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Shaun Hendy

@hendysh.bsky.social

2.2K followers 950 following 340 posts

Physicist, complex systems, ex-COVID modeller, he/him Author of "The Covid Response" https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-covid-response

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Shaun Cameron Hendy is a New Zealand physicist. He is the chief scientist at climate innovation company Toha. He was previously a professor at the University of Auckland and was the first director of Te Pūnaha Matatini, a centre of research excellence in complex systems and data analytics. During the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, he led a team of scientists developing mathematical models of the spread of the virus across the country that influenced the government's response to the outbreak. .. more

Materials science 28%

Mathematics 16%

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Living Safely With Covid @covidsafenz.bsky.social · 1d

#LongCovid “No one is immune to this”

Offered rest home care at 24: the lonely plight of formerly healthy young Kiwis suffering with long Covid

The pandemic never ended, and we're all living proof of that.

www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/10/o...

Offered rest home care at 24: the lonely plight of young Kiwis with long Covid

A group of young Kiwis prove what international studies show: that long Covid has a particularly debilitating effect on young people. But how much medical support is there for them?

www.1news.co.nz

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Tammy Steeves @testeeves.bsky.social · 3d

What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social olevo.bsky.social led by ever talented @aisrayne.bsky.social

📷 Kevin Parker

Whimsical photo of a karure | kakaruia | Chatham Island black robin courtesy of Kevin Parker. Features as a wee black bird with four leg bands: white over orange on the left leg and red over white on the right leg. Sneaky tufts of feathers peak out from otherwise borb-like body, encouraged by the unseen wind.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 12d

Of course the Listener Letter made it into Krauss’ “The War on Science” (boo), but this means it gets the @shaunvids.bsky.social treatment (yay). TL;DR we need the humanities to teach scientists how to read

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · 12d

🚨Deadline extended 🚨 Get your abstracts in for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 by Tuesday 7 October → forms.gle/vdMooRs2srtz...

#cccss26 #complexsystems 🧪

Renata Muylaert presents at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 14d

Glorious!

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Delwyn Dickey @delwynd.bsky.social · 17d

What America's changes on #paracetamol and #vaccines might mean for New Zealand

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

What America's changes on paracetamol and vaccines might mean for New Zealand

Explainer - Donald Trump claims paracetamol causes autism, while the US has also made cuts to vaccine access and research. What could it all mean for NZ?

www.rnz.co.nz

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 20d

THE GREAT SLEEP IN

Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 20d

The Herald may have cut its science reporter, but thank god the speed bump beat is still fully staffed

NZ Herald article ‘Residents in new suburb complain of 22 speed bumps’

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Reposted by Will Jennings, Shaun C. Hendy

Paul Mainwood @paulmainwood.bsky.social · 21d

A time series for London, but a similar pattern everywhere.

Measles vaccine in UK: 1968.
MMR in UK: 1988.

You can see the impact of each, because MMR boosts uptake enormously. Most of the lives saved by MMR are from measles.

Reversing this will - predictably - kill a large number of children.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 23d

The bio also refers to her as “Merry” on line 2 if you want an indication of how carefully they’ve been put together. AFAIK SPG is still drawing a salary at UoA too.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 23d

Merryn Tawhai is an academic - the ABI is a UoA research centre.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 23d

Yeah, I went to an ipad circa 2020 for lecture recording purposes

Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Markus Luczak-Roesch @mluczak.bsky.social · 23d

Registrations are now also open for the #netscix2026 conference. Early bird registration available until Nov 20th. netscix2026.github.io#register

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · 23d

Are there any chalkboards still in use at UoA?

Thomas Lumley @tslumley.bsky.social · 23d

Causing tomorrow's problems with numbers today?

Huge poster "Solving tomorrow's problems with numbers today" and a chalkboard with a woman writing

Detail from the right-hand edge of the chalkboard:
sin+10=(-3

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Thomas Lumley @tslumley.bsky.social · 23d

Causing tomorrow's problems with numbers today?

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Melanie Newfield @melanienewfield.bsky.social · 28d

I've written more about #vaccines - here's an article which looks at the traditional approaches to making live and inactivate vaccines, then protein subunit vaccines, then what makes #mRNA such an important development. #sciart, although my rabbits need practice...

Title: vaccines late 1800s. Diagrame showing a sad rabbit about to be used to make Pasteur's rabies vaccine and explanation of how this was done by injecting rabbits with rabies, then removing their spinal cords (from dead rabbits) and drying the spinal cords to weaken the rabies virus present.

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 10

✨ Nicholson Consulting’s 2025/26 Summer Internship is now open for applications! ✨ 🧵

A man relaxes on a beach with a laptop in Lombok.

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Marc Daalder @marcdaalder.bsky.social · Sep 9

MPs at the Climate Change and Business Conference sat on a panel titled "Beyond Adaptation: Can we secure a cross-party approach?"

The answer, after a watch-through-your-fingers car wreck of a discussion, was a resounding no.
newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/10/e...

Ex-climate tsar likens squabbling politicians to toddlers

MPs on a climate panel managed to agree on just one point, that govt won't be able to pay for adaptation. The rest was politics.

newsroom.co.nz

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · Sep 7

It’s considered polite to take it home first

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Melanie Newfield @melanienewfield.bsky.social · Sep 6

Part of the challenge is that mRNA vaccines can sound scary - it's understandable if people are concerned. So I'm writing a series about them, starting with an explanation of what viruses do inside our cells, and how our immune system fights back. theturnstone.substack.com/p/hostile-ta...

Hostile takeover

How viruses hijack the machinery of life, and how our body fights back (12 minute read)

theturnstone.substack.com

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · Sep 6

Yeah, it’s a great ride, but you are pretty exposed for long stretches. This time of year I’d definitely think about some leggings and waterproof overtrousers!

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · Sep 5

In my work I often use women MPs as a lens to discuss the impact of online violence on democracy and human rights. I also note that's it's not only women, but keenly felt by gender minorities and rainbow folk. From April:
theconversation.com/a-damning-st...
#nzpol

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · Sep 5

Thanks to @bwbnz.bsky.social @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social and @royalsocietynz.bsky.social for making #TheCovidResponse book tour possible. And thanks to the Canterbury crowd at Scorpio for a lively and engaging Q&A!

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 4

Over the last few months, we've been supporting @bwbnz.bsky.social to get Shaun around Aotearoa to talk about this book. Last night he spoke to Rebecca Macfie at Scorpio Books in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Shaun Hendy speaks to Rebecca Macfie in front of an audience in a bookshop.

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · Sep 5

Was the privilege of a lifetime to work with these folks. They each did amazing things under huge pressure day-in-day-out for more than two years.

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 4

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a group of scientists and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand dropped everything they were doing and rolled up their sleeves to help the response. This response ultimately saved around 20,000 lives 🧪 🧵

A group photo of the researchers and scientists involved in New Zealand's covid response.

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 4

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy, Maksym Polyakov

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 4

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Shaun Hendy @hendysh.bsky.social · Sep 3

It’s worth noting that there were epidemiologists at the core of Plan B, Great Barrington etc. Simon Thornley contributes to the recent VFF submission by pushing Gibson’s work, for example. Epistemic trespass is necessary, but not sufficient to describe the Covid misinformation engine.

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Reposted by Shaun C. Hendy

Te Pūnaha Matatini @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social · Sep 3

Brian Castellani mapped how disciplines, concepts and people have weaved together over time to create our understanding of complex systems.

He'll be joining us as a keynote speaker for the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026 → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/symposium/

#cccss26 #complexsystems

Social slide showing Brian Castellani as a speaker at the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

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