‘Chairman Dan’ and the sad political reality of lockdowns

It would be an understatement to say that Greg Sheridan is unimpressed by the Victorian Premier’s response to COVID-19 (“Desperate Dan has only himself to blame for this fiasco”, 6/7). In a damning indictment, replete with convincing evidence, Sheridan refers to the Victorian government’s “customary politburo style” — telling words indeed that, while hardly accusing Daniel Andrews of being a communist, hint at an autocratic streak familiar to the communist world but happily not thus far to democratic Australia. The culmination of that style in the drastic Wuhan-type detention “for their own protection” of the unfortunate residents of huge blocks of housing commission flats shows that the Premier has perhaps learned too much from his Belt and Road Initiative patrons. From being a party for the oppressed, Victorian Labor now risks becoming the oppressive party. Plenty of ammunition, surely, for the state’s opposition parties?

John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld

The aphorism “the government you elect is the government you deserve” may have philosophical holes, but there’s no doubt that the majority of unfortunately locked-down Victorian suburb and tower residents have at least got the government they voted for.

Tim Fatchen, Mount Barker, SA

Daniel Andrews has been severely criticised for the ineffectual management of the hotel isolation of overseas travellers in Melbourne. The concept was sound, but the implementation a disaster.

Although the Premier has admitted responsibility, the blame must lie with those responsible for the technical aspects of the plan; that is, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos and the chief health officers. The Premier could reasonably have expected that these highly remunerated officials would have been competent to manage the vital technical aspects of the solution they formulated.

Garth Newman, Balwyn North, Vic

Interesting comments from the Swedish government inquiry (“Herd immunity may prove the best path”, 6/7). The strategy or controversial “herd immunity” was behind Sweden’s decision to not slow COVID-19 spreading throughout the country by enforcing a lockdown or social distancing, but allowing the softer option of having open borders, cafes to remain open and meetings with groups of up to 50 people.

Australia has a population more than twice that of Sweden’s 10.2 million, but the number of COVID-19 cases in Australia is 8586 with 106 deaths compared with Sweden’s 71,419 cases and 5420 deaths.

Contrary to the political spin, the herd immunity approach numbers indicate in which country the chances of survival are best. At this stage and until a vaccine has been developed, no doubt many fellow Australians are thankful to the federal government for the strategy it chose to fight this pandemic.

Ian Kent, Renmark, SA

According to US data, 95 per cent of those who die from COVID are aged over 65 — and even in this group 95 per cent of those who are infected recover.

So why are we locking down people who are over 65 with those under 65? Shouldn’t we be taking those over 65 out of the locked-down Melbourne housing commission flats and putting them in a hotel separate from those under 65 who have the virus — otherwise we are condemning the over-65s to serious risk? Then the under-65s can roam and do not need to be locked down.

I also notice that only five people in Victoria are in intensive care — that is clearly not overwhelming the medical services — so why are we taking such draconian steps as closing the border? We have to let the virus spread within the limit of the medical services, otherwise we will still be isolating 12 months from now. It’s time we consider the Swedish solution and looked longer term than the daily infection rate. Meanwhile, in Victoria, 100 people a day are dying from other causes — let’s put this in context.

Brian C. Povey, Churchlands, WA

Amid all the understandable concern about COVID-19, it is interesting, and cheering, to note that there has been no flu season so far this year. Since the annual death rate from flu is usually considerably higher than what COVID-19 has wrought, this is clearly an optimistic development.

Pete Smith, Double Bay, NSW