In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, everybody now knows that: Warnings about pandemic disease had been touted for decadesMyriad organisations had called for increased health security fundingThe world ignored all these warningsSARS-CoV-2 emerged in 2019 with dire consequences The fact that all these warnings were known, yet action was scant, remains difficult to comprehend.

G20 report shows global pandemic resilience is within reach, but developed countries like New Zealand need to pay our fair share The G20 Independent Panel’s report ‘A Global Deal for Our Pandemic Age’ finds that US$15 billion per annum could provide some pandemic resilience through interconnected global measures. Our findings suggest another $31 billion is needed annually to support country-specific measures.

Spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with proving the origin of Covid-19, pointing the finger, apportioning blame, reparations, or US-China relations.

Despite a WHO-led investigation, compelling evidence on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains inconclusive. The WHO investigation concluded in favour of a natural origin, being satisfied that ‘asking whatever questions we wanted’ and obtaining answers to these questions ruled out a laboratory leak.

Key Points Biological threats far worse than Covid-19 are possible, even likely.Governments should consider worst case scenarios and contingencies.Risks should be catalogued and published in a form that expresses expected utility loss (probability x impact).In an existence threatening scenario, Australia and New Zealand are the island refuges most suited to seal borders to safeguard humanity.Many practical steps can be taken to

New Zealand should up its game in risk identification, analysis, and prevention. This is the key message from former GNS principal scientist Kelvin Berryman when discussing a new risks report. He told the Listener , ‘New Zealand is still creating its own disasters waiting to happen.’ The risks report in question was published in April 2021 by former Chief Science Advisor Peter Gluckman and co-author Anne Bardsley.

Effective vaccines for COVID-19 raise the potential of disease eradication (elimination at the global level). Adapt Research contributed to a recent blog that considers the advantages and the challenges of eradication. Progressive expansion of “green zones” provide the best chance of eradicating COVID-19 and achieving the associated medium and long-term benefits. Full blog hosted externally, click here to continue reading.

Key Points The World Health Organization (WHO) needs a more proactive and transparent Emergency Committee to raise the alarm in health crisesPotentially catastrophic disease outbreaks must trigger a fire alarm, because humans resist action unless a piercing alarm is soundingNew international structures for rapid high-level propagation of the alarm are needed to ensure hasty responsesIt will be necessary to have false alarms to

Birth of the International Health Regulations After the world failed to contain the 2003 SARS outbreak and it became a pandemic, the 2005 international health regulations (IHR) were born. The IHR included a mandate to report any cases of certain diseases (including SARS) to the World Health Organization (WHO) within 24 hours.

Social media is killing us with COVID-19 In December 2017, six months after writing a paper about how islands like New Zealand should use complete border closure as a rational pandemic response, I was giving a talk about artificial intelligence as a threat to democracy and free will to a room full of philosophers in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The Victoria University of Wellington policy journal Policy Quarterly has just published a theme issue examining COVID-19 and the New Zealand context. Articles cover: government, law, globalisation, health, lockdown, the economy and much more.