pandemic readiness – Public Health Expert, University of Otago, New Zealand

Five Key Reasons why NZ Should have an Official Inquiry into the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Thursday, June 11th, 2020 | tedla55p | 4 Comments

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Jennifer Summers, A/Prof George Thomson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker

Here we present five key reasons for why the NZ Government should establish an official inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic response. Such an inquiry could identify lessons for the near future (eg, for pandemic control if border control failures occur) but also identify lessons for the organisation and resourcing of public health more broadly. Fortunately, NZ has a fairly solid track record of official inquiries that have resulted in improved systems that advance public safety and public health.

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New Zealand’s Poor Pandemic Preparedness According to the Global Health Security Index

Monday, November 11th, 2019 | tedla55p | No Comments

Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson

The Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35^th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to act promptly to upgrade the country’s defences against pandemic threats.

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Antiviral Stockpiles for Pandemic Preparedness: Time for a Careful Rethink?

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Associate Professor Nick Wilson and Professor Michael Baker

As part of influenza pandemic readiness, NZ has a 32 million dollar stockpile of antiviral drugs. But given recent evidence from a new Cochrane systematic review – NZ policymakers should probably now carefully review this approach. This blog discusses some of the new evidence and suggests options for a review process. Continue reading →

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Notes about PHE blog:

· Peer review process: Where a blog post has a single author, then the content is always peer-reviewed by at least one senior academic in public health. This is to help ensure that statements have a reasonable basis in terms of scientific plausibility and to ensure that uncertainty is appropriately acknowledged where statements have speculative aspects. For multi-authored blogs there can also be additional peer-review. Of note is that the PHE blog posts are often well-referenced so that readers can readily check the background science and arguments.

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· Relationship with the parent institution: Any views expressed in these blog posts are those of the author(s) alone and not their parent institution. This is consistent with the meaning of academic freedom under the NZ Education Act 1989 (section 161). Furthermore, in a free society, it is undesirable for universities to vet or otherwise control statements by academic staff.

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