Gordon Campbell on how Delta has changed the endgame for the pandemic
Lockdown vs Delta. Day by day, New Zealand is learning whether a Level Four lockdown can confine and eventually defeat the Delta variant. Yes, the […]
lockdown
Gordon Campbell on our polarised attitudes to the Covid response
Thesis meets antithesis again, this time in the pages of the New Zealand Herald. A week ago, Liam Dann wrote a column pondering how in […]
Gordon Campbell on the latest lockdown, and on Air NZ’s Saudi military sales
A three day Covid lockdown feels like the pandemic equivalent of T20 cricket. Just as T20 isn’t really cricket, this three day breathing space isn’t […]
Gordon Campbell on why herd immunity isn’t a valid option, and what’s with our reluctance to wear masks ?
Herd immunity has recently bounced back into the headlines as a tool for managing Covid-19, and as a supposed alternative to lockdowns. In the US, […]
Gordon Campbell on the challenges we face in securing Covid-19 vaccines
The early wave of Covid-19 vaccines appear unlikely to deliver a complete shield against getting the infection, as (say) a measles inoculation comes close to […]
Gordon Campbell on kneejerk negativism, Cardi B, and Linda Manz
Yesterday, Victoria recorded 216 new Covid-19 cases and twelve deaths. An inquiry released a couple of days ago found that 90% of Victoria’s second wave […]
Gordon Campbell on the election delay
Hi, team. While the majority of the team of five million has gritted its teeth and obeyed the rules throughout the Covid-19 crisis, a sizeable […]
Gordon Campbell on the new lockdowns, leadership and Lebanon
As Melbourne has shown, the webs of urban life overlap so extensively that community transmission can be very hard to trace, let alone control. Each […]
Gordon Campbell on the problems the pandemic is causing for Big Oil
Chances are, climate change won’t kill you overnight, and that’s got to be significant. Yet while we were all in lockdown listening to the birdsong, […]
Gordon Campbell on the media collusion with National’s attack lines
For most of the past week, any consumer of this country’s management of Covid-19 would think New Zealand was actually Brazil, or Texas. The media […]
Gordon Campbell on negating Covid-19 success, and K-pop’s links with black activism
National MP Michael Woodhouse took his party’s credibility to a new low this morning via his inability to prove his claim that a homeless man […]
Gordon Campbell on managing Covid-19 better than the Australians, and the Ellis case
If anything the Covid-19 outbreaks occurring this week in and around Melbourne are a timely reminder of the bullet we dodged by not having a […]
Gordon Campbell on Level One, and living with predatory markets
Welcome to Level One, earthlings. This is the new normality while the virus still roams beyond the border walls. Those borders will remain closed and […]
Gordon Campbell on not buying what Todd Muller is selling
Chloe Swarbrick is number three in the Greens Party list released this morning. Todd Muller has released his new party line-up today, which will excite […]
Gordon Campbell on Level Two, and Little Richard
Level Two will be life Jim, but not as we’ve known it. At 4pm today, PM Jacinda Ardern will announce the Cabinet decision on when […]
Gordon Campbell on one of the shadows over Level Two
For many New Zealanders, the imminent shift to Level Two is going to be a momentous occasion. Here’s another looming landmark likely to be just […]
Gordon Campbell on the dodgy politics of easing Level Three
As countries around the world tentatively emerge from lockdown, a lot of political noise is being generated by politically-driven arguments that (a) the safeguards need […]
Gordon Campbell on exceptions for tourism, and on the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine
As David Foster Wallace famously pointed out, each of us regard our own precious selves as the realest, most vivid and important persons in the […]
Gordon Campbell on the “ Where’s Winston?” question
Deputy PM Winston Peters has kept a low profile over the last month or so, partly because he belongs in the category of people most […]
Gordon Campbell on living at Level Three with residual anxiety
Two weeks. That’s roughly the length of time the government has given itself between moving to Level Three, and making a decision on May 11 […]
Gordon Campbell on living with the extension, and with Edward Hopper
In the end, it was obvious that the lockdown had to be extended. According to epidemiologist Ayesha Verrall, our tracing systems are still struggling to […]
Gordon Campbell on why we should extend the lockdown
As Bloomberg says, impatience can be contagious. The kids in the back seat during the lockdown – Mike Hosking, Barry Soper, David Seymour etc – […]
Gordon Campbell on why we shouldn’t be trying to emulate Australia
On today’s Coronocast podcast on the ABC state broadcasting network in Australia, New Zealand’s policy of going out hard early with a stringent economic shutdown […]
Gordon Campbell on the argument over whether lives or livelihoods are more important
It is hardly business as usual, but this week is shaping up to be all about business and its needs, how the economy will emerge […]
Gordon Campbell on the ethics (and some of the economics) of lifting the lockdown
As New Zealand passes the half-way mark towards moving out of Level Four lockdown, the trade-offs involved in life-after-lockdown are starting to come into view. […]
Gordon Campbell on the lockdown, masks and aerosol transmission
I ronically, our relative success in suppressing the exponential spread of Covid-19 is only increasing the pressure to ease back from those measures, on a […]
Gordon Campbell and six short takes about the lockdown
To begin with, a correction : in yesterday’s column I said that there were 650,000 New Zealanders in Australia that do not qualify for income […]
Gordon Campbell on how long lockdowns need to last, and the ventilator shortages
The lockdown announced yesterday by PM Jacinda Ardern is consistent with the advice from the Imperial College Covid-19 team in London, whose blueprint the NZ […]