Andrew Bolt: How Victoria can flatten virus curve for good
Desperate to seem tough as the virus rages, the Andrews Government is imposing more of the same policies that failed last time, at a catastrophic cost — even though there is a better and cheaper way to save the state, writes Andrew Bolt.
Opinion
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Victoria, don’t accept this! There is a better and cheaper way to save the state — and the country.
Desperate to seem tough as the virus rages, the Andrews Government on Sunday imposed even more of the kind of policies that failed last time, at a catastrophic cost.
More shops closed, more people shut in their homes, more jobs destroyed. A curfew even!
If you think this government knows best, consider this: two weeks ago, it told Melburnians to stay at home and wear face masks outside, selling those bits of cloth as the essential lifesaver.
Instead, the virus outbreak got worse. Another 671 new infections on Sunday, seven more people dead (all in their 70s or older).
It is now urgent that the government fix the glaring failures of its current policies.
TOUGHER QUARANTINE
Nothing is more important than keeping infected people away from the rest of us.
But the government didn’t just let the virus get out of its quarantine hotels.
On Wednesday, Premier Daniel Andrews said health teams physically checked on just 269 homes of the more than 5500 people who have tested positive and should be in quarantine.
On Friday, they checked the homes of about 500 of the then 6000 people infected and found one in four were not home. In fact, this government still allows the sick to exercise outside. Bizarre.
Solution: we should follow the example of Taiwan, which has about our population but just nine deaths.
Phone every infected person twice a day to make sure they’re at home, and near their mobile phone. Track that phone so the instant that person steps outside, it generates a warning to go back.
Send the police if that phone is not answered or the sick person leaves home. And if anyone sick breaks quarantine, lock them in a hospital.
SAVE THE VULNERABLE FIRST
Our second priority, after quarantining the sick, is protecting those most likely to die. We don’t crash this economy just to stop the young getting a stuffy nose.
Most people dying of this virus are over 80. More than two thirds dying in this Victorian wave are in aged-care homes.
But more bungling: the federal and Victorian governments let the virus get into more than 80 nursing homes.
Surely putting a tighter lock on those homes makes more sense than trying to stop all infections everywhere by shutting businesses.
Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years.
So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to — essentially — save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.
HELP THE VULNERABLE STAY HOME
The virus is also killing old Australians not in nursing homes.
To save lives, we need a giant meals-on-wheels service to do their shopping and run their errands. It could also help quarantined people stay home.
Taiwan has such a service. South Korea sends people in quarantine food parcels.
BETTER TESTS
Premier Andrews boasts that Victoria has Australia’s highest rate of testing for the virus — one in four people tested.
But it also has more deaths than all other states combined. It seems these tests are pretty useless.
That’s because it can take sick people days to get tested, and — officially — one to three more days to get their results, although I’ve heard of people waiting nine days. Most people go to work while waiting for the results.
But virus loads are highest in the first three days of feeling sick. That’s when you’re at your most infectious.
We need faster tests. There are some — less sensitive than the government’s swab-in-your-nose, but good enough to detect when you’re most infectious, including a simple and cheap spit test that you can do at home, with results in 20 minutes. Results when you need them.
Workplaces could insist you show that morning’s test before letting you in.
OPEN RESTAURANTS
Andrews made this startling admission in announcing further bans on home visitors: “That’s where the transmission is. It’s not in cafes and restaurants, but it is in small numbers in people’s homes.”
He said home was where you let your guard down. But restaurants had staff who “supervised “social distancing and wiped surfaces.
Taiwan didn’t close restaurants, and nor did Japan. Our own bans cause maximum pain for minimum gain. Tens of thousands of people are out of a job, under stress. More will now join them.
More of these same policies in Victoria is unacceptable. Time to change strategy.