Hypothetical essays or what-ifs, have little practical value in the real world of real frontline medicine.

Simply put, a healthy economy requires a healthy population and folk willing to work!

I've done some very dangerous jobs and was paid for what the risks entailed.

Health care workers teachers and emergency workers don't have to put their lives on the line on a daily basis for the yahoos who believe all the EXTREME right-wing crap about conspiracies/no worse than the flu and other examples of willfully blind ignorance!

We're not callous, indifferent Nazis, who historically put little value on other human lives, but concocted all manner of reasons not to! But Aussies who give a rat's about the other bloke, the less well off and our elderly neighbours! In other words, normal naturally empathetic human beings! However, I stand to be corrected, Altrav, ttbn, runner and have I missed anybody?

The economy can be restarted as soon as you all want! Just so long as it's is automated and energy dependant high tech can afford the required energy bill! And built from the ground up, will require a much bigger, healthy workforce than we currently have!

And the government that is willing to see the light, learn from the past and embrace cooperative capitalism, reform all over the joint, practical pragmatism and a return to full Aussie ownership! Kudos to Joe, Chris, Dan and Paul1405 for a little objectivity and honesty!

As for a recalcitrant Leadership, the virus has created enormous new economic developmental cooperative capitalism opportunities! So, don't just do something, stand there!
Alan B

Just because some idealists believe their own nonsense doesn't equate into reality !

Agree more harm's going to be done by the reaction but it's not really out of the ordinary.
This interventionism tendency's been growing in intensity for a good quarter of a century. The impost's always on the individual.
It's always about safety of one form or another and it's always framed as the moral cause.
The difference this time's that it's on so many all at once.

Petitioning for rationality's a noble endeavor but it won't achieve much. Unfortunately. Save perhaps creating a future opportunity to say we told you so.

Jamo

I think your conflating equality madness with a public health issue.
These are two totally different animals.

Dan

Graeme,

I wrote to the Courier Mail some months ago. 'Shut Down the Lockdown'. The CM editorial that day, carried the same message.

I saw many of the things occurring that you outlined in your article. I believe many of us saw that then, and we all gave them time, but it extended way beyond reasonable.

Now is the time for articles centred on assessment.

Well done on your research.

I would only add that Westernism has been infected, in a more fundamental way, with a culture of fear and fear mongering. This culture is fermented by narrowly focused experts and pervades everywhere today.
Dr Faucci and our own Dr Jeanette Young are prime examples.

Alan B,
Young has no medical expertise in infectious disease, she was an ER doctor. Fauci has great expertise in Infectious diseases but he keeps flip flopping and has often been wrong.
Both, to me, appeared to have been motivated by fear.
Why would we listen to either?

ENFORCED LOCKDOWNS.
The only places in the world where the lockdown took place and was/is being enforced by military are Victoria and China. Both socialist republics.

Loudmouth

In November President Donald Trump is looking at a thumping win. Ignore the polls and the media Loudmouth.
Look at the data I looked at in 2016. It is this: look at the enrolments of confirmed Republican and Democat voters in the swing states.
In 2016 Republican enrolments far outstripped Democrat in those states. It is happening again now... the only difference is the gap in enrolments is wider.

I predicted Trump would win easily in 2016.
He will have a larger win in November. 2020

Thanks Faustino, interesting site. Not much to say on the rest, but I'm disappointed that there is the continuing reference to the USA situation as if it were particularly bad, and that somehow it is all due to Trump's mismanagement. I have a feeling that if we had another president of the US, we'd get similar results, but no one would be bothering to point the finger. Conversely, I also have the feeling that some states that are now closed would actually be open because there is a political element to this.

The US, like Australia,is a federation. You can no more blame Trump than you can Morrison. The state governors have all taken different directions, and in fact, if you took the cities in the northeast of the country out of the equation, the death rate would look pretty good by northern hemisphere standards. There are some interesting natural experiments there. Have a look at South Dakota for example. https://youtu.be/5OxINIkJuHY They took a path similar to Sweden.

BTW, the idea that only doctors can have a position on this is nuts. Doctors are good at treating illnesses, they aren't public health experts or epidemiologists. And these decisions have wider implications than those professions are qualified to deal with, calling for economists and other sorts of policy experts. And then, it doesn't really matter what your qualifications, it doesn't inoculate you from making mistakes, or prevent other non-specialists being right. But if you want a doctor, watch this https://youtu.be/I18d-elHLvg. So there, a doctor agrees with me, I must be right. Hmmm