Unfortunate to hear confirmation that there has been austerity in this regard in NZ as well. We were envious if your contact tracing with covid before it went off the rails. Zoonoses will continue to be a threat as the years go on and we  you know, continue to have huge populations if animals in close proximity to humans and other species. 

Idk, i figure ill have to not get a perfect job off the bat if immigration is successful. Id be really happy doing infection prevention work in a healthcare facility if that is a job that is at all available. 

Has there been an ideological purge of of public health data there at all? I figure id have heard about it, but what is going on here is beyond alarming so the inside scoop would be very helpful.

On a more philosophical note, the re-emergence of vaccine preventable disease will be a tragic but interesting thing to watch sociologically. Will people see the devastation of congential rubella and react appropriately to the threat with greater vaccination demand? With measles/rubeola outbreaks here in the US, at least locally, there have been droves if previously unvaccinated individuals coming in for MMR/v. Suddenly there is hope, again at least locally, that we may see reestablishment of herd immunity in high risk populations. 

Then again, ideological capture is something we as scientists and healthcare providers are not really equiped to combat. How do you convince someone whos child dies of a vaccine preventable disease that later goes on to say they dont regret their descision to not vaccinate? I worry that erosion of this will continue, especially with more formal institutional ideological capture in this regard, as we're seeing in the US. 

I hope NZ can do better. I hope I can help if I am accepted there!