Culture Shock: Why New Zealand's Response to COVID-19 Worked
— A first-hand account from a doctor from the U.S. who lives in New Zealand
by Judy Melinek MD November 24, 2020
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The collaborative element of Kiwi culture doesn't stay locked behind the schoolhouse doors, either. A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of New Zealand laboratory professionals and got a first-hand view into why their COVID-19 response has been so successful. At the very start of the outbreak, their national government invested a huge amount of money in a "go hard, go early" strategy to combat the spread of the virus.
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The hard-and-early New Zealand strategy was able to work as effectively as it did only because government administrative managers asked public health scientists what they needed, and then supplied and funded it. Then they let the scientists make their own schedules and policies to distribute the resources they had -- personnel, medication, personal protective equipment (PPE), laboratory supplies, everything -- in an ethical and equitable way. Doctors who participated in this plan of attack told me that nobody they knew had suffered burnout, even at the height of the pandemic. Everybody was invested in the process, and communication flowed from the top to the bottom and right back up...
— A first-hand account from a doctor from the U.S. who lives in New Zealand
by Judy Melinek MD November 24, 2020
...
The collaborative element of Kiwi culture doesn't stay locked behind the schoolhouse doors, either. A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of New Zealand laboratory professionals and got a first-hand view into why their COVID-19 response has been so successful. At the very start of the outbreak, their national government invested a huge amount of money in a "go hard, go early" strategy to combat the spread of the virus.
...
The hard-and-early New Zealand strategy was able to work as effectively as it did only because government administrative managers asked public health scientists what they needed, and then supplied and funded it. Then they let the scientists make their own schedules and policies to distribute the resources they had -- personnel, medication, personal protective equipment (PPE), laboratory supplies, everything -- in an ethical and equitable way. Doctors who participated in this plan of attack told me that nobody they knew had suffered burnout, even at the height of the pandemic. Everybody was invested in the process, and communication flowed from the top to the bottom and right back up...
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