Victorian government’s response to coronavirus pandemic gives people reason not to trust
From the start, our government had two jobs above all: keep the sick in strict quarantine, and keep the most vulnerable safe. As mounting cases paint a seemingly scary picture — their real truth is only just coming to light, writes Andrew Bolt.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Victoria is now the deadliest state for the coronavirus. It also has the most incompetent and deceptive government.
On Sunday, we saw the same circus after Premier Daniel Andrews said another 10 Victorians had died, pushing the state toll to 71.
This is the state government that makes fit, healthy people wear face masks — even when alone in the open air — while leaving open the door to nursing homes. Killing zones.
From the start, our governments had two jobs above all: keep the sick in strict quarantine and keep the most vulnerable safe.
The rest of us could then keep working and earning, provided we washed our hands and kept our social distance.
But on Sunday, Premier Andrews seized on an outlier death of a man in his 40s to push his bizarre message — so egalitarian! — that this virus is a deadly danger to all: “This does not discriminate on age.”
Nonsense. This virus discriminates even more than the flu, which last year killed 902 Australians, including children.
How convenient for Andrews that he claimed not to know whether this man in his 40s — Australia’s youngest victim by far — had underlying medical conditions.
But either way, his death is an anomaly. The vast majority of the dead in Victoria’s second wave were over 80. In fact, at least half of the 22 dead since Friday were in nursing homes, and another 560 residents and staff are sick.
How did that happen? In NSW, 29 people died in nursing homes. That should have been a warning to shut off aged care homes, train and test staff, and stop them working when sick. None of that was done in Victoria until this past week.
Andrews has excuses. Nursing homes “are private businesses not accountable to us”.
And he has scapegoats. Young Victorians are not “following the rules”. But people aren’t dying in nursing homes because some teenagers won’t wear a face mask in the open air.
They’re dying because the Andrews Government did not run its quarantine hotels properly, did not ensure sick people stayed home and did not make sure nursing homes were sealed off.
True, younger people can also die, but last week we got two huge warnings that we can’t keep fighting the virus in this blunderbuss way.
First, we were told the cost — so far — of fighting outbreaks by shutting parts of the economy.
More than 700,000 Australians put out of work. Deep recession. The biggest government deficit since World War II.
But a second revelation received astonishingly little publicity.
NSW’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said up to 250,000 Australians may have already caught the coronavirus — even though tests picked up just 14,000.
Chant said a survey of pathology tests and blood samples from pregnant women suggested “about 1 per cent” of Australians may have been infected and never knew it.
True, this survey is incomplete and limited to Sydney. But if 250,000 is remotely right, the mortality rate from the coronavirus is little worse than a severe flu. More importantly, it would confirm there’s a big hole in our virus tests.
People generally get tested only when they feel a bit sick, and go to a testing station to have a swab stuck up their nose.
It then takes another one to three days for their results, or even longer, admits Victoria’s Health Department. In that time, more than half don’t stay at home.
But as a New England Journal of Medicine study confirms, it’s in those first three days of feeling sick that people are most infectious. Yes, before many get their results.
Clearly, we need a test that’s almost instant, and the good news is there are some. With one, you just spit on a strip of paper and wait 10 to 20 minutes.
So why aren’t our governments getting us to use them? One big reason is that these tests aren’t as sensitive as the swab up your nose.
But as Michael Mina, assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, says: so what?
This paper test works when people are most infectious, and is so cheap and easy it can be used daily, just out of curiosity. The official tests are more sensitive, but what’s the point if most people don’t take them, or don’t get results until too late and when they’re no longer very infectious?
True, do-it-yourself tests require governments to trust the public.
But is that worse than trusting a government like Victoria’s?
COVID-19 SHUTDOWN MASKS SECRET DEATH TOLL
Australians can’t leave their country and can’t travel freely inside it because 155 people have died this year from the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, in the first four months of this year, 3937 Australians died of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, influenza, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Some of them are communicable, too. But we didn’t shut businesses for them.
Last year 902 Australians died from influenza. That’s also a coronavirus that kills mainly the old. Did Premiers daily list those dead, too?
Last year, about 3000 Australians died from suicide. But to fight the coronavirus, politicians peddle fear, hopelessness and laws forcing people to stay at home, often alone or without a job.
In 2018, 438 Australians died of heroin. But the Greens say addicts shouldn’t be locked up.
Last year, nearly 1200 Australians died in car accidents. But the convenience of driving is too great to make people stay home.
In 2018, 47,310 Australians died of cancer. We’re spending $200 billion – and more – on fighting this coronavirus instead.
In May, the Sydney Morning Herald – citing a deputy chief medical officer – said “50,000 to 150,000” Australians would die from this virus.
Perspectives are important.