Coronavirus Australia: Economist Gigi Foster shares blunt lockdown view on Q&A

An economist has been criticised for saying Australia shouldn’t have gone into lockdown as part of the fight against coronavirus.

An economist has been labelled “heartless” for her blunt view on Australia’s coronavirus lockdown efforts, saying the economy is also “about lives”.

Professor Gigi Foster appeared on Q&A and was immediately savaged on social media for her comments about the economic impacts of being in lockdown.

“I reject the idea it’s lives versus the economy,” she said.

“It's lives versus lives. The economy is about lives. It's about protection of lives and human welfare and livelihood. You can make an apples to apples comparison although people find it difficult to do so.”

The UNSW academic raised her eyebrows when epidemiologist Jodie McVernon spoke about whether the question of lives versus lives had been considered in modelling provided to the government.

Professor McVernon said Australia had been spared the worst of the coronavirus impacts other countries had seen because of its efforts. But Professor Foster did not agree.

“What frustrates me is when people talk about the economic costs of the lockdown they often don't think in detail in terms of counting lives, as we do with the epidemiological models,” she said.

“Has anyone thought about how would you get a measure of the traded lives when we lock an economy down? What are we sacrificing in terms of lives?

Coronavirus will have a huge economic impact in Australia and around the world. Picture: William WEST / AFP.

Do we need to start taking a more pragmatic attitude towards death? #QandA pic.twitter.com/5bOvAOq7jL

— QandA (@QandA) April 20, 2020

“Economists have tried to do that and we try to do that in currencies like the value of a statistical life … and those quantities enable you to think about lives on one side versus lives on the other.

“If you do that kind of calculus you realise very quickly that even with a very, very extreme epidemic, in Australia, we are still potentially better off not having an economic lockdown in the first place because of the incredible effects that you see not just in a short-run way but in many years to come.”

ACTU secretary Sally McManus quickly shot back, “How can you say that?”

Ms McManus said we were avoiding what had happened in the UK and US and the idea of having intensive care units overrun and healthcare workers dying was horrible.

“It's horrible either way,” Professor Foster responded.

“The coronavirus has made the world awful. There's absolutely no doubt about that. In order to have a proper discussion about trade-offs, you need to think in terms of lives you’re giving up.

“I know it's invisible lives and difficult to imagine when we aggregate, for example, all of the health effects and the mental health effects and the effects of people right now who have illnesses other than COVID-19.”

Simon Longstaff, executive director of The Ethics Centre, cut in and said he did not accept the premise of Professor Foster’s argument.

Viewers on social media also weren’t having a bar of it either.

“Gigi is a deeply dangerous fool who should never be commenting on public health issues – or the economy,” said one man on Twitter.

#QandA I’m an economics professor, and Gigi does not speak for me.

— Steven Hamilton (@SHamiltonian) April 20, 2020

Gigi Foster, economist, on @qanda. What a disgraceful and cold thought process this woman has. She’d go well in the US spruiking Trumpism. Has no respect for humanity, is all about the economy and the $$

— ShiannonCorcoran (@ShiannonC) April 20, 2020

Some beaches in NSW have been opened after a strict lockdown. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Another said she sounded “heartless,” while an economist said he was ashamed to share her profession.

“Gigi” even started trending on Twitter in Australia.

“I can't believe what I'm hearing from Gigi Foster,” wrote another.

“There is no compassion. The economy is considered more important than our most vulnerable. Humanity lost.”

Later in the program Professor Foster said perhaps herd immunity was the best thing for Australians – referencing the idea that when at least 60 per cent of a population have immunity to a virus it stops spreading as effectively.

Professor McVernon said such an idea could cost us dearly.

There is nothing “safe” about herd immunity in the absence of a vaccine #qanda

— Prof Kerryn Phelps AM (@drkerrynphelps) April 20, 2020

Seeing everyone visibly groan the moment Gigi Foster said “herd immunity” gave me so much life. #QandA

— Andrew Dunn (@andyops) April 20, 2020

Gigi is available for motivational speaking...at executions.#QandA

— Emperor God Whit Goughlam (@leftocentre) April 20, 2020

More than 6600 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Australia with 71 lives lost to the disease. Globally, more than 2.4 million people have been infected with at least 165,000 killed.

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