first phase of the inquiry<\/a>, released in late 2024, found New Zealand had one of the lowest rates of Covid deaths per capita among developed countries. It largely accepted the need for vaccine mandates, while acknowledging they had caused distress and economic harm to some New Zealanders.<\/p>\nIn the report released on Tuesday, the commission found that New Zealand did well in responding to the pandemic and the decisions and methods used in the response were \u201cconsidered and appropriate\u201d but also identified where the response was \u201clacking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s response strategy and settings weren\u2019t always sufficiently responsive to changing circumstances; for example, they weren\u2019t adapted early enough to deal with later variants of the virus,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when speed was often critical, some decisions had to be made without enough information and data, or without sufficient consideration of all the impacts that might arise, or without important checks and monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commission said it heard from many people who expressed pain and anger about the impacts of the pandemic and the response, and there were lessons to be learned from their experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pandemic, and the response to it, has left scars,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the period examined in this phase, people continued to die and others suffered long-term health impacts. Some lost all faith in government and other institutions, and remain disengaged, sceptical or even hostile towards them today.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said ministers and officials were facing a complex and high-stakes situation and were \u201cdoing the best they could\u201d, adding that evidence showed New Zealand had \u201camong one of the best pandemic responses in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
But it noted while restrictions such as vaccine mandates were a valid tool for a pandemic response, they should be \u201ctreated with great care\u201d.<\/p>\n
Before listing 24 recommendations, the report noted that its goal was \u201cnot to apportion blame but to ensure New Zealand is better informed ahead of the next pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n
The commission found that exiting the elimination strategy was difficult, and the lack of a timely update on the strategy meant the response appeared to many to be \u201cover-centralised and risk-averse\u201d. It suggested leaders should present elimination strategies as \u201ctemporary from the outset\u201d to help manage public expectations.<\/p>\n
On the issue of vaccine hesitancy, the commission said the concerns raised were \u201cnot grounded in reliable evidence or aligned with scientific consensus\u201d. It suggested governments should continue to be guided by the best scientific evidence and an agency should be tasked with monitoring trust and social cohesion.<\/p>\n
The health minister, Simeon Brown, said while New Zealanders supported the initial 2020 Covid response, the restrictions continued longer than necessary and the economic costs were not given sufficient weight. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealanders made enormous sacrifices and placed enormous trust in their government. We owe it to them to understand what happened and learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a joint statement, Ardern and the former deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said they accepted the findings and recommendations of the commission, RNZ reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a lot right. More than most. But there are areas that could have been better,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The Labour leader, Chris Hipkins, said the country now needs to strengthen its institutions, public trust and processes to face a future pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past two years, the government has cut public health capability while commissioning multiple reviews that repeat the same conclusions,\u201d Hipkins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNational now needs to answer a simple question: are we better prepared for the next pandemic today than we were in 2020?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A royal commission into New Zealand\u2019s Covid response has found it was one of the best in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-322506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}