Australia’s pragmatic Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, unsurprisingly, pivoted to the possibility of an early release from the lockdown, which if prolonged indefinitely would push the country into an extreme depression with far greater human costs than the capricious coronavirus.

ScoMo also had no compunction shutting down the NSW premier’s suggestion that the lockdown could continue until we have a vaccine. The narrative has shifted to the Prime Minister flagging that states that crush the transmission quickly could experiment with a more rapid transition to the “new normal” of getting ultra-low-risk, working-age employees back to making a living, which could give them a competitive advantage over states that lag.