First, he was a doctor, then a “saint”, and now the country’s most famous public servant is to become “Sir”.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield in his former role as Director-General of Health became a household name - and face - running the Covid-19 pandemic response.
He fronted more than 300 press conferences and was tasked with providing advice on a range of unprecedented and previously inconceivable measures including lockdowns, border closures, and vaccine mandates.
They were decisions loved and loathed, but that ultimately saw New Zealand achieve one of the best health responses in the world, with still one of the lowest death rates.
For these services to public health, Bloomfield is to be made a knight companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit as part of the New Year 2023 Honours.
It was not, as perhaps expected from someone famed for their humility, an easy decision to accept for Bloomfield and his family, especially as a public servant.
And ultimately the reason for accepting is probably also somewhat expected, Bloomfield crediting the “team effort” and “huge sacrifices” made across the country over the past few years.
“I had to double take when the email came through,” Bloomfield tells the Herald in a sit-down interview.
“It’s a huge honour. My family are thrilled, but also in many respects, nothing changes - I’m still the same person.”
His proudest moment of the past few years was the “immense contribution” made by “all Kiwis”.
“It required a huge number of sacrifices by many people.
“People whose families were split apart because they were overseas. People were isolated from their family, friends, and asked to do quite extraordinary things, but they did it.
“And of course... the reason we can effectively go about our lives as if it were pre-pandemic, is the success of our vaccination programme.
“I look back at that with a sense of pride, in what we achieved as a country.”
Bloomfield was born in Napier but spent most of his childhood in Wellington. He became Director-General of Health in 2018, after previously working in various public health roles in New Zealand and overseas.
Bloomfield stepped down from his role at the end of July, almost a year before his five-year term was due to end in June 2023.
While he’s always had a calm demeanour, it is clear the past five months off have been good to him, aside from a broken thumb endured during one of his favourite pastimes, mountain biking (the injury also, unfortunately, took out his other outdoor pursuit, surfing).
He said he’d spent much of that time catching up with family and friends and, since the injury, reading - fittingly immersed in the “history of disinformation”.
Bloomfield made his first appearance during the pandemic on January 30, 2020, to discuss what was then a “novel coronavirus”.
“Kia ora koutou katoa,” he said - a phrase that would become synonymous with probably the most recognisable public figure in Aotearoa.
He worked closely with and stood alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has said of him: “I cannot imagine someone who is a better example of what being a true public servant is.”
Since then his near-daily presence led to an infatuation never before seen for an unelected official, with his face adorning T-shirts and tea towels, countless memes, songs and even a brand of hot sauce as “Saint Ashley”.
As Covid ripped around the world, with millions of people dying, New Zealand took the, until then, unimaginable steps of locking down both the external border and then within our own communities, shutting us off physically from family and friends, workplaces and communities.
It was a time when no vaccine existed, nor any of the remarkably effective antiviral medications, and the efficacy of mask use was still ill-defined.
It was also the time of the most deadly of variants.
The strategy, in the beginning, appeared to work, and as the rest of the world not only dealt with horrific death tolls they too ended up enduring far more restrictive lockdowns than here, where for the first summer at least, it was like there was no pandemic at all.
It was not obviously all plain sailing, as New Zealanders of all stripes can attest.
There was domestic criticism, from businesses over the economic impacts of lockdowns to medical experts and iwi and community leaders arguing measures were not strict enough.
There was political flak over the speed of everything from procurement of PPE to vaccines to antivirals and from iwi for not partnering in the response.
The border closure, while initially well-supported eventually led to many Kiwis - and migrant families - being effectively locked out of their home country for years, which the High Court ultimately ruled placed “unjustified limits” on human rights.
And perhaps most controversial, the vaccine mandates, which led to unprecedented protests and the occupation outside Parliament, both from those caught up in waves of social media-fuelled disinformation and others who simply felt it was a step too far for a government to take.
With six months out of the job and the benefit of hindsight, Bloomfield remains adamant he would not have done anything differently in terms of the advice given.
“Until we had high vaccination rates [elimination] was the right thing to do.
“If you look at all the countries that have been successful in protecting their populations, and their social and economic wellbeing to the greatest extent possible, they are ones who took a similar approach to New Zealand.”
He points to England, which not only had one of the highest death rates in the world but also had to endure some of the world’s most brutal lockdowns to get the virus back under control.
Bloomfield is also adamant the strategy had high public support.
“That carried through to the vaccination programme, while there was a lot of focus on people who were deeply opposed to the vaccine, over 90 per cent of Kiwis from all walks of life, went out and got two vaccines.
“There are people who feel there were missteps or that it was the wrong thing to require mask use, to require some people to be vaccinated, even to institute lockdowns.
“But my overall impression is that the vast majority of Kiwis did, and do still support that.”
On the protests and perceived rise of disinformation, Bloomfield is also hesitant to give it too much weight.
“The issue is not necessarily Covid. I think there’s a broader issue around trust and government.
“And in fact, if you look at surveys of trust in government, New Zealand has a high level of trust compared with many other countries.
“And that wasn’t just maintained, but it was strengthened through the pandemic. I think that speaks volumes.”
With Covid cases now ramping up again and hospitalisations looking to hit a new high, some have been questioning if the pain of the early days of the pandemic was worth it. There was also the risk of new variants emerging as China abandons its zero-Covid strategy.
Bloomfield said he understood the sentiment, but the situation now was entirely different.
“I don’t blame people for sort of forgetting because, in many respects, it feels a bit surreal [what we went through].
“We quite quickly move on, don’t we, as humans?
“But while we’ve got the virus out on the community, it is at a level where it’s having much less impact than it would have two years ago, because of our high vaccination rates, because we have effective treatments, and because the variant is less harmful than the earlier ones.”
Bloomfield said there were many lessons to learn from the pandemic response and he welcomed the formal inquiry.
“We need to be even better prepared next time and also learn what we can take from our Covid response into other areas of government.”
Part of this was seen in how the response adapted to criticism during the vaccine rollout, and eventually devolved much resource and responsibility to iwi and Pasifika and community providers.
“Another lesson was the importance of good communication, not just one big message but different messages for different communities.”
Preparation was important, but so too good leadership.
“We know from surveys done in 2019 that the two countries best prepared for a pandemic were the US and the UK. New Zealand was not on the same score metric, we were 35th best prepared.
“The lesson here is, preparation is important. But there’s no replacement for really good leadership in decision-making and communication.”
Bloomfield said the science and research link to the Government would be a key part of the role he starts next year, serving as a professor at the University of Auckland, where he’ll help establish and then chair its new Public Policy Impact Institute.
“The idea is to strengthen that link between good science and research in the public policy process. Often, they’re speaking different languages.
“So I’m looking forward to the opportunity and, again, taking some of the lessons from Covid-19, where we were very reliant on good science, evidence and expertise in our universities and communities to help inform very rapid policy decisions and then implementation.”
Bloomfield and his family would remain in Wellington for the role.
Asked why he hadn’t taken up further opportunities overseas, having worked at the World Health Organisation in 2011, Bloomfield said he still enjoyed working here.
“I love New Zealand. I enjoy working here. I’m a long-standing public servant and I’m looking forward to contributing to New Zealand and the Pacific in the new role.”
He would also be doing a piece of work led by the WHO, to review the International Health Regulations, one of the key recommendations that came out of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention that former prime minister Helen Clark co-chaired.
On summer plans, Bloomfield said “like everybody” he’d be hoping for a run of good weather, spending time at the beach, albeit minus “endorphin producing pursuits” due to his broken thumb.
“Just enjoy another Kiwi, Covid-free summer. So I’m taking a few steps to make sure I don’t get Covid for Christmas and pass it on to the rest of my family.
“But we’re so lucky to live in this amazing country.”
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