Late last week, an "alternative" health clinic in Christchurch, which specialises in colonic irrigation and coffee enemas, announced online (opens new window) that it will not treat anyone (opens new window) who has been vaccinated within the last 30 days.

This news came on the back of a school in Miami, the Centner Academy, barring its teachers (opens new window) from being able to see students if they’ve been given the COVID vaccine. The academy will also no longer be employing new teachers who have already been vaccinated. They argue that because the vaccines have not yet been fully tested, there is a risk that they could have unknown issues that may affect other people.

In fact, the school reports that it has already seen this happen. A letter (opens new window) sent out to parents said:

"Tens of thousands of women all over the world have recently been reporting adverse reproductive issues simply from being in close proximity with those who have received any one of the COVID-19 injections… No one knows exactly what may be causing these irregularities, but it appears that those who have received the injections may be transmitting something from their bodies to those with whom they come in contact."

The local union, the United Teachers of Dade, rightly spoke up and called out this nonsense:

"As shamefully seen by the actions of the illegally run and uncertified Centner Academy, these schools not only teach misinformation and peddle propaganda, they punish teachers who try to protect themselves and their families."

It struck me as a bit of a coincidence that a day after the Miami school’s announcement, a Christchurch clinic would choose to do something very similar. It didn’t take long for me to find a link between the clinic and the school - it turns out that the owners of the clinic are fans of David and Leila Centner, the owners of the school, and have posted online (opens new window) about the Centners’ recent documentary called Medical Racism (opens new window). (The documentary appears to argue that it’s racist to try to convince people to be vaccinated, and to treat them differently if they’re not. To me it’s not a form of racism to redeploy frontline medical workers who refuse to be vaccinated - it’s just common sense.)

I had a little chuckle when I noticed the name of the Christchurch clinic. The business appears to be situated inside a residential property, and is accessed via a door at the side of the property - which presumably is what gave rise to the name "Back Door Spa". Given that the clinic specialises in colonics and enemas, I’m not sure whether this instance of nominative determinism is coincidental or clever.