Covid Dilemma

Indonesia is a developing country with the vast majority of its population economically disadvantaged. The current pandemic has led to almost a hundred thousand people having passed away unnecessarily. Other countries however are in even more dire straits with authorities far and wide being somewhat truth challenged, one of the worst examples of which came out of the US when donald trump was leader (no capital letters for this ill-informed HMFWIC. He’s never been afforded the right to be called the fizziest drink the fridge). Many people in his country have ended up on the streets due to an inability of forking out dosh to cover their rent. The collateral damage world-wide is going to be massive. What we will soon be hearing are stories that will shock us all…people being put to sleep by their relatives after they have unsuccessfully tried to obtain oxygen for their loved ones, simply to put them out of their prolonged misery. We shouldn’t be economical with such truths. Economically depressed parts of the world are suffering enormously and will continue as culturally deprived environments grow exponentially.

In the recent past it was the swine flu and the bird flu which, very fortunately, killed a far smaller number than the 4.2 million that this current corona virus has.

In the 1919 Spanish flu, Australia had 15,000 people go to their maker, but worldwide one third of the world’s population were affected by the flu and 50 million took their final breath due to the flu that time ‘round.

Australia’s problems in handling this modern day drama is multi-faceted. But two things have thwarted a success rate which 18 months ago would have been wise to consider. During the initial phases, closing the borders was wise. Putting people in hotel quarantine was the best initial option. However as time went on and vaccines were being developed, our extremely challenged government, instead of putting all their eggs in one basket, should have placed orders with several drug companies and in so doing covered their bases for the future safety of their population, just in case one vaccine was better than another. That’s plain old common sense. As well, an innovative method of progressing from hotel quarantine should have been considered. Take for example the easy to erect glamping village. People worldwide before this pandemic, paid a lot of money for a glamping holiday. If our wise leaders had thought outside the square, we could have had such villages set up in weeks, offering fresh air and isolation preferably in the northern climates where the temperatures are pleasant, and therefore offering vast numbers of our own people the early opportunity of coming home from countries not so fortunate to have the climate suitable for such ideas. Tens of thousands of Aussies would have been home by now, and the brownie points scored by the government would have been quite impressive. Now, all those Australians stuck overseas, all their grieving relatives waiting for them here and probably millions more are going to change their voting preferences next time round and hopefully we’ll have a more intelligent and compassionate set of politicians to guide us out of this truly horrendous dilemma.