WE CAN'T FIGHT THE VIRUS LIKE THIS FOREVER
So far this coronavirus has killed just seven Australians. But three years ago we kept partying as 1255 died from a flu. I’m not saying we're overreacting now. But I am saying we should prepare eventually to change tack in the devastatingly expensive way we’re fighting this virus today, and the way we protect the elderly from flu in the future.
So far this coronavirus has killed just seven Australians. But three years ago we kept partying as 1255 died from a particularly severe flu.
There was no panic back then. No airlines stopped flying. No governments warned us to keep a social distance. And we didn’t let the economy crash.
I’m not saying we are overreacting now. Not at all.
Not yet, at least.
This latest virus seems at least 10 time more deadly than flu if you get it, and we don’t understand it enough to take any chances and stop what we’re doing.
Not when Italy just had nearly 800 people die in one day.
But I am saying we should prepare eventually to change tack – both in the devastatingly expensive way we’re fighting this virus today, and in the way we protect the elderly from flu epidemics in the future.
We can’t fight the coronavirus this way forever.