Better use of tracking technology advised

WELLINGTON: New Zealand needs to start having a conversation about more modern responses to the Covid19 pandemic, such as mobile phone tracking, a specialist in disasters says.

University of Canterbury law professor John Hopkins told RNZ New Zealand needed to think about whether it would use technology as a tool in fighting the virus as had other countries.

He said Taiwan had used some similar measures to New Zealand ‘‘but the main difference is their heavy use of IT and some pretty invasive use of mobile phone tracking and other similar mechanisms to control individuals and to pinpoint who’s at risk of having the virus’’.

He said although the methods New Zealand used were effective, ‘‘they’re oldfashioned’’.

‘‘It shows that New Zealanders need to have a conversation about what things we would give up to stop the impact of the lockdown.’’

He said the ‘‘old school’’ approaches New Zealand used were effective but caused extensive economic damage.

Taiwan had linked its health computer system with immigration so it could tell who came in and tracked them, he said.

‘‘And then [they] use something called the digital electric fence which is a use of mobile phones to ensure you stay in your house or wherever you’ve been allocated during your quarantine. You can imagine that’s something we’re not used to in New Zealand.’’

Prof Hopkins said New Zealand needed to explore these options to have them in our toolbox.

‘‘The issue here is if the border breaches we need to impose some form of lockdown to allow our contact tracing to catch up.’’

However, New Zealanders had a different way of thinking about privacy, he said.

‘‘One of the things we need to explore is why we’re happy to give up our privacy to Google or Instagram with the touch of a button but then we’re reluctant to have some limits to our privacy or constraints on our actions when it’s for something good, as in stopping a pandemic rather than advertising for a global company.’’

The worst thing would be to suddenly leap to methods like Taiwan without exploring how we would limit this in a legal framework, he said.

‘‘You need to think about this in advance and that’s I think what we need to think about for the future — have that discussion now.’’

World Health Organisation special envoy on Covid19 David Nabarro said lockdowns should only be used to buy time as preparations were made to defend against the virus.

University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker said it was another example of the WHO being at odds with New Zealand’s approach.

‘‘I think we’ve now seen quite a consistent pattern of comments from WHO spokespeople during the pandemic and they’re very orientated towards the setting that we see in North America and Europe where lockdowns are used very differently than in New Zealand.’’

He said these countries did not have a goal of eliminating the virus but used lockdowns to suppress transmission.

‘‘Unfortunately, during the global pandemic response their advice has not been helpful at all for countries like New Zealand. Firstly, they were very slow to declare this a public health emergency of international concern and a pandemic, they advised for a long time to keep your borders open, not to use masks or mass masking and this recent comment about lockdowns.’’

New Zealand had done the opposite of this, which had been critical to our success in containing the virus, he said.

There were two new cases of Covid19 in managed isolation and quarantine facilities in New Zealand yesterday.

There are no new cases in the community. The total number of active cases is now 40 — all imported cases. — RNZ

❛ One of the things we need to explore is why we’re happy to give up our privacy to Google or Instagram with the touch of a button but then we’re reluctant to have some limits to our privacy or constraints on our actions when it’s for something

good