Data crucial for making the alert level change decision is missing, two top advisers tell Phil Pennington of RNZ. There appear to be gaps in the government’s data on Covid-19 that must be filled before a decision is made on reducing the lockdown level, two top advisers say. Epidemiologist Michael Baker, who is on the … Read more
Like many other of our rights and liberties, privacy has been upended by Covid-19. Privacy commissioner John Edwards looks at the hard choices we’re about to face. Privacy was described in a seminal 1890 essay as “the right to be let alone”. Now, in April 2020, we find ourselves instead obliged to stay alone. The … Read more
After lockdown, we will need to take a hard look at how we rebuild. ‘Infrastructure’ means a lot more than motorways, writes Dame Anne Salmond. In the wake of Covid-19, as New Zealand gets ready to make a graduated exit from lockdown, ministers, officials and other leaders are thinking hard about how to kickstart the … Read more
At today’s online meeting of the Epidemic Response Committee, media representatives have appeared in the unfamiliar seat of the interviewed rather than the interviewer. Here’s a highlights package. Committee chair Simon Bridges opened by acknowledging the parlous situation the New Zealand media find themselves in. He also noted that representatives of NBR and Māori TV … 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
A librarian walks us through all the virtual offerings, and explains why we have to queue for ebooks. Hardly a surprise, but I love public libraries. They exemplify the best of social democracy by providing free resources, services and advice for all members of a community – we have no choice but to stan. Libraries … Read more
Worrying about inequality. Excited about electric planes. A huge Jacinda fan. Duncan Greive talks to a rebooted Paul Henry. Rumours have circulated for more than a year that Paul Henry was mulling a return to TV. He left the medium in a huff after his comments were accurately reported in a still-astounding Canvas profile by … Read more
According to a group of academics, the New Zealand response doesn’t match the threat posed by Covid-19 and should be substantially loosened. Siouxsie Wiles unpicks their claims. A group of six New Zealand academics yesterday announced their “vision for a balanced response” to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are calling that vision “Plan B”. They even … 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
A range of scenarios has been released by Treasury, modelling the potential impact of Covid-19 on the economy. How bad could the damage be? Here’s a cheat sheet. What is the starting point for these scenarios? Treasury has looked at several different scenarios for how lockdown measures to fight Covid-19 will affect the economy, and … Read more
Even in normal times, loneliness takes a terrible toll on society’s most vulnerable. Now with New Zealand under lockdown, we need to be even more mindful of the risks. These are disorienting times. The benchmark for what’s “normal” is shifting so rapidly it’s dizzying to remember what we were all doing just a few weeks … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over how environmentally friendly Covid-19 recovery will be, consistent daily updates of new cases, and repatriation flights from India organised. There has been an increasing amount of commentary about the state of the environment during and after the pandemic. Air quality in cities has improved dramatically, … 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 public health response to Covid-19 showed New Zealand at its best. What will the economic response reveal? Iain White, a professor of environmental planning, on the risks ahead. Crises reveal. They bring the nature of societies to light. From the differing attitude to experts between countries, to who really are the essential workers, to the … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia also 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 … Read more
The director general of health hosted a Facebook live event this afternoon. It got a little sketchy at times. “I’m not as practised at this as the prime minister,” said Ashley Bloomfield at the start of a Facebook live event, wherein he traded out the press gallery for some moderately screened questions from the public. … Read more
‘Illegal bulletins by Rona and Chips Bailey and cartoons by Max Bollinger continued in spite of police raids and were delivered by people to other people, all of whom knew if they were caught with a copy they’d go to jail.’ Read more from the lockdown letters here. After the fifth listen I went for a … 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. Today’s … Read more
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
Over the past month, The Spinoff audience has grown dramatically. Managing editor Duncan Greive explains what The Spinoff is, and how best to use it. The Covid-19 crisis has been so ubiquitous and upending that it’s hard to think of anything that will not in some way be transformed by what we’ve witnessed. So it … Read more
The greatest of cities is rapidly becoming the most afflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tess McClure, a New Zealand journalist based in New York, writes. March 12 – 95 cases in NYC At the start of today – Thursday – we still thought we’d be going to work. The first emails had come through that … Read more
In an ideal world the physical lives we build would speak to the past, but the truth is New Zealanders silence it, building their social and industrial histories literally on top of Māori. Read more Lockdown letters here. “The past is a foreign country,” goes the famous opening line from The Go-Between, but for tangata … Read more
The nature of this coronavirus means that we need to steel ourselves for more tough news in the coming weeks. That should only firm our resolve, writes Siouxsie Wiles. Illustrations by Toby Morris. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff … Read more
A new national survey shows overwhelming backing for the government’s Covid-19 response – and a clear majority willing to submit to location tracking, should it be introduced. Stickybeak’s David Brain breaks down the data. An exclusive new survey from Stickybeak for The Spinoff shows an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders approve of the government’s response … Read more
The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia also 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 … 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 new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. 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 the early afternoon, which describe … Read more
As the UK records its deadliest day so far, with 980 deaths in 24 hours surpassing the worst seen by Italy and Spain, a New Zealand doctor reports from the frontline of a London hospital. It took eight painstaking months before I was allowed to work as a doctor in the UK. I became a … Read more