COVID-19 is an alien that has Earth by the throat, with teams of the world’s most brilliant scientists desperately working on new vaccines and detectors before the virus changes form again; governments in the free world imposing restrictions unheard of in peacetime and economies brought to their knees. It’s a real-life, science fiction drama.

In the local version, Australia sees itself having gone from the world’s Superhero, with extraordinarily low infection and death rates, to a failed state, watching other countries planning their economic reopening parties while we stagger along with lockdowns and public health orders. Cancel Culture has taken on a whole new meaning.