Sting in the tail
How will New Zealand manage the Delta COVID strain? We’ve now failed in our elimination efforts as Delta has proved way more infectious. Where do we go from here to avoid a massive health toll?
Tag: 2021
Migrant misery
Jacinda Ardern has apologised for the Dawn Raids – targetting supposed illegal immigrants in the 1970s. Thanks to COVID, we have thousands of illegal immigrants whose visas have expired but who can’t (and often don’t want) to go home. In both cases, New Zealand asked immigrants to come, then turned against them – do we ever learn?
What to believe
When you are in a helicopter do you believe it will crash? The statistics say it’s not all that likely, although a whole lot more likely than being in a car crash. And how about the risks of vaccines? How do we make best choices about which risks to take?
Did It
How do you get yourself to do something that feels hard or scary? By tricking yourself…it’s so worth it.
Wrong strategy already?!
Already the government is rethinking our COVID strategy as the result of Delta – the strategy came out in August and now it’s September, that didn’t last long. Surely it’s not that hard to assess risk?
Do It Now
It’s level 2 outside of Auckland – time to do things! Why don’t people get on and do things? Because they procrastinate…but what’s the difference between delayed gratification (seen as good) and procrastination (seen as bad)?
Level 2 here we (some of us) come
We are shortly going to Level 2 (sorry Auckland, who is not). I can go to the garden centre! And invite friends round. And maybe go skiing. Nothing like deprivation to drive a feeling of reward.
Vaccination vs hospitalisation
What’s the link between vaccination for COVID and hospitalisation? It’s surprisingly hard to find out. You’d think this would be a critical piece of information from which governments make decisions.
Which is my bestest interest?
Economic models typically assume humans act in their own best interests. Except they don’t…so the field of behavioural economics developed. How do we figure out which are our best interests we should act on?
The unlucky country (not us)
How effective is New Zealand’s lockdown against the Delta strain, compared with Australia’s? People wish for better ways of locking down, but there is not ‘better’ lockdown than an absolute one if you are trying to control spread of a virus.