COVID-19 outbreak a chance to remake Australia’s economy
If the pandemic has forced us to remove all the road blocks to progress and the ridiculous constraints on approvals, licences and permits, to keep the economy on life support, why don’t we make such moves permanent?
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The global response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has been both ancient and modern. The National Cabinet’s reaction has been the same.
The self-quarantining regimen is medieval but, as isolation proved effective in times past, so, too, is it currently the best response.
Vaccinations have been a staple prophylactic treatment since Edward Jenner first inoculated a boy with cowpox — in the belief that it would immunise the child against smallpox — on May 14, 1796.
Testing two months later showed that the boy had developed an immunity. Jenner was the first medically-trained person to study and popularise the practice in Europe although inoculation was likely practised in Africa, India, and China long before the 18th century.
Unfortunately, we do not yet have a vaccine for the coronavirus and while we have yet to find the silver bullet which will kill the virus we do have a number of treatments which are showing great promise.
MORE NEWS
Sydney’s secret suburbs for COVID-19 morgues revealed
‘Bedless hospitals’ being trialled to treat COVID-19 patients
Of course, we are saddled with anti-vaxxers in pockets of woke communities who might resort to dancing naked around perfumed candles under this week’s full moon but there’s no evidence such activity will be any more helpful than regular exercise, though marginally more fun.
Despite the arrogant obstructionism of the Chinese Communist Party’s functionaries, and the idiocy of the state government, this is not the apocalyptic event that the global warming activist group Extinction Rebellion hoped for.
The human race is not under threat. Life will go on though the economy is going to take a hammering from the extreme measures governments have taken in the hope of shielding their populations from greater contagion.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party under President Xi deserves all the opprobrium that has been heaped on it for its failure to react quickly when the virus was identified. Since then it has brutally punished those who chose to tell the truth and deployed its diplomats to lie and abuse those who present justifiable criticism.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has also deservedly been criticised for her government’s inept handling of the floating virus incubator, the Ruby Princess, which her health officials permitted to dock and disperse critical virus carriers across Australia.
She should not lead her party into another election, indeed, she and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are both blessed with incompetent opposition leaders who have shown complete irrelevance throughout this crisis.
The Ruby Princess stupidity is only matched by the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, who told residents to hug Chinese people to encourage them in their fight against the virus and thus ensured thousands were infected, and New York’s mayor Bill di Blasio, who joined officials to jam a stage to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
His city is now in lockdown, Italy is leading the world in coronavirus deaths but I must issue a caveat here as it is apparent that the standard for global data is not satisfactory.
One of the major problems the public and the professionals have in dealing with the virus is the major question mark hanging over almost all data.
Are people dying from the virus or dying with the virus because of other health problems — the so-called comorbidity factor, cancer, heart problems, diabetes and respiratory issues.
These underlying conditions could have a marked influence on the progression of coronavirus.
As the Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said: “The only numbers I have total faith in are the Australian numbers, frankly, because we have the highest testing rate in the world. I’m certainly not confident that the numbers, even out of the US, are probably much higher than are being reported because nobody else in the world has been doing testing like we have.”
The current isolation period, according to Mr Morrison, may last until July, but this should be revisited if the increase in the number of confirmed cases continues to trend downward.
As for the future, if we are cutting red tape and green tape now and removing all the road blocks to progress, the ridiculous constraints on approvals, licences and permits, to keep the economy on life support, why don’t we make such moves permanent?
Let’s sideline the overpaid panjandrums of local government and the obstructionist public service.
If Edward Jenner could make a vaccination from a cow pox, we can surely remake an economy hit by virus from an undercooked bat.