital to Waikato Hospital.
The 27-year-old man had one of his hands severed and suffered serious head injuries after an assault on McKenzie St in Taneatua just before 2.30pm.
The incident happened near the forecourt of the town's Gull service station.



Brettkelly said the man's hand was packed in ice in a bowl while he lay intubated and unconscious for the short journey between hospitals.
The hospital had already stabilised the patient, so the transfer was "quite straightforward", but something of this nature was always "challenging" for medical teams, he said.
"It really was a team effort."
The helicopter was equipped with ventilators and other medical items to ensure the patient's breathing remained stable, he said.
Rescue helicopter crews have seen a large number of severe injuries, so a single amputee situation was "not unusual", he said.
Brettkelly said he had heard that the man was taken to Whakatāne Hospital by a car, which actually passed the ambulance on the way to the scene.
A St John spokeswoman said they had sent one ambulance and a helicopter to the scene and one person was taken to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition.
The man was now stable in the hospital's High Dependency Unit, a Waikato District Health Board spokeswoman said.
Waikato Hospital had dealt with similar incidents before.
In 2009, a King Country meatworker saw his hand flapping around after nearly cutting it off with a bandsaw. Surgeons at Waikato Hospital worked for 13 hours to reattach the worker's partially amputated left wrist.
Yesterday's assault was being investigated by police.
Details including whether the victim was known to his attacker, the circumstances surrounding the incident or the weapon used were not available, as inquiries were ongoing, a police spokeswoman said.
There did not appear to be any risk to members of the public, she said.
Police were appealing for witnesses to the assault or for anyone who saw a black Great Wall ute in the Taneatua or Ruatoki area on Sunday afternoon to contact them.