It is critical to ensure our houses are in order with skilled staff and strong procedures, but the valuable ‘lessons learned’ from true-life emergency events are never that cut and dried, writes former public health worker Richard Simpson. There are different breeds of emergency manager. At one extreme there are the Abraham Lincoln types who, … Read more
What we choose to do over the next few weeks could define our lives. There is an inconvenient truth about Covid-19. Although it is blindingly obvious, bringing it up makes us uncomfortable. And that is why we need to talk about it a lot more. This is history. It’s that simple. Before you nod and … Read more
Both the outbreak and the measures put in place to staunch it are already having a major impact on New Zealand businesses. It won’t solve all your problems, but amid the maelstrom you can introduce some simple practical measures for health and infection control, writes former public health worker Richard Simpson. How do you plan … Read more
If we truly have a robust plan for Covid-19, there are three ways to take it to the next level, writes former pandemic planner Richard Simpson. In the same week the media psyched us up about a Lotto jackpot, how surprised can we be that some people went panic-buying at the supermarket over a looming … Read more
A plane-load of evacuees have arrived on an Air New Zealand flight from Wuhan. They’ll go into quarantine. But what does ‘quarantine’ mean, in practice, and what are the other realities for public health workers on the frontline? Richard Simpson, formerly of Auckland Regional Public Health Service, lays it out. Standing in front of the … Read more