Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

The response of the government of Aotearoa New Zealand to Covid-19 has been held up as an exemplar of effectively dealing with a pandemic. The approach of “going hard” – locking down in March of 2020 – and the subsequent return to “life as normal” toward the middle of that year was the product of effective governmental communication around the risk and challenges of eliminating Covid-19 within the country, combined with a population which bought into the social contract of the “Team of Five Million” while largely ignoring the various conspiracy theories concerning the novel coronavirus. Covid-19 misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories have, nonetheless, been a staple feature of the infodemic in Aotearoa New Zealand, infiltrating and affecting public discourse. The political opposition engaged in conspiracy rhetoric early in the pandemic, and a group of scientists – who were criticized for proposing a different path for Aotearoa New Zealand’s pandemic policy – ended up not just endorsing conspiracy theorists but eventually promoting conspiracy theories themselves. An examination of cases like these – which have subsequently been co-opted by other conspiracy theorists – gives us a glimpse for what this means for conspiracy theories more generally in Aotearoa New Zealand.