So currently I am sitting at home, awaiting a call back from the COVID hotline to tell me when to come in for my test, my thoughts turn unsurprisingly to the state of Victoria. With many friends and family in that state I have watched with sadness as the state’s second outbreak has struck with far greater severity than the first.
It’s a pretty facile and lazy analysis to say this is all Dan Andrews’ fault, as many of Murdoch’s political hitmen are trying to do (but facile and lazy is kind of their calling card so this is no more surprising than the 10 million dollars of COVID recovery money awarded to Rupert Murdoch recently); and while we could talk about the impact of the deregulation and casualization of the workforce, as well as cuts to the aged care sector, in amplifying the outbreak, I am going to leave that conversation for another time too. Because I want to focus this essay reported ineffectiveness of social distancing laws and self-isolation requirements to control the spread (although I recognise that modelling shows thousands of additional cases were prevented), relative to other states. And the reason for this can’t be just that, “Victorians are stupid.” While I have seen a number of memes and social media posts to this effect, I feel this topic deserves a bit more thought (I mean the challenge of self-isolation, not the intelligence of Victorians, in case that wasn’t clear).
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