Kara Jung: Asking you to sit down at the pub is better than another lockdown
My colleague Caleb Bond labelled SA’s new restrictions silly and a useless inconvenience. Asking you to put your bum on a seat while sipping a vino is not silly, it’s simple. And it could help us avoid another lockdown. So just sit down.
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On Tuesday, 19 people with COVID-19 died in Victoria. It was the same number the day before.
Australia’s virus death toll has surpassed 300.
But in his column on the same day, my colleague and mate Caleb Bond said our coronavirus concerns in SA had come to very little and the new restrictions were needlessly hurting business and families.
Across the border, they weren’t so lucky. And we’re not out of the woods yet.
At any moment there is the possibility of a resurgence; of a virus spreading like a bushfire across our already hurting and not yet healing towns and cities.
Caleb took aim at our state’s “silly restrictions” – including rules that ban more than 10 people meeting at homes but allow bigger groups to meet at a park.
At home is where we let our guard down. It’s the place where we relax and feel, well, at home.
It’s where you are more likely to forget to check yourself as you greet guests.
These restrictions serve to remind us not to be complacent. That squeezing 30 mates into your loungeroom and finding out later one of you had COVID-19 could be catastrophic for our state’s economy. But more than that, it could result in the death of someone you love.
And if you think that’s being overly dramatic, let’s look at the US and at its President, who has trouble understanding the facts or listening to his health experts and has been dismissive about the need for restrictions.
That nation, a year before this outbreak, ranked top in the Global Health Security Index, which graded 195 countries in terms of how well prepared they were to fight outbreaks.
Now, COVID-19 deaths in the US have surpassed 163,000 while cases have climbed past five million. The country has proved itself to be one of the most dysfunctional in dealing with a global pandemic.
Caleb points out people have been going to football matches around most of Australia for more than a month and there has not been a single known case of transmission.
Therefore, he argues, the reduction in crowd numbers in SA from 20,000 to 10,000 is a useless inconvenience.
Surely 10,000 less people around the ground is a good start if there’s an outbreak. Surely reducing the crowds is the responsible thing to do when we are seeing hundreds of new cases a day just across our border, while thousands of Victorians scramble to leave their state – some as essential workers, some by illegal means such as tramping through a forest or hiding in the back of a truck to get into SA.
Led by chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier, SA Health has managed and contained outbreaks while allowing us to maintain a level of normality.
She’s been tough but fair. And she is a dual-qualified medical specialist, public health physician and paediatrician, with 29 years’ experience within SA Health, including 10 years in the Department for Health and Wellbeing, the past two holding senior roles.
In other words, she has extensive experience in health protection.
And while this might be her first job at the helm of guiding our state through a global pandemic – as it is for everybody tackling this crisis – I’d say she’s done a pretty good one so far. My heart breaks for businesses who are trying to endure this hell and trying to keep their livelihoods afloat, their employees in a job.
But isn’t asking people to sit down in a pub better than a lockdown?
It’s not our new restrictions that are silly, Caleb. Actually, perhaps silly is the wrong word – it doesn’t take into account the seriousness of what’s at stake.
Because if it is your life or the lives of your loved ones at risk – or the possibility of your favourite pub closing its doors again – I’d be willing to bet you’d be happy to sit your butt down on a chair while having a drink at your local.