Shannon Deery: Why we must learn to live with Covid

As Victorians hope to exit their fifth lockdown, the threat of lockdown 6.0 looms because we haven’t learn to live with the virus.

When the shackles keeping Victorians at home are loosened this week, it will come with the caveat that Lockdown 6 looms.

Barring a sudden spike in mystery case numbers between now and Tuesday, it’s already been conceded by Daniel Andrews that some restrictions will likely be eased.

But as we have come to know all too well, any easing will be slow and steady, and for many a sense of lockdown will continue for several more weeks.

The Premier has repeatedly said he will not be “flicking a switch”.

Instead a host of restrictions will remain, likely masks, QR scanning and being subjected to density limits for some time yet at a minimum.

And don’t get too excited about the footy either. Given the concern among public health authorities about how quickly the latest outbreak spread from the MCG and AAMI Park, it’s hard to see crowds in any real numbers any time soon.

We are told life will return to normal once we reach an acceptable level of vaccinations but the Premier says this has to be above three quarters of the population. Picture: David Geraghty

And should we see so much as a sniff out an outbreak emerge again between now and such time that we have mass vaccinations, we’ll be locked down again. The current outbreak engulfing NSW has made sure of that.

With that state’s contact tracing now comprehensively overwhelmed, there looms the danger that its hospitals will be next.

As of Sunday there were more than 30 people in intensive care beds across NSW, more than half of them under 60, some of them teenagers. The state recorded two new deaths, including one person aged in their 30s.

The Delta strain is emerging in ways we haven’t seen before in Australia.

And it is renewing the social licence of political leaders to lockdown because it’s shown what can happen if you don’t.

Some infectious disease experts are now recommending a raft of tough ongoing measures for the next six to nine months to avoid the yo-yoing in and out of lockdown. It would include a total ban on all large public gatherings.

Now, 16 months into the pandemic, there has to be a better way than the stop-start nature of restrictions.

We still have not learned to live with Covid-19, and we have to.

Because as much as we are told life will return to normal once we reach an acceptable level of vaccinations, the Premier says, ideally, this has to be above three quarters of the population. Which poses a significant problem.

According to the latest study published by Forbes, Australians are leading the world when it comes do vaccine hesitancy.

Australians are leading the world when it comes do vaccine hesitancy. Picture: Daniel Pockett

While the majority of us will roll up our sleeves to be vaxxed, 31 per cent remain hesitant, meaning even if the federal government sorted out its distribution problems, we’d never get to the numbers our leaders want to see.

Australia now has a higher vaccine hesitancy rate than any of the 14 other countries surveyed, except Russia, where 47 per cent ­are unwilling.

In the UK, where hesitancy rate is much lower and falling further to just 13 per cent, they are now at the point where vaccines are routinely being thrown away because not enough people are coming forward to be vaccinated.

So what does this mean for us?

It means despite projections we will have the stock levels required to have everyone vaccinated by the end of this year, or early next year, it’s very unlikely we’ll reach those high targets.

And what then?

How can we get back to normal?

This is the challenge for political leaders.

Here in Victoria, students need to get back to school and businesses either need to be opened, or are duly compensated for being forced to close.

It will take a rethink about how we’ve been doing things.

The Premier has said that once everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, then we would no longer be going in to lockdown to protect those who didn’t want to protect themselves.

Fine. But what happens when they overrun our hospitals?

It is a problem that may never emerge.

QR codes are great at contact tracing but rapid testing could surely help snuff out the problem before it emerges. Picture: Sarah Matray

For now, the focus must be on avoiding stop-start lockdowns.

Why are we not requiring proof of a vaccination, or a negative test, to enter restaurants, bars or major events?

Rapid testing is cheap and returns a result in under an hour and could be used to give some confidence around opening up.

Indeed, where QR codes are great at contact tracing and working backwards to find virus and stop its spread, rapid testing could surely help snuff out the problem before it emerged.

Countries all over Europe are already doing this.

Why do we still not know what targets need to be met before Andrews will ease restrictions?

This is our fifth lockdown, and still we’re being told it’s a day-by-day proposition, and we’re relying on public health advice.

The fact we still don’t have a target to aim for has been described to me by one senior public health official as “both chaotic and astounding”.

We are now expert at lockdown, and expert at driving cases down.

We have to become expert at living with Covid as much as possible, locking down only when absolutely necessary, but having systems in place to support those whose lives are sent into turmoil because of it.

Shannon Deery is a Herald Sun state politics editor

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