Mike's Minute: Economy must be part of virus plan

Apr 14, 2020 · 2m 28s
Mike's Minute: Economy must be part of virus plan
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Yes, another good health day for this country. Another day in which the new cases drop. Another day, more importantly, where the number of recoveries far outweighs the number of...

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Yes, another good health day for this country. Another day in which the new cases drop. Another day, more importantly, where the number of recoveries far outweighs the number of new cases. 
There is no doubt that over a very short period of time as we enter the end of week three of level four that, given we are a tiny nation, an island nation and fairly sparsely populated, that if you close the place and prevent people dong anything, you will get the sort of health outcome we are getting.
But the evidence is mounting we are overdoing the health side of the equation.
You can't hide from the numbers, not just the numbers of recoveries or of new cases, but the tiny number comparatively of cases overall. The number of hospital beds that lie empty for increasingly no good reason at all. The ICU capacity that simply hasn’t or won't be used.
For a health professional, or obsessive, these are golden days. This is an experiment the likes of which we are, fingers crossed, never likely to need to repeat. Put a country on ice, and watch what happens.
But the rest of the world are getting ahead of us. The rest of the world, or at least growing parts, are doing a couple of things we aren't. Getting back to work, and locking down with a more realistic approach to the economy.
We are not eliminating the virus. That is fanciful. Is it possible if we stayed locked down for another four weeks, and the new daily rate drops to next to nothing, and the recovery number continues to rise, that eventually we will get to a statistical zero? Of course it is.
But that’s not the point. Being broke with no official cases means nothing. Because we are broke, and testing shows we have people with the virus who either don’t know it, or we don't know it because testing hasn't been wide enough.
The University of Gothenburg has the numbers. They claim tiny proportions of actual cases have been captured. In Iceland they suspect huge swathes of people potentially have it without knowing it. And so, increasing numbers of countries are returning to work.
Or places like Australia are still locked down, but locked down less than us. And it is too Australia we must look most closely. Why? Because they are us. We are the same model.
Is their curve flatter? Yes. Is there death rate comparable? Yes. Is their economy more open therefore less damaged and more readily able to restart? Yes.
If it's pure health you're after, then the little lab experiment our Prime Minister seems so besotted with is fantastic. But she may preside over it while standing in a smouldering economic ruin. Meantime Australia will get out quicker and be economically leaving us in their dust.
We aren't leading the world in a place that counts. They are. We need to look and learn, fast.    
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Author Rocco Zanni
Organization Spreaker Staff
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