A University of Waikato academic, Dr. John Gibson has done a study into the effects of lockdown on New Zealand’s life expectancy measure.
Dr. Gibson argues that because life expectancy is to some extent a function of living standards as measured by GDP per capita, the serious lockdown imposed by the Government on the whole country on several occasions in 2020, and on Auckland and surrounding areas this year, almost certainly reduced life expectancy appreciably.
He suggested that on reasonable assumptions “our politicians and health bureaucrats will have presided over a fall in life expectancy where there are two million fewer life years than would otherwise be expected. If this loss was fully concentrated on a select group, it is equivalent to 46,000 deaths…. Lockdowns are one of our greatest peacetime policy failures.”
