NZ Members Featured Discussing NZ Contact Tracing App and Public Education Approach

New Zealand Women in Identity members Tamara Al’ Salim and Andrew Weaver were featured on a panel discussing Contact Tracing and Data Ownership. They spoke to the members of the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS), a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, whose members are vital records professionals across the U.S. as well as other countries. Tamara and Andrew discussed their view of New Zealand’s response to the pandemic and the impact it had on the community’s behavior when it came to contact tracing.

Andrew described how New Zealand took a pragmatic and expert led approach to the pandemic, driven by medical recommendations and based on statistics and scientific data modeling, wrapped up with the message of kindness. With the continuing change in the pandemic’s landscape, and quoting Maya Angelou, New Zealand took the approach of “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Event panel slide

Tamara walked the audience through graphs that told a story about the New Zealand COVID-19 Tracer App including how its early inception didn’t have much uptake as New Zealand left lockdown with no community cases. The perception was , no community cases meant no need to keep track of our movements. As travel increased into the country, cases at the border increased as well, still yet, people didn’t feel the pressure to keep track of their movements. 

Tamara went on to describe how the trend shifted dramatically when a community case linked to a ship at the ports got into the community, with a household of four people testing positive, the whole country had restriction levels changes, and the city the cases were in went into even high restrictions. This saw a significant uptake and a consistent trend of use of the app since then. New Zealand continues to report daily to its community on the number of border and community cases with none in the community since November 2020. 

Tamara observed that complacency is natural and will continue to happen as people feel safe and not have the need to keep track of their movements. If there is any trend that is guaranteed, it would be the one when cases are discovered in the community people become more vigilant and keep track of their movements. That is possible the new normal in New Zealand. In the meantime, the message, is that is a collective responsibility, we all want to safe and be able to celebrate holidays safely, act like you have the virus, wear your mask on public transport and stay home if you are unwell. 

Tamara is one of the Ambassadors for New Zealand and Andrew as an active member and supporter of Women in Identity encouraged the NAPHSIS members and especially many of the men to join the organization and support our work.

In addition, Kay Chopard spoke in the closing plenary about the Women in Identity organization and encouraged the NAPHSIS membership to become part of the organization and the mission. The conference took place virtually on November 30 to December 2, 2020.

 

Author

KayKay Chopard Cohen

Currently the president of Chopard Consulting based in Northern Virginia, Ms. Chopard has more than 35 years’ experience in executive leadership in business and nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C. She has a reputation as a transformative leader who has led organizations through launch, transition, and sustainability to deliver aggressive results. She is committed to achieving success through courageous management practices by leveraging organizational strategy, structure, and culture to reach goals and optimize results.

Ms. Chopard excels at building networks and collaborations and is accustomed to getting a seat at the table where she is known to “lean in” with clarity of thought, vision, and enthusiasm. Ms. Chopard has recently accepted the position of U.S. Ambassador for the Women in Identity organization and brings her devotion and expertise to the leadership team to further encourage women in the identity field and the broader tech industry. Ms. Chopard is also an attorney and has practiced at the local, state, and national levels of government before leading several international nonprofit organizations as executive director.


 February 25, 2021