What Australia can learn from America’s COVID lockdown
They have the highest COVID rates in the world, but life in the US carries on regardless. Now, it’s time for Australia to work out its own way to live with this thing, not cower from it.
Opinion
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I was talking to some volunteers in a Trump campaign field office in rural Pennsylvania as they stuck metal stands into a thousand yard signs to line the road ahead of a presidential visit.
“Wow, you’re from Australia?” said Paul, a retired stand up comic in a neatly pressed white Trump 2020 T-shirt and red MAGA hat.
“It’s really bad there huh? I see things on the internet. People getting dragged out of their cars by cops at the border. How they have shut the whole country off because of the virus.”
Paul used to live in Manhattan but hasn’t been back for a visit since March, when everything first shut down, even though now there are no restrictions on travel between New York and neighbouring states.
It’s not COVID that’s worrying him. He’s seen the violence and protests rocking New York and other cities on the news and he fears for how safe it is for him and his wife.
“You know, I told people about how bad it is in Australia and they told me I was crazy. They say I watch too much stuff on the internet and that it’s another one of those conspiracy theories,” he said.
When I told him the state borders were indeed slammed shut and that as an Australian returning from the US I would have to quarantine for two weeks and apply for permission from the government to leave again to return here, he was stunned.
This is where we are, Australia.
It reminded me of that time Donald Trump said with what seemed to be admiration to Malcolm Turnbull that “you are worse than I am,” with our immigration restrictions, as the two tussled in their first phone call about a refugee deal set by the outgoing Barack Obama.
I know it’s easy to look at things from home and think how nuts America is. But while the COVID response here has been a disaster in so many ways, the reality of watching Americans and the rest of the world getting back to going about their lives just seems like the logical human response to this pandemic.
The hard line lockdown looks un-Australian from here, to be honest.
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Respected White House COVID Adviser Dr Deborah Birx said this week that there was no way governments could have kept the US locked down any longer than they did because “Americans just don’t like being told what to do”.
Isn’t that what we used to say about Australians?
In the US, where there are nearly 50,000 new cases a day, even the highest medical experts say there’s no use locking down again.
Just wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, stay home if you feel sick, do as much virtual business and schooling as you can and avoid big gatherings. And most importantly, protect and shield the elderly and the vulnerable.
How long can the Australian economy and spirit survive under the weight of these endless lockdowns?
Australians have never run away from a crisis before. It’s time to work out a way to live with this thing, not cower from it. Otherwise it truly will ruin the nation, even if you have no infections.