Wilful unknowns

This week's column at Newsroom, now ungated, goes through the things that would be very helpful to know in weighing up risks over the next few weeks, would be eminently knowable, but seem instead to be wilfully unknown. 

A snippet:

I can, right now, find the current wait times at emergency departments across the United States. Premier Health has a handy map showing the wait time at each of seven emergency centres around Dayton, Ohio, so you can weigh up the total time it might take to see a doctor. When I checked, wait times ranged from 2 to 13 minutes – with wait time data refreshing hourly. Virtua Health provides similar data in New Jersey, where wait times range from zero to 97 minutes.

But current wait times at New Zealand’s Emergency Departments are wilfully unknowable.

The data is being collected for statistical reporting.

We just cannot see it.