Opinion: Olympic Games to blame for change in Covid tune
“All this is well and good, when you are playing the equivalent to Russian roulette with the health and safety of our population for the sake of an impressionable look to a few individuals for gaining approval for something that is 21 years away.
Opinion
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In our most recent past our Premier via our Chief Health Officer have on a regular basis very quickly closed our borders to other states that were experiencing a rapid increase in covid 19 infections from elsewhere in Australia.
The prompt action taken has proved to be the right one every time it was put in place.
It has been the reason that we, against the odds, have had very few covid cases in Queensland.
Other states particularly NSW in the past have been very vocal regarding our actions saying that we are treating their citizens with bias inferring that we are a ‘Hillbilly State’.
Be that criticism right or wrong the fact remains that we have been scarcely affected, so what is going on now?
NSW is experiencing the covid pandemic on a huge scale with hundreds of infections, however our borders have remained open. Why? what is so different this time?
I would suggest that the reason is answerable in two words; Olympic Games!
Our Premier has just arrived in Tokyo, Japan to officially present our bid seeking the 2032 Olympic Games to the Olympic Committee on Wednesday July 21st.
Drawing a long bow I would suggest that she is tying the bid, amongst other things, to the fact that we have proved that we can handle major heath problems better that our opponents.
This latest NSW pandemic has been kept out of Queensland by skill rather than locking out other states could be her argument.
All this is well and good, when you are playing the equivalent to Russian roulette with the health and safety of our population for the sake of an impressionable look to a few individuals for gaining approval for something that is 21 years away.
What happens should any number of infected people cross our border resulting in playing havoc with our health and safety, hence making us vulnerable, all due to leaving our borders open to all comers?
I hope that does not happen but if our border was shut it’s likelihood would be negligible.
Maybe I suffer from paranoia with this point of view, but I would not think that the Olympic Games in 2032 is worth the risk of the loss of one life and on that basis I would condemn this action if it is of course factual.
The real truth of the situation will come out on Wednesday evening if on Thursday we shut our borders.
Robert Henderson, Sharon.
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Originally published as Opinion: Olympic Games to blame for change in Covid tune
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