More misuse of the word "expert", highlighted by the statement that "... they do not, in fact can never have, all the knowledge needed". Not experts, then. We have definitely seen the lack of expertise in the response to covid: non-experts wrecking the economy, jobs and businesses, and lives of thousands of Australians, not to mention the draconian restrictions on freedoms, which proper experts advise have no effect on the virus.

"The solution to our pandemic problem is to reduce government involvement and control to a minimum… ". Never have truer words been written.

It's very much a stretch call F.A. Hayek "one of the great minds of the twentieth century".

But this rant about decentralized decision making is even more flawed, as it fails to recognise that in the case of the pandemic, the externalities of decision making dwarf the effects that people's decisions have on their own lives.

Australia's response has been far from perfect, but it's still way better than that of Sweden.

People who believe that there's an economic first answer to a pandemic or climate change are just the dumbest and irresponsible people on the planet. We see what happed when, Huge economy, India used this, she'll be right, approach! There's no two ways about it! One needs a healthy populace to also have a healthy economy and proven in house and our own current situation and current economic status! I get that some folk are tired of the shutdowns etc! And but for fit for purpose quarantine, we could have reopened the economy months earlier!

What we have needed from the get-go was a competent Federal government actually listening to expert advice! That those they listened to may have been doctors? But, I believe, lacked any skills in epidemiology, were the learning on the job so to speak?

And chained to the apparent incompetence by typical intellectual arrogance and a self-evident superiority complex?

Heard on the radio this morning some petty official explaining council spending on this and that tourist attraction and people movement, as almost anything they can think of to boost regional economies!?

When what we need do is actually stop infected people moving anywhere until we have eliminated this killer pandemic from our country! Then keep it out for all time with, fit for purpose quarantine, and disinfection (UV, Liquid nitrogen sprays, saturation with sunshine etc.) of all imported goods! TBC
Alan B.

Yes Alan it is the infected, & the possibly infected that should be quarantined, not the healthy locked down. Then the boarders should be shut tight, not the porous imitation shut down we have at the moment.

Any quarantine must be in a proper facility , designed for the purpose, not high rise tourist hotels. The pubs must have done a great lobbying job to get the government to mandate customers to them in a time of no tourist traffic. They would all be broke now if not for enforced usage by government decree.

There are no useful experts. As in the defense force, generals who have risen to the top in peace time are often proved useless in a real emergency. We have seen the same thing with bush fires & other emergencies. So to with a pandemic. We have no one with experience, as we have not had one in living memory. Perhaps some useful people will rise to the top during this one, but probably not. There appears to be far too much turf defense going on for that to be allowed.

One thing is for sure, it will never be a bureaucrat that is really useful, when the brown stuff hits the fan.

The claim that a central government listening to expert advice can't handle a pandemic is blown out of the water by our pragmatic Kiwi cousins and their world's best practice outcome and results!

[The proof of the pudding is in the eating! Not the spurious nonsense argument of a hidebound ideological nincompoop! And if the cap fits?]

But while NZs results have been good economically as well and doing better economically than any other economy! They could still do better if they adopted MSR thorium, nuclear power and cooperative capitalism!

Plus tax and water supply-side reforms! TBC.
Alan B.

I don’t know what ivory tower this author occupies; but obviously he’s not alone in it.

And I love the one where his solution is to trust private enterprise to do the job and not Government.

Thankfully, public health is still the responsibility of Government, and outcomes have some credibility to them.

Dan