What could we do, and what should we not do, to improve public health? This Blog has postings from public health experts on issues such as efficiency, equity, interventions, politics, cost effectiveness and much more.
Tuesday, August 30th, 2022 | cooju60p | No Comments
Prof Nick Wilson*
This blog is part of the Public Health Solutions series looking at reducing pressure on the health system of Aotearoa NZ – this blog briefly considers raising alcohol taxes and further lowering the drink driving limits. There is good scientific evidence supporting both these measures and if political leaders explained the health and economic benefits – majority public support for such measures is quite plausible.
Image by Luke Pilkinton-Ching, University of Otago
Thursday, August 25th, 2022 | cooju60p | No Comments
Amanda Kvalsvig, Jennifer Summers, Michael Baker*
This blog is part of the Public Health Solutions series looking at effective public health measures to reduce demand on healthcare quickly. In this blog we outline three immediate approaches to protect people and systems from infectious disease impacts: building on synergies in infectious disease control; applying pandemic infrastructure to address other infections; and supporting safe access to education, work, and social settings.
Image by Amanda Kvalsvig, University of Otago
Wednesday, August 24th, 2022 | cooju60p | No Comments
Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Lucy Telfar Barnard, Dr Julie Bennett, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael Baker*
In this blog we briefly explore the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic in several high-income Asia-Pacific jurisdictions: Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). These jurisdictions used a mixture of elimination and suppression strategies to achieve low infection and mortality rates until the arrival of the Omicron variant which has forced a revised approach. Based on a comparison of responses we provide updated recommendations for the NZ Government around strengthening existing public health measures to reduce the immediate and long-term impacts from Covid-19.
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022 | cooju60p | 1 Comment
Amanda D’Souza, Nikki Turner*
This blog is part of the Public Health Solutions series looking at effective public health measures to reduce demand on healthcare quickly. This blog looks at solutions to improve child health: a child impact lens on policy, lifting income support, action on childhood immunisation.
Image by Luke Pilkinton-Ching, University of Otago Continue reading
Thursday, August 18th, 2022 | cooju60p | 2 Comments
Richard Edwards, Janet Hoek, Anaru Waa*
This blog is part of the Public Health Solutions series looking at effective public health measures to reduce demands on healthcare services quickly. In this blog, we review two key policy interventions included in the Smokefree Bill currently before Parliament which could rapidly, substantially and equitably reduce smoking prevalence: mandated denicotinisation and a reduction in tobacco retailers. We do not consider the smokefree generation policy, a third key measure in the Smokefree Bill, as its impact will be more long term.
