COVID inquiry backs core response but finds lockdowns, mandates and spending went too far

Summarised by Centrist

The Royal Commission’s second report into New Zealand’s COVID response concluded the government’s decisions made between February 2021 and October 2022, including lockdowns, vaccine approvals and mandates, were broadly justified and consistent with the scientific advice available at the time.

However, it also identifies several failures in the application of those policies.

Officials recognised by October 2021 that the Delta outbreak could no longer be eliminated, yet the city remained locked down for longer than recommended.

The Commission found ministers were making decisions without basic data on how many workers were affected by vaccine mandates or how many people lost their jobs.

Technical advisers had warned that two-dose mandates for 12 to 17-year-olds carried an increased myocarditis risk and suggested a single-dose approach might be safer. The Commission said there is no clear evidence that advice was properly communicated to ministers before mandates were imposed.

Submissions to the inquiry also criticised several professional regulatory bodies, particularly in the health sector, for discouraging members from expressing views that differed from the government’s vaccination messaging. Some submitters argued these actions created a chilling effect on open scientific debate during the pandemic.

The $60 billion COVID Response and Recovery Fund funded 821 programmes, with the Commission finding roughly half were unrelated to the pandemic. 

It said the scale and nature of that spending contributed to rising house prices and ongoing cost-of-living pressures, while the level of public debt accumulated during the pandemic has left New Zealand exposed to future economic shocks.

Despite these shortcomings, the report stops short of assigning responsibility to individual decision makers.

The report warns that lockdowns and mandates should be used with extreme caution in future pandemics.

It makes 24 recommendations, including clearer exit strategies for elimination policies, stronger monitoring of mandate impacts, improved data transparency and clearer communication of scientific advice to ministers.

The report notes that by November 2022, about 64,000 adverse reaction reports had been filed from nearly 12.5 million doses. By January 2025, ACC had accepted 1,740 vaccine injury claims, including five fatal cases, while the Coroner confirmed four deaths linked to vaccination.

Public submissions described alleged harms including myocarditis, blood clots and strokes. Many submitters said they felt dismissed when seeking help and criticised the difficulty of navigating ACC and reporting systems.

Some submissions also argued that New Zealand was uniquely positioned to produce detailed comparisons between vaccinated and unvaccinated health outcomes because community transmission was minimal before vaccines became widely available. Critics said no comprehensive analysis of those outcomes has been published, leaving unanswered questions about vaccine effectiveness and risk across different groups.

Read more over at Stuff and Chris Lynch Media

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