EVEN now, 18 months into the coronavirus pandemic, the only thing consistent about America’s approach to fighting the virus is that it continues to be wildly inconsistent.
One day, a city like Pittsburgh is cancelling its Labor Day Parade out of “an abundance of caution”, the next week it is staging a belated St Patrick’s Day party where big crowds gather en masse. One college football game allows 100,000-plus fans to pack in with no vaccine or mask mandate, while another a few kilometres down the road doesn’t let anyone in without proof of both.
The southern states are a different matter altogether.
There have already been 675,000 deaths in America, with predictions that they could get to 800,000 by the end of the year.
The issue, of course, is that the United States have never been “united” in the fight against COVID-19.
From state to state, the rules are dramatically different and the messaging from leaders continues to be mixed. From afar, it appears they still don’t know what they are doing.
But are we Australians really in a position to mock them?
Let’s face it, 18 months into this pandemic, can we really boast that we are presenting a united front as a country? Or do we look more divided than ever?
Right now, our state leaders are openly thumbing their noses at a national plan to reopen the country. From state to state, we continue to have Chief Health Officers delivering varying messages, and Premiers running their own agendas and making up their own rules as they go along.
These rules don’t need to make sense, nor do our Premiers feel the need to justify them with evidence.
The result is a battle-weary community, even broken in many parts, that remains far more confused and frustrated than they need to be this far into the pandemic.
The messaging needs to change. It has to change.
We need to bring this country together again and it starts with a consistent national approach that we all understand. That we all buy into.
The thing is, Australia is still in a very strong position in comparison to other countries.
We have proven over 18 months that we are not a reckless country, the overwhelming majority will follow rules to protect themselves and those around them.
And we are getting vaccinated at a much higher rate than other countries who have already opened up regardless.
As our country reopens, it needs to do so with rules and guidelines that we can respect and understand.
We can’t have, as we see here on the Victorian-NSW border, so many different restrictions on either side of a river, where one pub is able to operate at a profit and the other has to keep its doors shut, where some kids can go to school, but others can’t, where you are allowed or not allowed to play competitive sport depending which side of the map you are on.
As it stands, Australians could be flying overseas before the WA Premier Mark McGowan lets anyone into his state, with Qantas this week confirming it has cancelled most of its scheduled flights from WA to Victoria and NSW over summer and will reroute its direct Perth-London flights until at least April 2022.
We still don’t know at what vaccination rate we will be allowed into Queensland or South Australia, even Tasmania, or whether we will need to be fully vaccinated to get into a pub in Melbourne but not in Sydney.
We need to come together as a country with our approach to living with the virus, which will lead to better understanding of rules and help with future compliance. We must stop having states trying to get one-up on their political counterparts next door, and end what have become nasty and petty border wars. The politicians may get off on it, but it’s not who we mere mortal voters are.
Being divided in approach has not worked in the US.
It was 18 months ago where our leaders trumpeted the message: “We’re in it together” … Well, perhaps it is about time we were.”
