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NZ’s “Team of 5 million” has achieved the lowest COVID-19 death rate in the OECD – but there are still gaps in our pandemic response
… population, the relative lack of overcrowding (including on public transport), and being an island nation that is not … masks at Alert Level 2 and above, as argued in this NZ Medical Journal article: [7]. It is disappointing that the … to telecoms data and not include other digital data (eg, credit card and EFTPOS transactions) and that personal data …
Briefing
What’s the right Covid-19 risk to live with – an Australian perspective
… countries working out when they can open up. If we focus on the year after Australia opens up, the scenarios we use … Europe in 2020 ). c) Barely suppression, where more than 500 to 2000 per million cases escalates to a Stage 3 or Stage … it’s about an 80 per cent reduction for Pfizer for those under 60 years old and 60 per cent for AstraZeneca for the …
Briefing
Tackling child poverty: will the nation’s political leaders honour Richie Poulton’s legacy?
… of individuals’ early life experiences and environment on their subsequent life-course. This robust evidence shows … Poulton, and we take this opportunity to reflect briefly on his legacy and the challenge it poses to our nation’s … multi-party support for a Child Poverty Reduction Act, under which the government is required to measure poverty (in …
Briefing
The hardening hypothesis for smoking – but does the evidence point to “softening” in NZ?
… smokers will be over-represented and hard-core smokers under-represented among those quitting. If true it would … et al in the journal Tobacco Control (14)) drawing on evidence from the Health Promotion Agency’s Health and … despite repeated attempts, or receiving state benefits or on a low income. Quit rates did not change significantly over …
Briefing
Air pollution in Aotearoa NZ: Five key ways to reduce the massive health and social costs
… has summed up the health costs of air pollution, drawing on comprehensive air quality monitoring data from 2016. The … approximately 1.745 million restricted activity days (days on which people could not do the things they might otherwise … Otago Wellington. Prof Hales is a co-author of the HAPINZ Report discussed in this blog. This work on air pollution is …
Briefing
The marked decline of sudden mass fatality events in NZ (1900 to 2015)
… Professor George Thomson Our recently published study on sudden mass fatality events in NZ (10+ deaths per event) … resulting in 460 deaths in total (4.0 deaths per year on average). A majority of events were classified as being … decades. There is a need to collate and analyse data on: non-fatal hospitalisations, survivors of locality-focused …
Briefing
Media release: Youth vaping -The implications of addiction
… among young people, and the accompanying negative impacts on their wellbeing, warn public health and addiction experts. … “Nicotine is highly addictive because of the way it works on brain receptors. There’s evidence that developing … who become addicted to vaping may also see an impact on their learning as the withdrawal kicks in since loss of …
News
Ethnic inequalities in mortality in NZ and how to reduce them further
… or even falling in absolute terms, but have increased on a relative scale. To further address these inequalities, … health perspective, there is a need to accelerate progress on reducing absolute and relative health inequalities. There … among lower-skilled workers (5). We focus in this blog on areas most related to health interventions (see below), …
Briefing
High levels of CO2 found in small study of early childhood centres: Improving ventilation in the time of COVID-19
… where people gather and spend time. 1 In this study run by medical students, the CO 2 levels were measured in six … and hospitalisation rates in this age group 4 . Children under five years are currently not vaccinated against … was defined as less than 800 parts per million (ppm) and 1,500 parts per million of CO 2 was defined as high. It was …
Briefing
The 5000 annual deaths caused by smoking also matter
… Summary Every year we reflect on the tragic loss of life caused by road accidents yet pay … by road accidents, we rarely reflect in the same way on the equally tragic – and equally avoidable – loss of life … by smoking ( an estimated 5000 people every year ). Deaths on our country’s roads make news headlines, particularly …
Briefing

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