“Let’s Get On With It” Attitude Comes At A Deadly Cost

Covid Tracker: May 14

Shutterstock

As the fifth week of the federal election campaign wraps up, Australia faces a dire public health crisis.

The message to the public from both major parties continues to be that the Covid pandemic is somewhat in the past and Australia is now living with the disease.

Stay up-to-date on the latest news with The National Briefing - keeping you in the loop with news as it hits

However, the reality is quite different, as seen firsthand by the number of infections reported every day, with Australia now ranking second in the world for cases per million in a population of more than one million.

It comes as the latest data from the Bureau of Statistics, reveals Australia has seen more than 5000 people lose their lives in the last four and a half months to Covid, double the number of influenza deaths reported in the past six years.

The greater impact of the highly contagious virus is seen in the erosion of Australia’s first-class healthcare, with hospitals, medical staff, and ambulances pushed to ramping exhaustion, while general staff shortages, school and work disruptions, and the cost of living drive an even a greater divide between the haves and have nots.

So, as winter approaches, perhaps the sentiment that “we have a well vaccinated population that has reduced Covid to nothing more than the flu so let’s just get on with it” is a misleading and instead comes at a devastating cost.

We can only hope that the incoming government will address reasonable ways of reducing transmissions while offering minimal disruption to everyday life.

Meanwhile, Covid cases and hospitalisations across Australia and New Zealand look like this:

Western Australia