Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: When will those in charge admit they are ‘letting it rip’ with COVID?

I often browse through my Facebook memories, looking back on previous days from years gone by.

One such “memory” that popped up recently was from a year ago when COVID was taking hold, but hadn’t really touched WA in any way.

The WA Labor Government was making sweeping decisions to stop COVID getting into WA, one of these being cancelling Country Week for hundreds of students and teachers from across the state. The reason? One case in Perth, which spread to under a dozen.

Based on that, the pollies decided to pull the rug from under our secondary school students and take away their final opportunity (for Year 12s) to compete in the competition.

At the time, the decision was supported but looking back: was it an incredible over-reaction?

Let’s just look at the situation we are in right now. Almost 20,000 cases a day. Not only that but we have no masks, other than in particular high-risk venues and we have very little to no close contact rules.

You can happily mix with a positive case in your own home and still come to work, school, shopping, the gym etcetera. As long as you wear the magic mask.

But rest assured we have passed our “peak”. But someone may need to explain the definition of the word “peak” to Mark McGowan and the rest of the party. Since he first mentioned it we have passed the “peak” many times. But with no acknowledgment from those in charge.

I do wonder when, if ever, those in charge are just going to admit they are “letting it rip”.

Unless I am being incredibly stupid, it looks like that to me. Good or bad, the virus is being allowed to spread, we have very little protection other than thin bits of fabric, which let’s face it even the best of us struggle with.

But hey, maybe there is an election coming up? Who’s betting we may see changes pretty swiftly after the votes have been counted?

Derek Goforth is a teacher at Geraldton Christian College