As we continue to be sickened by the NSW Covid mire let us set some goals to be achieved by September or October or earlier -- an AFL grand final at the MCG and an NRL grand final at the ANZ stadium, all with worthwhile audiences; visitors to aged care homes; business travel abroad; face-to-face schooling; an audience for Harry Potter on stage and protective clothing for vaccinating doctors and pharmacists.
The preliminary events for those goals started to happen yesterday. I would like to think that the major audience that my commentary earlier this week attracted played a role in accelerating the process and I thank my readers.
But the momentum has wide community impetus.
So let’s look at this week’s early developments that have the potential to make those goals and many others achievable.
We start in the UK where travellers from the US and most parts of Europe will be allowed to travel to Britain as long as they are fully vaccinated.
A large number of our best medium-sized enterprises have taken their unique Australian skills abroad but don’t have the extensive overseas management structures that are required to administer them. They are using the high-risk strategy of managing by “zoom”. For the fully vaccinated currently it is the return journey that is blocked. If they are fully vaccinated we should let Covid-tested executives/owners return and put them under home quarantine, including, if necessary, with GPS ankle attachments.
An example. Australia is the world leader in voice recording technology and Dubber CEO Steve McGovern works with Cisco Zoom and Microsoft, which recognise Dubber’s global leadership.
But not only is McGovern unable to visit them personally but he has not met the staff of the companies Dubber has acquired in the UK. Dubber this week raised $110 million for more acquisitions but again the CEO is marooned in Melbourne.
Many of our best companies are in the same situation.
The world is moving towards rapid testing techniques as a valuable adjunct to the longer test process. Visitors to aged care homes, sporting venues and theatres are examples where, when combined with full vaccination, rapid testing can be used.
Australia is a world leader in testing technology (not just Covid) via the Brisbane company AnteoTech which this week signed an agreement to distribute its rapid Covid testing systems in the UK and in Europe. The Australian bureaucracy and rules are designed to make rapid testing very difficult so AnteoTech prefers to use the Australian technology in other markets, which are more hungry for the service.
However a number of European systems are trying to get through the Australian bureaucracy and one saliva-based rapid testing system appeared on television this week in displaying its skills. Fast testing will not replace full testing but it can be used more often and is particularly effective in quickly picking up highly infectious people. Untested truck drivers are pouring out of NSW and regular rapid testing may be the answer.
On the front page of the Melbourne Herald Sun the theatre community, led by the Marriner group and Australia’s most elaborate stage show, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child pleaded with the Victorian government to allow fully vaccinated people to attend their shows. It won’t happen immediately but the momentum is building.
For some time general practitioners undertaking Covid vaccinations have been complaining that they not issued with personal protection equipment in dangerous cases where vaccinations are required.
The GPs are so dependent on the government for their income that they didn’t protest wildly. But now the government wants pharmacies to join the vaccination army. Pharmacies are in very close touch with the population and they will not stand the bloated Canberra bureaucracy’s antics. They have started going on television demanding Health Minister Greg Hunt make the public servants get the equipment flowing to the pharmacies. If it is a supply issue rather than an administration tangle then the purchasing errors need to be admitted.
Hunt has a lot to do in quick testing and personal protection equipment.
How realistic is it for Australia to be sufficiently fully vaccinated by September / October to allow the events to go ahead?
In age groups over 40 there is a 40 per cent plus one jab vaccination rate, with the older age groups at the 50 and 60 per cent level. A large number of those in the one jab group will have completed their vaccination by September and I would expect the one jab group, particularly in NSW and Victoria, to be well over 50 per cent by September, thanks to the new AstraZeneca guidance. We can bring audiences to our theatres and major events. We might even consider allowing one jab injectees to attend events if audiences are rapid tested as they enter the theatre or stadium.
In the case of NSW, if lockdown is still required in September and October, then it of course becomes more difficult. But there is now series of objectives we can set and we have the technology and in many cases the community willingness to achieve those objectives.
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