Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Political positioning intensifies over post-Covid future, decision coming on whether to leave lockdown, and schools and ECEs in spotlight. ‘Don’t politicise the crisis’, came the calls. Well, that’s out the window now. As the lockdown inches closer to a possible end (more on that later) we’re … Read more
With hundreds of testing alternatives available, it is crucial that we pay close attention to what is in play, and which are most effective. Siouxsie Wiles guides us through them. I was blown away to discover that there are more than 500 different tests for Covid-19 either in development or already commercially available. The Foundation … Read more
What if that ‘Imagine’ video was nearly nine hours long and featured over a hundred celebrities? Is it a global crisis until a group of celebrities come together and sing about it? Surely not. Thus today’s Global Citizen’s One World Together: Stay Home, a nearly nine-hour live stream – seven hours of pre-show followed by … Read more
We can be confident the population prevalence of Covid-19 is less than 1%, but what else can we conclude, asks biostatistics professor Thomas Lumley. One of the known unknowns about the NZ coronavirus epidemic is the number of cases we have not detected. There will have been a mixture of people who didn’t get any symptoms, … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia helped create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in … Read more
Cabinet meets at 10.30am tomorrow to determine if and when New Zealand will move out of alert level four. This afternoon Jacinda Ardern outlined the criteria for that decision. This is what she said. Read more about announcements at today’s media briefing here As I have no doubt everybody in New Zealand is acutely aware, … Read more
The country has been asked to prepare for a shift back to alert level three, which will entail the reopening of schools and early childhood education centres. Educators are worried lack of clarity around the reopening of schools could risk student and teacher safety. On Thursday, Jacinda Ardern laid out guidelines for a relaxation of … Read more
Letters to Hone Tūwhare and his Travelling Band of Constant Companions, continued. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Dear Adam Smith, Jesus, brother. You’re a long way from home. We don’t get many economists passing through here. But that’s no reason not to drop in of course. As it happens you might just be in … Read more
The Covid-19 crisis has propelled the field of public health to the foreground. A few simple public health concepts could help keep us on track as we near one month in level four, writes Louise Thornley. Public health is suddenly part of everyday conversation. Many of us have become addicted to the daily Covid-19 update, … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more
A move to level three will see a wave of businesses crank back to life, and the pressure on courier operations will surge further. Once a week, maybe twice if I’m lucky, a courier driver knocks on my front door. It’s an exciting sound, those three quick taps, and I immediately leap up from my … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia helped create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in … Read more
Fresh data shows most New Zealanders are staying at home, while activity in some regions has plummeted by 100%. Jacinda Ardern warned that week three would be the hardest period of level four lockdown, and more people would be tempted to leave their homes as the country reached the final stretch. According to Google’s latest … Read more
For all its petitions and protests, the left is too invested in its own privilege to upend ‘hypercapitalism’, Thomas Piketty argues in his latest book Capital and Ideology – so it’s time to conjure something new. It is a very long book. I started it some time in late December when the electoral defeat of … Read more
As we await a decision on moving out of alert level four, some big questions are in play. One of those is about contact tracing, explains Siouxsie Wiles. Illustrations and animations by Toby Morris. This work is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Help us to continue this work by joining here. On Monday, the … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia helped create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in … Read more
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden is one of the lucky ones, she says, so why does it feel like there’s a weight inside her chest? Yesterday was my first happy day in lockdown. I made fresh pasta. I folded washing and watched Moana. Am I the only one who hasn’t caught up on their washing? Two … Read more
The government provided a $12.1 billion stimulus package to cushion the blow of Covid-19. The NZIER public good team explains where that money is coming from, and how the whole thing works. Normal life is on hold. Buying and selling across New Zealand has ground to a standstill. While most of us attempt to do … Read more
Somehow we’re up to week four of these lockdown lists. What is time. The theme this week is, essentially, “carbs in book form”. Ease. Enjoyment. The anti-ennui. Put together, as previously, by the wonderful teams at Unities Auckland and Wellington. But just quickly first, a couple of local recommendations from our resolutely lowbrow books ed … Read more
The effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment and the Māori response to the pandemic are among the subjects of a slew of new NZ studies into Covid-19 and its impacts. Mirjam Guesgen reports. Studies designed to aid the national and global fight against coronavirus – including three clinical trials – are set to get … Read more
Lockdown requires a sacrifice of some form or another from everyone, but the sacrifices never fall proportionately. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Four years ago, and yes, this is a shameless plug, and yes, I’m about to turn it into a loud self-vindication, I wrote: “To participate in politics is, for many young people, … Read more
The government’s extraordinary measures to halt Covid-19 and support the economy have had extraordinary public support. Tony Burton argues that the hard choices about who pays for it will be far less popular. I have lived with a skeleton since the lockdown. It’s white and shiny and takes up half the space in my living … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more
A tertiary support package was announced by the government this week in an effort to help students financially struggling due to Covid-19. However, Isabella Lenihan-Ikin from the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations argues that the new measures are simply not enough. On Tuesday, the government announced a Covid-19 support package for tertiary students. It … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Matthew Chapman from HR search company ChapmanCG. Matthew Chapman, founder of HR search company ChapmanCG, has grown his … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia helped create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in … Read more
The government has just unveiled more detail about what life will be like for New Zealanders under level three restrictions. What will it mean for schools, business and day-to-day life? The first point – we still don’t know when we’ll move to level three. That has not been announced today, and an update won’t be … Read more
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more