Fear rather than COVID that is destroying Victoria

As we watch a US presidential election campaign during a COVID-induced Australian recession, it is worth reflecting on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words from the 1933 campaign: “The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”.

Roosevelt made his speech in the context of the Great Depression, a depression that drove millions of Australians into extended, grinding poverty but one that seems curiously overlooked by the majority of our state leaders. They encourage the fear of COVID-19 to avoid the true business of government, which is to manage risk versus opportunity for the greater good.

We need to find ways to continue our lives in a changed environment and businesses need to keep operating to avoid tipping into a 1929 scenario. Exaggeration? Apart from the rate, is there that much difference between JobSeeker/JobKeeper and the “Susso” (sustenance) welfare payment made during the Depression?

Let’s be clear, this economic disaster is not the result of COVID-19 but of inept attempts to manage it and public opinion. There are any number of medical experts advising governments around Australia and, indeed, the world but these “experts” disagree on pretty well everything when it involves a way forward. The one thing chief medical officers agree on is the treatment — lockdown and isolation. These are the modern equivalents of bleeding the afflicted to make them better. This didn’t work and it often killed the patient.

Perhaps the only positive from the winter of 2020 has been the absence of an influenza outbreak due to the home incarceration of so many. This has seen significantly fewer deaths as a result but would anyone suggest we lock down and isolate every winter to achieve this? The concept seems crazy but not for COVID-19, it seems.

The difference is fear — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror. Now is the time for governments to stop stoking the flames of fear and focus on the true purpose of governing for all citizens — knowing the long-term damage being perpetrated will cause irreparable harm for many years to come.

John Guscic, managing director, Webjet

From the start of this pandemic it has been frustrating to see governments, state and federal, rely on a narrow range of advice from public health officials in managing this crisis. The group of professionals they should be relying upon are those with expertise in the broader field of risk management. Public health officials are fixated on a very small part of the risk environment. In relying on such narrow advice politicians have made matters much worse than they should be, culminating in the toxic situation in Victoria.

Risk managers have experience in assessing risk in its overall societal context, dispassionately weighing cost and benefit in achieving the greatest good and communicating this to the public in a manner that does not instil fear or alarm. It’s about time governments asked our opinion if they want a way out of the mess they have created.

Marc Hendrickx, risk management consultant, Berowra Heights, NSW

I suggest that those who criticise Victoria’s steps to COVID normal consider the consequences of failure. Losing control now could result in cases rising into the hundreds again. What would be the correct action then? Back into lockdown for a further six months or accept failure and the consequences of failure.

If we accept the consequences there will be a choice between permanently closed borders between Victoria and the rest of Australia or allowing Victorians to travel and spread the virus. In either case a fail for Victoria is a fail for Australia.

David Strang, Hawthorn East, Vic

As one of the apparent 30 per cent who disapproves of the Victorian Government’s handling of the pandemic, I found it comforting to read Dr Ruth Edwards’ letter (“Sitting back in silence while liberties evaporate”, 7/9), which showed empathy for the predicament in which we find ourselves. I am angry at the incompetence of this government which, by its past actions (the handling of quarantine hotels, lack of tracing) has placed us in this position and still no one is held accountable. Why should we have faith that it has chosen the right road ahead (to nowhere) when we look at the debris all around us?

Felicity Armstrong, Flinders, Vic