Australian coronavirus containment: We still need more from Morrison
America has proven to be woefully underprepared for the COVID outbreak, but Australia’s ‘she’ll be right’ attitude is nothing short of jaw dropping, writes US correspondent Sarah Blake.
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This virus has for weeks felt like a creakingly slow tsunami headed our way, while many of us have kept partying on the beaches, not really believing the wave was ever going to reach the shore.
Last week, most bars and restaurants in America were still trading, albeit at lower than usual volumes.
But over the past few days, it’s fair to say everything has changed here. Most schools have closed, many states have shuttered all but essential retailers, bars and restaurants can only offer takeout and drive through.
The elderly and infirm have been told not to leave their homes. And they’re taking that advice very seriously.
New York City’s eight million residents were yesterday told they could be ordered to “shelter in place” at any time, and a cop on Monday told me they are getting ready for a declaration of martial law.
Since the disease hasn’t really struck yet, with authorities in New York yesterday warning the “peak” is 45 days away, there are still some describing the coronavirus response as an over-reaction. Those outliers, and those who say the media are exaggerating the threat, are now in the absolute minority.
The change in public perception has been fast. Just a week ago we went for lunch at our favourite little cheap French restaurant. When the owner approached our table – one of only three in the usually bustling room – and thanked us, his red-rimmed eyes shone as he talked about how hard it already was. At the commuter pub around the corner, the barman laughed that he wasn’t too worried because “this is the last place that will go down”. Both are now shuttered, for who knows how long.
When I took my boys out of school last Thursday, the Governor of New York had just banned gatherings of more than 500, exempting schools. Even then, we were considered to be overdoing it and most of our boys’ friends were at school. On Friday, our school shut down, initially for a fortnight.
Over the weekend the country’s biggest school system, New York City, closed its classrooms for the next five weeks, and there are many openly discussing the concept that schools and colleges won’t return before the end of the academic year in June.
The messaging here is that we’re a couple of weeks behind Italy, where the choices facing resource-challenged medicos are inconceivable.
Anecdotally, Australia seems to be about a week behind us here in the US.
Our older relatives in Brisbane are still leaving the house and going to shops and cafes. This is almost inconceivable now in the States, where the advice is stay indoors unless it’s absolutely vital that you need to leave.
There is a sense that schools in Australia are holding off closing until the Easter break and if so, this is a terrible idea.
Our teenagers are being sent e-lessons every day at 9am with instructions to complete the work by 4pm. Then they are meeting their mates to kick a ball around or play lacrosse in local parks. Every time they come in they wash their hands, every time they leave the house we say: “Please stay away from old people”.
Most professional sport has been called off here, while in Australia the National Rugby League is still trying to limp along. Again, it doesn’t look like Australia taking this seriously enough.
If the US has learned anything, it’s that this is a much bigger deal than what we all thought a couple of weeks ago. And that includes US President Donald Trump.
Australians were no doubt ahead of the curve with panic buying and it’s a rare conversation now that doesn’t include a dig about the great Down Under toilet paper skirmishes. But shopping in our town has in the past few days become tricky. There were 30 people waiting in a 6-degree drizzle outside our local market this morning, not allowed to enter until someone else walked out.
Everyone who can is working from home. Nobody wants to be on a train or a bus anymore. Airlines are planning for a total shutdown of domestic travel. Gun sales are through the roof.
Young people are being warned to stop partying and going out because of the danger they will pick up the virus and then spread it around.
Americans don’t like being told what to do. They take their individual freedoms more seriously than any nation in the world. But many of them seem to understand the need to self-regulate, to take responsibility for the wider community by doing the right thing and staying inside.
Australia should be paying attention. There’s no upside in delaying the inevitable. We know everything is going to need to shut down so we can try to win this unprecedented war, and the time to act against an invisible enemy is now
Sarah Blake is News Corp’s US Correspondent in New York.
Originally published as Australian coronavirus containment: We still need more from Morrison