Intro to a series on mask mandates in New Zealand

A few notes before we begin the series

In late January an updated Cochrane review of physical interventions, including masks was released that caused chatter - chatter everywhere but New Zealand.

Generally New Zealand….hasn’t had much robust discussion or debate of the Covid interventions and restrictions that happened during the pandemic.

Let’s start by discussing some….the Cochrane review has been well covered overseas (for a summary I’ll rely on Vinay Prasad through his substacks - here his personal substack and Sensible Medicine has his review of what’s become a mask fiacso basically).

The review was interpreted that it was uncertain masks work against respiratory illness. The review’s lead author is more blunt about the outcome and even mentions how odd it was New Zealand’s Ministry of Health flipped on mask use a few months into the pandemic.

Cochrane is being covered so much because it’s considered to be an authoritative and highly trustworthy source. In New Zealand the Ministry of Health itself calls it a gold standard and gives access to Cochrane databases.

The overseas chatter caused some acknowledgements of the inconclusive evidence on masks in the community - and some backtracking - oh no that’s definitely not what we meant at all.

Okay - mostly it shows masks are still confusing - and we really don’t know alot - in the community how they work and if they work by how much to reduce infections and what is needed to ensure they work. I’m willing to bet that the weird and inconsistent rules probably didn’t help (the wear it when entering the restaurant but you can take off your mask for your 2 hour meal with 7 people?).

I want to discuss in the New Zealand context the repeated statements made that masks were used to slow spread. The question I have that I set out to answer was how do we know that masks did actually reduce the spread? 

If mask use had just been public health advice and recommendations - this probably doesn’t matter and it’d be fine to stay confined to disagreements among scientists and some heated Twitter debates. 

But mask mandates were a public health control that it looks like were lobbied to be implemented by a group of self-called public health experts and then mandated in more ways in ever changing legislation.

Not wearing a mask could result in a fine which at its height could top $12,000, for not complying - complete with home police visits or arrest if someone was spotted not wearing a mask.

And there were costs to the mandating of masks. The government stockpiled and gave away huge piles of masks - the Ministry of Education alone spent over $13 million on masks for schools.

To try and understand what happened and when to piece it together how these mandates were made it’s been a long journey through dozens of documents.

Some notes before we start:

This is only about community masking not health care workers and masks.

While I do talk about efficacy claims of masks (in part 1 I note some references - yes I read every single reference on or about mask studies that was used) - I’m more concerned with how officials making these rules knew community masking mandates were working within the New Zealand context.  I also don’t touch on the types of masks and how inane it was to think your cut up painting t-shirt - was going to beat back an airborne virus. Some places I just can’t go.

Face coverings was actually the term most used in New Zealand - this late 2021 Cabinet paper that discussed making masks mandatory on public transport and flights gives the reason as equity: 

To write this review - I’ve  taken the easy road and I just refer to everything as masks. And incidentally face coverings were allowed up until early 2022 when the rules on mask use were ‘strengthened’ and they were ditched.

The long journey and dozens of documents - that references going through various government agencies OIA responses through their websites and the FYI website. 

As well as proactive releases through government websites or the Unite Against Covid-19 website (yes it’s possible to beat back a respiratory virus with what looks like a soccer brand) and anywhere else I landed on along the way. It took me to some surprising places and while lengthy I hope you enjoy the journey.

Lets begin part 1 - New Zealand public transport mask mandates in 2020.