Pandemic response needs compassion, common sense

Amid the good news that Australia has clinched a game-changing deal to triple our access to Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to a million doses a week from July 19, the Morrison government’s move to help our neighbours battle the pandemic is welcome.

Australia is rushing desperately needed AstraZeneca vaccines, ventilators, oxygen cylinders and Covid tests to Indonesia and Pacific Island nations. Assisting our neighbours when they are in acute need is the right decision, morally, just as it was during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami when John Howard led the world with a $1bn reconstruction program in Indonesia. We have always stepped up in the past, and the Morrison government deserves credit for doing so unstintingly. As Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Pacific Minister Zed Seselja said, the 15 million vaccine doses from Australia will “deliver on our commitment to ensure the countries of the Pacific and Timor-Leste can achieve comprehensive vaccine coverage”.

Accounts of Indonesian hospitals struggling with unprecedented numbers of infected patients and death rates seven times higher than they were a month ago show the humanitarian crisis confronting our largest neighbour. Almost 1000 Indonesian medical workers have reportedly died, including more than a dozen who were fully vaccinated. Hospitals in Java and elsewhere have no room for more patients, no space in ICU rooms, no ventilators and no oxygen. Carparks are being used to accommodate victims of the Delta surge. Burial numbers in Jakarta are up tenfold since May. Infection numbers in Indonesia reached a record high of 34,379 on Wednesday, with a record 1040 deaths. As the Delta variant rips across the archipelago from Sumatra to Papua, reports of hospitals “crumbling under the weight of the variant” are emerging.

The situation is also dire in small Pacific nations. The Delta variant has taken hold. Fiji, with 930,000 people, including many of Indian origin, has just recorded 741 known infections in a single day, with three deaths. Our government is right to judge it a humanitarian imperative to help. Australia will supply 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, enough to cover most of the nine million-odd adult population of the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste. As the Lowy Institute’s Jonathan Pryke said: “This is fantastic news for the Pacific, which three months ago looked to be at the back of the global line for vaccines.” Kate Greenwood, head of the Pacific delegation for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, said relative to population size, Fiji had been harder hit by the virus than India. “The worse it gets, the bigger the warning signs for other Pacific countries,” she said.

Whingeing by Chinese officials about Australia’s assistance to our neighbours shows that Beijing lacks understanding of the region and the genuine help it needs. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin claims Australia pressured PNG not to approve the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine, insisting: “Those in Australia who take advantage of vaccine issues to engage in political manipulation and bullying coercion are being callous to the life and health of the people of PNG.”

As the total number of jabs administered in Australia approaches nine million, Scott Morrison allocated an additional 300,000 AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine doses for western Sydney to help with the outbreak. They will not come at the expense of other states. As he said, the outbreak in our largest city will have national effects. To assist, the government has waived the $10,000 liquid assets test normally applied to payments of $325 or $500 for those who have been forced to miss work because of the lockdown. On medical advice, the government, wisely, is encouraging those who have had one AZ jab to access their second in the earlier part of the standard eight to 12-week waiting period. Because compliance has emerged as a major issue in southwestern Sydney, despite information being provided in 56 languages, a police crackdown begins on Friday in an effort to control the surge in cases. It will be most effective if carried out with compassion and common sense. Not for the first time, Queensland officials showed little of either when they failed to help Anthony McCormick, a Cairns man living in Canada, say goodbye to his Brisbane-based mother as she was dying of cancer. Mr McCormick says Queensland was silent while NSW authorities helped him return. His mother died on Wednesday, two days into his 14-day quarantine, after he spent thousands of dollars trying to reach her. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt is working with state leaders to take a more uniform approach to such cases. In weathering the pandemic, compassion, like common sense, is essential.