Living with Covid-19 will require a different mindset

From the packed stands of Wimbledon Centre Court to Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Downing Street, Brits are eagerly anticipating “Freedom Day” on July 19, when the last Covid-19 restrictions – including masks and social distancing – will be lifted. One aspect of Britain’s “new normal”, however, poses a challenge to the mindset of many Australians.

At this stage for Britons, “learning to live with Covid” means living with about 30,000 new cases of the virus a day, including the Delta variant. The daily total of new cases is the equivalent of about 10,000 a day in Australia. But as Jacquelin Magnay wrote from London on Monday: “The number of cases is so irrelevant, they no longer make headline news.” Far from going away, the virus remains contagious. But hospitalisations and deaths are rare. Most people are ecstatic about life returning to normal, Magnay wrote.

However worrying or even unimaginable the prospect of 10,000 new Covid cases a day in Australia may appear at first glance, it is vaccines that have allowed the British to learn to live with Covid with limited health consequences. On Friday, announcing his four-phase plan for reopening our nation, Scott Morrison looked ahead to phase three of recovery when “the hospitalisation and fatality rates that you’d see from Covid-19 would be like the flu or, arguably, better”. By then, he said, “when it is like the flu, we should treat it like the flu, and that means no lockdowns”. At that stage, he envisaged, the vaccine booster program would be under way, vaccinated citizens would be exempt from all domestic restrictions, caps would be abolished for returning vaccinated travellers and “very high caps’’ set for the entry of student, economic and humanitarian visa holders, with restrictions lifted for outbound travel for vaccinated people. Such incentives might encourage vaccine refuseniks to come forward. But so should the realisation that when we open up, the number of new cases could remain as high as 10,000 a day if the British experience is replicated here.

As Australia’s vaccination rate nudges up towards one million a week, which is where it needs to be – supplies permitting – the burning question for many is how soon will health authorities judge it safe to move to phases two, three and eventually four. In anticipation of a return to a freer way of life, the public, political leaders, health authorities and many in the media will need to adjust to new mindsets.

From being heavily discussed during lockdowns, the daily numbers of new cases – currently the most anticipated story of the day for some reporters – will become less significant. Likewise, journalists hyperventilating about why NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was not cracking down on Sydneysiders visiting florists and car washes during lockdown. As chief medical officer Paul Kelly said on Friday, the way we talk about the pandemic will change, to “concentrate increasingly on severe illness rather than numbers of cases”. That is because one of the key challenges for governments and the medical profession will be protecting the vulnerable, especially those in nursing homes and virus patients who need hospitalisation.

The rollout of booster Covid vaccines will be another important medical issue as the nation opens up. So, as Natasha Robinson reports, will be the question of when and if to vaccinate children after Pfizer’s application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for approval of its jab for 12-to-15-year-olds. Amid the Brits’ excitement in anticipating “Freedom Day’’, Mr Johnson is urging them to exercise responsibility and to take “extra precautions”. It’s useful advice for Australians, too, in our step-by-step process towards the restoration of normal freedoms.