Quote:
Originally Posted by PG2
Romulus, serious question, and I understand that it is sort of hypothetical. I apologise if you have already covered this.
If, in your mind, COVID was as serious as they/whoever are saying, would you be OK with the measures that have taken place?
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That's a vexed question. We were dealing with an unknown outbreak back in March, and the government did what it needed to do with the limited information available. I do recall however the Prime Minister saying that for most people they would have minor cold or influenza based symptoms and would recover. But, as Work Horse has stated in his previous response, for some people, this is not a minor issue, in fact, it is the exact opposite, and could result in serious complications or death. This is has been demonstrated by the number of elderly people and those who are immune compromised who've died from or with Covid.
Therein lies the problem for governments. Do we lock up the country to avoid spread of this virus, at the cost to the economy. Or does the country relax its controls, allow the virus to spread, and 'survival of the fittest' prevails? People elect governments, and for most people, this governance includes 'protecting them from a virus'. What happens if there is a 3rd, 4th or 5th outbreak? Do we introduce the same measures Victoria has gone through? Or can we take an approach NSW has done, which seems to have worked ok. No matter what approach is taken, we're going to see the transactional cost of protecting the people next year as I said before.
My position is I'm prepared to deal with the possibility catching this virus. I'm not confident a vaccine will work, RNA vaccines have been unsuccessful to date. I'd prefer the governments relaxed the use off off label medications, I'd prefer to discuss with my doctor the possibility of taking prophylactic medication (HCQ or other drugs that have been touted) rather than a bureaucrat deciding what I can or can't take. There's a lot to be said about the 'doctor-patient' relationship and it being overridden under the current circumstances.
To answer your question, I think the NSW approach has worked the best, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has done a good job.