New Zealand’s possible route to recovery has been the subject of discussion for this morning’s speakers at the Covid-19 Science and Policy Symposium.

The event, which is running all day, was kicked off by Dr. David Katz, a medical doctor and preventative medicine specialist from New York.

Dr. Katz has been on the front line of New York’s management of the virus and rose to prominence internationally with his New York Times opinion piece Is our fight against Coronavirus worse than the disease?

Several hundred New Zealanders tuned in via Youtube and Zoom to hear Dr. Katz advocate a simple lockdown alternative. He believes that Kiwi’s should be provided with simple guidance on the protective measures that are appropriate to us a high, medium, or low risk individuals.

Dr. Katz says that self-enforced and voluntary measures are more than sufficient to control the spread of the virus and fatalities in our country.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University followed and explored the role of seroprevalence data. Unlike our case numbers, seroprevalence data tells us the total number of people who have had a coronavirus infection.

Dr. Bhattacharya told attendees that case fatality rates paint a false picture of just how deadly the virus is. He supported a Taiwan-style management for New Zealand’s transition out of an elimination strategy and cautioned that Auckland’s latest outbreak could still prove to have a local origin.

On a potential vaccine, viral immunologist Dr. Byram Bridle of The University of Guelph joined the call. Dr. Bridle said New Zealand would not be at the front of the queue for a coronavirus vaccine.

Laying out the timeline of vaccine development and testing, Dr. Bridle asserted that New Zealand can not afford to plan on the availability of a safe and effective vaccine until at least 2024.

This afternoon’s talks can be viewed live on Youtube. All talks will be available for later viewing on the Covid Plan B website.

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