The Byron Shire Echo – Issue 34.41 – March 18, 2020

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Adman reacts instead of anticipates COVID-19

The Byron Shire Echo Volume 34 #41 • March 18, 2020

What the experts say Ignoring compromised political actors and their shock jock cheerleaders in a time of crisis is essential if the aim is to minimise harm and suffering.

Politics has been tribal and toxic for some time now, so low flyers like the PM, Greg Hunt and Peter Dutton should be avoided when it comes to COVID-19 advice. And Alan Jones.

The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan seems to be the ‘go to guy’ on this unfolding pandemic, along with others with specialist knowledge.

Dr Swan has been calling for a greater and quicker response, as well as banning flights from the US, which is struggling to contain the virus.

This is one of many human coronaviruses which cause respiratory infections; others include Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic Human Coronaviruses (HCoV).

So how long does Coronavirus last on surfaces? According to www.journalofhospitalinfection.com, ‘Human-to-human transmissions has been described with incubation times between two to ten days, facilitating its spread via droplets, contaminated hands or surfaces.’

The journal says Coronavirus, ‘Can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to nine days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures with 62–71 per cent ethanol, 0.5 per cent hydrogen peroxide or 0.1 per cent sodium hypochlorite within one minute.’

This is a virus that increases exponentially, yet a bell curve can be achieved. The epicentre in China’s Wuhan province (11m people) is now in decline, claim authorities, and temporary hospitals are being decommissioned. Much of this decline has been attributed to strict containment measures.

Former president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Mukesh Haikerwa told ABC’s Q&A program, on Monday night, that Australia did not have the intensive care capacity to deal with a big spike in COVID-19 patients.

Yet if social distancing measures work, and there is a slow rise in the number of patients, he said, ‘We can potentially ride the wave.’

Where is this all headed? Health authorities are bracing for a large rise in COVID-19 cases, along with subsequent deaths of those who are predominately elderly and have pre-existing conditions.

Richard Jones penned a heartfelt letter on this – see page 12.

Infectious diseases expert, James McCaw, from the University of Melbourne says it’s likely COVID-19 would become a permanent, seasonal disease in humans after this initial pandemic.

‘Just as for [2009 swine flu], the virus will cause a large initial epidemic, perhaps followed by subsequent waves of infection, and then reduce to low levels,’ Professor McCaw said.

‘But it is unlikely to truly disappear, just like seasonal influenza doesn’t truly disappear each year.

‘This is different to SARS — which we truly eliminated because we successfully controlled it before it could fully establish itself in the human population.’

Hans Lovejoy, editor News tips are welcome: editor@echo.net.au

T

o the manifest relief of the coalition and its supporters, Scott Morrison’s approach to the coronavirus crisis has been cautiously endorsed by the voters.

They have not yet embraced him – even his most enthusiastic spruikers use phrases like ‘so far he has hardly put a foot wrong,’ a long way from the unstinting praise he craves. But it is a huge improvement from the shellacking he received after the serial stuff-ups during the bushfire disasters.

Then, the feeling was that he had clearly lost control, he didn’t really know what was happening, and he didn’t care.

But this time ScoMo has grabbed the initiative; it would be nice to be seen as compassionate and empathetic, but these are optional extras. What matters is that he is seen to have taken charge.

So he can report progress; so far so good. And this means he can get on with milking it for all it is worth, and then some. Last week we barely saw him off the television, one grave and portentous speech after another, assuring a bewildered public that whatever the situation actually is, he is on top of it, alert but not alarmed, ready for action.

Or if not immediate action, at least an announceathon. To set the scene, Tuesday opened with the announcement that there would shortly be more announcements. And true to his word, he returned on Wednesday to talk about the substantive issue – what his government was doing about the health of a nervous public.

It was not before time; the official response, especially on the key questions of who should be tested, and where, when and how it was to be done, had become confused and confusing – in some cases simply unworkable.

So arrangements have been rejigged and ramped up, and crucially there is to be a hefty PR campaign, a solution dear to our leader’s heart.

And then came the big one – Thursday was make or break, money day, shitloads of the stuff to be shovelled out in the hope of averting a recession.

A recession is normally defined as two successive quarters of a fall in the GDP. Just about all the economists regard the current March quarter as a write off – it is too late to save it now.

So it will all be up to June – no expense

will be spared to push the figures across the edge into positive territory.

This, obviously, is the whole point of the exercise. And for Morrison it is of paramount importance – not just economically, but politically. Having denigrated and derided the way Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan had managed

…it appears that the public, clearly panicked by the pandemic, is prepared to be forgiving as the politicians switch policies and directions, break undertakings and promises

Mungo MacCallum to avoid a recession over the GFC, it would be the deepest of humiliations if one occurred on his own watch some thirteen years later – an unprecedented full generation of economic growth for Australia, the only country to have ever achieved such a feat.

Actually, he might even get away with it – it appears that the public, clearly panicked by the pandemic, is prepared to be forgiving as the politicians switch policies and directions, break undertakings and promises, in the hope they might ride this crisis out too.

The loss of the long-promised surplus has apparently been received with equanimity.

Explaining away a real recession, with activity going backwards and unemployment soaring, would be tougher, but there are already signs that Morrison is preparing to take out insurance – one of his many tergiversations has been to announce that contrary to his earlier reassurances, COVID-19 is actually a greater threat than was the GFC. But then, he also says that unlike the GFC, the disruption will be temporary – the economy will snap back, barely touching the ground before rebounding to resume the search for the holy surplus. And this typifies the muddle surrounding Morrison’s Friday announcement, which even his claque in The Australian admitted was a farrago of mixed messages rather than an enunciation of the ‘clear plan’ he was claiming.

He has now effectively followed two thirds of the Keynesian advice of the

then Treasury head Ken Henry in 2008: go hard, go early, go households. ScoMo has certainly gone hard; the scale of the current package far exceeds what Rudd envisaged, with the likelihood of more to come – ‘scaleable’, as Morrison calls it, meaning he has no real idea whether it will be adequate or not.

And, for reasons previously mentioned, it is certainly early. But he has squibbed on the households bit: the bulk of the cash splash goes to business, and is unlikely to trickle down into the pockets of consumers in the foreseeable future, if it ever does. The only households that will receive a direct handout will be recipients of welfare, who obviously need it, but in the current uncertain times may be reluctant to spend it in the way Morrison hopes.

The whole point of the Rudd stimulus was to instil confidence across the board, which is why the money followed the same path.

But Morrison is instilling not confidence, but confusion: off the cuff changes to travel restrictions, advice to cancel some; but not all, gatherings: daily announcements amounting to overload.

It reeks of ad hockery, of reacting to events instead of anticipating them.

A fine example was that when Peter Dutton succumbed to infection, Morrison assured the world that the medicos had told him there was no need for him to be tested, let alone quarantined, but that he was after all not going to the footy as promised because – well, because why?

We weren’t told. Which leads to the suspicion that there are other things we are not being told either.

And in the end, Morrison resorted to the old standby; an appeal to Team Australia, patriotism – the dubious quality that Samuel Johnson described as the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Morrison is not seen as a scoundrel, but he is still a fair way from political redemption. Morrison obviously sees himself as a great leader, omniscient and omnipotent; but he has succeeded only in making himself omnipresent.

To get to the next stage, he will have to channel the tsunami of announcements into a message that is rational, convincing, and trustworthy.

Unfortunately these are not the traits we associate with the master marketeer.

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