I tend to agree with you both ttbn, Armchair Critic.

This is my understanding of the essential positions-

ttbn's position- Corona isn't as dangerous as "some" are saying- and it was an over-reaction to have lockdowns. Corona is basically the same as the flu.

Armchair Critic's position- If Corona was as dangerous as "some" are saying they should have locked the national borders better- from nations with different sovereign policies on medicine- that way we wouldn't have had to have lockdowns between states and within states and the economy and the logistics and the workplaces wouldn't have had to be locked down- and millions of people wouldn't have lost their jobs (I see this as mainly the fault of the state governents- mostly Victoria).

The Corona strategy would have been convenient for Communist insurgents- it acts against their enemies in business and the workplace financially, it gets the public used to complying with intrusive authority, it sets up the authoritarian hierarchy (you can't get food or medical treatment, etc unless you comply with Corona authoritarianism), it tracks the movement of individual people.

Science should be a tool of advise not tyranny- but we need to question the science- the questioning of science is part of science. We need to see the evidence and it needs to be peer and publicly reviewed.

Similar to the Economic- Efficient Market Hypothesis. Sadly democracy especially Representative Democracy isn't democratic- and science isn't always science- it's an indication of our corruption if we've forgotten this.

Well, the next sad episode is only around the corner, let's see how Albo & Co will handle it. Lots of hindsight available to them !

Phillip started his article with a direct quote from my publication in Online Opinion, entitled “Lies, damned lies and COVID-19 death statistics”. I am glad that my work stimulated him to write about “getting back to normal”.
Although the references to leprosy, tuberculosis, typhoid, and cholera may be historically interesting, these curable illnesses are not relevant to the current Coronavirus pandemic.
It is very interesting that Influenza has been less prevalent in 2020 and 2021, but this is probably due to a "dominant respiratory virus" effect, rather than non-pharmaceutical interventions. Now that the incidence of Coronavirus is decreasing, the incidence of Influenza has risen again, as expected. Coronavirus has been circulating for centuries and will continue to do so, in various forms. We need to establish sensible, practical protocols for dealing with Coronavirus, without penalizing young, healthy working people who are at low risk of adverse outcomes from this virus.
Modelling extreme, adverse consequences during the Coronavirus pandemic has created unnecessary fear in Governments and in the community and has been proven to be wrong on innumerable occasions.
Dedicated nurses, doctors and paramedical staff working in large hospitals have been subjected to various stresses for many years before the current Coronavirus pandemic, including long hours, night shifts, complicated bureaucratic processes, bullying, regimentation, emotional stress and burn-out. I agree with Phillip that the Coronavirus pandemic has added to their stresses because of increased workloads. However, staff shortages caused by Government rules requiring compulsory isolation or quarantine of close contacts of COVID positive cases have also contributed to staff shortages and increased stress for hospital staff.
Around the world, people are slowly “coming back to normal” after two years of living in fear which has been promulgated and encouraged by our “popular” press. We have been subjected to authoritarian, confusing Government regulations which have limited our basic freedoms. Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world in “returning to normal”. I hope and pray that the people of Australia can return to a sensible, safe “normal” as soon as possible.