Covid action up to the individual

Governments must stand firm against any push for a return to mandatory Covid-19 controls on schools and workplaces being waged by public health authorities. While acknowledging that the rising number of Covid cases is a concern, the lesson from the pandemic has been that citizens must be allowed to determine their own level of risk. There is nothing to stop anyone who wishes to wear a mask or to limit their social contact from doing so. But there is a mountain of evidence that mandatory measures are demeaning for the individual and have long-term consequences for the mental health of young people and the community as a whole. As the number of Covid cases rises, the Albanese government is being tested.

Having been forced to back down unnecessarily on its decision to allow stay-at-home payments for infected workers to end as intended, the government is now under pressure to reimpose other restrictions. On Tuesday health experts said Australians should resume working from home and wear masks in public. Chief medical officer Paul Kelly told reporters it “wouldn’t be forever” and expected it to last only until the current wave subsided. With the number of infections rising he said it was clear we were at the beginning, not the end, of the wave. The main concern is the ability of the health system to cope. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said he strongly encouraged the community to wear masks in indoor spaces, particularly crowded indoor spaces where there wasn’t the ability to socially distance.

In Victoria, the Andrews government has recommended that schoolchildren return to wearing masks in the classroom. In doing so, the state government has taken a backward step. Knowing the move will be unpopular with many parents, the state government has returned to its peak-lockdown excuse that it is following health advice. Victorian voters have been rightly outraged to find that advice from Victorian health authorities has been optional all along. Daniel Andrews enforced health advice with an iron fist as he presided over the world’s longest lockdown. But with one eye to the state election, Victorian Labor is now telling voters it does not need to do everything the medical advisers say.

This is the message that must not be lost. Individuals must be given the best advice but also must be allowed to make their own decisions. State governments have had plenty of time to ensure that hospitals are adequately prepared. The unpleasant truth is that Covid is here to stay and we must learn to live with it. The economic and personal costs of a return to stop-start lockdowns is too bleak to contemplate.