When politicians saw hundreds of Italians dying each day from coronavirus they panicked and thought we were headed the same way. So what explains the dramatic difference in the death toll between Australia and Italy, asks Andrew Bolt.
On The Bolt Report on Sky at 7pm: still just 20 deaths, the latest 95 years old. What’s the human cost of locking up everyone, rather than detaining the infectious and protecting the old? And have we lost our heart – trying to turn away a ship? Have we lost our mind – banning couples from visiting each other? And why a pay rise for public servants?
Terry McCrann says the Prime Minister can’t keep these coronavirus bans for long: “The idea that the economy can go into ‘hibernation’ – the word seems to have been marketed first by the prime minister… – for six months is very, very disturbing… [It] would utterly and irreparably destroy Australian economic functionality.” An exit strategy now.
Sick: “Queensland’s 224,000 state public servants are set to receive pay rises totalling more than 3 per cent as others in the workforce endure static income levels, wage cuts, reduced hours, unpaid stand-downs or lose jobs because of the economic impact of the coronavirus.” If this government has spare cash, give it to workers doing it tough.
True, the coronavirus is deadly, and we needed many of these shutdowns – and some of them sooner. But it is now clear that it is far less deadly that we were first told, and that a panicked overreaction may now hurt us far more than help. My editorial from The Bolt Report.
There are now three Australian trials of treatments for the coronavirus. One will start on Monday, and eventually involve 2400 people sick enough to go to hospital. They will get either hydroxychloroquine, an HIV drug or a placebo to see what works. I talked to the Peter Doherty Institute boss, Professor Sharon Lewin. Hopes are high.
China is praised for how it tackled and (it says) beat the coronavirus. But that means forgetting how its dictatorship first reacted, and how it corrupted the World Health Organisation. In fact, the better lessons to from Asian democracies such as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. I talked to Richard McGregor, former China correspondent. Watch.
Tell us the news here.
March 22, our exit strategy was clear (to me): “Ring-fence the sick and old, but let everyone else get back to work… That could include… certificates of immunity — which we should start issuing soon.” Today: “German researchers plan to introduce coronavirus ‘immunity certificates’ to facilitate a proper transition into post-lockdown life.”
This is the economics editor of a state-funded ABC that will not lose a single job from the shutdowns: “People around the world are dying alone Stop talking about the economy. We live in a community not an economy… And learn a lesson from Italy Choose love over hate.” There are actually two things wrong in that tweet, apart from the punctuation.
Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/journalists/andrew-bolt/page/164