Ash Hickey آشلي

Much of my historical research has been HIV/AIDS related. The latest episode of the @knowrogan.bsky.social podcast has genuinely chilled me to my core. This level of AIDS denial being pushed to such a huge audience, in general but especially at the moment, is unfathomably irresponsible.

It's REALLY annoying being on an uncommon medication and not being able to crowd source whether things are side effects or just symptoms of my illness doing something wierd again. Most of the information from health professionals is for the much higher chemotherapy dosage.

Should have clicked earlier but the podcast episode I'm referring to is currently a patreon early release. It should be available for general listening in a few days. It examines and debunks a JRE episode from a few months ago featuring Gavin de Becker.

I am thankful on a near daily basis that at least we don't still have smallpox. Also thankful for the NZ AIDS response and, although 20-years belated, the excellent work currently being done here with hepatitis-c.

And if you're not American and not personally likely to be at risk, make HIV/AIDS something you care about. Talk to your kids about it, learn the history together. Support harm reduction and reproductive health initiatives. Work on unpacking your own prejudices about deserving/undeserving victims.

It means strategic partnerships with people, organisations, institutions, and systems that are most definitely flawed, but are a pragmatic necessary evil. Yes American "soft power" is gross. But so is 1,400 HIV+ babies being born each day because Elon Musk removed their mums' access to medication.

This means not leaving people behind, even if they are engaged in behaviour you don't personally agree with, and even if they are black or brown and live in countries you know little about and don't think it's your responsibility as a taxpayer to help.

What can be done? We're going to need to relearn the lessons we learnt in the 80s and 90s. This means looking after yourself and, more importantly, your communities. The only reason we got to a place where AIDS even could be denied was because of the work of grassroots activism and relationships.

Not to mention the effects shifting discourse about morality, personal responsibility, and race/gender/class could have. The spectre of AIDS has faded from public memory and people, especially young people, are nowhere near as cautious as they should be. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

There's also growing but understudied blackmarket use of needle-administered anabolic steroids, peptides, gender affirming hormones, botox and fillers. It's crucial for messaging about clean needles to target these populations as they may not consider themselves to be at risk as non-"drug" users.

Meanwhile, at the individual risk level, there's a trend towards younger people shunning condom use and reproductive healthcare broadly, an increase in heterosexual anal sex, and ongoing high intravenous drug use in the US coupled with federal cuts to harm reduction initiatives like needle exchange.

There is already a high baseline level of medical distrust at the moment. The professionals and organisations who would detect and act on clusters of cases are either the targets of conspiracy theories and experiencing funding cuts or already overrun by those peddling the conspiracies.

We are living at a time where the perfect storm for a resurgence in HIV and AIDS cases is brewing. The USAID/PEPFAR cuts have massively impacted global access to antiretroviral medication and I have read just this week that 20 US states are looking at limiting access to medication.

Much of my historical research has been HIV/AIDS related. The latest episode of the @knowrogan.bsky.social podcast has genuinely chilled me to my core. This level of AIDS denial being pushed to such a huge audience, in general but especially at the moment, is unfathomably irresponsible.

Screenshot. Text reads: Labour in 1989/90 tried moving from PM David Lange through PM Geoffrey Palmer to PM Mike Moore but suffered a hiding; National moved from PMs Jim Bolger to Jenny Shipley in 1997 but suffered defeat in 1999 as well. The Ardern to Chris Hipkins move of the prime ministership three years ago, ditto.

Cackling that no one remembers Bill English was PM 😅

Orb web spiders (and most spiders) mostly come out at night. Various species are responsible for the classic "spoked" shaped webs that appear overnight. If you take a walk around the garden or house outside with a torch you might be lucky enough to spot one, but will definitely find its cousins 😊

Hot cross buns cooling in a roasting dish

Dairy free hot cross buns cooling in a roasting dish

Hot cross buns! And dairy free hot cross buns for my dairy intolerant partner.

Will consider next time I'm already past the point of no return. My anaesthesiologist took pity on me yesterday and left me hooked up to the iv fluids after he disconnected the sedatives because he had so much trouble finding a vein I was that dehydrated 🥲

I'm already so thirsty 😭. All the instructions for the type of mri I'm getting online say no water 4 or 6 hours before but my instructions say 12 hours.

😔

About to go nil by mouth again for the second time this week. Chugging water now hoping it will plump my veins up enough they can get a line in but I know it won't work and I'll just be up all night peeing instead 🥲

Having a bunch of food scenes playing on the TV in the waiting room of my gastroenterologist when I'm nil by mouth is just cruel 😭

Unconscionable.

Thank you 😊

Does anyone know when the 2026 flu vaccine is available in NZ? And also if there's an updated covid vaccine coming soon?

This is a very cute story thanks for sharing 😊

Results of my OIA to NZ Police about roadside drug testing results for Dec/Jan:

- 192 tests were carried out
- 187 of those were negative, 3 were positive
- 2 second screens carried out, both positive
- 4 infringements issued.

Only 1 infringement was for a positive lab test.

The rest? See below

Actually, I did the math. It's an extra $1.73 in tax per week. But an extra $4.03 in the pocket per week overall. So he's only off by -$104.03/week in his claim 🫠

Screenshot of a comment. Text reads: thats the thing to look out for i think the 30% tax bracket comes in after $57,800 per year so if you ask for a salary of $57,500 you will pay i think about $100 less tax a week, so what you could do is ask for a pay decrease to get more money. tax brackets need to change in nz so we as a nation can get ahead to be able to live and be able to save or pay of debt we may have or just be able to have money to spend in local businesses

It's genuinely concerning how prevalent this belief is. Dude's advocating people voluntarily take a pay cut or defer pay rises thinking they'd be $100/week better off that way. In reality the extra tax is less than $2/week and they're around $4/week better off overall.

Govt embarks on sale of 900 state houses, old and new Kāinga Ora sells rundown one bedroom demo-job for $1.37m in now-affluent seaside suburb of Pt Chev – and there's much more to come, reports Jonathan Milne.

When John Key sold 1000 state homes, it made headlines & sparked debate

Now Chris Bishop has cancelled 3500 builds & selling 900 houses (with land extra) in what's been called a private developers' lolly scramble, it's hardly making a splash

How #NZ has changed #nzpol