Don’t Let Our Rulers Fool You - “Living With Covid” Means Thousands of Deaths

7 Sept

Peter Craig

07/09/2021

Anyone paying attention to the rolling coverage of the current Covid outbreak will have noticed a worrying change in the language being used across the country by both major parties at state and federal levels. Australian political leaders who once boasted of their gold standard pandemic response, and upheld zero-Covid policies when it came to stopping the spread, have totally capitulated in the face of extended lockdowns driven by the rampant spread of the Delta variant, and as usual it falls to us communists to resist the cynical nihilism of our capitalist overlords.

For weeks now, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has been talking of a need to ‘live with the virus’. At the time of writing, the Murdoch press is crowing about Dan Andrews ‘waking up to reality’ and ‘totally surrendering’ to the Berejiklian point of view, as the Victorian premier appears to be signalling his state’s abandonment of zero-Covid aspirations. Never one to be outdone when it comes to moronic soundbites, Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently preached that Australians should emulate a fictional prehistoric child and ‘leave the cave’.

One is left to wonder if our leaders are reading the same reports and seeing the same data as the rest of us because surely, if they are, they would see that life outside the cave is not particularly enticing.

Just today, as Gladys was announcing the NSW Government’s first attempt to start easing restrictions, a letter from the Australian Medical Association to the Prime Minister warned that our over-burdened healthcare system is unlikely to cope with the consequences of surrender to the Delta variant. One need only take a glance at the countless testimonials from healthcare workers around the world to confirm the AMA’s fears – hospital resources, and the frontline workers who utilise them, are stretched to breaking point [1]. The AMA has also warned that non-Covid patients may be forced out of hospitals simply to make room for this overflow [2]. In Sydney, Covid patients are already being turned away from overflowing hospitals [3].

For those of us who might be keen to get back to the pub, who believe our rulers when they tell us that having some significant percentage of our population vaccinated means a return to normalcy, I recommend a quick case study of the situation in the United Kingdom.

The UK celebrated ‘Freedom Day’ in July, with its own set of capitalist lap-dogs ceding to pressure from above and below to let the chips fall and reopen the country after a year of Covid restrictions. 79% of the British population have had their second vaccine dose, and 88% have had their first jab [4]. Indeed, the UK vaccine rollout puts the Australian effort to shame, despite rapid acceleration on our part in recent months.

Despite this, their ‘freedom’ has come at a cost. Even with the high vaccination rate that is now vaunted by our own politicians as the silver bullet to getting out of lockdown, the UK is experiencing a hundred Covid deaths a day [4]. Even accounting for the difference in population, a similar rate of death here would mean around 200 deaths a week. For point of comparison, the worst year on record for influenza killed 1,100 Australians [5], a fraction of what we would see if we attempt to ‘live’ with Covid-19. The cost of opening up and letting the virus rip would be something to the tune of 10,000 deaths over 12 months – this is without considering the tens of thousands of survivors with potentially lifelong effects, and the second order deaths due to inadequate care in an overwhelmed medical system.

The powers that be are relying on misinformation and lockdown fatigue to pass their agenda, hoping that they can convince enough Australians that ‘a few’ deaths are worth the price of ‘freedom’ (this freedom being the freedom to go back to work and have our labour exploited by capitalists). They hope to garner support for this nihilistic bargain by concocting the narrative that Delta cannot be conquered by social and workplace restrictions.

However, one need not look very far to see they are lying to our faces – faced with a Delta case from NSW, New Zealand immediately went into some of the strictest lockdown conditions on earth [6], and while they are very much in the thick of the fight, signs are much more positive than on our side of the ditch, with an R rate sitting at 0.8 [7]. Compare that with the half-hearted early response to Delta in NSW. Indeed, with their policy of locking down hard and fast, New Zealand have actually spent less time in lockdown during the pandemic than other nations who have relied on half measures [8]. That is the path to ‘freedom’, rather than governments washing their hands of the mess because dealing with Delta seems too difficult to them.

Even when our governments have locked us down, they refuse to provide safe working conditions for essential workers, decent long term support for those of us who must remain at home for public safety, or even to provide greater support to our healthcare system and its brave workers, hollowed out by decades of neoliberalism. They completely bungled the vaccine rollout, and the hotel quarantine system was half-hearted and built to fail. Their disgraceful treatment of working class communities in Western Sydney is indicative of the class politics of lockdowns in Australia, and many people there, and across the nation, are rightfully angry – an anger the same governments now seek to exploit, to drum up support for ending social distancing measures and sending workers off like lambs to the slaughter. Rather than capitulate, we must demand that our basic rights to existence and safety be protected.

“Every time Morrison, Gladys, or any other member of the ghoulish political class talks of ‘living with the virus’, they mean signing the death warrants of thousands upon thousands of ordinary people”

Do not be fooled into thinking the decision to reopen Australia is anything except political. Our governments do not have the political will to continue lockdowns, or are simply ideologically opposed to doing so. Imagine if the Prime Minister intended to launch a war in which hundreds of Australians would be killed each and every week – there would be uproar across the nation. This is no different. Our governments are not making decisions based on science or on the welfare of the Australian population – their options are bounded by their narrow, reactionary ideologies, as well as their subservience to capital.

While traditional forms of resistance are challenging in the current environment, it is of the utmost importance that communists and workers of all stripes do not concede this ideological battle, either to the ruling class, or to those on the far right who as usual seek to cynically exploit legitimate grievances to lure workers into conspiratorial false realities. We must ensure our fellow workers know they are being lied to for political expedience; that their lives mean nothing to those who rule in the name of the bourgeoisie. Every time Morrison, Gladys, or any other member of the ghoulish political class talks of ‘living with the virus’, they mean signing the death warrants of thousands upon thousands of ordinary people. Their attempts at mass slaughter must be resisted at every turn.

We must defend our communities and the interests of the working class and stand up and say together ‘Our lives are not worth your profits’.

To join the fight for the health and safety of your community, find out how you can get involved today with the Australian Communist Party :

https://www.auscp.org.au/join-us

https://www.cudl.org.au/contact