By the end of this year, Covid-19 will be the largest pandemic in human history. Today the world total passed 60 million cases with 1.4 million deaths. On the current 7-day trend there will be 82 million cases and 1.8 million deaths before the end of the year..Read more

Following the signoff of the Labour-Greens cooperation agreement, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce her new cabinet line-up tomorrow..Read more

An overwhelming majority of 85% of Green Party members have agreed to align with Labour..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Labour has stormed into government with a 29-seat triumph over National in the third-largest margin by any political party since the Liberals defeated all others with a 36-seat majority in 1905..Read more

Election 2020 has seen the strongest Kaupapa Māori campaigns since Tariana Turia resigned from the Labour Party, formed the Māori Party and won the 2004 Te Tai Hauāuru by-election..Read more

Kia ora tātou. With the last Māori Television - Curia Research poll in and campaigns racing toward their zenith, the Māori Party may be on course to win one of the Māori electorates..Read more

The introduction of MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) has seen ‘More Māori in Parliament’ from seven Māori MPs in the last pre-MMP election in 1993 to a record high of 29 Māori MPs comprising 24.1% of our current 121-member Parliament spread across five parties, Labour (13), National (8), New Zealand First (6), the Greens (1) and Advance New Zealand (1)..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: This column tracks the performance of Labour Party Leader Jacinda Ardern and National Party Leader Judith Collins as preferred Prime Minister in the first two leaders debates and the last five 1News-Colmar Brunton (3) and Newshub-Reid (2) polls back to July..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: This column tracks the electoral trend in the last five 1News-Colmar Brunton (3) and Newshub-Reid (2) polls dating back to July..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Yesterday morning the official total of reported deaths passed 1 million and total reported cases passed 33 million..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: On 8 September modelling by this researcher showed that if the government did not reduce the number of arrivals into New Zealand there would be another breach at the border or in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) leading to a further Covid-19 outbreak in October or November. Since then, there have been two such breaches on 13 and 19 September..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Colmar-Brunton released the full report for their September TVNZ poll last night. The outcome of Election 2020 might be more precariously balanced than pundits appreciate..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Two days ago, the official number of Covid-19 cases worldwide passed 30 million. The last 10 million came in 38 days over four times faster than the 154 days for the first 10 million..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Unfortunately, the Ministry of Health has reported a third death in the Māori-Pacific Cluster in Auckland. He was Māori, aged in his 50s and the brother of the first man to die in this outbreak also in his 50s..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Breaches of our border and Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) protocols will lead to further outbreaks in the community if we do not cap the number of the arrivals coming across the border..Read more

There is a greater risk to New Zealand from the high number of arrivals and active cases entering at the border than there is from the Auckland OutBreak. If we do not address numbers crossing our border, there is a risk of a third wave arriving in October/November..Read more

This column examines six scenarios for the source of the Auckland OutBreak. Searching for the source of the 11 August Covid-19 Auckland Outbreak is an important part of halting the spread of the virus. It is also important for understanding how to minimise future outbreaks. Integral to this is understanding the parameters and limitations of swab tests, genome sequencing and serology tests..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: The Auckland region moved to Alert Level 2 at 11:59 pm on Sunday 30 August 2020. This column advised that over the next seven to ten days there was a risk of transfer to other parts of the country the principal areas of risk being by road travel to the Waikato and Te Tai Tokerau..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Being able to estimate accurate numbers in the Covid-19 pandemic informs us of the scale of the disease outbreak and how it will impact on the global community.Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: A Debacle at the Border:Politicking over our border security is masking the search for the source case of the Auckland OutBreak..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: The official total of World Covid-19 cases passed 24 million yesterday. While ever-rising numbers are concerning, the rate of new cases has begun to flatten out with new cases staying between 200,000 and 290,00 each day since 5 July..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: Today the total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide went past 23 million. Total deaths went past 800,000. Even if the current rate of increase continued without further escalation then the world is facing 56 million cases and 1.5 million deaths by the end of the year..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: New Zealand has a total of 1,665 cases. 72 cases have arrived at our borders since 17 June. There are 89 cases associated with the Auckland outbreak. Between cases at the border and Auckland, there are 105 active cases..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: The Second Wave - The Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland is disproportionally impacting Māori and Pacific communities..Read more

Dr Rawiri Taonui: During an interview with Waatea News on 15 July, this writer predicted a second wave of Covid-19 in New Zealand ‘probably within a month’..Read more