Get back to normal life?

Australian governments in spite of their best efforts to stuff things up did a remarkable job at keeping Australia's mortality rate as low as it was. Modelling by the AMA shows that the mortality rate could have been as high as 40,000 Australians, this is almost equivalent to the population of the city of Wagga Wagga.

However, the ABS data on the deaths caused by the Covid virus does not tell the whole story. Even though the mortality rate was low, people infected with the Covid virus who required hospitalisation pushed the ability of Australia's Public hospitals to cope with the surge in demand, caused by this virus to a crisis point. As demonstrated by the article "Pandemic triggers 'mass exodus' of critical care nurses"

In Australia, there are 2,378 available Intensive care (ICU) beds, not all ICU beds have the capacity for artificial ventilation and only extremely specialised ICUs can place, seriously ill patients when other methods of artificial ventilation prove to be inadequate on ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, also known as extracorporeal life support). Highly specialised training is needed for critical care nurses so that they can operate this machinery safely.

The data from the ABS did not show the length of time a person who is seriously ill from Covid spends occupying a bed in the ICU. The length of stay, which is calculated by the number of days a seriously ill and most likely artificially ventilated patient will occupy an Intensive Care Bed, could be as short as 5 days or less, or up to 4 weeks or more. Not all patients will recover, and many will die whilst in Intensive Care.

"There were a total of 140,400 admissions to ICU and 46,600 required the use of a ventilator".

One third of seriously ill patients infected with the Covid virus who were admitted to an ICU required the support of a mechanical ventilator for them to survive.

There are 191 ICUs in Australia with 2378 available intensive care beds during baseline activity, (9.4 ICU beds per 100 000 population). Of the 175 ICUs contributing to the March 2020 surge survey, representing 2228 (94%) of available intensive care beds, maximal surge would add an additional 4258 intensive care beds (191% increase) and 2631 invasive ventilators (120% increase). This could require up to an additional 4092 senior doctors (325% increase over baseline), and 42 720 registered ICU nurses (365% increase over baseline). An additional 188 ventilators in veterinary facilities were reported.

Hopefully, we may see the last of this virus, however, on the off chance that a more deadly variant is lurking in the wings, we as a society will again be forced to make choices, some of which will be extremely unpopular with certain sectors. Do we sacrifice peoples lives in order to keep the economy functioning, until the businesses that keep the economy function because their owners and workers themselves become ill and unable to function in their usual capacity?

Non-compliance in using basic infection control methods by members of the building sectors contributed significantly to the failure in containing this virus.

This video shows how easy it is to spread contamination around, and this does not take into account the droplet mode of spreading a virus.

When it comes to Dam Lies and Statistics, how that data is interpreted depends solely on the point a person wants to make. The people I came to detest were not the politicians although I was sick of them, it was the people who for what ever reason could not comply with simple infection control measures, because their non compliance extended the periods of lock down that was being used to contain the spread of this virus.