Amanda Kvalsvig

Three children are holding hands and looking away from the camera across a green field towards trees and bushes Thery are wearing winter jackets and beanies. The sky in the photo is a light grey and there is text on it. The text reads: Haere mai. Welcome. Our kura is a clean air school. The text is navy except for the word welcome which is green to match the field. Photo by Marcus Spiske on Unsplash.

If only a poster like this was displayed in every NZ school. Kiwi children would be healthier, learn better & there'd be an uptick in attendance.

The @covidactionnz.bsky.social ActionStation petition is growing. Keep boosting & encouraging people to sign.

our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/cl...

Flyer for University of Otago’s Public Health Summer School in Wellington, NZ. For details see link in post.

#NZ 2025 Public Health Summer School

10–21 Feb 2025
19 short courses, mostly 1 day
Some in-person, some online
University of Otago Wellington

25% discount until 19 Dec. Limited Māori and Pacific scholarships may be available.

www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/d...

via @amandakvalsvig.bsky.social

As a society we also need to think about why it's OK to exclude kids from even the limited protections offered by occupational health and safety rules, even in places like schools where they are forced to be present. Kids should be *more* protected than an adult working in a steel mill, not less.

Independent SAGE as an example of effective public dialogue on scientific research Nature Protocols - The members of Independent SAGE reflect on their experience in setting up, developing and running a science communication platform and service to the public during the COVID-19...

You can access the @natprot.bsky.social article via this link. I would be very interested in hearing feedback on this work @natureportfolio.bsky.social
🧪

rdcu.be/d3n6s

Historical revisionism on Covid threatens NZ's pandemic preparedness Comment: The Royal Commission report fundamentally validates the strategic and tactical choices made during the acute phase of the pandemic

Conventional wisdom in 2024 seems to dictate that the Covid-19 response was an overreaction, but that conventional wisdom is wrong.

My analysis on the Royal Commission report and the response to it:
newsroom.co.nz/2024/12/03/h...

I'm very happy to see this Perspective finally published. @independentsage.bsky.social briefings were of wide value to the public, yet what may be less obvious is the value they provided to the scientific community as a whole.
🧪 #medski #academicsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎯🧵by @amandakvalsvig.bsky.social on Twitter:

"Aotearoa New Zealand's Covid Inquiry has produced a high-quality, insightful report with a huge scope and range.
[...]
It's not (yet) too late for NZ to act on the excellent roadmap provided by the Inquiry report..."

threadreaderapp.com/thread/18673...

Learning from NZ's response to Covid-19 - Expert Reaction The Royal Commission of Inquiry into lessons learned from NZ's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has released the first phase of its findings. The over 700-page report was delivered to the Internal Af...

"we are still in a pandemic. NZ’s failure to acknowledge this fact doesn’t bode well for the work needed to build and maintain preparedness for future pandemic threats."

Covid inquiry report is excellent guide to preparing for next pandemic – health cuts put that at risk Opinion - There's urgency for the government to act on the recommendations of the long-awaited inquiry, prominent medical experts write.

The health cuts in NZ are awful in so many ways, with so many implications… another one: future pandemic preparedness - as laid out by @amandakvalsvig.bsky.social etc

Covid inquiry report is excellent guide to preparing for next pandemic – health cuts put that at risk www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-...

Yes! - that's a good metaphor. I'm sorry you have long covid.

This is so backward
1. Science is more than just commercialisable widgetry
2. Making progress on our biggest problems (climate change, infectious diseases, misinfo to name a few) will need more collaboration between STEM and hum/social sci not less.

Learning from NZ's response to Covid-19 - Expert Reaction The Royal Commission of Inquiry into lessons learned from NZ's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has released the first phase of its findings. The over 700-page report was delivered to the Internal Af...

What these criteria add up to is that the emergency phase may be over but we are still in a pandemic. NZ’s failure to acknowledge this fact doesn’t bode well for the work needed to build and maintain preparedness for future pandemic threats.

3/3

www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2024/11/28/l...

- unpredictable variant waves driven by ongoing viral evolution
- not showing seasonal patterns
- year-round baselines are still enough to cause heavy human & financial costs
- capabilities for damage (Long Covid) far beyond common cold coronaviruses or influenza

It's not a cold & not a flu.

2/

This is an excellent point, thank you.👇

The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly had an emergency phase: we all remember it, and we know it was different from what we're experiencing today.

But the pandemic is still continuing. The term 'chronic phase' might help make its ongoing harms more visible.

1/

News Article: Institute of Environmental Science and Research proposes to cut 51 jobs ‍"ESR is losing scientists, technicians and other expertise as the Government continues to show how little it values the long-term benefits of science and research to improving the health and wellbein...

Just last month there were more cuts at ESR. That's the group of public servants who did a similar thing for us all regards the COVID pandemic.

These capabilities matter. We do not know when we might need them. Killing them off is just plain irresponsible.

We need to work together, in solidarity.

Muscle weakness post-COVID: a practical guide for primary care Since the earliest stages of the pandemic, muscle weakness has been a key symptom described by patients post-COVID infection. Estimated to affect up to 60% of those with long COVID, it can have a prof...

Our new paper, led by @oohgpwales.bsky.social:

Muscle weakness post-COVID: a practical guide for primary care

TL;DR: patients with muscle weakness after COVID-19 infection may have myelopathy, nerve damage or other organic pathology. Not always due to 'deconditioning'!

bjgp.org/content/74/7...

Very disappointing to see so little consideration of Long Covid in policy - it's a huge and consequential omission. Will be an important component of advice for the incoming Government.

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Well, that is an essay! Final point is that I was an earlyish adopter of online forums (eg dnuk, 1990s doctors net) and these patterns were being endlessly repeated before the pandemic. I don't really like saying 'pick your battles' as it's not a battle, but certainly, 'pick your best time use'. 5/5

As for the influencers, no amount of evidence will change their stance because their position is now attached to their sense of self-worth. They'll have to navigate that one themselves, hopefully with the help of colleagues, but it's not a knowledge problem and sadly, rational debate can't help. 4/n

These people are powerful and in protecting themselves they're causing harm to the people they should be protecting. They may not mean to, but that's the result. Satire has a role here in highlighting nonsense reasoning that non-experts won't always be able to unpick straight away. 3/n

Those are important conversations and they're respectful & productive. But unfortunately some influential people attached their identities and reputations to particular points of view early on & the reputational cost of walking back is too high now, resulting in increasingly bad rationalisations.2/n

Thank you for explaining, I appreciate that and agree. And indeed I spend an enormous amount of offline time researching, writing, and talking about the risks and benefits of pandemic control, not only with colleagues but also with people who are questioning and challenging how things are done. 1/n

Yes. Alternatively, the disinformation tactic of throwing out multiple mutually incompatible arguments in the hope that one of them sticks (as in the two real-life examples in that post) is wholly in bad faith and deserves no consideration or respect.

@thev.bsky.social is always on the nose, but this one especially made me laugh.
One to add to the large genre of Covid oxymorons.
See also "Masks are bad because 1) the holes in the weave are too big to trap viruses and 2) children are getting immunity debt from wearing masks".

I thought yesterday's Independent SAGE briefing about the failure of government to follow behavioural science was so good, that I did a substack summarising the session, with several short clips of our experts.

open.substack.com/pub/christin...

My dog-eared copy of "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" with my actual dog's ear for scale. The dog is a golden labrador and there are pink flowers behind her.

As a compulsive reader, it’s been disconcerting to find myself unable to read books during the pandemic; perhaps because I read so much for work, perhaps worrying about the world. "Ocean” is one of the very few exceptions, and what a comfort it’s been. Thank you so much @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com.

U1

Kia ora koutou
It's great to be here! Sorry, I'm v boring. My current wishlist:
1. Covid policy adequately reflects the seriousness of this infection
2. NZ reduces community spread of respiratory pathogens down to summer levels - permanently
3. NZ chooses to eliminate poverty
4. Wait I haven't finis

Thank you, it's very nice to be here!