Thread by @CrabbBrendan

I’m relieved & moved by what I see of the new federal govt; vision, strength openness, empathy, respect have returned. Which makes the tolerance of COVID’s phenomenal impact, that especially targets our most vulnerable people, all the harder to reconcile. #COVI19Aus. 1/

It’s not that nothing is happening. HM Butler, a person I respect greatly, has put COVID on the agenda, the AHPPC published a strong update & it was terrific to have intervention on isolation payments. But COVID is still treated nowhere near the national emergency it is. 2/

In what was predicable & predicted, we have wave after wave of an evolving new virus of humans. Around 13 million Australians have been infected this year, now commonly re-infected, millions with a 5-10 day illness that is devastating our hospitals & wider society. 3/

Half a million of who are likely go on to get some form of organ damage (#LongCOVID). 9,000 have died this year often older, poorer or more marginalised Australian’s. These are not people dying incidentally with COVID, nor are they in their ‘last days’. These are myths. 4/

These are lives cut short. We’re likely to go close to doubling this number by year’s end. It is fundamentally changing our mortality, life-expectancy landscape. The figures above are is ‘baked in’ (terrible expression) for 2022. The human & societal toll enormous. 5/

But we now know what to expect, there are no excuses looking ahead. What we do from now will determine if we get another 13 million acute infections, 500,000 or so long COVID cases 5-10,000 deaths in the next 6 months. 6/

Our govt is not alone in their timidity with COVID, & going against the tide is tough. But as they are demonstrating elsewhere, strong empathetic leadership is well within their capacity. It will take courage to stand up & say we are choosing another way. The low COVID way. 7/

For us all - esp for our healthcare system & those who need it, for our workforce & the businesses & schools, charities that rely on them, & for our most vulnerable - we need the PM to unambiguously state that he intends to turn this ship around. Come hell or high water. 8/end