We need a national and coherent strategy to fight Covid

Working in the area of risk management it has been frustrating to see concepts of pragmatism, cost benefit and proportion thrown to the wind with Australia’s response to Covid-19. Premiers have followed the short-sighted advice of health bureaucrats for too long. The collateral damage to our national psyche and our economy from the lockdowns has been ignored but it is immense and possibly irreparable.

The study quoted by Adam Creighton (“What if lockdowns don’t save lives?”, 29/6) confirms the damage done. We need to accept that hundreds or thousands of positive test results will not translate into an unacceptable death toll now that a substantial proportion of the population is either vaccinated or capable of managing their own risk to Covid by other means and the health system has the beds to cope with hospitalisations.

As this paper’s Chris Kenny and Steve Waterson eluded to in their excellent weekend columns, it is well beyond time governments stopped playing doctors and nurses with our lives.

Marc Hendrickx, Berowra Heights, NSW

As the premiers again get their collective knickers in a knot over a handful of cases, Adam Creighton adds some sanity to the pandemic debate, as another analysis fails to confirm lockdowns work. He relates those few countries who have controlled the Covid virus to either their brilliant health bureaucrats (some doubt in this country) or the fact they are islands.

Never mind the states’ borders closing every few weeks, stopping overseas flights was, and continues to be, Scott Morrison’s successful strategy in keeping numbers manageable.

Dr Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

Adam Creighton makes the very valid point that we must look at the entire health detriments to our population before we rush into saying a Covid lockdown saves lives. Suicides during the Covid period are easier to measure, but depression, drug abuse, missed health screenings and other slower onset sicknesses leading to disability or death are much harder. It is too late now to change course, but once the current Covid zeitgeist hysteria, brought to us each day by saturation media coverage settles down, we need to undertake a holistic study so we are better prepared for next time a pandemic occurs.

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

Announcing the no-fault indemnity scheme for GPs administering AstraZeneca to Australians under 40, and that all aged care workers must be vaccinated by September, Scott Morrison warns he will not “countenance” an increase in Covid-19 deaths as a result of further opening up the economy (“PM opens vaccines to under-40”, 29/6).

Then, citing Singapore and Britain, which despite very high vaccination rates still have significant death tolls but are preparing to open and drop many Covid-19 restrictions, the PM declares Australia should not accept the levels of deaths seen in these nations and “it would be unwise to surrender (Australia’s) advantage at this point and preferably at no point”. But in the next breath announces more international arrivals later this year and the return of foreign students.

How all this jells is unclear. Is there an unpalatable subtext which must be buried in a word blancmange? Surely one previously in marketing should be proficient at delivering and selling a product as clearly and persuasively as possible.

As one of the intended national consumers of the message, I’m just confused – and wondering about the real agenda.

Susan Caughey, Glen Iris, Vic

I understand the premiers wanting to nip this outbreak in the bud. I do feel that we as a community must now actively seek to get vaccinated against this scourge. Those who are actively avoiding this duty are effectively not team players.

Yes, there is a very slight risk but by getting the community 100 per cent vaccinated we will stop this endless cycle of lockdowns and fear. Roll up your sleeves and get vaccinated for the sake of your family, friends, work colleagues and our great country.

Our already overstressed medical system can’t afford an outbreak and our mental and economic futures can’t afford these lockdowns.

Benedict Hodsdon, Nedlands, WA