The day's worthies:
- The complicated mess of regulations that make it hard for supply chains to keep up.
- Pentecostalism. According to the 2018 Census, there are 81,300 in NZ. They outnumber Jedi 4:1.
- Getting vax out to where people are. Robertson had promised that there would be no funding barrier to dealing with the pandemic. We supported him in taking on debt to get this job done - it's what debt is for. But he blew it on envirojob nonsense, and hasn't been funding what's been necessary in getting vax out. Just incredibly disappointing, and costly. The money that would be involved here is rats and mice stuff, and in too many places it just hasn't gotten done.
- Wouldn't it be simpler if we stopped using general government revenue to build highways while also stopping using money from road user charges and petrol excise to pay for busses?
- Should overstayers have been included in the general grant of a path to residence? Would have helped with this problem.
- Superb piece on the problems in copyright extension. It's at best a dead rat we have to swallow for the trade deal with the UK. But I'd hope we can make it less awful.
- And relevant to that last one: a shift to weaker copyright during WW2 encouraged scientific discovery by making it easier for scientists to get access to scientific papers. Sci-Hub is a wonderful thing.
- Looks like early treatment for Covid with a common antidepressant with few side effects, fluvoxamine, reduces hospitalisation by a third - and to a third for those reporting optimal adherence to the protocol (people who didn't miss doses). Something that reduces hospitalisation by a third to two thirds is like increasing hospital capacity by a third to two-thirds, except way less expensive and with way less hardship. I wonder whether MoH will get orders in before the rush hits - enough to at least trial it to make sure it isn't green jellybeans. Note that this was one of the trials funded by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok at FastGrants.
- Bit of a shame that nobody in NZ government bothered getting a vaccine passport system readied earlier. It was obvious that one would be needed at least from June 2020. AirNZ now reports the absence of one is why they can't set a vax requirement for domestic travel.
