COVID-19 has become the leading cause of death in Australia, beating cancer and heart disease. In the two and a half years since the start of the pandemic, there have been nearly 8400 deaths — more than 6000 this year alone. Of the deaths, about 90% of people died from COVID-19 as opposed to with the virus. In the first two months of 2022, there was a 20% increase in fatalities compared to the historical average and Australia now has one of the highest numbers of infections per capita in the world.
This is astounding for a virus that didn’t exist three years ago.
But not all deaths are equal: the virus is claiming the lives of Australia’s marginalised — the elderly, those born overseas, living in disadvantaged regions, and living with disabilities make up the bulk of deaths. Perhaps this is why Australia’s appetite for COVID-19 deaths seems to have grown.
People in low socioeconomic groups were disproportionately affected across the pandemic — many work on-site in blue-collar jobs and were more exposed to the virus, with clusters emerging in food-processing facilities. Others had to skip shifts due to infection risk or were locked in housing towers once infections grew.
They’ve been disproportionately affected by deaths, too: people in the lowest socioeconomic group were three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than in the highest group.
Migrants are some of the healthiest people in Australia, with a lower level of mortality than the Australian population as a whole (migrants are screened for existing health problems when applying for residency in Australia).
This wasn’t the case for COVID-19. There were 2.5 more deaths per 100,000 people born overseas than those born in Australia. There were 42.4 deaths per 100,000 people for those born in the Middle East, compared with 5.2 per 100,000 people for those born in Australia.
COVID-19 is also more likely to kill those with disabilities — with officials highlighting “preexisting health conditions” when discussing deaths at the peak of the pandemic (despite about 40% of Australians living with a medically diagnosed health condition). About a third of all people who died from COVID-19 had dementia; 5% had musculoskeletal disorders; and 17.5% had chronic respiratory conditions. There were also high rates of cancer and chronic cardiac conditions among those killed.
And, as expected, the elderly: there’s been a large drop in the number of elderly people dying from the flu across the pandemic, with more than 4500 fewer flu deaths than expected. Instead, they’ve been affected by COVID-19. The median age for those who died from COVID-19 was 83.9, with almost 2000 COVID-19 deaths occurring in those aged 80 to 89. There were double the amount of deaths for men than for women aged under 80.
With dozens dying from the disease on a daily basis, it seems absurd that deaths didn’t dominate the election cycle. Instead, Australians’ appetite for risk grew as we settled into “living with COVID-19” — and dying from it.
It’s outrageous that the politicians and media redirected the national conversation for political gain.
Most of last year there were regular pieces here, from a failed travel agent/Crikey board member IIRC, demanding the end of restrictions for the sake of bu$ine$$ & profit$.
Hope he’s not heard from again but, no brain, no shame – never explain, never apologise.
Thanks for the downvote, Adam.
Some way down this webpage:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/
.. you can see this upsurge for yourself. It is truly appalling that we had 20 odd months with about 1000 total deaths and now we are clocking them up at the rate of 1000 per month.
All the while ScoMo spruiked he’d saved 40,000 lives.
Know one seems to be attempting to equate why 1000 dead a month is now OK when it wasn’t through 2020 and most of 2021.
Where those early lockdowns etc in vain? Should we be more cautious now? Who’s fault was it?
We do need a review.
It was always going to happen. Why? Because no-one, in the end, had the political will to stand up to the business people who wanted travel and access restrictions removed and their markets restored Right Now, and to hell with everyone who stood in the way of their profits; and the politicians who aided and abetted them. So restrictions and safeguards were removed, tellingly, just as new infections started to spike. We know who the people are who applied this pressure, and we know who acquiesced to their wishes. There’s where the responsibility nad the fault lies.
I’ve yet to understand why McGowan in WA eventually opened up the borders to all and sundry – with the result that WA is now right up there with the rest of the country in terms of casualties, though not, perhaps, in deaths. I guess he also got pressured beyond his ability to resist.
The early lockdowns probably did some good – we’d probably have had a lot more deaths earlier, otherwise. But their effects have now well and truly worn off.
The reasons why 1000 deaths or more per month are now, apparently, acceptable are explained in the article. It’s the elderly, the poor, the marginalised that die in disproportionate numbers.
I subscribe to a US online journal called “Medium”. One of its writers, Jessica Wildfire, had this to say in an article she wrote some months back:
To “politicians and economists” you could add “bosses”. Otherwise, I think that says it all.
Business and continuous consumerism rules!
Yep. Meanwhile, if you’re poor, or old, or ill, or disabled, you’re a net cost to the economy.
You just stated everything – and more – that I was going to express.
As a paid up ALP member in Western Australia I too was disappointed in McGowan & Co’s decision to “open up” but I do understand the continual, unremitting pressure that he was under.
Barneyj. you echo a lengthy piece that I wrote on this issue months ago when ‘daggy dad’ Morrison and his NSW sidekick decided is was a ‘great; time to wind back restrictions late last year purely for political purposes and pressure from economic interests. It didn’t matter that infections were out of control in NSW at the time. It suddenly became an issue of’personal’ responsibility.
It was all about ‘freedom’ from government interference in our personal lives. The NSW fool of a premier even came out and admitted that they knew people would die in greater numbers but this was the price for ‘living’ (dying??) from COVID19. The resulting deaths were simply collateral damage.
However, by my reckoning if you pursue a policy and know what the likely consequences of that policy may be then you are responsible for the consequences whether they were intended or not. As such Morrison and his toady political and economic grubs have blood on their hands.
As to why this continues to-day obviously our political and economic elites want this and the great majority are too self-serving to object to retaining even minimal restrictions as they seek to enjoy their newly won freedom. So in fact we are not at all ‘in this together;’ rather its back to normal transmission of ‘I’m right mate’.
Our own because we listened to the “Free Dumb” movement or at least let our politicians get away with it.
Yes, Australians love telling the world how egalitarian and caring we are. Covid laid bare that myth. We’ve proven to be selfish, thoughtless, and totally accepting of a certain type of eugenics. I’m sure that will come as no surprise to our indigenous population.
Thanks, Amber – a very timely article. Even the ABC News website has just stopped running daily case and mortality figures, just after we have overtaken countries like Afghanistan and Ethiopia in the death toll. It is simply no longer true that Australia is among the least affected countries or is handling the pandemic well. As long as it someone else’s grandmother dying in an aged-care home, people have learned to look the other way.
It seems that issues that disproportionately affect disadvantaged and marginalised sectors of the community never get the attention they deserve from politicians and major media outlets. Living in denial is a popular pastime in Australia as evidenced by the dual (and interrelated) crises of the pandemic and climate. Thanks, Amber, for your important work.