Bolt: We’ve gone from Covid panic to Covid nothing-to-see-here

Last year our politicians issued endless warnings about the dangers of Covid. Now, more than 40 Aussies are dying each day and they don’t want to talk about it.

Last year our politicians warned us endlessly about the dangers of Covid. Now 40 Australians are dying each day and they don’t want to talk. Picture: David Crosling

Last year, our politicians could not stop warning us to watch out for the Covid virus. That’s when fewer than four people a day were dying.

But what a change.

This year, more than 40 Australians die each day, on average, but our politicians want to talk about anything but.

It’s amazing. The crisis that our premiers last year exploited with daily press conferences, spreading panic, now seems to bore them despite being much more deadly.

The statistics are astonishing. In 2020, 84 Australians got infected, on average, each day of the pandemic.

Last year it was 1331. This year it’s more than 44,000.

In fact, before this year, fewer than 400,000 Australians were infected. This year we’ve had more than 7 million, with a peak in January.

So why the silence? After all, we have premiers who shut Brisbane and Perth after just one or two infections. Now we’ve got let-it-rip, with face masks abandoned.

We’ve gone from one extreme to another, and there are some lessons here.

First, pandemic extremists such as Victorian Premier Dan Andrews were fools to think they could beat this virus with “zero Covid” policies that locked people in their homes for months. This virus is unstoppable.

Second, the trauma caused by those harsh lockdowns has made Australians terrified of hearing anything that might persuade politicians to repeat them. So let’s ignore what’s happening now.

And third, we’re back to where we should have been much sooner: where responsibility is on the people, not the politicians.

Many of our early restrictions were needed, as I said then. We didn’t know what we were facing and needed to buy time to get vaccines and protect those most likely to die – overwhelmingly people aged over 65.

Today, everyone who wants the vaccine could get three doses of it. It’s not perfect protection, but sure helps. And if you want to isolate yourself, you can do that, too.

But what’s extraordinary is that most Australians, especially the young, now seem happy to take their chances and go out to live, work and party. Their idea of acceptable risk is much higher than what politicians had, back when they were playing god with our lives.

Yes, most people would rather be free, despite the danger. But premiers – when making the decision for them – thought they should be locked up.

Think of that, the next time premiers try to scare you into thinking they know what’s best for you.