How can Professor Blakely, who is co-author of NZ's Royal Commission Report into Covid, write a report critiquing our government's approach to Covid when he was the intellectual architect of that approach? He co-authored the 2020 British Medical Journal article with Professor Michael Baker called, "Elimination could be the optimal response strategy for Covid-19". That paper falsely claimed, "A goal of eliminating community transmission of the pandemic virus causing covid-19 is achievable and sustainable". It was not sustainable. The paper asserted elimination "will be facilitated by the introduction of effective vaccines". Bollocks. Funny how my father, who's been three times vaccinated, is in bed today with Covid. I must be imagining it. Let's not let facts get in the way of a good narrative. Profs Baker and Blakely asserted in their paper, "One of the perceived barriers to applying .. elimination .. is the belief that this might sacrifice the economy .. Our preliminary analysis suggests the opposite is true .. the effect on GDP .. was more favorable for countries with elimination goals than for those with suppression goals". God oh dear. Seems Blakely, who lives in Aussie, has never heard about how the bottom has fallen out of NZ's economy. The paper by Baker & Blakely was used by Finance Minister Robertson to support the view that elimination meant good health outcomes & good economic outcomes went hand-in-hand. "We're protecting lives & livelihoods", he said. This Blog argued at the time it was a load of rubbish. The government responded by setting their media attack dogs onto us.
At the start of the Royal Report, on page 3, it says, "A generous economic response cushioned people from the worst of the pandemic’s immediate impacts - initially at least – NZ’s social & economic outcomes were better than most OECD countries". How slimy to slip in the word "initially". On it goes, spewing pompous, intellectually pretentious twaddle that seems to have been written by someone who's never studied economics, at least properly. It says, “NZ's [economy] is doing pretty well in a global context if you’re just talking about levels of credit ratings.” What does that mumbo jumbo mean? The Royal Report dare not mention how NZ is near bottom of 190 nations in terms of how fast GDP is growing, according to the IMF. There are only around 10 nations below us, most of them in civil war, like Yemen. Best to leave that "truth" out. But hey, Profs Baker & Blakely were part of the "podium of truth" back in 2020 and 2021. Now with this report, it seems they're still in the "podium of truth" game, lecturing us how our economy's doing fine - just focus on the credit ratings. I'm sure Kiwis are thrilled to hear the government isn't bankrupting, when they are, and thrilled to hear government debt has a higher credit rating than the average Joe's. But look, as former PMs Ardern and Hipkins would advise, go read the Royal Report - its "science". Stay away from nonsense on the web and quack economists like me. For your Single Source of Truth on how Covid affected our economy, written by non-economists who were the Single Source of Truth during Covid, read the Royal Report .. and be brainwashed.