In my last post, I gave Daniel Andrews and the Victorian government a scathing rebuke of their handling of hotel quarantine. Honestly, it was justified but I could have forgiven them for that if that was where the mistakes ended. I mean, the NSW government led by Premier Gladys Berejiklian, severely bungled the Ruby Princess cruise ship outbreak but since then I believe their response to the pandemic has been the best in the country as they have managed small outbreaks effectively whilst keeping the economy open. In stark contrast, the Victorian government kept making mistakes which only exacerbated the problem.
In this post I will outline what I believe is the biggest mistake made so far and relates to the heading, “Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Best?” I know, everyone knows the saying is hope for the best but prepare for the worst but that is not what we did. Before we went into the first lockdown Australia got lucky. We knew what was going on in China but we were not sure how it was going to go spreading to other countries. Australia could have easily got stung by this as we have direct flights to and from China and if we had been the first country to get badly hit we would be facing huge repercussions. But, the virus chose Italy and Spain and we had the benefit of going into our first lockdown whilst the problem was relatively small.
And from there we enjoyed what seemed like the governments one and only weapon against COVID 19. Lockdown. For the best part of 3 months we stayed home, binged on Netflix and got fat whilst COVID cases diminished and we awaited freedom. Doing what the Victorian government had instructed. Little did we know, the Victorian government was leading by example and also doing nothing.
The government had three months to prepare for the worst and I actually got to experience first hand how badly they had failed. Back in May, I personally knew two people who had been tested for COVID19. Both results came back negative, within 24 hours. Fast forward a month and Victoria is suddenly faced with the second wave. Testing is ramped up and the government is congratulating itself on how many tests are getting done. There is just one problem. It took far longer than 24 hours to get the results back.
Now, how did I manage to experience this first hand? Well, back in June one of my sons teachers had been tested for COVID19 and that test had come back positive. My son was a close contact. I do not know when the teacher was tested so I do not know how long he had to wait for his results. What I do know is that my sons contact with the teacher happened on a Thursday. We understand the school was informed on a Monday. The school informed us via email that night but we didn’t read the email until Tuesday and we were not informed by the authorities until Wednesday. If the school had not informed us we could have been letting my son interact with society for six whole days whilst being infected. 48 of these hours were since the teacher was confirmed positive.
Anyway, my son seemed remarkably nonplussed which was good but I was frantic. What if he was positive? What if he’s infected others? What if the rest of the family get it? What if… What if… What if… I had hundreds of questions and I had to wait over a day to get answers. I also started trying to contact trace my sons whereabouts. In the four days he had before notification, he had hung out with friends both in and out of school. He had seen his grandparents and aunt and uncle. I had taken him to have his hair cut and taken him for a hot chocolate and we also went to the supermarket. If you think about it, that is only just more than one thing a day and if I remove his school friends from the equation that could be as many as 30 close contacts. Anyway, I cannot say how long the gears were turning before our notification but I do know that the official contact tracing took two days. This is way to long. It needed to be the same day but this is not where the story ends.
As soon as we find out that was son was a close contact we took him to get tested. That happened on the Tuesday. As he was a close contact we were told his result would be prioritised. We got his “priority” results five days later. Five days of worry. Five days of concern. Five days his close contacts could be running around the state unknowingly spreading the virus. Luckily, the test came back negative.
One month later, I developed a sore throat. Normally I’d think nothing of it but given the pandemic and the instructions from the authorities I went and got tested. When I got there they simply told me that the results would take five days. In five days my result came back negative.
My question is during the first lockdown we had three months to prepare. Three months to streamline contact tracing protocols. Three months to ramp up testing so why do our capabilities seem almost exactly the same on day one of the pandemic as they do now? In the absence of a vaccine or any effective medical treatment quick, accurate testing and fast, effective contact tracing should be our first weapon against the virus. Instead it seems to be a strict lockdown that attacks our economy, our freedom and our civil rights that is our only effective measure against COVID19 in Victoria.
You might say though that staying ahead of the contact tracing is too difficult. I’ll grant you, it is hard. Even with 24 hour turnaround on testing contact tracers seem to always be chasing their tail but it is possible. NSW have been effectively managing a small number of cases for weeks without letting it get out of control. If the most populous state with the largest city can do it then why can’t Victoria?
Until next time, stay well :)
Ps. Why does testing even need to be 24 hours? Why can’t we get a test done in an hour or less? How much easier would that make it for contact tracers? As it happens, the Hunter Medical Research Institute are close to just that so why aren’t governments supporting it? I will talk about this more when I give you my thought on the COVID19 vaccine.
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