‘Unnecessary’ Covid curbs hindered researchers

UNZ’s Royal Commission claims lack of national plan made things harder, especially for animal researchers

Universities New Zealand has told the Royal Commission inquiry into Covid-19 that research was badly affected by the country’s response to the pandemic.

In some cases, animals being used in research were culled “because of initial lockdown rules that were unnecessarily restrictive and didn’t allow for enough people to care, feed and clean animal facilities”, UNZ’s formal submission to the inquiry says.