1. Defence policy & security strategy documents released in Wellington today suggest that NZ is abandoning its capacity to think for itself & instead is cutting & pasting from 5 Eyes’ partners. Drumbeat from officials has been consistent on this for some time. 2. This is reminiscent of the Frank Corner-led Defence Committee of Inquiry of 1985 set up by David Lange, which in effect - & in the end unsuccessfully- tried to put brakes on the Govt’s nuclear free & independent foreign policy.

“Stopping epidemics when & where they occur”: see our @TheLancet comment on designing equitable systems for access to measures needed to stop pandemics. A repeat of inequitable access experienced during #COVID19 #pandemic is unethical & unacceptable. thelancet.com/journals/lance… 2. From our @TheLancet comment: “Governments & the global community must urgently tackle difficult questions about why, how, where, & when diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines are produced, & about who is in control of their availability and distribution.” #pandemic #covid19

“To survive new century of contagions, world needs Global Health Security Council, a public-private partnership empowered, funded, & accountable to ensure global pandemic preparedness and response” writes @drjeromekim1. @TheIndPanel reached same conclusion statnews.com/2023/01/11/4-g… 2. @drjeromekim1 continues: “Akin to UN Security Council, but without obstructing veto power, a Global Health Threats Council could direct an expandable secretariat to create & empower a #Pandemic Response Task Force as needed.” This proposal addresses current leadership gap.

Full solidarity will all impacted by #cyclonehale; many already hit hard by recent heavy rain &/or by other major weather events in past year. Even w/ effective global climate action now, climate ecosystem, world temperatures will take decades to stabilise nzherald.co.nz/nz/weather-cyc… 2/3 “If all human emissions of heat-trapping gases were to stop today, Earth’s temperature would continue to rise for a few decades as ocean currents bring excess heat stored in the deep ocean back to the surface.”climate.gov/news-features/… #climateaction

1/ Following horrific killings of #MSF workers in #Tigray, UN SG could invoke Article 11 of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 on Health Care & Armed Conflict & call Council's attention to obstruction of medical assistance to populations in need: theguardian.com/global-develop… 2/UNSCR 2286 established a reporting architecture to ensure that the question of attacks on the medical mission will continue to receive regular attention by Security Council. The killings of #MSF staff demand UNSC's urgent attention. @MSF @UKUN_NewYork securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BF…

Asleep on the job? "USA intelligence agencies issued warnings about novel #coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for POTUS in Jan/Feb, months during which he continued to play down threat, according to current/former US officials": washingtonpost.com/national-secur… 2/3 While DC put on a performance akin to that of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the much maligned @WHO had declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 Jan when there were only 100 #COVID19 cases & no deaths reported outside China:

https://twitter.com/gabbystern/status/1254905221148442624