In Defence of Masks !

 We are about to experience a sombre new year.  When midnight strikes to herald the start of 2021 the harbour bridge will light up with fireworks and the television cameras will take that scene to the world, but there will be no crowds lining the foreshores.

The people of Sydney have been ordered to watch this spectacle from home and the light show in the sky will last a mere seven minutes instead of the normal doubling of that number.  This year there will be no vast crowds trying to get home on buses and trains when the fireworks end and there is the expectation that inner Sydney will be virtually deserted.

We thought we had this coronvirus pandemic under control, but days of no fresh cases reported came to an end with news that new strains were emerging in both Britain and South Africa which increased the rate of infection.  We retreated into " fortress Australia " but the damage may have already begun and this new menace has breached our shores.

Vaccination against the disease is now under way in both America and Britain and we hoped to hold off a little longer to avoid any obvious mistakes that might appear in those programmes, but this new strain is adding urgency.  We can not go into indefinite lockdown and yet that is exactly what is happening in nursing homes and aged care facilities.   In many instances, medical appointments are the only way residents are permitted to breach those lockdown rules.

  It seems that vaccinations do not stop people getting the disease but reduces the severity when they do, and that is a very good reason to get innoculations under way immediately in aged care.  This is our most vulnerable health component and in the early stages of the disease we saw how it devastated these closed communities.

Unfortunately, we are now experiencing some degree of civil disobedience.  For a while, most people wore face masks in the streets and at least tried to observe the distance rules, but now we are seeing  flagrant disregard when people congregate to enjoy themselves.   It is not unusual to see a mass of people on our beaches or singing and dancing in a pub scene.

The number of deaths from this coronavirus in Australia is minimal compared with the world scene and it will remain that way if we can keep our nerve.  Face masks are uncomfortable and inconvenient, but we would be wise to wear them as a matter of course to beat this disease.  Perhaps it is time for citizens to confront those in public unmasked to help making wearing a mask a public responsibility.

Perhaps appearing in public unmasked should invite arrest and detention.  We are assured that a combination of frequent hand washing and the use of face masks delivers the best defence against this virus and that is not an unreasonable demand to make of the public.

Quite obviously, the funds that can be directed at relief are finite and can not last indefinitely.  It is in our own interests to take the measures necessary to eliminate this disease from Australia.