This week the UK effectively surrendered to Covid, with Boris Johnson insisting he would scrap all public health restrictions by mid-July in the apparent belief that the UK will "return to normal" if only enough people die. And today, New South Wales - currently in the grip of an outbreak - is apparently thinking of doing the same thing:
The New South Wales (NSW) government is facing its most difficult decision of the pandemic, with senior ministers cautiously canvassing abandoning a zero local-transmission strategy and accepting the Delta strain of Covid-19 will circulate in the community.To be crystal clear, "living with the virus" means allowing it to spread. It means people dying. And it means allowing it to breed new variants, which may be even more infectious, or which our current vaccines may be less effective against - basicly becoming a petri dish and an epidemiological threat to the rest of humanity. It is effectively declaring war against every government which is trying to protect its people from this horror.Three senior ministers, who would not speak publicly due to cabinet confidentiality, have acknowledged the Australian state has reached a “fork in the road” where it must choose between a lockdown to eliminate Covid or living with the virus.
In short, if New South Wales decides to "live with the virus" and become a petri-dish state, then we can no longer live with them, and our borders to them and anyone who is open to them will need to remain closed until they come to their senses. And the same goes for the UK.
