The first report from a Royal Commission of Inquiry to review New Zealand’s response to the COVID pandemic was due to be released this month.
But the coalition government plans to withhold it, potentially until a second phase of the inquiry (with a new set of questions and commissioners) can be completed in 2026.
Comments closedComments closedThese findings provide further evidence supporting the effectiveness of the elimination strategy for minimising mortality from the pandemic.
Comments closedSome people who had Long Covid early in 2020 are still not well. So the experience of being not listened to and not believed has been very harmful for them alongside the very considerable health impacts that they’ve had from Long Covid. […] The cost of inaction is going to be very high and that’s going to be a human cost and a financial cost.
A new study estimates vaccines prevented between 4000 and 12,000 deaths during the Omicron phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The paper, published in the medical journal Vaccine, models scenarios with different levels of vaccine coverage in the 18 months from January 2022.
The authors say the elimination strategy meant most people were able to be vaccinated before being exposed to the virus.
The researchers say it meant there were between 34,000 and 56,000 fewer hospitalisations over the period.
A vaccinologist is warning that restricting access to the Covid-19 vaccine could send a message that it is no longer important.
Covid-19 vaccines and boosters have always been provided free-of-charge – but that funding commitment is due to expire at the end of June next year.
It is possible the Government could move to a more targeted approach like with flu vaccines – where only vulnerable populations get them for free.
Comments closedGovernment’s strategy, which included closing the border, meant death rate was 80% lower than in the US, according to the New Zealand Medical Journal.
Comments closedNew Zealand’s government will lift all remaining COVID-19 requirements from midnight Tuesday, bringing an end to some of the toughest COVID-19 pandemic rules in the world more than three years after they were put in place.
Comments closedTwo weeks ago marked the two-year anniversary of New Zealand’s adoption of the elimination strategy and a lockdown that successfully stamped out the first wave of Covid-19. By chance, it was also the week that the government announced a major relaxation of Covid-19 control measures in response to the Omicron variant wave sweeping the country.
Comments closedThe past year of Covid-19 has taught us that it is the behaviour of governments, more than the behaviour of the virus or individuals, that shapes countries’ experience of the crisis. Talking about pandemic waves has given the virus far too much agency: until quite recently the apparent waves of infection were driven by government action and inaction. It is only now with the emergence of more infectious variants that it might be appropriate to talk about a true second wave.
As governments draw up their battle plans for year two, we might expect them to base their strategies on the wealth of data about what works best. And the evidence to date suggests that countries pursuing elimination of Covid-19 are performing much better than those trying to suppress the virus. Aiming for zero-Covid is producing more positive results than trying to “live with the virus.”
New Zealand’s decision to eliminate coronavirus stemmed as much from fear as ambition, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has revealed, saying there was a point at which she realised the health system simply couldn’t cope with a big outbreak.
Comments closedNew Zealand officials and scientists are eying a breach in isolation security as the possible cause of the first cases of community transmission in the country in 102 days. Investigators are exploring several possibilities, but experts believe the alternatives—that the virus was circulating undetected or that it entered the country on a freight shipment—are unlikely.
Comments closedLaissez-faire. Lockdowns. Mitigation. Testing. Denial. Elimination.
The world has responded to the pandemic with a diversity of strategies.
Some appear to be working well, while others are just coping or failing altogether.
And history appears to have prepared some countries better than others.
Comments closed