Paul Kelly summarises: ‘Australia’s second wave of COVID-19 will come with a fearful price — not just more infections but signs of psychological resistance, the erosion of political concord and fresh lockdowns that will damage recovery, cost jobs and impose a deeper financial burden on the Morrison government.’
And this is the basic comment; ‘This is not what Morrison envisaged when he said “outbreaks” were certain in the recovery. He wanted to avoid any “stop-start” process but this is what now torments Victoria and hurts Australia. It is not good enough; Morrison, the national cabinet, premiers and Health Minister Greg Hunt need a better system to check outbreaks at an earlier stage. This is exactly where Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has blundered. Excusing Andrews by saying this outbreak could have happened in any other state misses the point. It didn’t. Victorian government mistakes — defective hotel quarantine, poor contact with multicultural communities and inadequate tracing — turned an outbreak into a second wave. The firestorm about the accountability of the Andrews government is inevitable.’
The Economist for July 4 (arriving in Melbourne on 10 July) has a leader on the coronavirus and several items reporting Covid-19 issues. Also an interesting articles under the heading ‘The World IF’.
Courtesy Johannes Leak, The Australian