I’m sure everyone has heard by now that Australia has booted top seeded tennis player, Novak Djokovic, from the country as he is not vaccinated, which goes against our border policy. I’m not going anywhere near the politics of it, other than to say, “rules is rules” and just because you are famous and good at sport does not give you the privilege of being above said rules. The sentiment of most Aussies is that he should never have made it into Australia to start with.
In all honesty, our country has worked hard to manage the covid outbreak. Our government took a different approach to much of the world and set out a three year strategy for covid:
Year 1
Lockdown and limit the spread while vaccines were developed. Over the last two years there have been numerous international headlines about how our government were taking away our rights. The thing is, we were nearly all happy to do it. There is always going to be a small but vocal group who protest otherwise, but for the average Aussie, it was just what we had to do.
Year 2
Vaccinate. Aussies rolled up their sleeves and got the jab. It’s been a staggered release, with 5 to 12 year olds only commencing last week, but the stats speak for themselves (I’m not sure about boosters, but I believe it’s around 25% so far boosted).
Year 3
Move from pandemic to endemic. With such a high vaccination rate, the idea is to let us start to move back into a more normal life. At the moment, Omicron is making its way through the community. We still have restrictions (masks, distancing, QR code check-ins, restrictions to hospitals/aged residences etc) but for most people, because of our vax rates, they fall ill, but not to a point where they need hospitalisation. In fact, after 7 days in isolation, the majority are recovered, not contagious and able to leave isolation.
Our stats speak for themselves:
To put it in perspective…
Australia = 5.4% have had covid and 0.01% have died.
America = 19% have had covid and 2.5% have died.
The government is watching the hospitalisation numbers and will tighten restrictions as needed to ensure our hospitals have beds for those who get ill (which, point to note, are mostly those who are unvaccinated!).
We’ve been able to manage this because, for the most part, Aussies have followed the rules. If you don’t like our rules, don’t come here. In the case of Novak Djokovic, he knew the rules and could have played – he just had to get the jab. After all, rules is rules.
What do you think?
January 17, 2022 at 10:49 pm
I have loved your approach and wished that our government had taken such a strict approach from the start. We are in our third provincial lockdown (this one is partial) to try to ease the demand on hospitals but I have had enough of this. Uuuuggghhhh
January 18, 2022 at 4:40 pm
I think everyone has had enough of covid. I know we are over it and can’t wait for life to be something closer to what we call normal.
January 18, 2022 at 2:50 am
The part I don’t understand–you can probably explain it easily–is why natural immunity doesn’t count. Is there some study I missed.
Thanks for sharing your approach. It’s almost impossible to get accurate information anymore from any news source.
January 18, 2022 at 4:42 pm
It’s very early days with Omicron, but studies so far have shown that natural immunity only last about 4 to 6 weeks. They suspect that it may be longer, but more studies need to be done. Natural immunity for Delta was only about 6 months. It’s a little like the flu in that contracting the disease doesn’t give you immunity.
If an Aussie catches covid, they don’t need to isolate again after exposure if that exposure occurs within 30 days of their illness.
January 18, 2022 at 4:22 am
In certain circles, you almost have the right to posture and crow. Even if we, Americans, hadn’t started in a deeper hole, we would not be where you are now. Though we have a history of vaccine mandates going back to the Revolutionary War, we can’t get it right.
Outside those certain circles, we both have the same problem. Viruses mutate with every body they infest. That means there is always something else out there. Couple that with countries who have barely even seen the vaccines, and you have a fertile playground for COVID to keep attacking the world. Many other viruses would take a regional approach, like Ebola, Dengue and such. COVID doesn’t do regional, it takes the world stage.
January 18, 2022 at 4:45 pm
Oh yes, sadly we’ll probably exhaust the Greek alphabet. Although I did listen to an interview with one expert (in a relevant science, can’t now remember which one) who believes there are only so many mutation permutations so we shouldn’t get too many more variants. Not sure that is right but I like to believe it is so!
January 18, 2022 at 4:59 am
You all have worked hard and willingly to keep the pandemic under control, to keep each other safe. I don’t understand why, even if Djokovic had a valid medical exemption, he wouldn’t be a model citizen in all other aspects. Instead, he just sort of does what he wants. Yep, rules is rules.
January 18, 2022 at 4:47 pm
It’s odd, isn’t it? You’d think he’s want to be a great role model. I hear it looks like he won’t be able to play the French open either because they are going to require vaccination too (maybe Australia’s action has set a precedent?).
January 18, 2022 at 5:12 am
Way to go, Australia!
Deb
January 18, 2022 at 4:48 pm
Haha, thanks, Deb 🙂
January 18, 2022 at 9:10 am
I was so glad to hear he was booted. The rules were clearly stated, but he seemed to think he was above them, or something. Not a good look.
Stay safe. It’s nice to hear about places that are getting this right.
January 18, 2022 at 4:57 pm
It’s not a good look for anyone, but for someone so much in the public eye (and who would have a tonne of kids looking up to him) it’s pretty shocking. Not the sort of role model you want, really.
January 19, 2022 at 11:30 am
Again, we in the US could learn some lessons from Australia. We are no better at holding star athletes accountable than we are at holding politicians accountable.
January 19, 2022 at 7:45 pm
We’re about to hit election time, so finger pointing with politicians is about to commence! Luckily we only have ot listen to it for about 6 weeks – not the two years you have to go through!!