I have a question. And it really deserves an answer. But I know that no one in any position of power wants it to be asked.
So I’m asking it today: what happens if Australia manages to eradicate the disease that emerged from the wet markets of Wuhan?
What do we do then?
Do we simply keep the doors locked and isolate ourselves from the rest of the world? Is that the plan?
If it is the plan then we’ve got bigger problems coming. Australia will end being the last place on earth to emerge from this insanity.
It should be fairly obvious to pretty much everyone that COVID-19, whatever it is and however it arrived, is part of the planet from now on.
So while countries like Australia and New Zealand have been able to keep case numbers down, if life is ever to resume as normal again we are going to have to accept at some point that it is pointless being so successful that we eradicate this disease.
In other words, it’s time to factor this disease in like any other into our medical system. And it’s time to accept that you cannot avoid death by choosing not to live.
I’m not arguing that COVID-19 should be ignored. Places like nursing homes need to be vigilant against this disease, just as they are vigilant against others. But lockdowns of healthy people with little risk from this disease serve no purpose at all.
In fact, these lockdowns are just making a return to normality harder to achieve.
They might have made sense if there was any hope in hell of eradicating COVID-19 altogether. But that hope long ago evaporated.
So, instead, these ongoing and new lockdowns in Australia are just delaying the inevitable, which is to say that they are delaying life.
The latest outbreak in Victoria is a perfect example.
Victoria is now going back into lockdown because there has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The government hopes that this will see case numbers drop once again. And then, in two or three months, restrictions will be eased.
Then the cycle will repeat.
And it will happen in other parts of Australia as well. It is as predictable as snot following a sneeze.
Back when things got done, you managed that issue by carrying a handkerchief. That was called success. Now we have decided that success is not sneezing at all.
And every time someone does life must be stopped.
At this rate places like Spain and Italy will open for business before us.
And it needs to be remembered that the massive death tolls in those nations and in cities like New York occurred because of conditions that are simply not replicated in most parts of Australia.
Italy’s elderly population was exposed because of intergenerational living arrangements. And in some parts of the United States there was a huge toll in nursing homes because government authorities forced these most vulnerable institutions to take in COVID-19 positive patients.
Undoubtedly, there is a risk associated with COVID-19. But given the state and federal governments now have no hope at all of eradicating this disease from Australia (or keeping it out without further lockdowns), it is time to return to normality.
It is time to allow individual citizens to take the responsibility of managing this health risk, just as they do all others.
For this to occur, the various authorities across Australia need to change their mindset. Success has never been about eradicating this disease. It has been about managing its spread so that life could resume once again.
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Bernard Gaynor is a decorated veteran of three deployments to Iraq with the Australian Army serving with military intelligence specialising in Arabic language and culture. A Catholic conservative with the courage to speak up when totalitarian political-correctness demands silence, he is deeply interested in the loss of values in modern society and its impact on all aspects of life. He is prepared to breach enemy lines with valour to defend Australia’s traditional way of life, particularly on the political and cultural fronts.
