Ananish Chaudhuri
Professor of Behavioural and Experimental Economics
University of Auckland
ananishchaudhuri.com
Author of: Nudge into lockdown? Behavioural Economics, Uncertainty and Covid-19
It took the government 18 months to figure out that “elimination” was misguided.
We were one of the few remaining holdouts on elimination; so much so that when we did, leading newspapers reported on this with bemusement; much like they do when we hear about hitherto unknown tribes left untouched by advancing modernity.
A key reason behind this, of course, is the absence of any effective opposition in New Zealand. When it came to responding to the pandemic, the opposition marches in lockstep with the government and has completely failed to ask searching questions about the pandemic response.
The unquestioning deference to authority and misguided “experts” has been painful to watch. It seems out of character with the rugged individualism that we associate with the average Kiwi.
This is the reason why our level of discourse is so poor, why voluminous and compelling evidence gets over-looked, why contrary views are suppressed, why shoddy modelling and ideology posing as science is not questioned and why our government is not held to account for its numerous failures.
But an equally, if not more, influential fact in our pandemic response is nationalistic hubris. First, we were the team of 5 million that could eliminate Covid in spite of the evidence staring us in the face that this was not going to be possible.
Now the new chimera is vaccination rates. Most countries of the world have opened up once they reached reasonable amount of vaccine coverage. Denmark has achieved around 75% while Norway is at 70% at the time of writing.
But this is not enough for us. We must show the rest of the world and reach 90%, no 95% or higher!
What is forgotten in all of this is that we are not trying to win a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games.
What we are trying to achieve is respite from a disease in a manner than minimises the total harm across the entire spectrum of society.
No one seems to be paying much attention to the bankrupt businesses, the postponed treatments for all other diseases, child poverty or mental well-being as long as we can show the world that we beat them at something.
Our Zero Covid fanaticism has not only led to a loss of livelihoods, but it has also cost lives. Counting one year from our first lockdown in 2020, total deaths are much higher than the historical average; by nearly 1,200 deaths.
This does not even count all the other collateral damages as noted above.
Martha Lincoln is an anthropologist at San Francisco State University. Writing in Nature, this is what Lincoln had to say about countries that have relied on such hubris:
“One thing these countries have in common is ‘exceptionalism’ — a view of themselves as outliers, in some way distinct from other nations. Their COVID-19 responses suggest that exceptionalist world views can be associated with worse public-health outcomes. Researching this association could help in redefining preparedness and allow more accurate prediction of pandemic successes and failures.”…
“In Greek myth, hubris is punished by the goddess Nemesis; in disease control, a hubristic world view risks a particularly vengeful nemesis. Overconfidence in national specialness has led to lack of preparedness, prevented collaboration with global health agencies and the opportunities to learn from the experience of other countries.”
nature.com
