As we can see from case numbers today and most likely in days to come, this is going to become an increasingly more common experience. Even though it’s a new thing to do, and it’s never easy to tell someone you may have an infectious disease and that you may have been a situation where […]
Prepare for surging case numbers over the next days to come. It will take some time for us to come to terms with this changing reality. Already, people are coming forward to be tested in greater numbers in Auckland – this will probably increase the number of identified cases in days to come. What can […]
Exiting the pandemic now is unrealistic Transitioning into what happens next is likely to be bumpy. What comes next – some people are talking about endemicity – is undefined. Whatever comes next will look very different in different places in the world, continuing to magnify and intensify inequities that pre-existed the pandemic. The strength of […]
As we watch and wait it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of safety in this new uncertainty. The experts tell us that we will likely experience a lag before we detect cases and confirm that there are indeed more omicron cases in the community. So, we need to maintain our safe […]
“Stop telling me to be calm!” And anyway, why’s it so important? You’ve had the experience of people – me included – telling you that being calm is important, right? Often, telling us to be calm produces the exact opposite effect. For example, remember being told, ‘don’t jump on the bed’? What did you do? […]
The Government’s rhetoric about getting vaccinated has hardened. The conversation started with relying on intellectual arguments to convince people that getting vaccinated is the right thing to do through presenting data. It then moved to a persuasion stage, trying to understand the influence of emotions, and working through trusted connections to have conversations designed to […]
The Prime Minister outlined the new Covid Protection Framework this morning. Here are some of the key points from a psychological point of view Outlining the new structure and how it will work will be helpful for most people. And it clear that the goal is to carry on vaccinating at speed and scale to […]
Simple, clear messaging This is what has been what has been so successful in New Zealand’’s pandemic so far. This is partly because the goal we were aiming for was clear – and that was elimination. And the Alert Level system was the process through which we got to that outcome. It was a complete […]
Impending doom and an overwhelming sense of grief for all that we may have lost, even as the pandemic has played out over the last 20 months in New Zealand. This is the gist of just some conversations and expressions I’ve heard over the past few days. Why are we feeling like this? Why now? […]
We’ve all experienced the superpower. You meet someone and it turns out you both know someone in common. It can happen anywhere, in New Zealand, and even around the world when we travel. And it usually happens pretty early in the conversation too. It’s the social glue that is our superpower It brings us joy, […]