Several local health practitioners have pooled their knowledge on how best to support people’s health before and after being exposed to Covid-19 in a free online resource.

The website Wānaka Health Bridge, launched late last week, provides information and resources aimed to reduce the impact of the virus on people’s bodies “to help a faster recovery, and as a result, lessen the load on Wānaka’s limited medical infrastructure”, the group said in a statement.

Founder Kaz von Heraud-Parker said the website was shared quickly and widely before she was ready, which she said indicated how keen people were for the information.

A group of locals have created a pool of resources to help support people’s health “on top of getting the [Covid-19] vaccine”. PHOTO: Supplied

One of the contributors is Dr Mark Edmond, a GP and partner at Aspiring Medical Centre (AMC), who has been outspoken with his concerns about the Covid-19 vaccine. Mark left his role at AMC last week because of the vaccine mandate.

Read more: Ministry of Health refutes Wānaka GP’s comments

Wānaka Bridge organisers say the website is not an alternative to the vaccine, and have included this statement on the website’s homepage: “The Ministry of Health advises that being vaccinated against Covid-19 is your first form of defence.”

Sources of information for the site, however, include groups which oppose Covid-19 vaccines, including New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out With Science (NZSOS) and the newly formed World Council for Health (WCH). New Zealand’s Dr Tracey Chandler, a member of NZDSOS, is on the WCH steering committee.

Kaz works as a naturopath, nutritionist and herbalist and among the other contributors to the Wānaka Health Bridge are two pharmacists, a chiropractor, a yoga and pilates instructor, two more nutritionists and another naturopath.

Kaz said there is a lot of anxiety about the virus, some of which she thought could be attributed “to the limited information on what more people can be doing, as well as our town’s limited medical infrastructure and isolation from a tertiary hospital”. 

“The motivation to create a collective pool of resources came from each of us in our own fields with clients who were keen to know what more they could be doing to support their health on top of getting the vaccine,” she said. 

The test website went live last Thursday (November 18) and has already had more than 16,800 visitors. 

“We were thinking of our small town when we started it, but we’ve had a great response from all over the country; a lot of very positive messages of thanks for this practical information,” Kaz said.

She said getting input from local contributors was a heartening experience.