Commissioners also say the vaccine requirements eroded public trust and call for investment to plan for the next pandemic

Summary

New Zealand’s royal commission into its Covid-19 response found vaccine mandates were reasonable based on available data but acknowledged they harmed social cohesion.

The report praised the country’s elimination strategy for achieving one of the lowest Covid death rates among developed nations while preventing healthcare system collapse.

However, it criticized prolonged lockdowns, weak health system preparedness, and a lack of planning for future crises.

Commissioners urged broad investment in pandemic readiness and emphasized the importance of both frontline and planning staff.

A second phase of the inquiry will review vaccine harms and conclude in 2026.

  • sambrown@lemmy.nzEnglish
    1130·
    27 days ago

    From the report:

    Contentious public health measures like vaccine mandates wore away at what had initially been a united wall of public support for the pandemic response; along with the rising tide of misinformation and disinformation, this created social fissures that have not entirely been repaired.

    • kaffiene@lemmy.worldEnglish
      524·
      27 days ago

      Yeah, misinformation from conspiracists and right wing politicians wore at the publics resolve and found a home the hearts of other reactionaries and conspiracists. That’s the truth, but it’s not a fault of thee covid response, it’s a fault of people who view society as an enemy

      • sambrown@lemmy.nzEnglish
        930·
        27 days ago

        In Chapter 8, the report goes on to talk about how hurting their poor little feelings debased the authority of the government and the authors offer suggestions on how to do mandates better during the next pandemic.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          25·
          27 days ago

          This seems to assume there was a response by the center-left government that could both be pro-social and would not be attacked by conservative douchebags. They’re not going to be impressed by a finely threaded needle, they’ll just up their ask, because reducing the popularity of their opponents is the point of conservative propaganda, not the actual policy.

        • Noedel@lemmy.world
          39·
          27 days ago

          Good job on trying, but it seems like there’s little room for nuanced debate here because “antivaxer stupid”

          I’m also assuming a lot of people here don’t realise Auckland spent four months locked in their houses while they threatened to keep us there forever unless the entire fucking country had 90 percent vaccination rates… and they pursued the mandates even at those high vaccination rates. Against the MoH advice…

          My wife is a therapist and she is still dealing with the fallout of those lockdowns.

          • MonkRome@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            26 days ago

            Most places had some type of shelter in place orders for a period of time that was difficult for people to handle. I never thought your comment was anti-vax.

            Here’s the thing, it was a global pandemic, any decision a government made was only going to mitigate disaster, not prevent it entirely. Either a lot of people died or a lot of people had a really difficult time. I tend to think preventing deaths comes first. If your argument is NZ wasn’t flawless in their handling of the pandemic response, sure, no one was. But they did a better job than almost any other country. Zero countries had a satisfied populous after the pandemic. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. You’ll learn from it and hopefully do even better next time.

            Here’s some perspective, in the US we had more people die in the pandemic than any other single event in American history. More than WWII, more than the Spanish flu, more than the civil war, etc. The damage to our psyche from all that death, far exceeds 4 months in lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Over 1 million dead here, be grateful your country at least sought to keep you alive.

            • Noedel@lemmy.world
              2·
              26 days ago

              I am grateful for how NZ handled it. I’m mostly critiquing the very end of the pandemic when the government started going against ministry advice. I appreciate how lucky we were. I don’t know anyone who died from covid.

          • WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world
            1·
            26 days ago

            Many Auckland houses have a section/yard, so residents could still get outside.

            Why wasn’t it closer to a 100% rate? Too many people listening to internet wack jobs or far right extremist who wanted to undermine the government.