23 August 2020
Media Release
New Zealand experts and officials are now almost alone in the world in their advocacy for ongoing lockdowns and elimination of the Covid19 virus, and in believing this objective is worth the cost over other health impacts, social dislocation, and economic decline.
In a speech the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has made two declarations that directly counter New Zealand’s policy of lockdowns, elimination and waiting for a vaccine.
Lockdowns: “… lockdowns are not a long-term solution for any country. We do not need to choose between lives and livelihoods, or between health and the economy. That’s a false choice.
Vaccine: “No country can just ride this out until we have a vaccine… there’s no guarantee that we will [have a vaccine], and even if we do have a vaccine, it won’t end this pandemic on its own.”
Underlining this point, the WHO’s special envoy on Covid19, David Nabarro recently said countries should do everything they can to avoid lockdowns.
To help New Zealanders understand the extent of the split between their country and the rest of the world, the Covid Plan B group has issued a sample of the many prestigious international experts that, along with the WHO, have critiqued lockdowns and the objective of elimination.
Team World
Prof. John Ioannidis, US
Prof. Sunetra Gupta, UK
Dr David Katz, US
MD and Prof. Jay Bhattacharya, US
Prof. Michael Levitt, US
Asst Prof. Byram Bridle, Canada
Prof. Joel Hay, US
Assc Prof Eran Bendavid, US
Knut Wittkowski, US
MD and associate professor Soo Aleman, Stockholm
Prof. emeritus Johannes Giesecke, Stockholm
Tegnell Anders, Sweden
Prof. Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Sweden
Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, Germany
Prof. Hendrik Streeck, Germany
Honorary research fellow Tom Jefferson, UK
Prof. Carl Heneghan, UK
Assc Prof. Carlo Caduff, UK
Prof. Friston Karl, UK
Prof, Karol Sikora, UK
Prof.Emeritus Beda M Stadler, Bern
Dr. Gabriela Gomes, UK
Prof. James Allan, Aust
Team NZ
Prof. David Skegg
Prof. Michael Baker
Assc. Prof. Nick Wilson
Prof. Des Gorman
Prof. Rod Jackson
Assc. Prof. Siouxsie Wiles