The Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister have handily demonstrated over the past fortnight how not to get an international inquiry into the origins and early management, or mismanagement, of COVID-19. It has been a useful lesson for students of strategy and how the Government in future might better advance Australian national interests. (more…)
Category: Health
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JOHN DWYER. Palmer’s Pills, all 32 million of them!
Sydney Morning Herald, March 3, 2022. A grateful nation rewards Clive Palmer with the Prime Ministership for using his personal fortune to save Australia from a Covid catastrophe. President Trump tweets his congratulations noting that the two men are “kindred spirits”. (more…)
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Sound the Trumpists: The deputy sheriff rides again – Part One: The global landscape
Cockwomble: A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or engaging in inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance. Presently exemplified by Agent Orange who dwells in the casa blanca in the geopolitical capital of the world and is the inheritor of a long line of global sheriffs. (more…)
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DAVID SHEARMAN and MELISSA HASWELL; The EPBC Act Review is a once in a decade chance to prioritise our Environment, our Health and our Future
After COVID 19, many of us have a flicker of hope that our government will apply some of its demonstrated sense of responsibility on medical advice to the larger health emergency on our doorstep. (more…)
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ALEX MITCHELL: How Sydney survived the 1900 bubonic plague
Sydney was struck by bubonic plague in 1900 creating panic throughout the ramshackle town on Sydney Cove. The city fell under a state of siege and a shutdown. Why did it work? (more…)
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ANDREW FARRAN. Pandemics, paradoxes and the Federal system
There is still a question as we continue to confront the coronavirus whether the Constitution with respect to health and education needs clarification so that the imposition of border closures, regional lockdowns, school closures, etc., and decisions having legal implications, can be better determined.
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JOHN DWYER. Trump, Xi and the WHO.
President Trump, always blaming someone to hide his own inadequacies, has vented his fury on both China and the WHO. The WHO, for one precious week, had accepted China’s advice that the novel respiratory infections were not transmitted from human to human. (more…)
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TIM WOODRUFF. Health Services or a Health System?: We Have a Choice
How do we keep our population healthy? From a patient perspective we don’t have a health system. From a provider’s perspective we don’t have a health system. (more…)
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TONY SMITH. Promoting ignorance over education.
True education is open minded and open ended. It is the antithesis of propaganda and works to free minds, not control them. The federal government has a minister who lacks any understanding of basic educational principles.
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ALLAN KESSING. Unregulated Global Health Experiment by Airlines.
NATO and most western armies switched from macho big-bore rifles to 7.62mm for the strategic reason that a wounded enemy requires far more resources than a dead one. (more…)
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BARRY JONES. From COVID-19 to Climate Change? Hoping for a miracle.
Australia handled the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally well. Our success gives us confidence that our political leaders and institutions are capable of addressing other serious issues, such as climate change, the refugee crisis, redefining work, and setting a high international standard. (more…)
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TERRY SLEVIN. The Silver lining on the coronavirus cloud.
Among the extraordinary health devastation, and social and economic disruption of COVID19, comes some benefits. Will we be able to identify and capture them and will we be able to sustain them? Will public health become a higher priority for governments? (more…)
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DUNCAN MACLAREN. The Coronavirus and Scottish Independence
During her daily briefings on the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on Scotland’s NHS and people, the First Minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has been articulate, transparent, comprehensible and compassionate. And she hasn’t mentioned the word independence once, except to say that the desired “indyref 2” would not take place this year. (more…)
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STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Communication in a time of crisis
“Isolation” is also a crisis of communication for us as social beings. And an opportunity to consider with fresh interest how we can more thoughtfully support others – receiving with grace and gratitude what they may have to give. (more…)
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Covid-19, Trump, Xi and Canberra (AFR 22.4.2020)
Australia’s decision to spearhead an international enquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic –read China’s lack of transparency and the WHO’s mistakes –is a nice hoary bellow from our domestic political ramparts, but it is a policy mistake. (more…)
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IAN McAULEY. A little more coronavirus arithmetic
Here’s a little help in understanding that magic figure – the “R” value. (more…)
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KERRY GOULSTON, THANH NGUYEN AND OLIVER FRANKEL. Vietnam’s success in containing Covid-19
Relative to most other countries, including Australia, Vietnam seems to be faring extremely well in the shadow of the current coronavirus pandemic, and has recently earned praise from the WHO. Vietnam had only 275 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and thankfully no deaths from the virus, as at 17 April 2020. (more…)
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SUE WAREHAM. Cancel RIMPAC and reorder our priorities
The failure to cancel RIMPAC or the slowness in doing so – whichever turns out to be the case – demands a reordering of our priorities to place healthcare before warfare. A call from the Australian government to our troops to “#StayAtHome” is long overdue. (more…)
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ADAM ELSHAUG & STEPHEN DUCKETT. Hospitals have stopped unnecessary elective surgeries – and shouldn’t restart them after the pandemic (The Conversation 16.4.20)
Part of Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was a severe reduction in elective surgery, and so private hospitals have stood almost empty for a month now. (more…)
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JOHN DWYER. Questions we need answered before we can safely ease COVID-19 restrictions.
COVID decisions at the cross roads; which path will Australia take? (more…)
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PETER SAINSBURY. Corona-myths: shifting the blame to preserve privilege. Part 2 of 2.
In Part 1 I explored seven myths about coronavirus that are being used to obscure the truth, shift responsibility and perpetuate existing power and privilege. In Part 2 I examine the failure over the last twenty years of governments and corporations to fulfil their risk management responsibilities to prevent and prepare for a viral pandemic. We need a new breed of managers if we want the post-COVID world to tackle the serious problems besetting humanity in the 21st century.
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TIM WOODRUFF. COVID 19: Lessons for our Health ?System
Australia doesn’t have a health system. We have a maze of poorly connected health services which barely manage to work together to provide health care of extremely variable quality depending on many competing variables such as income, geography, ethnicity, culture, and type of illness. (more…)
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PETER SAINSBURY. Corona-myths: shifting the blame to preserve privilege. Part 1 of 2.
Myths about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, who is to blame and characteristics of the global response abound. In Part 1 I explore seven myths, the most significant being that the pandemic could not have been predicted. These myths are being used to obscure the truth, shift responsibility and perpetuate existing power and privilege.
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IAN McAULEY. Arithmetic supports a policy of eradicating coronavirus
The numbers behind the spread of coronavirus in Australia are promising, but we should wait some time before considering any relaxation of social distancing and other restrictions. (more…)
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MAX HAYTON. Ardern provides crisis management masterclass.
New Zealand is giving us a crisis management masterclass. Prime Minister Ardern has demonstrated skilful and empathetic management of the Covid-19 crisis. (more…)
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
What people in other forums are saying about public policy (more…)
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ALEXANDER C L HOLDEN and CARLOS R QUIONEZ. What should our health professional associations be in the 21st Ce ntury?
Health professionals form professional associations to facilitate collective action and advocacy on relevant and pertinent issues. What should the guiding values and principles be behind these organisations and what should their role be in our society in the 21st Century? (more…)
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JOHN DWYER. Exploring COVID-19 controversies. Part 1
As we settle into the longest winter of our lives, strict containment strategies are provoking controversy fuelled by misinformation or insufficient knowledge of COVID realities. (more…)
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JACK WATERFORD. Failing to mass test condemns us to repeated epidemics
Australia needs to start mass testing for Coronavirus if we want to truly get a grip on this epidemic. Otherwise, those reluctant to present to medical authorities may continue to unwittingly spread the virus. (more…)
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RIVKA T. WITENBERG A moral dilemma or not.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 has created some problematic dilemmas, at least for some of us. We hear from people of all walks of life asking whether it could be that the cure is worse than the disease. (more…)