Rita Panahi: Daniel Andrews’ lies on Covid-19 scaring Victorians into submission

One of the most shameful episodes of the pandemic has been the ease and regularity with which authorities have lied to the public.

One of the most shameful episodes of the pandemic has been the ease and regularity with which authorities have lied to the public.

And, one of the most preposterous lies is one that continues to be trotted out by the Dan Andrews government; that Covid does not discriminate.

The truth is that though anyone can catch Covid-19 the virus does discriminate; it disproportionately impacts the very old, very ill and very fat.

This is a fact we’ve known since the start of the pandemic and it’s been reinforced by every data set produced since.

The median age of Covid deaths in Australia remain around 85, above the average life expectancy.

As law professor James Allan wrote recently: “Government propaganda – because there is no other way to describe it – has deliberately tried to scare people senseless and hence to distort their relative-risk assessments.”

Professor Allan was also scathing of the wildly wrong modelling and members of the media who have been complicit in adding to the hysteria and hyperbole.

One of the most preposterous lies that continues to be trotted out by the Dan Andrews government is that Covid does not discriminate.

“Then add in a dollop of ‘take the worst imaginable outcome modelling’. Throw in a media and press corps that is either stupid or longs for the reincarnation of Pravda. Stir. And you have Australia, readers,” he wrote.

But even in Covid-crazy Victoria the people are finally waking up to the harms inflicted in the name of Covid-safety with less than a third of Victorians believing the risk of Covid is worse than the economic impact of lockdowns, according to the latest Bastion Insights survey.

The notion that you can defeat the virus via lockdowns comes directly from the Chinese Communist Party which claimed it had effectively eliminated coronavirus by locking down Wuhan.

For reasons that will be examined for decades to come, much of the world (but thankfully not all) abandoned their advanced pandemic response plans to follow the CCP model despite the implausibility of their claims.

The full global impact of locking down the young and healthy, along with the old and infirm, may prove to be more devastating than the pandemic.