It was interesting to read Michelle Grattan’s take on the
discord within the ‘national cabinet’ assembled by Prime Minister Scott
Morrison1. She characterised it as a contest between hardliners such
as Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian who clearly gave notice their states
are going into lockdown, where people would be confined to their homes, and the
gradualists, led by Morrison, who are resisting a full
Adam Creighton, the supposed economics
editor of Murdoch’s The Australian, pontificated about the coronavirus pandemic,
in a tweet, in which he said:
“This deliberate economic and social catastrophe is
unnecessary. It will tear us apart for a generation. 18 dead. Why not
quarantine the elderly, stop travel, keep people in work and avoid economic
collapse?”
The Diamond Princess was the
cruise ship quarantined in Japanese waters after one person who disembarked in
Hong Kong tested positive for COVID-19. The outbreak on the ship has been
intensively studied, with almost all of the 3,711 passengers and crew being
tested for the virus, some more than once. Scientists found that 700 of them
were infected with the virus, with a substantial proportion – 18% – being
In Australia, by far the
largest single group of people whose source of COVID-19 infection is known, are
those infected during overseas travel1. We have known this ever
since the pandemic reached these shores some months ago. However, today, March
26th, 2020, at Sydney airport, people were cheek by jowl waiting to
go through customs; no social distancing; but with symptom checks; and the
For the third time in
as many weeks, the supermarket down the road had absolutely no toilet paper. Neither
were there any tissues, paper hand towels, soap, hand sanitiser or pasta. We weren’t
going to buy any toilet paper, we just happened to walk down that aisle; we have
plenty left for a few weeks. However, if the panic buying by the bogans or
profiteers continues, we will eventually run out. We are not panic stricken
I expect that, like
most people, I am very concerned about the possibility of contracting the COVID-19
disease from the SARS-Cov-2 virus. The death rate for my age group (60-69) is
about 3.6%1, and many people in that age group have underlying
medical conditions which increases their risk. While I have cheated death a
couple of times over my life, once as a baby with gastroenteritis, and once as
Microphone bully Alan
Jones clearly thinks himself a genius because, in addition to believing he
knows more than all the climate scientists on the planet, now he is telling
epidemiologists that they do not know what they are talking about with regard
to COVID-19. This was made clear when he said that COVID-19 is just ‘the health
version of global warming’ and added “Unless I’m moving in different circles,
One simple question epitomised
the lack of ability of the current government in dealing with the SARS-CoV-2
pandemic. On the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Insiders’ program on
Sunday morning, David Speers interviewed Health Minister Greg Hunt and Chief
Medical Officer Brendan Murphy. When Speers asked (7 minutes in1) if
it was still okay to shake people’s hands, Murphy stated: “At the moment, we