Greed and fear reign in Oz

Consider the behaviour of some - who when they see the doctor and are close enough to infect them – confess they've been overseas. They're worried they've got coronavirus. They've endanger the staff, the nurses and the doctors – and real patients who may attend the clinic after them. Charge them under the Terrorism Act.

Check out this address by American health expert, Dr Emily Landon, on the importance of self-isolation in the Washington Post. It's hard to beat.

There are plenty of good news stories too. I've heard of neighbours leaving toilet rolls on front doors; of workers paying for the groceries of the person in the line after them; of school kids pooling their pocket money and sending it to universities to help create a vaccine.

I acknowledge the good. As Albert Camus said in The Plague, "What's true of all the evils in the world is true of plague as well. It helps men to rise above themselves."

The reaction of great swathes of the Australian people to the coronavirus outbreak, destroys any conception of Australian exceptionalism. Saccharine reference to mateship and egalitarianism are empty rhetoric. We have not risen above ourselves.

Australia is a nation, a fortress built by nature against infection and the hand of war, but unfortunately now, it's a castle where greed and fear reign supreme.