Lockdown: Why Daniel Andrews finally listened to the experts

John Ferguson’s article (“City’s over it after big promises and no delivery”, 26/10) brought to mind a conversation I had with a good friend about the Victorian Premier; in particular, why he is so determined to emulate the mythological Greek king Sisyphus, rolling the weighted stone of media briefings up the hill and frenetically clinging on to the desire to alone be the saviour of our great southern state.

Despite the visceral sense of frustration and annoyance here in Victoria, I do feel that most people would not begrudge the Premier having a day off presser duties, in order to rest and regain some clear thinking about our urgent path out of perpetual lockdown. Within all human beings, there is an ingrained desire to atone for guilt, and so in the ongoing absence of an admission of wrongdoing, Daniel Andrews knows that Victoria’s civil predicament can be traced back to both ministerial and bureaucratic incompetence.

Melburnians understood the need for drastic action two months ago and duly obeyed the Premier’s dictums, but we are now at a stage where, until we are all inoculated, we simply have to allow the virus to either burn itself out as we attain gradual herd immunity, or, as NSW is strategically doing, we aim to have the best contact tracing system in the nation, learn to live wisely with our pesky germ friend and not communally capitulate to its every zoonotic whim. My fear is that otherwise, the Victorian strategy of casting a wide restrictive net over a whole city will later poignantly prove to be a Pyrrhic victory.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic

Daniel Andrews’ COVID-19 lockdown policy has been exposed for the folly that it is. He understands that if by totally easing lockdown restrictions the number of virus cases increase, the Victorian public will rightly question whether the months of financial and mental health pain and suffering of the lockdown was worth it. Andrews has fronted media conferences on 116 consecutive days. Surely the medical experts giving him advice on the pandemic realise that his unrelenting workload as leader must be adversely affecting his decision making ability. The Victorian Premier needs to take a couple of days off and recharge his batteries for the good not only of Victorians but for all Australians. The state’s Chief Health Officer must insist that he have a couple of days rest.

Riley Brown, Bondi Beach, NSW

Nick Cater bemoans the prejudiced state of science in the time of a pandemic (“The science is in, and it’s tainted by its own prejudice”, 26/10). He rightly argues in favour of scientific method and its focus on scepticism, rationality and empiricism, yet the first case he explores does nothing to advance his theory that science and scientific reports have been hijacked by a leftish postmodernism movement. He laments the censorship by Lancet of an unnamed Danish study which he claims found that wearing masks “makes no difference”. As I understand, this paper is still unpublished so its findings are at best conjecture. What we do know is that the paper was rejected by Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. In June, Lancet published an extensive study of 172 observational studies across 16 countries which found that “face mask use could result in a large reduction in risk of infection”. But Cater chooses to instead cite a thrice rejected unpublished smaller study.

Ross Cleaves, Frankston, Vic

In his own words, Nick Cater’s underlying point is that science must continue to change by doing “the slog of trial and error”. As a retired academic, I agree that research should always aim to be honest and needs to be checked by colleagues and experts. The relentless search for science-based truth regarding COVID-19 marches on.

Barbara Fraser, Burwood, Vic

Congratulations Daniel Andrews on the way you have been handling the coronavirus crisis in Victoria. You have done extremely well in very difficult circumstances. My wife and I were locked down in Melbourne during late May/early June on our way back to Perth, and from our observations everything was handled well by border control, your health team, the police and security personnel while we were there. Thank you for what you are doing and for sticking with it.

Derek Quigley, former New Zealand cabinet minister