Panicked COVID lockdown hurts public confidence

Last weekend’s lockdown should never have happened. The Premier should forget the politics and get back to managing the situation with common sense.

Was the lockdown really worth it? Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

IT IS high time that the Premier and her Chief Health Officer took notice of the story, The Boy who Cried Wolf.

While no doubt the Premier thinks acting tough is good politics, this power play is potentially dangerous.

If these two continue to ramp up their panicked responses to so-called emergencies that do not exist, their credibility will be questioned and public support for their actions will evaporate.

In the event of a real crisis people may assume it is another non-event and begin to treat the restrictions as a joke.

Last weekend’s lockdown should never have happened.

Additionally the ridiculous conditions regarding masks – wearing them while alone in a car, wearing them to clear the letterbox and wearing them when mowing your lawn – lead to intelligent people wondering at the sanity of those framing the regulations.

Forget the politics and get back to managing the situation with common sense.

Ken Anderton, Sinnamon Park

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczcuk has unwittingly revealed the government’s strategy to get through the current COVID-19 situation.

Expressing her concerns, she stated “Fingers crossed, we'll come out of this” (C-M, Jan 11).

I suggest the government nominate a "Fingers Crossed Day", when all greater Brisbane citizens will be required to cross their fingers for 12 hours. Essential workers who need to use both hands would be exempt.

On-the-spot fines could be levied on those who choose not to comply.

Bob Meadows, Mansfield

I COULD hardly believe what I was hearing when Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young expressed at a press conference how pleased and proud she was that so many Brisbane residents were wearing masks during the lockdown.

Does Dr Young truly believe the $200 fine for not doing so had just a little to do with it?

I would have thought that with all the adulation she now receives from those who naively believe she has saved them from certain death, Dr Young might inject some reality into her supposedly inspiring oratory.

Crispin Walters, Chapel Hill

SOMETIMES I feel we live in a communist state.

That we have to wear a mask I can cope with, but not with being told ”If you don’t do what we say you get a big fine”.

That is how communist countries rule their masses – with threats, and that I won’t stand for.

Ida Schroder, Victoria Point

MY GATED village has been fully compliant with the lockdown, so much so that for two and a half days no one was exercising, visiting neighbours or driving their cars.

Yesterday however, people were moving in the street, fully masked, so it seems the Premier and her doctor cohort have come to their senses.

What a costly farce this has been, with no new cases detected, but businesses having lost thousands of dollars they could ill-afford in obeying the unnecessary lockdown.

Hopefully this situation is not going to recur every time someone tests positive. It could go on for years.

Frances Bensted, Carindale

THE wearing of masks is supposed to help contain the coronavirus and thereby reduce the spread.

But little attention is placed on the soles of shoes which scientists have proved can spread the virus over wide areas as it can live on shoe surfaces for days, especially on the soles of nurses, doctors and patients in hospitals.

In the US, workers in hospitals, pharmacies and clinics are advised to disinfect their footwear.

Is it possible some of those mystery transmissions we have had could have been spread on the soles of health workers in hospitals and quarantine guards in hotels?

Even removal of shoes could contaminate hands as can the removal of masks if not fully disinfected.

It appears there is no end to the way this virus can be spread in the community.

Keith Whiteside, Sippy Downs

CONGRATULATIONS on the prompt actions of the Premier and Chief Health Officer and their work to curb the spread of coronavirus with this new strain. 

My relatives in England, who are daily watching the rising toll of COVID-19 and its impact on the country, were envious of the swift action.

The quote “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” applies there, as all they can do is watch Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reticence to take a stand.

People complaining about the lockdown would be whingeing a lot more if they lived in England.

Jane Fry, Kenmore 

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Airports are entry points for COVID cases. Picture: Che Chorley

TIGHTEN UP QUARANTINE AT AIRPORTS

AT LAST the numbers of those returning from overseas are to be limited, but we must ramp up the quarantine of those still arriving if we are to continue our relatively low COVID infection figures.

All arrivals should be quarantined, for the required time, in isolated venues along with all venue-associated staff such as airport drivers, medical, maintenance, cleaning, security and on-site catering staff.

It is crazy to have, for instance, cleaners returning home after their daily shift.

Flight crews should not be allowed to leave the airport but have a quarantine area on site where the same conditions apply as in hotels and other venues.

All staff could do a fortnight shift, be tested, stay at home until test results are hopefully clear, have a week off and then be allowed to return to work if their latest test proves to be clear.

This seems like common sense to me.

John Stretton, Cooktown

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PLAYING RACIST CARD

WHENEVER Australia plays the Indian cricket team, some racist or cultural issue emerges.

Spectators sledge, it’s part of the game, so players have to take it along with their mega salaries.

No one seems to know exactly what those six spectators said to so distress fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.

He may have simply been overly precious, but it was enough to turf the alleged miscreants from the ground.

The racist card is played so often nowadays it’s become a rather meaningless bandwagon.

Indeed, simply supporting Australia against India could be perceived as racism in a woke purist’s opinion.

Richard Marman, Meridan Plains

AS FAR as I am concerned, any spectator who resorts to racial abuse at any sporting venue should be photographed and named and shamed by media after investigations by police and sporting authorities prove conclusively that this individual was the one responsible for piling on the sickening abuse.

A life ban should also be imposed to ensure the guilty party is never again allowed into any professional sporting venue.

Eric Palm, Gympie

I HOPE that the patrons who were ejected from the SGC on Sunday will be given a chance to explain what they said.

At present we have the press, the players and the Aussie coach all beating their brow as well as the “rent a crowd” virtue signallers having a field day venting what a pack of racists the ejected patrons are.

I have been expecting some in the Indian team to start playing the “race card” for a while, as has happened in the past.

Until I see or hear the full police report of Sunday’s events I will reserve my judgment.

John Sheahan, Kangaroo Point

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END OF TRUMP EXPERIMENT

THE Trump Experiment is at its end (C-M, Jan 11), leaving behind a nation in turmoil, divided to the core, with a radical right faction, farmed by Donald Trump, prepared to do anything including storming Capitol Hill.

The Republican Party is out of control and in disarray, from which it may take years for them to recover, to regain the loyalty and voting power of their rusted-on supporters, who abandoned the party because of the chaos that Trump had created and the falsehoods that many saw through.

I believe if Trump attempts to enter the preselection fray for the next US election, or for that matter anyone of his family, the Republican Party will not have a bar of them, given the experience of the past four years.

Les Bryant, Durack

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