Guest Author • Jul 07, 2020 •
Associate Professor Sara Walton At the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown. If we think about our country as a system, an open system deals with the ebbs and … Read More
Guest Author • Jul 04, 2020 •
Dave Heatley Zero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second wave”. How would we tell? COVID-19 just keeps changing and … Read More
Guest Author • Jul 03, 2020 •
Nik Green Much of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity. Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the media and Parliament, with some arguing that the highly-restrictive … Read More
Public Health Expert • Jul 03, 2020 •
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your Australian correspondent. Life as an epidemiologist and public health … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Jun 23, 2020 •
After weeks of no new cases of Covid-19, in the last week we’ve recorded nine. That’s sounds pretty scary, but here’s why there’s no reason to panic. For weeks now, almost every day there have been over 100,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world. On two days last week that number topped 170,000. Sadly, it looks like the … Read More
Public Health Expert • Jun 17, 2020 •
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (*author details) In this new study, we estimated the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks associated with air travel from Australia (with a low prevalence of COVID-19 infection) to NZ. We found that the combined use of exit and entry screening, two PCR tests (on days 3 and 12 in NZ), mask … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Apr 03, 2020 •
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have seen New Zealanders in increasing numbers … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 02, 2020 •
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up a lot of emotions for them). So, depending … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Mar 23, 2020 •
We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. [Edit: this was written before to the announcement of the Level 4 lockdown, and the National State of Emergency. The explanation of why we’re doing this, and general points should still be useful.] You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Feb 16, 2020 •
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming follows the WHO’s commitment not to call diseases after … Read More