Summarised by Centrist
According to economist Robert MacCulloch, former PM Hipkins, Professors Bloomfield and Baker, referenced inaccurate statistics in their assessment of NZ’s COVID response.
MacCulloch says that, despite initial commendation, NZ’s pandemic strategy in 2021-22 morphed into a “full-blown disaster.” The result, economically and socially, has been enormous.
“We cut ourselves off from the world and became a place where nearly every aspect of our lives was brought under government control. That time was so suffocating that NZ has not yet recovered,” he says.
Claims of NZ’s low excess mortality rates compared to global counterparts are debunked.
Basically, they made statements about the number of extra deaths during COVID. They assumed that New Zealand’s population was increasing during that time, but it actually stayed the same because the borders were closed. So, the number of people expected to die if COVID had not happened in NZ was too high.
This made it seem like their public health measures saved more lives than they actually did. In reality, they didn’t save as many lives as they claimed because they based their calculations on the wrong population number.
