Phillip Coorey
AFR
Mar 13, 2020
At a press conference in Parliament House last week, the question was asked: “how many people are estimated in Australia to contract the disease?”
Scott Morrison deferred to Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy, who said there was a range of modelling.
“We’re looking at scenarios from the most benign through to, you know, some millions of people being infected over a period of several weeks, and we think our health system is well-prepared to cope with that.”
The look on the prime minister’s face was telling and he quickly chimed in. If he could have stuffed the words back in Dr Murphy’s mouth, he would have.
“We’ve been careful not to be speculative about this in the public domain. What we have done all the way through this global health crisis, I think, to be very candid and upfront with the Australian people, and we’ll continue to do that,” he said.
Advertisement “But what we won’t do is, I think, is be speculative about these sorts of things because we were not in the position of creating unnecessary anxiety.”
It was a telling exchange. The government has been preparing for the worst but, at the same time, it has been wary of causing unnecessary alarm and inflicting more panic and economic damage.
The unedifying behaviour in supermarkets shows how fine a blance it has been walking.
Ten days ago federal Attorney-General Christian Porter and Health Minister Greg Hunt mounted a morning media blitz to prepare the population for taking drastic measures if need be.
They reminded us there were laws in place to forcibly quarantine and detain people, and cancel or ban mass gatherings, such as sport events.
“It is not inconceivable that those might be activated. There are a range of powers available that were designed specifically to handle something as serious as a pandemic,” Porter said.
So when Morrison said on Thursday he was going to the football on the weekend, he did so on the basis that the medical advice being given to the government is that there is no need yet to cancel mass gatherings.
The trouble is, the medical advice was not being communicated widely enough, people are panicking and others are making their own decisions.
The cancellation of the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix on Friday morning came hours after a member of the McLaren team was diagnosed with the virus and the team withdrew from the race. There was pile-one from the media and Twitter bloviators and the whole event was canned.
Fans who had paid thousands for airfares, tickets and hotel were left angry and stranded.
Numerous businesses from caterers, limo drivers to all else were left badly out of pocket, in many cases lumbered with stock they paid for and will never shift. On whose recommendation or what authority?
Like dominoes, other sporting codes started panicking in response, banning crowds or cancelling events.
The government, which has dragged the chain on a badly-needed information campaign, is close to losing control of the situation.
The premiers and the prime minister discussed better national coordination at COAG on Friday. This weekend – finally – an information campaign will begin.
To arrest the slide, it must feature doctors telling us what we can and can’t do. Leave the economy and the logistics to the politicians.
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