I am yearning for some political honesty. I spent Wednesday again sitting in the ED of a major hospital with my frail elderly mother further witnessing the impacts of #LetItRip.
In NYC where I lived during the first wave, both the Mayor of NYC and the Governor of NY did searingly honest daily pressers. I am not seeing that type of honesty here. The pretense that all is well continues. And it seems to have become largely bipartisan.
We are seeing the full expression of power exercised by leadership who have been able to politic their way out of consequences their entire lives. There seems to be no sense that actions and decisions have real life (and death) consequences and not just political consequences.
We have to learn to live with Covid. That is understood. But there are countries that are living with it without accepting dying with it. Transient immunity means that herd immunity will elude us for some time. Omicron is very unlikely to be the last wave.
We need leadership that sees beyond the soundbite and spin. We need medical advisors who speak uncomfortable truths to power. And we need transparency, not patronizing assurances.
I may be wrong in my forecasting but I am not wrong in my analysis of the dishonesty with which we are being insulted. This wave was not expected. There was an ill informed belief that vaccination would prevent it. It was not necessary nor inevitable. We are victims of hubris.
Pretending that this was all part of the plan has shaken Australians' trust in government to a degree I have never seen in this country. And with that trust gone the way out is going to be much harder. Not to mention subsequent waves.
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