The reviewers said Australia was "recognised globally" for elements of its public health response and that its rates of infection, hospitalisation and death were among the world's lowest in the first 18 months of the pandemic.
"We lost too many lives, but we also saved thousands, and this needs to be understood as we reflect."
But it found Australia's preparedness wanting, pointing in particular to a lack of prior collaboration across the federation to agree how a pandemic would be handled.
Setting those roles for next time — including responsibility for quarantine, medical stockpiling and border decisions — was a key recommendation.
So too was a better series of action plans, especially for vulnerable populations. Reviewers pointed to the new Centre for Disease Control as the place to co-ordinate these plans.
"One of the most common phrases we heard during the Inquiry was 'building the plane while it was flying,'" the reviewers said.
"There was little clarity as to roles and responsibilities, particularly between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments … [This] caused significant distress, delays and increased risk of harm in key areas of the pandemic response."
ABC link
so a couple of days ago I read a post that expected the Covid review would be a "whitewash". apparently wanting to expose the criminal conduct of Premiers who ordered lockdowns and the vaccine "scam".
certainly not everything was done right and I expected criticism to be high on the comments about the review, but it seems the work done by a senior PS, an epidemiologist and an economist looked at this more as a clinical exercise. numerous flaws were found, particularly the lack of explanation to the community why lockdowns were so necessary, that the cost to the community through high rates of infection and death or disability of sufferers would be far greater than the cost of reducing such problems through lockdowns.
honestly lockdowns and methods of social control limited our exposure to the disease. these are the standards widely accepted by medicine and Public Health management. and they worked very well as >90% of people accepted the methods and worked with govts rather than stupidly protesting or rioting as occurred in Melbourne.
in short: Aus did pretty well compared to many other nations, such as the US and UK, who fought against the very idea of the pandemic and the facts of severe disease and deaths.
now go for it deniers, and I hope many who accept scientific understanding will also read and post well.
