Patrick Carlyon: We need to know Victoria will not be locked down again

Almost two years after the first of six lockdowns began, we retain unnecessary rules abandoned in other states. Instead of creating a roadmap, we need to let it go.

No one can really explain why baristas and supermarket staff, along with older primary school kids, must still fumble with face masks.

Frozen’s Elsa said it best: let it go.

Baristas and supermarket staff, along with older primary school kids, still must fumble with face masks. No one can really explain why, given 58,000 mostly unmasked footy fans braved the throng of the MCG on Wednesday night.

Happily, Covid has dimmed as the biggest news story going around. If you haven’t had it, chances are you will soon. For most, the prospect of Covid will be unwelcome, but also OK.

The fear instilled by the outrageous Covid controls in Victoria has faded. Yet the residue of lockdown – and pernickety controls particular to Victoria – will not be so easily scrubbed off. Those in charge will not let it go.

Almost two years after the first of six lockdowns began, we retain unnecessary rules abandoned or never applied in other states.

Sydney and Brisbane retail staff can throw away masks.

Those cities compare in many ways with Melbourne. You are no less likely to get Covid in those places than here.

Here in Victoria, we stubbornly ignore the available evidence which overwhelmingly mitigates the risks for schoolchildren. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The difference? In those places, optimism is more than an optional extra. Choice is offered in the knowledge that most people want to do the right thing for themselves and each other.

Here, we are still encouraged to wallow in the worst case scenarios. An omicron subvariant might be worse. Numbers are rising, prompting renewed speculation about restrictions, and they may peak in the winter chill.

We are invited to consider Hong Kong, where case rates and deaths have never been higher, as opposed to Singapore, say, where living with Covid replaced avoiding Covid by the wholesale limiting of liberties.

Here in Victoria, we stubbornly ignore the available evidence which overwhelmingly mitigates the risks for schoolchildren, and shows that big spreading events are more likely in settings where masks are not required.

Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra rightly wonders at the harsher rules here. “As it’s been throughout the pandemic, the Covid rules are different depending on where you live and work – and it’s hard to comprehend why,” he said.

Here, we overlook the wisdom of former deputy medical officer Nick Coatsworth, who opposes masks in schools, and who in the past has referred to the “interpretation of inconclusive evidence” as a Victorian “trademark”.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Paul Guerra wants a winter ‘roadmap’ which sets triggers for the introduction of softer controls. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

We do not acknowledge the consistent line of Emma McBryde, a James Cook University infectious diseases professor. She points out that because Covid is everywhere, targeted measures should address the vulnerable.

McBryde has made the point about Victorian authorities’ seeming inability to relinquish control, however petty, over our daily lives.

This will be the bigger legacy of the Victorian response.

The measures invoked in the name of science which lacked any scientific basis.

The bans which were exercises in control rather than responses to the threat.

The blanketed approach which condemned all Melburnians to layers of protection they neither needed nor wanted.

And the apparent lack of care for the science – as with the outdated edict on primary school kids’ masks.

This misplaced oversight matters, given the possibility of Covid potholes ahead.

Victorian Chamber of Commerce chief executive Paul Guerra wants a winter “roadmap” which sets triggers for the introduction of softer controls.

Given the local form for overreach, and the propensity for panicked responses that obliterate niceties, such as freedom of movement, we deserve nothing less.

We need to hear that Victoria cannot and will not close again. Picture: David Geraghty

But rather than a roadmap of what could happen, we need promises on what will not happen. After all, the growing international consensus argues that harsh responses, like that applied in Victoria, are more likely to impede rather than preserve the public health.

Among the side effects, from eating disorders and spikes in crisis helpline calls, was the inability to plan ahead, to cope with a known challenge.

We need to hear that Victoria cannot and will not close again.

Some hold-out “experts” perpetuate lines that Victorians collectively wearied of long ago. We still hear about a health system under siege. Yet after two years of fearmongering, the system still hasn’t fallen down. Such talk that it still might is not just unhelpful, but genuinely depressing to many.

There cannot be the possibility of further controls. We cannot entertain more restrictions. We remain numbed by previous controls, such as playground bans and curfews, and marvel at the brazen expediencies which drove such demoralising and misplaced edicts.

A winter roadmap need only contain three words: let it go.

Patrick Carlyon is a Herald Sun columnist