KEEPING THE WA BORDERS CLOSED MAKES GOOD SENSE

There is another excellent opinion piece in the West Australian today by Dr Andrew Miller, the former president of the AMA WA and current president of the Australia Society for Anaesthetists, about the need to keep the WA State borders closed a little while longer.

Dr Miller writes that almost no one in WA or Australia would benefit from WA opening up to the Covid-19 Delta and Omicron strains on February 6. He believes that “The vast majority of people in WA would experience a huge deterioration in health, freedom and business” as is the case in New South Wales and Victoria.

Dr Andrew Miller compares the let it rip attitude by those state governments, and the pseudo lockdown, where businesses are forced to close because of too many Covid sick staff, to “A beer-brave schoolie taking on a couple of bouncers.” He claims that no one is celebrating the new freedom, or going out, or is spending money.

“Their stunningly bad idea is to “ride the wave” of suffering and death to get back to something like the low levels of community cases that WA has right now. And what for?”

I totally agree with Dr Miller’s sentiments on this. Is connecting with the family really worth risking the health and lives of so many people in our community? Is free travel really good when many businesses will have to close because of lack of staff, as many of the workers will get Omicron or Delta? Will WA people be happy with empty shelves in supermarkets, with more severe restrictions when going out, and the probability of major events not going ahead, such as the recently canceled Nannup Festival? Do we want to swap our relative freedom for a different freedom where we will be restricted more than now? Are we willing to risk the lives of all the not yet vaccinated children? Can the WA and Australian economy afford to see the mining and construction industries having to close many of their operations, because thousands of their workers will be sick with Covid?

The Western Australian government has been very prudent and careful, and I know that especially Premier Mark McGowan would get a lot of flack if he decided to postpone the opening of our state borders, but I for one, and many people I have talked to, are quite happy to support him on this. His approval rating is still at 75 per cent today, according to the West Australian, so the people of WA are rather safe than sorry.

Roel Loopers