The Novak Djokovic Battle Is a Distraction. COVID Has Exposed Australia’s Health System.
In Australia, where the per capita rates of COVID are now among the worst in the world, the government has handed the health care crisis over to the free market to handle. The results are predictably catastrophic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia. (Australian Embassy Jakarta / Wikimedia Commons)
Once again, Australia has distinguished itself as a model example of how not to deal with a disaster. As we enter 2022, over the space of a few months, Australia has gone from having one of the lowest COVID case rates per capita in the world to having over 1 million active cases, with over 70,000 official new cases each day.
The country’s testing system is collapsing, and the death toll is rising. The economy is reeling, and shortages of basic goods are striking once more. Meanwhile, Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison is spending his time extolling the virtues of the free market and sparring with an anti-vax tennis player. So, how did we get here?
The Endless Summer
Despite previously establishing one of the strictest responses to COVID-19 in the world, Australia changed tack dramatically late in in 2021. Channeling some of his government’s favorite themes — Australiana, surfing content, and Margaret Thatcher — Scott Morrison declared that “the days of lockdown are over. . . . We have no choice but to ride the wave. What’s the alternative?”
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