Just before we went into lockdown, I heard how the Department of Health was recruiting retired health workers. Most of these people had allowed their registrations to lapse, but the Health Department was able to deal with that. It seemed that they were able to effect the re-registrations in
Michael Reddell croakingcassandra.com People can agree or disagree with the government and its official agencies on the various numerous specifics of the handling of the coronavirus, up to and including yesterday’s decisions. But whether you or I, agree with individual choices that have been made – and I’m
The wage subsidy offered to businesses to keep employees is being used by all sorts of businesses in essential industries. As we saw with New World public pressure makes them withdraw claims or pay them back. At a time when every business owner who is not in an essential industry
With Monday’s announcement on moving to level three next Tuesday the adding of an extra week to level four shows complete ignorance of how business operates, the overheads involved, staff costs, compliance costs and the slim margins they operate on. As Bob Jones has pointed out in his last
Dave Pellowe davepellowe.com In 2001 Professor Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology and director of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London, predicted up to 150,000 could die in the U.K. alone from mad cow disease. Panicked politicians and ballistic bureaucrats ordered
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,
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
