NZ Skeptics Articles

New variants, Sam Bailey, FTL communication and more

29th November 2021

Welcome to the NZ Skeptics newsletter.

These last few weeks have been very busy for me personally, culminating in our very successful Skepticon 2021 last weekend.

I feel like I’m on the rundown to Christmas - looking forward to having some time off work, and the possibility, as a resident of Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, of finally being able to leave the city which has had lockdown restrictions for 103 days and counting.

This weekend has seen the announcement of the new Variant of Concern of SARS-COV-2, Omicron, as it’s been named, so maybe I shouldn’t be making too many firm plans at this stage.

Craig Shearer

Omicron

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

Omicron

As I write this there's news breaking about a new variant of concern of the COVID virus, now named as Omicron.

Sam Bailey

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

Sam Bailey

Dr Sam Bailey has been in the news this week, which involved in a court case petitioning the High Court to stop the New Zealand Medical Council from investigating her.

Veritasium

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

Veritasium

Back on YouTube channels again - you may have heard of the YouTube channel Veritasium. This one is a generally good science channel which has nearly 11 million subscribers.

Washing your masks

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

Washing your masks

It's been revealed this week that you can wash disposable masks, and reuse them. The current advice from the Ministry of Health is that disposable masks should be used once then thrown away.

Skeptic Cards

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

Skeptic Cards

For those readers who are members of NZ Skeptics (as off 1st April 2021 - that was our cut-off date), you will have, by now, (hopefully) received your Skeptic Card in the mail, along with a couple of stickers.

Conference thoughts

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

If you've been reading the newsletter for any time you'll be aware of the joint conference we ran with the Australian Skeptics last weekend. I hope you had a chance to attend and to view the talks. If not, you can still purchase a ticket.

AGM

Craig Shearer - 29 November 2021

NZ Skeptics has its Annual General Meeting on Sunday 12th December. We'll be holding this online, and we'd encourage any interested members to come along.