I did something like this in 2021 using Public Health England raw data as it gives you a visual representation of what happened when. Since I’ve found where all NZ’s data is I thought I’d do the same for New Zealands Covid data. Basically, it’s a timeline from week ending 5th January 2020 to 31st December 2023 and contains all the official data for Cases, Hospitalizations, Deaths and Vaccination role out.’

So here’s some food for thought…

No.1 – First wave of hospitalizations – 1^st little spike hospitalizations (37) occurred the same week that the 1^st dose peaked.  Come 17/10/2021 the same week the 2^nd dose peaked hospitalizations (37) t then surpassed this and reaching its peak of 94 in week ending 28/11/2021, long before Covid cases really ramped up.

No.2 – Whilst Covid cases peaked during the first wave 9/1/2022, the second wave of hospitalizations didn’t peak until two months later on 13/3/2022, long after those who caught it during the peak were no longer suffering from it.  However, 4 weeks prior to the second wave of hospitalization, 1^st boosters peak on 13/2/2022 whilst wave of Covid deaths first hit double figures on the 27/2/2022. 

No.3 – Again when the 3^rd wave of hospitalizations peaked during weeks 17/7/2022 and 24/7/2022 so did the 2^nd booster roll out peaked week 17/7/2022 with deaths peaking two weeks later in week 31/7/2022.  All whilst Covid cases reaching another smaller peak two months prior in weej ending 22/5/2022 and would have recovered from Covid by then.

No.4 – Another wave of Covid cases peaked 23/10/22 and once again it wasn’t until approx. 2 months later that the 4^th wave of hospitalization week ending 18/12/2022.

No.5 – Yet again during the 5^th wave of hospitalizations on 16/4/2023 it peaks the exact same week the 2^nd dose of vaccinations peak.

One would expect hospitalizations to peak within the first 2 weeks that Covid cases peaked, not 2 months later and what are the odds that 4 out 5 waves of hospitalization peaks all coincided with the  exact same weeks as the vaccine rollouts?

Source: https://github.com/minhealthnz/nz-covid-data/tree/main

Cases – https://github.com/minhealthnz/nz-covid-data/blob/main/vaccine-data/latest/doses_by_date.csv

Deaths – https://github.com/minhealthnz/nz-covid-data/blob/main/cases/weekly-deaths.csv

Hospitalizations – https://github.com/minhealthnz/nz-covid-data/blob/main/cases/weekly-deaths.csv

Vaccine – https://github.com/minhealthnz/nz-covid-data/blob/main/vaccine-data/latest/doses_by_date.csv