Today (Tuesday 21 April) we have 5 new cases of COVID-19. We have a total of 13 deaths, all older people with underlying health conditions. This is sad for their families, but in world terms, our numbers are very low. Whether we were never going to be badly affected, or
Ananish Chaudhuri is Professor of Experimental Economics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. covidplanb.co.nz An article published on Newsroom last week takes potshots at “contrarian” academics who have chosen to question received wisdom regarding how countries around the world, including New Zealand, are responding to COVID-19. As
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com A few days back I forecast a revisionist backlash against the government’s ill-thought lockdown would occur, once the realisation of the absence of any sensible reasoning became evident. Then lo and behold, the very next day a group of New Zealand academics covering health,
Simon Thornley Senior Lecturer Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Auckland covidplanb.co.nz After sparking the first serious debate in New Zealand about the best way of beating COVID-19, Simon Thornley, a member of the Plan B group, explains why he has hope for a safe and swift exit.
We are locked into a plan that has most of us on welfare one way or another, and we are also locked into an economic meltdown. The meltdown is just starting, but it has the potential to become very severe indeed. In the early 1990s, we had a bad recession
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Kia ora, When faced with the threat of COVID-19 spreading across New Zealand, we believed that decisive action – going hard and going early – would give us the very best chance to stamp out the virus. And the evidence shows it’s working. So far, thanks to
The Green Party really does have very little grip on reality. First of all, Julie Anne Genter is proposing ‘pop-up’ cycleways and footpaths, in order to make social distancing easier, when we all know that the best way to practise social distancing is to stay in the car. These ‘pop-up’
LionRed The author is based in the UK at the moment (ex-pat Kiwi) and travels the world as a consultant in developing countries working on business development. As a result, he is totally cynical about NGOs, the UN and WHO etc. He is regularly exposed to contact with governments and
Mark The question is this: If the lockdown continues, how many more people will die as a result of severe economic collapse rather than from the coronavirus, even if we had not made an attempt to contain it? I’m not talking about secondary deaths due to poverty-related illnesses or
I neither support nor condemn the government’s decision to put the country into lockdown to reduce the ravages of COVID-19. There are arguments both ways; either we sacrifice the lives of older and infirm people for the sake of a healthy economy, or we do everything we can to
Davo42 Has COVID-19 now guaranteed Labour an election win? With New Zealand entering a new phase of poverty thanks to “The COVID” as I like to call it and the power of incumbency we must now accept that the next government as a Labour/Greens coalition without the need for
One of the best things about the COVID-19 pandemic is that everyone has forgotten about climate change. We are all much more worried about getting sick; about infecting others or being infected by others; of looking after elderly parents or relatives and trying to survive financially. Times are tough for
Governments – all governments – operate at such a high level, that when they try to design a package specifically to aid small business, they almost inevitably fail miserably. The intentions are always good, but those that usually work at the macro level always struggle with looking at things from a micro
Dr Ananish Chaudhuri– Professor of Experimental Economics, University of Auckland and Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Decision Making, Harvard University, Massachusetts, US covidplanb.co.nz There is a trade-off: how many lives will be taken by Covid-19 and how many lives will be lost due to our attempts to
