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.

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[–] RecallMadness 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lack of preparedness, and lack of planning for future crisis?

Better dismantle the health system and turn it private then. It’s obviously fundamentally and irrecoverably broken. /s

[–] Dave 6 points 1 month ago

From what I understood of the report, NZ was super prepared and the early stages of the pandemic were straight from that plan and were delivered pretty well. That's the first two or three months. But then the plan was gone, elimination didn't work for Delta, and there was no plan B so they were making it up, changing strategies, and poorly communicating what they were trying to do.

Basically, we had a great initial plan that went well, but after that they were winging it and it was a bit of a mess.