The Covid-19 Response Minister says she is “happy with where we’ve landed” as the Labour Cabinet removed numerous public health measures this week.
“I advocated for this package to be adopted,” said minister Ayesha Verrall.
From now on, masks will not be required except in health settings (doctor clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and rest homes for example), household contacts will not need to isolate, vaccine mandates will be lifted from September 26 and access to anti-viral medicines will be widened.
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She told Q + A with Jack Tame that there wasn’t too much tension between her roles as a public health physician and minister.
“Because Dr Ayesha Verrall didn’t live in an ivory tower. When I worked as a hospital doctor I had to look after people with all the ordinary pressures on them ... and it’s kind of similar to being a minister ... you don’t keep your patient in isolation longer than you need to."
"You want to see them returning to work and all they things they do to flourish. So in many ways, the sort of balance we have to strike as ministers running the well-being approach that you want to take for your patients.”
Some scientists who helped devise and monitor New Zealand’s response have expressed concern at the government’s decision.
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However Dr Verrall argues that “overall public health advice is still a cornerstone of the Covid-19 response”.
“The science has never been one monolithic thing throughout the pandemic and we’ve had points in time where some of those suggestions from experts have been really prominent and picked up."
"But there’s been numerous decisions all the way through where the government has had to operationalise the science and that’s meant that we’ve have to make pragmatic decisions.”
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The minister says that the arrival of new health officials has reinvigorated the country’s response, that the government is still getting strong science information from various advisory groups, and they have also continued to invest in Covid-19 science.
“I know that they [scientists] see many of their views reflected in the pandemic response. There are specific points where we diverge, but I’m sure they all look at the outcomes we’ve had in New Zealand and say: ‘yes, overall this government has prioritised public health’ because we’ve had one of the lowest death rates in the world.”
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