Coronavirus: Scott Morrison finds his rhythm in virus crisis

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Getty

This crisis has come at the right time for Scott Morrison. Bruised and battered after his less than impressive bushfire performances, the Prime Minister needed something to bolster his stocks and there is nothing like a good crisis for that. He found his rhythm. Because he is a decent bloke, showing compassion comes easily to him. Anthony Albanese is a great human being as well and you could hear form the timbre of his voice that he too actually cares.

As I write this piece, I am watching Sky News and I have just seen Boris Johnson being interviewed. While he has officially recovered you can see that he won his bout with the virus only on points. There was no knockout blow evident in his pale and pasty appearance.

While we are not out of the woods yet, there is evidence that the curve is heading south. I have often said that if you are going to get sick, then get sick in Australia. We have the best health system in the world and we coped as well or better than anywhere else. This disease cared little for your station in life or the thickness of your wallet. Everyone was a target and it managed to take down hundreds of thousands of people who lived in countries where the underlying general health of the population was pretty good. In the 14th century the Black Death lasted for a dozen years and laid waste to the population of Europe. About a third of the world’s population were affected by the Spanish flu in the years immediately after WWI. At a minimum that bug killed almost 20 million, mostly in the first world.

Epidemics are not new but, they are uncommon enough to catch nations totally unprepared. This is when the agility of bureaucrats and the medical profession is really being tested. They need to get from 0 to 100 miles per hour in seconds in an effort to contain this monster. Our clinicians do not urged to be told to speed up or told what to do. They know and they will meet this challenge as they have met every other one over the last 50 years. Medicine is not a static science. It changes and continually develops. Adapting to new drugs and technologies is our medical profession’s specialty.

When it comes to making exciting new medical discoveries the most required new drug is not one to beat cancer, although such a discovery would be a huge leap in science. The most pressing need is to find an alternative to antibiotics. Our bugs are increasingly resistant to them and it is not too hard to think that at some time antibiotics just won’t cut it. We would then be in diabolic strife.

Australia is blessed with a coterie of people with incredible intellect. If we put sufficient funds into medical research these great minds will deliver the goods. If you take into account the amazing discoveries in treating diseases like MS and leukaemia, you have to be optimistic about our future.