How Good Is Riding The Wave?

Written Wednesday, January 12, 2022: On Monday, the government told Australia's ragged parents that there was no shortage of vaccines for kids. This, despite tight restrictions being placed on the number of child-doses allowed to GPs, and vax appointments being cancelled all over the country. The slippery fine print was that supply-chain failures arising from Covid-spread meant the shots existed - they just weren't being distributed. (Although another report said we were indeed still awaiting some overseas shipments - but either way, that's a shortage.)

Over and over again in his Monday presser, the PM said the country just had to "push through" and "ride the wave", as though that meant something other than just getting used to the sick and the dead. He vowed to ensure small-to-medium business wouldn't have to test its staff, on the basis of there being "no exposure sites anymore". (This, he said, was thanks in part to his 4-hour redefinition of close contact - the one experts described as "unscientific", that would allow countless potentially-infected to wander freely.) Mr Morrison insisted "ride the wave" wasn't the same as "let it rip", but the difference wasn't at all clear. He said he was working hard on getting asymptomatic close-contacts who were deemed necessary to supply-chains exempted from isolation rules and pesky Health & Safety stuff. Risk be damned.

Asked if the spread had been faster than he expected, he deflected: "No one has a crystal ball". It certainly wasn't his fault: "Omicron changed everything". So, he was satisfied with the level of planning & prep his admin had done both in the lead up to this imploding Grand Reopening, and also in anticipation of further variants?

Just one word: "Yes".