This is the third in a four-part series looking at facets of the pandemic. Read part one here and part two here.
It’s difficult to stomach the idea that the pandemic is almost over while dozens of Australians are still dying from the disease every week. While there’s been a steep drop in COVID-related deaths since all-time highs at the start of the year, the deadly disease is still circulating.
For the elderly and the immunocompromised, it’s a fact never far from their minds.
Experts and advocates are calling for caution around treating COVID-19 “like the flu”, arguing complacency will take the lives of the at-risk and questioning how such a deadly disease could be downplayed.
Over? The data says otherwise
The government has stopped releasing daily COVID-19 data, opting instead for a weekly report with a vague graph on death rates instead of definitive numbers. The World Health Organization is doing the health department’s job for them, recording 171 deaths so far this week on its dashboard. Last week, 261 people died from the virus.
In August there were nearly half a million confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 with most cases found in people aged 90 and over.
Forty aged care residents died between September 7-14, according to the latest figures available, making a cumulative total of 3981. During this timeframe, there were 1248 active COVID-19 cases across 270 facilities.
Associate principal research fellow at the Burnet Institute Professor Mike Toole said it was too early to think about the end of the pandemic.
“Putting your head in the sand and saying it’s over is way too premature. We’ve just come out of the most deadly wave of COVID we’ve ever had in July and August,” he said.
“There’s a trough; there have always been troughs [in case numbers].”
‘Insulting’ to the elderly and immunocompromised
Australia’s booster vaccination program has slowed. While 71.8% of the eligible population has had three doses, this drops to just 56% when taking into account the whole population. For Peru, Italy and Germany this number sits above 70%. There are fewer than five million Australians who have had their fourth.
“We still have a very vulnerable community and we keep sending the wrong signals, reducing even the simplest of mandates like wearing masks and public transport,” Toole said. The mask mandate on public transport has now been lifted in Victoria, following the lead of South Australia and NSW.
Toole said comparing COVID-19 to the flu was dangerous. There’s been a reduction in global life expectancy, and in Australia there were 17% more deaths reported this year to the end of May by the Australian Bureau of Statistics than the five-year average.
“It’s insulting to the elderly and other vulnerable people in our community — we just really don’t care,” he said.
What is ‘COVID-19 normal’?
People with disabilities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. One in four adults with a disability experienced worsening physical health in the first 14 months of the pandemic, and as of December 2020, 32% said they felt “overwhelmed” because of COVID-19.
Disability advocate Sam Connor told Crikey complacency was a huge concern, pointing to the removal of mask mandates on domestic and international flights and public transport, and the lack of indoor ventilation systems.
“It’s just terrifying,” she said.
“Nobody’s going to go back to pre-COVID normal.”
She believes failures of the government to protect people with disabilities could result in a massive class action lawsuit: “It’s for failing to keep us safe, for failing to make it safe to go to school and to work.”
Are you still cautious about COVID-19 or now considering it a minor threat? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
I’m 71, living independently (lucky enoug to have a girlfriend). As far as I’m concerned, the rules haven’t changed since Day 1:
. wear a mask
. wash your hands
. take the vaccines
. stay away from crowds
. socially distance where possible
Unfortunately, those who age ranges from the reverse of yours to around 60 have no concept of personal responsibility, let alone the need to exercise it.
Add one more Gary which is if infected get a PCR test asap and access to antivirals. Among elderly people in my circle those who have had Covid benefited from early antiviral treatment. That has been a game-changer.
That’s true. My focus is on not being infected, as immunocompromised (with multiple chronic conditions), I might die.
As I have stated previously I do not expect your articles to attract a great deal of comment. Not because they unimportant – far from it – but rather because we have ‘moved on’. Once upon a time I can recall as few as ten deaths daily being the cause of anguish and concern. Now we lose over 350 weekly and one hardly bats an eyelid.
We have now been conditioned by the media, government and business to accept that this is the ‘new norm’. We are now all utilitarians – all for the greater good The ‘new norm’ requires that we accept as the greater good that ‘our freedoms’ our right to do as we please are protected and to hell with those at greater risk to life and well-being than ourselves – such persons are to be regarded as acceptable collateral damage.
Our value and worth are now measured as cogs in purely economic terms. Even our supposed freedoms are a charade we are free to mainly be useful economic actors for the rich and powerful- you know those who can afford for example to ‘work’ from home and thereby reduce their risk of infection unlike those ‘trapped’ in exposed aged care settings.
I note that there was great outpouring at the death of the Queen. I pose the question ‘Is the death of Queen Elizabeth 11 COVID19’s highest profile victim’?
We already know of ‘long COVID’ even if it is not fully understood.
Recent research is now finding evidence of COVID19 induced deaths as late as 6 -12 months after an initial infection. This finding holds whether the initial infection is mild – as supposedly was the Queen’s or more serious. While the risk of later death is higher for the more serious infection the odds of death are still higher for even mild infections and presumably more so for older persons.
I have still yet to hear one detail regarding the cause of death of the Queen. Does anyone else find his unusual?.
Yet government, business groups and the selfishness of many people who now find the smallest restrictions intolerable and push on reducing safeguards to COVID19 infections. So much for any concern for the lives and welfare of others, especially those most vulnerable.
But bad as this is we have heard said many times COVID19 has less impact on our children. Really!!! And how do we know this? In fact by allowing COVID19 to rip as did the Swedes we may find that it will take many years for the impact’s of COVID to wash through our society.
For all those who find maintaining even the bare essentials of restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID and knowing what we do of its long term impacts then to that extent we as a society are complicit in whatever the consequences may be down the track.
Friedrich Engels, a 19th century philosopher although writing about the evils of unbridled capitalism in industrial England could just as easily be describing our current attitudes to COVID19 and the other’s well being: ‘…the brutal indifference . .. of each in (their) private interest becomes … repellent and offensive’. but maybe Engels is in fact is spot on is it too far a stretch to view capitalism/neo-liberalism as one of COVD19’s greatest allies?
As someone who is immunocompromised thank you for this article. It has been disheartening to go from in-it-together to don’t worry everyone is going to get it.
“There are fewer than five million Australians who have had their fourth.”
This might be a bit misleading in that there’s no real mandate for anyone under 50 to have the fourth dose (I have), nor is there evidence that a 4th dose will be effective in those younger age groups.
I personally thought that it was worth it, but I can hardly fault others between 30 and 49 (over-50s the science says get it!) for not rushing out. Especially now as the vaccines aren’t doing a great job at preventing infection so there’s not even a “do it for the community” as as last year when the vaccines did better at lowering transmission.
At least for accuracy’s sake, we should be talking about the percentage of people 50 and over only in regard to this dose.