Rita Panahi: The Covid reality politicians won’t admit

Australia will remain a prison island until we change our mindset on living with Covid and stop rubbish claims hospitals will be overrun.

Here we go again. Victoria enters Lockdown Six just a day after Premier Daniel Andrews boasted on social media about the state achieving a zero Covid day.

We used to say the definition of madness was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, now we call that lunacy “best practice’’.

On Wednesday the Premier engaged in hubris by firstly tweeting just one word; “zero”.

He followed it up with:
“Today we’ve recorded zero locally acquired cases of coronavirus. Well done Victoria”.

His next tweet was announcing a “seven day lockdown”.

The premier turned up the hysteria and hyperbole during the lockdown announcement on Thursday afternoon claiming that failure to act would see our hospitals overrun by “thousands” of cases that would “compromise” the care of “cancer patients” and “premature babies”.

It is hard to take such scaremongering seriously when one looks at other advanced nations with comparable hospital systems.

Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews sent his state into lockdown again. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicki Connolly

Even in the UK – which locked down long and hard but experienced one of the world’s worst Covid death and hospitalisation rates – the hospital system was never overwhelmed and the network of seven Nightingale hospitals built to provide excess capacity was not used and began closing in April.

As we condemn millions to another round of home detention we must start demanding greater transparency from our politicians and the health bureaucracy.

Australians deserve to know the full cost benefit analysis of each period of lockdown; the good and the bad.

The impact on Covid-19 numbers is well covered but what about the costs; not just the economic loss but the societal, human and non-Covid health costs of lockdown.

The increase in mental health issues, missed cancer screenings and early detection of other serious ailments barely rates a mention.

Australia will remain a prison island unless we fundamentally change our mindset and accept that Covid-19 will be endemic and the achievement of ‘Covid zero’ is only possible by indefinitely imposing harsh, unsustainable restrictions.

Unlike the UK which fully opened on July 19 with 54 per cent of the population vaccinated we have little tolerance for any level of Covid in the community.

If we open with a 70 or 80 per cent vaccination rate we will still have new cases, community transmission and some Covid-19 deaths.

We are never getting out of this lockdown nightmare unless the politicians start being honest about that reality.

YOUTH SELF-HARM, SUICIDAL IDEATION SOAR DURING LOCKDOWN

It is becoming increasingly difficult to rationalise the harm being inflicted on youngsters in the name of public safety.

This week Lifeline recorded the highest daily number of calls in the organisation’s history.

Child psychologist Clare Rowe warns of the significant collateral damage lockdowns are inflicting on young Australians.

Read the column in full here.