Michael Reddell: Reviewing Covid experiences and policies

I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand.

What we do have is the Phase 1 report of the Covid Royal Commission which was released by the government at the end of November. You can find the full 700+ page report here. I haven’t read the full report but did read Chapter 6 on “Economic and social impacts and responses” (which starts on page 242 of the Report itself, or page 285 of the pdf). It was, frankly, a pretty disappointing read.

Damien Grant: New Zealand is ashamed about what happened in the Covid years

The Royal Commission has dropped its first 716 page report into the ether.

It will not be read. So comprehensive is our collective amnesia over Covid that it has provided herd immunity around Chris Hipkins’ ministerial career. If we could remember, he’d be answering the phones at Arden’s Christchurch Call make-work-scheme and the leader of the Opposition would be the Honourable Michael Wood.

But, here we are.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Royal Commission Report on Covid Missed out the Graph....

Oops. The Royal Commission Report on Covid Missed out the Graph of "Confirmed Covid deaths" showing NZ has converged to the world average,

Oh dear. The graph below must have accidently been missed out of the Royal Commission into Covid-19 Report, showing that over time, NZ's total cumulative confirmed deaths from Covid has converged to the world average. That average includes a ton of countries that never practiced elimination-style lockdowns. But again, we must keep reminding ourselves: the Royal Commission Report is a "narrative" and we must not let facts get in the way of a good story.