Ann Wason Moore: Time to set border opening date
The time has come for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to change her messaging and let the state learn to live with Covid, writes Ann Wason Moore.
Gold Coast
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QUEENSLANDERS, prepare to see defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
No, that’s not a reference to the NRL Grand Final set for Brisbane this Sunday … instead, it’s the political game in which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is dangerously close to dropping the ball.
Looking around our sun-shine state, it sure looks like we’re winning … we’re free to leave our homes, to go to work, to go to school, even to go on a holiday. All within the confines of Queensland, of course.
And while the Premier chalks up each of these freedoms as another point on our state scoreboard, where we are dominating against the locked down domains of NSW and Victoria, she seems to be unaware that the rules of the game are changing.
And if we don’t adapt, we’re destined to lose. Because in the balance of risk versus reward, the scales have shifted.
Our low-risk strategy in closing borders and enacting short, sharp lockdowns has reaped the rewards of low numbers of Covid cases and, crucially, few lives lost. To the virus, at least.
But now, as our levels of vaccination inch ever higher and the risk ever lower, our rewards are beginning to feel like consolation prizes.
The aim of the game is no longer to keep Covid cases at zero, it’s about learning to live with the disease. And by living with, I mean not dying from.
Because when we look overseas at the number of countries who are vaccinated and open, overwhelmingly the only lives being lost are the unvaccinated.
Look at the UK. While infections are soaring across both the vaccinated and unvaccinated, the death toll is heavily weighted in the latter.
New figures published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics show that people who were fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2 per cent of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year. And ‘deaths involving Covid’, include those cases which had comorbidities, such as cancer. In other words, they died with rather than from the virus.
Meanwhile, ‘living’ overseas means working, partying and travelling internationally … far more rewarding than what Queenslanders can experience right now.
So it’s time for Ms Palaszczuk to change the messaging. Rather than warning us that opening our borders could mean risking the loss of lives, it’s time to declare that the clock is ticking for the unvaccinated.
Let’s set a date for reopening - or at least a firm goal such as the 80 per cent vaccination rate - and increase the pressure on the unvaccinated, who are the only cohort largely at risk.
As a state, we cannot be held hostage to those anti-vaxxers who refuse to listen to reason. Because it’s obvious that they are deaf. And dumb.
Now that children can be protected, let’s get the cohort of 12 years and over up to 80 per cent vaccinated and then … open up.
The problem is that the Premier has done so well for so long, both in terms of keeping the state physically safe and herself politically safe, by closing borders and pushing for Covid-zero that it seems she’s scared to change tactics.
And honestly, I can understand that.
In fact, I think Annastacia Palaszczuk has handled this pandemic incredibly well.
Although our border closures are awful, they have prevented wider outbreaks and lockdowns, and as a result we are reasonably safe and reasonably free - which is about as much as you can ask at this moment. Not every call has been the right one, but I don’t doubt that the Premier is doing the best she can for as many people as possible. Being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean being loved.
But being a leader also means having the guts to make a game plan. And right now, it feels like we’re about to throw the match.
It’s time to start talking about our future. About the reality of risks and rewards. Opening up at 80 per cent vaccinated will not mean a return to pre-Covid life. But it will mean opening up to new rewards - reunions, employment and opportunity. We don’t need to rush into it, but nor should we shy away from it.
Living for much longer in this dreamland of the insulated and uninfected is simply unrealistic. It’s a short-term gain at the cost of a long-term loss. And the Premier’s job right now is to burst that bubble.
Because we are not just Queenslanders but Australians. And we deserve to be part of the world game.
'THESE ANTI GROUPS ARE MERELY ON THE HUNT FOR FAME, FOLLOWERS'
September 7, 2021
WE are being used.
No matter which side of the border you sit on - Queensland or NSW, pro or anti-vax, pro or anti-lockdown - we’ve all become the pawn of something larger.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s warning that our state may remain closed until all children under 12 can be vaccinated is proof that her argument is no longer soundly based in science, but political point scoring.
“You open up this state and you let the virus in here, and every child under 12 is vulnerable, every single child,” she said.
“If anyone has any children under 12 to zero, (they are) vulnerable because they are the unvaccinated.”
It’s pretty bloody hard to argue against ‘but think of the children’ … but I’m a mother and all I ever do is think of the children.
And as soon as my children are eligible, they will be vaccinated. But I’m not asking the state to wait for them, because science says they are at low risk.
I feel so let down because I have supported so much of what our State Government has done - because they have simply followed the science - but this is a fail.
And people far smarter than I agree.
Take the learned opinion of paediatrician and vaccine expert Professor Robert Booy, who is also a member of the national Immunisation Coalition, for example:
“I have been a paediatrician and have worked in the promotion of vaccinations for decades,” said Prof Booy. “If I thought young children needed urgent vaccination, I would say so. Keeping borders shut because of the children is not a sensible measure.”
So please, Ms Palaszczuk, when it comes to politics - don’t think of the children.
It’s all the more disappointing because this just adds fuel to the fire that is anti-government sentiment.
This pandemic has created an environment in which anti-establishment, anti-medicine, anti-authority, anti-anything has flourished … and those platforms are only building themselves up by using others.
While the Premier’s stance is distasteful, the protest groups are worse.
These ‘anti’ groups are merely on the hunt for fame and followers and it’s the foolish who have taken the clickbait.
And that’s especially, frighteningly, true for the ‘grassroots’ protests that have been sweeping our city.
Speaking to ABC Gold Coast this week, the New Daily’s political editor Josh Butler said despite the many protests occurring in the city - from the border to the council chambers to the M1 - few were truly homegrown.
“A lot of them are connected. The ones that we saw earlier this week were across the country, hundreds of locations were involved.
“We’re starting to see a lot of these groups crossover. In Queensland, you can see the wellness/fitness/healthy eating bloggers and influencers tapping into this anti-vaxxer and anti-medicine sentiment … until the point of the protest becomes pretty vague.”
In fact, the protest agenda is often being set well outside our country. And even when locals are joining in, it’s with a business agenda of their own.
Sadly, it looks like it’s about to get worse.
“There are more protests being planned, there are large groups talking about large protests this month, these are not grassroots campaign but coming from the likes of Germany.
“The ones on the books for September are part of this ‘global movement for freedom’ or whatever they want to call it.
“When we see local groups joining in, you see a lot of live-streaming happening … it’s the influencer way of creating content.”
It’s the 2021 version of rent-a-crowd. And yet, the vibe I’m getting right now is very much circa 1990s X-Files: trust no one.
But I refuse to be played that way.
Our leaders may make mistakes but I still trust they have our best interests - and our health and safety - at heart.
There is no great conspiracy here, it’s just a matter of public health meeting the political arena. It’s inevitable, if still unsavoury, that there is overlap.
But as for the anti-science-and-sensibility brigade, I wouldn’t trust them with a 10-foot bio-charger.
Too many of these mob mobilisers only want us for their own ends - whether that’s an international agenda or a boost to their followings and bank accounts.
Don’t be sucked in by these snake oil salesmen. Instead of playing the pawn, it’s time to checkmate their ominous intentions.
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