Is Australia finally waking up from the self-induced frenzy of senseless COVID policies? As we discussed earlier here, after a relative handful of new cases of COVID appeared on the ground, several states in the nation immediately hit some of the harshest blocking conditions ever seen anywhere outside of New Zealand. (Kiwis basically lived in a concentration camp for a while.) When people began protesting the restrictions, hundreds were arrested, thrown in jail, and fined thousands of dollars. Instead, the government released some “generous” sweeteners for those who were completely vaccinated. You were allowed to leave the house two hours every day instead of just one.
Australians have not yet been able to return to zero new cases, however, and it seems to lead to elected officials to what was probably an inevitable conclusion. They will begin to free their people from isolation as vaccination rates continue to rise. And, as the Prime Minister himself sadly stated, “Australia can live with this virus“(Reuters)
Australian authorities on Wednesday extended the closure of COVID-19 in Melbourne for another three weeks as they focus on rapid vaccination actions and move away from a suppression strategy to reduce cases to zero.
“We’ve thrown it all away, but now we’re clear that we’re not going to reduce those numbers, but they’re going to increase,” he said. [Victorian Premier Daniel] Andrews told reporters in Melbourne, the state capital, after a closure for nearly a month failed to quell the outbreak. The closing was due to end on Thursday.
“We need to save time to allow vaccination all the time by doing this very hard, very hard and difficult work, to keep the lid on as much as we can in cases.”
As the linked article explains, it is still too early to declare that “Freedom Day” has arrived again. The city of Melbourne has just extended the blockades for another three weeks. The state of Victoria will begin the process to ease the blockades, but not until they reach a 70% vaccination rate. This is not expected to happen until the last week of this month. There are similar plans in other populated regions.
However, we are not yet talking about so many cases. It is true that the Delta variant is free and that infection rates have risen, but Victoria only registered 120 new cases yesterday, compared to 76 the day before. This represents a population of more than 6.6 million. Similarly, the state of New South Wales, with a population of 8.8 million and home to Sydney, the country’s most populous city, will maintain its current closures until at least mid-October. . Yesterday they registered a little over 1,100 new cases.
Gladys Berejiklian, the Prime Minister of New South Wales, delivered a rather flowery speech and said that “life will be much, much better, much freerBut he immediately followed it with a warning, saying these conditions would only apply after 70% of the population was fully vaccinated. They are currently at 37%, but 67% have received at least one dose, so they are closing the gap quickly.
What seems more than anything is that Australia’s elected officials are realizing that if they try to keep people locked up much longer for no purpose, they will lose control of the situation. Protests have continued despite the harsh police response, and approval ratings for most of them have plummeted. The situation does not seem sustainable, either logistically or politically. People are just fed up.
The lesson Australians are learning is the same as I (probably foolishly) thought our politicians in the United States had learned before the last rounds of restrictions on blue states. The new coronavirus is already here and will not go away. It will continue to mutate, just as seasonal flu mutates every year. Eventually, anyone who wants a vaccine will get it and the rest will end up with their own immunity after fighting the disease. Some people will die, just as we lose some people due to the flu and other infectious diseases every year. Thus, while it may be sad to admit, the situation in the United States is the same as that described by the Prime Minister of Australia. “We can live with this virus.” But not everyone will, obviously.