Much of the responsibility for the Covid controversy has remained buried, particularly the role of medical advice and its use for political purposes. Apart from medical issues with containment, some fundamental decisions – as with never contemplated border closures, school closures, and lockdowns – were excluded, but need to be reviewed before another pandemic occurs.
Then there is the ‘small’ matter of the $500 billion in increased debt. Labor, in opposition, claimed the support schemes were shut down too early. Now in government, and dealing with the debt, they complain too much was spent. The country is left with massive debt, an educational ‘black hole’, a health and welfare crisis, and an increasingly indolent and work-shy younger generation. Ongoing inflation is still with us, with little likelihood of financial solvency any time soon.
The Human Rights Commissioner believed that a Royal Commission was appropriate. Surely the 23,000 deaths should have warranted it? Ultimately, state leaders, who are alleged to have used the pandemic for political purposes, should have been brought to account. State and federal governments were obsessed with over-reaction, for fear of being accused of doing too little, too late. The end result was doing too much, too soon.
Those who made these Covid decisions were concerned only that their actions will remain unscrutinised. As the TV series Yes Minister prophetically noted: ‘Only order an inquiry when you know the outcome.’ The lack of a Royal Commission suggests politicians know the outcome but wish to conceal it. The inquiry leaves many questions unanswered. What is certainly required is a Centre for Disease Control (CDC), with the central direction of decision-making and clear authority, with regular testing of the pandemic plans to ensure readiness.
The pronouncements from World Health Organisation also need serious discussion. They are proposing to introduce a worldwide pandemic treaty, giving that unelected and dysfunctional organisation control over national governments. The small print indicates that, in addition to pandemic management, it will also have authority over matters indirectly affecting health, such as climate change and social policy. This attempt at control has been given approval by President Biden, it needs to be discussed in Australia, before Labor makes a similar commitment.
An outbreak of bird-flu is again threatening, starting in the US, and now spreading from birds to cattle and some humans. Currently there is no spread from human to human, but it serves as another reminder of the threat from mother nature. Meanwhile, a new threat has appeared from China. Yet more engineering of Covid viruses has produced an even more deadly variant. Trials in mice, genetically modified with human DNA, has revealed 100 per cent mortality. Should this ‘escape’ from a lab, or be deliberately used for biological warfare, we will need to know that future pandemic protocols are in order – and carried out.
Dr Graham Pinn, Consultant Physician
