How science helped Jacinda Ardern, the Labor Party to dominate New Zealand elections and control the Covid-19 coronavirus

Political leaders around the world, take note of what happened in New Zealand. Science can be like chocolate. If you treat it well, make sure it is the real thing, and use it in everything you do, it can be your ally.

Science played an important role in helping not only New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern win re-election, but also her Labor party to win an “overwhelming majority”. Those are the words used by Helen Sullivan, a reporter for The Guardian, in the following tweet:

One of the dictionary.com the definitions of “hit” is “of, like or pertaining to a hit”, which is not a very useful definition. The other definition is “surprisingly large, immense, exceptional or impressive; resonant, “as in” that’s a knocking bowl of pasta “or” you really have a large number of marmots in your house. “So presumably Sullivan was referring to the resounding election victory and not repeated noise.

Here was Ardern’s victory speech, broadcast by Sky News:

Ardern has earned worldwide recognition in large part because she and her government have handled the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. This has been a positive recognition and not a recognition of “My God, what did that leader of the country say?” Or “why the heck is ‘Lone Ranger’ trending on Twitter.” Rather than use his “gut,” how he felt that morning, or what he felt would appeal to a particular political base, Ardern and his administration implemented response measures to the pandemic backed by real scientific evidence. Ardern and his administration did not blind anyone to science, as Thomas Dolby’s song said, but rather opened people’s eyes to science.

A recent post on Lancet Global Health chronicled the steps New Zealand took and what happened to the pandemic there. As described in the post, many of the apprenticeships come from East and Southeast Asian countries such as China, Singapore, and South Korea. Despite having faced the Covid-19 coronavirus before the rest of the world, these countries used “combinations of measures such as movement restrictions, physical distancing, hygiene practices, and intensive detection and management of cases and contacts” to better control cases bass treble. respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) than the countries with the longest wait times than the US and the UK. The New Zealand government showed a willingness to learn from those other countries, rather than ridicule them in the way of high school.

The New Zealand government also understood that SARS-CoV-2 was not exactly the same as influenza or even pandemic flu and therefore “required different strategic approaches.” New Zealand had already imposed border restrictions before the first local cases were confirmed on February 28, 2020. The real turning point occurred after New Zealand made a crucial shift from simple mitigation, which slows transmission, to suppression. In this case, suppression means stopping the community spread of SARS-CoV-2 to try to eliminate it or get very close to the incidence of Covid-19 zero. This is analogous to saying, “Instead of just slowing down the marmot activity in my house, I will kick all the marmots and their party outings out of my house.” This meant that suppression strategies eventually escalated to a nationwide lockdown consisting of stay-at-home orders within 26 days (or 2.6 Scaramuccis) of the first confirmed cases.

Note that this does not mean that “closes” were the main response strategy. The blocks were simply a temporary measure and part of a combination of different responses, like a layer of chocolate on a twenty-layer fudge cake. The post provided the following summary of what happened in a three-month period spanning from February to May:

• Alert level 1: “Travel restrictions are introduced. National guidelines for case and contact management are implemented and communication campaigns are launched (eg promotion of hand and respiratory hygiene, isolation and testing for symptoms). COVID-19 government debt relief and revenue support initially established. “
• Alert level 2: “Physical distancing is imposed, additional precautions are recommended for higher-risk groups (eg, people over 70) when leaving home, and specific gatherings (eg, weddings) are allowed if there are no more than 100 people “.
• Alert level 3: “The population is asked to stay within so-called bubbles (comprising close household contacts) which may include additional support (eg caregivers) and they are encouraged to work from home, companies should not physically interact with the public, public places are closed, no meetings of more than ten people are allowed, telehealth services are encouraged and only essential interregional travel is allowed. “
• Alert level 4: “The population is required to stay at home except for essential reasons (eg, short periods of exercise), businesses are closed unless they offer essential services (eg, Supermarkets), educational facilities and Public places are closed and health care services are re-prioritized. A wellness communication campaign entitled Getting Through Together is launched ”.

As you can see, this included a coordinated mix of policies to stop the spread of the virus, but also clear systems to test, track and isolate, track the spread of the virus, warn the public of the threat level, and compensate for the problem. difficulties resulting from policies.

The post shows how the number of new Covid-19 coronavirus cases peaked a little after March 22 and then at the end of April, early May it was very close to zero. As of mid-May, the incidence of Covid-19 was essentially zero.

The effective response to the Covid-19 coronavirus was not the only time science appeared to distinguish between the top two candidates during the New Zealand general election. In a program in the Newstlk ZB Radio station Judith Collins, leader of the Labor Party’s main opposition, the National Party, made some not-so-scientific statements about the current global obesity epidemic. As reported by the Australian Associated Press in The GuardianCollins insisted that “people must begin to take some personal responsibility for their weight” and that weight gain is not an epidemic and is “not contagious.” Collins added that “it doesn’t really take much to get frozen vegetables out of the freezer and get them out and do something with them. It’s not that hard. “With nearly a third of New Zealanders suffering from obesity, does that really mean a third are not getting frozen vegetables out of the freezer? Does that mean a third are not doing things right with them, like hitting the faced with frozen vegetables when they hear comments like the ones Collins said?

As many public health experts have been insisting for the past decade, the global obesity epidemic is not an individual problem but a problem of faulty systems. Food systems have been invaded by highly processed foods and sugary drinks. Towns and cities have become less walkable. Sports and other physical activities have become less accessible. Our environment has become increasingly filled with pollutants. These are just a few of the faulty systems that need to be addressed.

There is a difference between partisan politics and situations in which certain political leaders respect and support science and others do not. There have been attempts to label scientific evidence as political views when they are not. The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is really exposing political leaders who are not using science to rule. SARS-CoV2 doesn’t care if you only use words, even the best ones, to claim that the virus is not that bad or that it will go away. If you don’t mount effective science-backed responses, the virus will simply shrink its beaks and then continue to infect people.

The pandemic has been a test of leadership. While the leaders of some countries seem to reject or even attempt to suppress science, others have continued to embrace science. Wow, which ones have done a better job in controlling the Covid-19 coronavirus?