IT’S time to listen to Blind Freddie. When COVID first struck it was both common sense and politically astute for governments to design the communication response on the advice of the best medical minds in the country.
Now as the second wave rolls up the beach it is neither common sense nor politically astute to use doctors as a handy excuse for clumsy messaging. The COVID-19 communications now need to be sophisticated, well-rounded and comprehensive.
The medical fraternity has been proven to be fallible, their constant “better to be safe than sorry” recommendations have, after all, been brought to you from the same departments that gave us Ruby Princess, Newmarch House and late border crossings into NSW.
RATIONAL
COVID-19 is here for some time and society will be forced to live with it, so that means we have to maximise financial opportunity and public freedoms while keeping as safe as can be expected. Messages must be rational, thoughtful, crafted cleverly and targeted to different audiences to preserve both health and financial well-being.
Doctors are experts at tailoring their opinions for individuals but not for the masses. It’s no longer good enough to quote the medical panels. Communications must now be written in a manner that will warn and also reassure and help protect our financial wellbeing. On a continuum between panic and comfort, we are currently still too close to panic.
Blind Freddie knows that if you bluntly announce one person has tested positive in one store in one town you will kill that town’s economy for weeks or months, yet that is what we continue to do. If a case is announced then the public should also be reassured by being told of the actions taken immediately to make that area safe: Store cleaning, contact tracing, COVID-19 checking, self-isolation.
ARGUING
Left without explanation the blunt messages spread fear unnecessarily. If the message is accurate, and as calming as practicable, that at least gives the town a chance to struggle on.
Sometimes a polite suggestion is not enough. Any parent (and Blind Freddie) knows that if you recommend something to a young person they will choose to do whatever they wish, yet Andrew Constance finds himself arguing against common sense by defending the recommendation-only stance of masks on trains. Tell the little blighters to wear one or else.
And please don’t expect people, particularly young people, to do the right thing. Blind Freddie knows that when you say “avoid travelling unless it is necessary” you are actually leaving it up to them to define the word “necessary”.
Of course it is necessary to visit relatives, drive to another city to a restaurant or visit a country town. You can in fact do whatever you like because you can rationalise any trip as being necessary: “I had to check on mum”, “I was missing my grandkids”, “I had bookings at a restaurant”, “I needed to have a break”, “I haven’t played Mona Vale golf course for a while”, “The car needs a run.” Government needs to take into account that people are selfish. Blind Freddie knows that.
DEAD
Sometimes the messenger does need to be shot. If William Tell had had the accuracy of the Australian media, his son would be lying dead with an arrow in his face.
On 2GB this week a GP claimed hand air-dryers in public toilets were spreading the virus. The discussion ran on for an hour without once having it mentioned that when you use a hand-dryer you have just washed your hands! You didn’t have to be Blind Freddie to know that.
We are not all in this together. Ironically, this financial crisis is impacting entirely on those in the private sector, yet messages are being crafted by members of a fully-paid bureaucracy, to whom suffering means their restaurants have fewer seats. When asked why public servants and politicians have not taken a pay cut, the PM’s message is that everyone in the public service is working “especially hard”. In the private sector if you don’t work hard all the time you get fired.PC
The darker it gets the more we need to know there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The PM is doing that but the Premiers seem hell-bent on telling us to do better. Well, we are doing whatever we can. But some things don’t make sense. We have sport on but no spectators. Why not allow parents and grandparents to stand near but not on the sideline? I was told to go back to my car yesterday and sit in it but I was alone, a hundred metres from anyone else. We are adults, not bloody children!
We also need a means of “calibrating” the oldies
The evidence is that not all oldies die….in fact a huge majority don’t
So the smart medics need to be instructed to set up a calibration in a month
They have had three months to “look at it” and they have data from 50 countries to rely on
That’s a reliable calibration by end August, please CMO
An “expert” calibration of oldies like me!
FINALLY A SENSIBLE VOICE
Learn to live with the virus
If you are very old or have serious preconditions stay home
Otherwise open up get back to work now!!!
The objectives are quite clear. Our problem is a percentage of the population who, either through stupidity or selfishness, refuse to take preventive measures like social distancing and isolation requirements. Any confusion has been caused by media outlets shopping around for any pseudo-expert willing to offer the opposite position to the official advice thus undermining the message.