Despite best efforts, Victoria’s coronavirus blunders call for a Royal Commission
There may be no playbook to combat the coronavirus crisis, but despite best efforts errors have been made. And when the time is right, we need a royal commission — in order to get it right next time.
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There’s no playbook to combat the coronavirus crisis.
It’s something Daniel Andrews regularly points out, as government policy and health advice zigs and zags to try and stay in front of COVID-19.
We are lucky in Australia. Our political leaders and medical experts have made far more good than bad decisions. But as Victoria’s second wave worsens by the day, our lack of pandemic preparedness becomes more obvious — and more alarming.
Hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals was smart. It failed because it was cobbled together so quickly that private security contractors were given responsibilities for which they were not equipped and not to be trusted.
Aggressive contact tracing was crucial. Victoria’s disease detectives responded brilliantly in the first wave, but as the virus reared again, the system was not robust or big enough to keep up.
Melbourne’s public housing towers always loomed as a flashpoint. And yet, when the lockdown order came, it was police officers who were sent in. Where were the social workers? Why did it take an army of volunteers to feed those inside?
Given the susceptibility of older Australians, aged care was always the main danger zone. That was clear when 19 people died at Sydney’s Newmarch House.
While community transmission across Melbourne made it all but impossible to keep the virus out of aged-care homes, shortages of staff and protective equipment have surely inflamed the deadly outbreaks we are now seeing.
Andrews likens COVID-19 to a public health bushfire. In Victoria, our firefighters are well equipped, with resources and plans honed through horror summers and honest reviews.
When the time is right, we need a royal commission into the coronavirus crisis, to give us the playbook we need for next time — not that anyone could bear to think about that.
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