631 Results

  • Can pandemic threats justify border closure for island nations like NZ?

    … and ecological factors (1). There are also added threats from deliberate human modification of existing or potential … (WHO) advice is that while there might be benefits from border closure (in terms of delays to disease … and personal costs. Eg, the potential economic damage from a border closure in one US study was of a halving of GDP …
    Briefing

  • Tax policy reform: equity, fairness, and health

    … Tax design is about how we gather government revenue, from whom and from which sources. Values underlie how we … ie tax levied on goods and services that are bought. NZ’s GST is currently 15% on almost all goods and services [20% of … so are more likely to have cold damp homes and run out of food due to lack of money. In 2021, the poorest 20% of Kiwi …
    Briefing

  • To ensure success of the trans-Tasman travel “green zone”, we need to reduce system failures at the NZ border

    … in large cities for the lowest-risk travellers (eg, those from Australia until the green zone starts or during periods … [13]. Nevertheless, there is still a small chance it was from an infected port worker (eg, as per the last row of this … an extremely small chance it was from an infected imported food product (with our assessment based on the likely extreme …
    Briefing

  • Vaping prevalence and trends: key findings in the 2022-23 NZ Health Survey

    … than ever are vaping according to the latest data from the New Zealand Health Survey released this month. The … This Briefing summarises key findings on vaping prevalence from the 2022/23 New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS). A previous … of Health website. Data used in this Briefing are sourced from the NZHS data explorer . Key findings Population trends …
    Briefing

  • What the Pacific & Mexico can tell us about soft drink taxes and public health

    … health. This blog looks at a policy discussion document from the Pacific and explores some of the reasons SSB tax … a tax on sugar drinks, over and above the tax on other food and beverages (Figure 1). In April 2014 the Cook Islands … the quality (Guthrie, 2014). There remain calls to remove VAT from water <20L containers (Alianza por la Salud …
    Briefing

  • Mortality declines in Aotearoa NZ during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic

    … that have played a direct role in keeping mortality from Covid-19 relatively low compared to other nations. For … the pandemic incorporate both indirect and direct deaths from Covid-19, and so is considered one of the more valid … population for 223 countries and regions based on data from The Economist . The measure is defined as the …
    Briefing

  • E-bikes are the new cars- why don’t transport policy makers treat them seriously?

    … places. Unfortunately, we are not seeing an effort from policy makers to encourage this low carbon, healthy form … cycle and happily this is the group who will benefit most from increases in physical activity. We don’t know much about … but it was unclear whether people had shifted to e-biking from cycling or from driving (which would likely have …
    Briefing

  • Action needed to halt New Zealand’s obesity epidemic: Themes from Big Food Symposium

    … policy options identified include: banning junk food marketing to children, introducing a tax on fizzy … patterned with Pacific, and Māori children and those from the most deprived neighbourhoods disproportionately … is a social scientist with a PhD in Community Health from the University of Toronto. She has worked and completed …
    Briefing

  • Phasing out smoking: The Tobacco-Free Generation policy

    … which provides a mechanism to protect future generations from tobacco harm and, over time, to phase out tobacco sales … or early adulthood. Measures to protect young people from the risk of starting to smoke are therefore key to … (TFG) propose? Consumers have a right to be protected from products that may kill them, particularly where those …
    Briefing

  • Using Rapid Antigen Tests to improve COVID-19 control in Aotearoa NZ

    … . Figure 1: Rapid Antigen Test kit given out freely from the NHS in the UK Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, … oral and nasal swab test. NAAT tests can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 3-4 hours to process. However, the … and reporting, means that results may take a day or more from collection until communication to the end user. NAATS …
    Briefing

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Public Health Expert Briefing (ISSN 2816-1203)