I get it if you are reading this and are still hesitant about getting vaccinated.

It’s a decision that can be influenced by understandable fear.

I had surgery earlier this year and had a general anaesthetic for the first time since I was a kid, and I was on the edge of freaking out as I waited to be wheeled into the theatre.

Sure, I was a bit worried about being opened up, but what I was truly terrified of was getting a drug put into me that would make me disappear for a while.

So I get it; I understand why you are nervous about getting the vaccine.

But a couple of warning bells went off in our nation today.

Firstly, a Covid case popped up randomly in the sleepy settlement of Kāwhia. Kāwhia is just over 200 kilometres from the epicentre for this outbreak, being Auckland.  As I write this, Stuff is saying there is a suspected case in Whangarei, 175 k’s to the north.

This bastard bug is out of its cage, and I don’t think we are ever going to put it back in.

Please note: that’s just my opinion, not based on anything other than what I read in the news and hear in the same reports from Government that you get.

Secondly today, we sadly had our 28th death.

Today’s two bits of news tell me one thing; this deadly Delta bug is on its way here. There is no stopping it now, so we need to get ready. And the best way we do that is by getting vaccinated, so that when it does get here, Central Otago is best placed to protect its weak and vulnerable from the worst effects.

Please, if you are sitting on the fence, unsure of what to do, waiting to see what will happen; we all need you to just stop and have a think about it.

If deep inside you know you are going to get the vaccine sometime, please do it now, because time is running out.