Vaccinations, aged care, schools, national cabinet and the economy: what the Covid report says

‘Many of the measures taken during Covid-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again.’ | Read the key points from the report.

Health professionals and police in Melbourne in July, 2020. Picture: Getty Images

What the report said about ...

Controlling the spread of Covid-19

‘Measures enacted under the Biosecurity Act were restrictive, and their broader economic, social and mental health and human rights impacts were not always understood or considered’

‘The strategy to ‘buy time’ was successful in suppressing the initial wave, which in turn saved lives, protected the health system and minimised the negative economic and social impacts of the pandemic’

‘Once more was understood about the virus threat and our healthcare system’s resilience had increased, the pandemic response should have shifted from a reliance on the ‘better safe than sorry’ precautionary principle, where fast actions not necessarily informed by evidence are required, to a risk based approach grounded in evidence. However, aspects of the response continued to rely on the precautionary principle, maintaining a low risk tolerance for Covid-19 case numbers, with inadequate consideration of the broader health, economic and societal impacts’

Aged care deaths

‘While outbreaks impacted only a small number of residential aged care facilities, they accounted for 75 per cent of all Covid-19 deaths. Pre-existing vulnerability in the aged care system, including insecure employment arrangements and workers operating across multiple facilities, a lack of planning and preparation, cases of weak leadership at the provider level, inadequate infection prevention and control and a lack of mechanisms to share learnings and experiences were all contributing factors’

National cabinet

‘National cabinet announced a co-ordinated approach across jurisdictions to gathering evidence to inform changes to isolation and quarantine ahead of Australia’s opening up, but this did not eventuate, undermining public confidence and trust at this critical time’

The states and territories

‘While different approaches across states and territories could be appropriate where local conditions or different population risk profiles demanded them, some differences were not easily explained, and no rationale was provided. This included the operation of state border closures that states enacted unilaterally and that lacked consistency and compassion in implementation’

Vaccination program

‘After a slow start dogged by a lack of supply and logistical issues, Australia’s eventual success in immunising more than 90 per cent of the country by the end of 2021 involved a number of policies designed to encourage uptake, including vaccine mandates linked to occupation’

Vaccination mandates

‘Research indicates that the use of mandates has reduced the motivation of some people to be vaccinated for Covid-19 and has led to ongoing reluctance to receive vaccines. Of particular concern is the fall in critical routine vaccination uptake amongst children, and a rise in vaccine preventable illnesses such as measles and whooping cough’

Economy

‘The health crisis quickly became an economic crisis, and the Australian government moved swiftly to provide economic supports that were focused on minimising harm by mitigating financial stress, poverty and labour force ‘scarring’’

‘While Australia recorded its first recession in almost 30 years … it was able to largely mitigate severe economic impacts. The success of the health response in Australia meant it had a corresponding success in its economic outcomes during 2020’

‘The economic recovery (post-Covid) was much stronger than anticipated, reflecting the success of Australia’s public health and economic responses and widespread misjudgment as to the strength of demand following the pandemic. With the benefit of hindsight, there was excessive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus provided throughout 2021 and 2022, especially in the construction sector. Combined with supply side disruptions, this contributed to inflationary pressures coming out of the pandemic’

‘A stronger focus on supply-side rather than demand-side policies in plans for the economic recovery would have mitigated some of the inflationary pressures’

JobKeeper

‘While the program was pivotal in Australia’s health and economic response to the pandemic, the lack of planning led to delays that increased job losses and necessary compromises in policy design that reduced value for money for taxpayers. In addition, some policy decisions, such as excluding temporary migrants and foreign companies from JobKeeper, exacerbated skills shortages and inflationary pressures during the economic recovery’

Housing stress

‘Recognising the importance of secure housing in a pandemic, state and territory governments, local governments and community organisations moved quickly to implement programs to house in hotels those sleeping rough. These were highly successful programs that reduced risk for this key cohort through the pandemic. In addition, measures such as increased social security payments and eviction and rent-rise moratoriums meant that, rather than increasing, the number of households living in housing stress reduced through the pandemic. However, once supports were withdrawn, many people were in the same position as before the pandemic, if not worse off’

Broader health impacts

‘The focus on controlling the spread of Covid-19 meant broader health issues were often given a lower priority. These issues included increased poor mental health due to the negative impacts of social isolation, pandemic disruptions and increased anxiety, and reduced access to usual health care, such as cancer and other disease screening, non emergency surgery and chronic disease management’

Elective surgery

‘Almost five years after the pandemic commenced, large backlogs in elective surgery remain due to its suspension during the pandemic’

Health workforce

‘Workforce shortages across the system, burnout, ongoing sickness and the furloughing of staff have impeded health services in their recovery to business as usual, let alone enabling them to find the additional capacity needed to address substantial backlogs. These system-wide issues are having an ongoing impact on Australians in need of health care’

Broader social impacts

‘The negative social impacts of the pandemic included extended social isolation, increases in the incidence of family violence, and reductions in access to education, disability supports and secure housing’

Increased risk of family, domestic and sexual violence

‘Some women were forced into lockdowns with their abusers, unable to leave, to be checked on by family and friends, or access domestic violence support services. In addition, there was an increase in alcohol consumption, which is linked to higher rates of family violence’

‘While some of the evidence is mixed, overall it indicates that a significant number of women and children experienced violence for the first time, and that there was also an increase in the severity of violence during the pandemic’

School attendance

‘While the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee never recommended widespread school closures, a lack of early and clear communication on the risks undermined public confidence, particularly for parents with school aged children, teachers and unions. This created the environment for subsequent state-based decisions to transition to remote learning that impacted the quality and accessibility of education throughout the pandemic’

Future pandemics

‘People worked beyond normal limits, and many of the public health professionals, frontline community service and health staff, political leaders, health experts and public servants we relied on to get through the pandemic are no longer in their positions. This poses risks to our resilience to face another crisis

‘Trust has also been eroded, and many of the measures taken during Covid-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again. That means there is a job to be done to rebuild trust, and we must plan a response based on the Australia we are today, not the Australia we were before the pandemic’