If you’ve read a piece in @nzherald today about the WHO stance on lockdowns, and wonder if this is relevant for NZ - then read this piece alongside. The Herald really needs to select articles that provide better info for NZ, our lockdown was used to good effect as recommended. https://twitter.com/krishgm/status/1315014457773391872

People help read the Herald piece might be falsely led to think that the WHO is chastising countries like NZ for lockdowns - that isn’t the case. WHO has praised NZ’s response, BECAUSE we test, trace, isolate, distance and mask (when needed) and have successfully contained...

The virus, multiple times, and in the last Auckland cluster - at a lower alert level. Lockdowns are our “last resort”, we are using them exactly as WHO advises. So don’t be fooled by Herald piece (biased selection), *this* is the point: https://twitter.com/atul_gawande/status/1315333038142783489

What is happening elsewhere (eg UK) is being described as “continual lockdown” - because overseas there are chronic restrictions on daily life, and lockdowns considered without getting the basics (test/trace) right. The WHO is saying “don’t use lockdowns like this” - absolutely.

My worry is not for people reading this thread - it is for the people at home reading their print @nzherald, stoking a vague sense of dissatisfaction with our Covid response, fostering a resolve to never lockdown again even if hospitals overwhelmed. That’s dangerous. /end