Postcards from US: Aussies, don’t follow America’s lead on COVID-19

With the US summer in full swing, Americans are expected to party hard over the July 4 weekend and, for some, it will be like the coronavirus pandemic never existed. US correspondent Sarah Blake has a warning for Australians looking to follow suit.

New York City still remains largely shut down as a ban on in-restaurant dining was extended. Picture: AFP

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It was surprising to learn this week that some Australians were refusing coronavirus testing.

That’s the kind of bonehead behaviour we have come to expect over here, so I hope Australia doesn’t follow suit with the newest trend spreading across our shores.

As everyone knows, Americans go bigger with everything, and that includes strikingly dumb responses to a pandemic.

It’s July 4 this weekend, which is traditionally when people here start partying at their hardest for summer.

Authorities are concerned that America’s July 4 celebrations are going to resemble this pre-coronavirus event. Picture: iStock

In some parts of the country they have decided to get a head start on the celebrations and they are acting like the past few months never happened.

Last weekend, about a hundred locals got together for a party in a nearby town where my youngest son plays soccer.

The gathering went ahead even though the host wasn’t feeling great and was awaiting some precautionary COVID-19 test results.

It was also in defiance of New York State law prohibiting groupings of more than 10 people.

I am sure you aren’t shocked about what happened next, with eight attendees plus the host later testing positive.

But there’s a twist.

With the US summer in full swing, Americans are expected to party hard over the summer and, for some, it will be like the coronavirus pandemic never existed. Picture: iStock

Contract tracers who are trying to pull together all the new strings of this new inevitable cluster are grappling with an unexpected challenge.

“My staff has been told that a person does not wish to, or have to, speak to my disease investigators,” said Rockland County’s Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert.

And when investigators do find the name of someone from the party and call them: “They hang up. They deny being at the party even though we have their names from another party attendee.”

Authorities have now issued subpoenas for everyone they have traced, and those who don’t talk risk a $A3000 a day fine.

It turns out this is the tip of the iceberg.

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US officials brief the media on an upstate New York party that left multiple attendees – plus the host – with positive coronavirus diagnoses. Picture: Rockland County Government

In Alabama, healthy young people have been throwing parties to compete to be the first to catch the virus.

The first one to test positive has been winning a cash prize made up of the entry money paid by all the other attendees.

If you think this sounds like an urban myth, you’re not alone.

“We thought that was kind of a rumour at first,” said Tuscaloosa City Council member Sonya McKinstry on CNN.

“We did some research. Not only do the doctors‘ offices confirm it, but the state confirmed they also had the same information.”

Originally published as Postcards from US: Aussies, don’t follow America’s lead on COVID-19