Andrew Bolt: US President Donald Trump proves we mustn’t let virus rule our lives
Donald Trump’s remarkable recovery from coronavirus proves he is right again. We can handle this virus without more crippling bans and we don’t need to let it dominate our lives, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
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The Morrison Government has bet its Budget on us getting a vaccine next year. It should bet instead on being more like Donald Trump.
Listen to the US President roar as he was released early from hospital after treatment for a virus that could easily kill a fat man in his 70s.
“Don’t let it dominate your lives,” he exhorted.
“I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front. I led ...
“We’re going back to work.”
Oops, I shouldn’t take Trump’s advice on anything? But look at the facts.
If there is a holdup with this vaccine, the Budget revealed by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday will be blown to bits.
It’s bad enough as it is, spending so much on virus welfare schemes that our debt will hit almost $1 trillion by 2024.
But even that’s optimistic. As the government admits, it’s based on an assumption that a “population-wide Australian COVID-19 vaccination program is full in place by late 2021”.
Big call, when the two most likely vaccines haven’t finished their final tests, and no one knows how effective they’d be.
If they don’t work well or are delayed, all bets are off on a big economic recovery next year.
Unless ... And that’s where Trump comes in.
That’s because this economic havoc is caused not by the virus but government responses to it — crude bans imposed in our panic.
But Trump’s remarkable recovery suggests such bans may not be needed again, even without a vaccine. It seems we’re now much better at treating the sick.
Don’t just look at Trump. Check the “second wave” of infections in countries such as Britain, France and Holland: it’s much bigger than the first wave, but this time there’s no big second wave of deaths.
What’s more, the World Health Organisation this week said it now believed 10 per cent of the world’s people — 780 million — had been infected.
That’s 20 times more people than thought. If true, that means the virus is also one-20th less likely to kill than thought.
Trump, it seems, is right again. We can handle this with basic social distancing and hygiene, plus aggressive tracing and quarantining, and protection of the aged.
We don’t need more crippling bans. We don’t need to let this virus dominate our lives.