The Covid Plan B group is reassured by the shift of international policy and science consensus toward what had been a dissenting position six months ago; learning to live with the virus.

Over the weekend, the WHO’s David Nabarro said that lockdowns caused more harm than good, a position advocated by Covid Plan B back in April 2020.

But early in the Covid-19 crisis, the World Health Organisation supported lockdowns to contain ‘intense transmission’ of the virus, listing six conditions that must be met to lift such measures.

In a remarkable turnaround, Dr David Nabarro has stated that “Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer”.

He also commended the Great Barrington Declaration, an internationally supported statement against lockdowns, which instead calls for a change in government policy toward focused protection of the elderly and those who are vulnerable to the virus from pre-existing medical conditions, while letting the rest of the population return to normal life.

Dr Simon Thornley, spokesman for Covid Plan B, welcomed Nabarro’s statement as “a major change from the World Health Organisation”.

“We have drawn attention to the severe and disproportionate financial costs of lockdown policies in New Zealand.

“The virus is not as deadly as first claimed, so we must adjust our policies accordingly.

“The latest estimates for the infection fatality ratio, a measure of the severity of the virus, are between 0.15 to 0.20%, which is concordant with the range of figures for past influenza epidemics.

“Crippling our economies and sacrificing our children’s education can no longer be justified, since the harm from these policies outweighs any benefits.

“Our health system has largely avoided severe outbreaks in hospitals and nursing homes, and this is where the focus of our response to the virus should be.”

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