Tim Dower: Is it a big deal Health Ministry stuffed up the data of people vaccinated?

The Health Ministry is in the spotlight this morning, over the database it used to keep tabs on Covid vaccinations.
Apparently, the Ministry went with its usual 'we know best' approach.
At the time, the guys over at Stats NZ were saying, “here, use this database, it's much more up to date”.
Health of course said, “nah nah, we're good, we've got this one, we know best”.
End of the day, it looks like we've overstated the national Covid vaccination rate, although the Ministry says it's confident we'll still come out at more than 90 per cent.
Now I'll bet most people hearing this will be saying “well, so what does it really matter if we got to 95 per cent or 90 per cent?”
Didn't stop the virus getting in, didn't stop it spreading, and so far-reaching more than a million of us.
Anyway, now we've got Stats NZ telling the Health Ministry they've stuffed up the data.
Stats NZ of course being the government department that stuffed up the 2018 census so badly, the chief executive had to fall on her sword.
You know, the department that basically has one job once every five years and by its own admission, couldn't get that right.
But back to the Covid jabs.
Does it matter if we got 95 per cent, 90 per cent, or less than that?
I don't think it's that important.
What does matter is that anyone who wanted to get a jab could get a jab, there was ample opportunity to do so, and it cost the patient nothing.

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