I decided to include Siouxsie on an email that I sent out to several Microbiologists, Heads of Departments and some in the NZ health jurisdiction, in regards to this;
I’ve received 3 automatic responses. Two rather short friendly messages indicating that they were currently out of the office and this rather bitter ‘essay’ (1,163 words) response from Siouxsie Wiles. I won’t bother including her in on my next effort.
Kia ora and thanks for your email.
I am currently recieving a large volume of emails. This means I will likely take longer to respond to your message or may even miss it entirely. Please resend if you do not receive a timely response.
In the meantime, I have put together this autoreply which answers many of the common reasons people are emailing me.
If you are a journalist or calling from a media organisation and have my mobile number then please feel free to text me and I will reply if I can. I have had to remove my number from this autoreply due to harassment and abuse, so if you don't have my number you can get in touch with the Science Media Centre (https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/contact-us/) who can pass it on to you, or find you someone else who can help with your query.
If you are emailing to ask me to speak at an event/conference, and you have a budget or can afford to pay me a speaker fee, please contact Rebecca@johnsonlaird.co.nz to discuss. If you are surprised I would ask to be paid for my labour, please note that funding rates for science are very low in New Zealand so I rely on this money to fund some of my research.
If you mistakenly thought you were emailing the Dr Siouxsie Wiles Complaints Service, you can access that here, here, and here.
If you are emailing to tell me your thoughts on the matauranga versus science "debate" then I'm sure you would be very keen to engage with some of the excellent scholarship in this space. Here are a couple of references to get you started: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00288330.2018.1539404 and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03036758.2016.1252407.
If you are a member of the public emailing me with your questions about COVID-19, then please start by seeing if I have already answered them in any of my articles published by the Spinoff: https://thespinoff.co.nz/author/siouxsie-wiles/ or in any of the graphics Toby Morris and I have collaborated on: https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/07-09-2021/the-great-toby-morris-siouxsie-wiles-covid-19-omnibus/. Here are shortcuts to pieces on some of the common questions I'm currently being asked:
· Why you should still get vaccinated if you are young and healthy: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-09-2021/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-do-i-need-a-covid-19-vaccine-even-if-im-fit-and-healthy/
· Why pregnant and breastfeeding people should get vaccinated: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-09-2021/siouxsie-wiles-should-i-get-vaccinated-if-im-pregnant-trying-to-get-pregnant-or-breastfeeding/
· How vaccines were developed so fast: https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/03-09-2021/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-how-the-world-sped-to-the-covid-vaccine-summit/
· What a difference the vaccines make: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/29-10-2021/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-what-difference-do-covid-vaccines-make-just-look-at-this/
· Why some vaccinated people can still catch and transmit COVID: https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/19-08-2021/siouxsie-wiles-why-vaccinated-people-still-have-a-small-chance-of-being-infected/
If you are emailing me to alert me to some misinformation/disinformation you have seen or received, please forward it to the Disinformation Project (disinformationproject@gmail.com) and report it to CERT NZ (covid@ops.cert.govt.nz).
If you are asking whether something is misinformation/disinformation, I explain how to spot it here: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/21-08-2021/siouxsie-wiles-toby-morris-the-red-flags-of-covid-misinformation/ and I explain why I don't debunk it here: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/15-05-2021/siouxsie-wiles-theres-a-lot-of-vaccine-bs-around-heres-why-i-wont-be-debunking-it/ There are also lots of excellent reports by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate on who the main people creating misinformation/disinformation are globally and how they are profiteering from the pandemic. You can access those reports by clicking on the COVID tab here:
https://www.counterhate.com/
If you are asking how to talk to family and friends who have fallen for misinformation/disinformation, the Workshop has an excellent resource here: https://www.theworkshop.org.nz/publications/conversations-with-friends-whanau-about-covid-19-vaccination-connecting-not-correcting-2021 It might also help to talk to family and friends about whose agenda they are actually supporting. This is a good place to start: https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/12-11-2021/nzs-disinformation-surge/.
If you are emailing me to demand evidence that the virus responsible for COVID-19 has been 'isolated', I wrote about this back in November 2020: https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/15-11-2020/siouxsie-wiles-kochs-postulates-covid-and-misinformation-rabbit-holes/
If you are emailing to tell me you don't agree with me and you do so in an unkind or threatening way, then please take some time to familiarise yourself with the Harmful Digital Communications Act and the Harrassment Act and think about why you thought it appropriate to email me. Next time, before pressing send, ask yourself whether you might actually not be in full possession of the facts and whether you might be wrong. Please note, depending on how threatening your email is, I may report you to the police. In addition, you might also find this article useful: https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/05-04-2020/siouxsie-wiles-on-covid-19-we-have-to-build-the-plane-as-we-fly-it/
If you are emailing to ask for details of my lockdown bubble/exercise habits then please understand that the events that led to you emailing me are a textbook definition of disinformation, the use of fake or misleading information to push a particular agenda. This storm was created by a man with a history of being paid to undermine experts and who has been sued for defamation several times. He has now turned his attention to me. You can read more about his long-time links to the National Party and Judith Collins in Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics or online here. I know that there are people who hate me – they email me most days, and leave awful messages on my phone. It is pretty disappointing though not surprising that they will not hesitate to film me without my knowledge or consent and then allow themselves to be used to spread disinformation.
If you are emailing to say something kind, then thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to get in touch. It means a lot to me. You might be interested to watch Gwen Isaac's little documentary about me filmed just before New Zealand went into lockdown back in March 2020: https://loadingdocs.net/siouxsie/
If you would like to say thanks by supporting my research, you can make a donation here: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/giving/donate/a-z-list-of-funds/new-medicines-to-kill-superbugs-fund.html. Every little helps! Alternatively, head over to my redbubble site for t-shirts and other things made using pictures taken from the many science-art exhibitions I have curated. All profits from your purchase go to my research. https://www.redbubble.com/people/SiouxsieW/explore?page=1&sortOrder=recent
If you are emailing to ask if you can use any of the graphics created by Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris and myself, we have released these under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence. This means you are free to use them providing you give us credit and share under the same conditions. Please do send me a link to where or how you have used them for our records. You can download the illustrations and gifs by right-clicking on them in the posts and selecting "save picture as". Any questions for Toby Morris or relating to The Spinoff more generally, should go to info@thespinoff.co.nz.
If you are emailing with your ideas for a COVID-19 cure or treatment, I will try to pass on your suggestions to the relevant people.
Finally, a quick note about the spelling of my name. While it is pronounced Suzy, it is spelled Siouxsie. I honestly don't mind if you get the order of the vowels mixed up, or miss off the x or second s. I appreciate that you tried. Please do me the courtesy of not addressing me as Susie, Susi, Suzi, Suzie, Suzy, or Sowsie (and yes I know what the people calling me this are implying. It's hardly subtle).
Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles MNZM
Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab,
The University of Auckland - Waipapa Taumata Rau
Te Pūnaha Matatini, Principal Investigator
N.P.D. Classic Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 🤗
I’m concerned about her mental health. I’ve read tomes like this before written by mental health clients