Mission Unaccomplished
(Written Wednesday, October 5.) On Friday September 30 , Australia reached an extraordinary new low in pandemic management. At the 'National Cabinet' meeting of Premiers, Chief Ministers and Prime Minister, mandatory 5-day Covid isolation for all but health & aged care workers was scrapped. Commencing October 14, any precautions will be left entirely to the individual - Covid-positive persons will be free to move about the community. Combined with Cabinet's previous decision to abandon mandated masking, this means the virus will deliberately be allowed to spread, unimpeded. The decision was unanimous - no leader at the table spoke in opposition. Bizarrely, the government has described dispensing with protections as "getting the balance right". In fact, five day isolation was already inadequate - as research published in The Lancet has highlighted, two-thirds of people are still infectious at that point. A quarter are still infectious at 7 days. Best medical pr...