Quarantine, Covid, vaccinations and fairness

So, we have the best quarantine system in place in the country, according to our Premier, Daniel Andrews. Those unlucky enough to be in quarantine at the Holiday Inn near Melbourne airport might not share that view.

As of Wednesday, there were eight infections stemming from there. To a lay person it is utterly incomprehensible that hotels, which are manifestly unsuited for quarantine, are continuing to be used. The argument that more than 200,000 people have returned and there have only been a few leaks is a patently inappropriate measurement. The lockdowns emanating from the various leaks affect thousands of people, together with border closures and broken family holidays.

Were quarantine to occur in appropriate facilities such as the Howard Springs workers camp near Darwin (note: no leaks) then the chances of leaks would be severely diminished if not extinguished.

The experts waffle on about airborne transmission and now a nebuliser without seeing what’s in front of them: the simple fact is that the virus doesn’t like (or so we are told and Howard Springs would tend to prove) fresh air and open spaces. Give people rooms with balconies and open windows and other open spaces. A dedicated rotating staff where they are not free to roam around the community would prevent further lockdowns and border closures.

It isn’t rocket science, but it seems only the lay people among us support this while the experts bumble through apparently making it up as they go along.

There has been almost a year to prepare for this and yet we are still using totally inappropriate facilities. Time to change.

Deborah Wiener, St Kilda, Vic

The initial report from the World Health Organisation finds no evidence of spread of coronavirus from the Wuhan virus lab or wet market. It would be surprising if, after a year of Chinese obfuscation and delay, anything were left to be found. The market will have been closed and deep cleaned multiple times and access to the virus lab was tightly controlled, as was access to laboratory and medical personnel involved. It is possible that, once they have left the country and are not under threat of arbitrary arrest, there will be further information forthcoming from the WHO team. More likely the outcome will have similarities to the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry.

It is interesting that the latest Chinese theory is that the virus was imported in frozen food — I wonder from where?

Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

When I was preparing to leave school and enter the workforce in 1966 I was in a quandary as to what career I might follow. My father owned a small metal fabrication business but did not want me to follow in his footsteps due to the uncertainty of being a small business person. Having lived through the Great Depression and served during World War II, he advised me to get a public sector job because he had noticed that during times of crisis public servants kept their jobs.

The fact that public sector employees have had their employment protected by governments during COVID strongly suggests that my father was right on the money. During COVID the holders of these positions have become a protected species as most are still not back in their offices, which is pure overkill. We are definitely not all in this together.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

As international trade and travel are markedly lower due to COVID, Australia’s balance of payments surplus is at record levels; and this will continue until most of the world has suppressed the virus or been vaccinated. Many less-developed countries Australians like to visit in Asia and the Pacific are unable to vaccinate their people this year because the EU and other rich nations are learning that charity should begin at home (although Donald Trump was excoriated for putting Americans first). But Australia, with 12 million tests, 29,000 cases, mostly without symptoms, is among the least needy of all countries and as we cannot travel again until the others are vaccinated it is pointless and pitiless for us to seize vaccines that are clearly more desperately needed elsewhere.

As Norway proved, with 23 deaths, terminally ill patients cannot be vaccinated. This is the main cohort among Australia’s 909 deaths. The case for urgent vaccinations here has not been made.

Greg Jones, Kogarah, NSW