In any vibrant democracy, a healthy scepticism combined with a vibrant questioning of government policy and strategy is not only important but crucial to ensure good governance and quality leadership.
Amazingly in these COVID-19 times, there seems to be a hesitancy to do exactly that, whether it’s through our mainstream media or on our social media platforms.
If you are hesitant to voice an opinion for fear of being drowned out by hysterics, this article looks to provide you with the information to make it alright to do the following
- To question why a drug in hydroxychloroquine, that has been subscribed across the globe for 70 years, and has been supported in study after study and by legitimate experts to help with this virus, isn’t available all of a sudden in this country. This doesn’t mean you’re a conspiracy theorist, it means you have a brain.
- Similarly, why has our government ignored findings from Dr Borody, of Sydney’s Centre for Digestive Diseases for a treatment involving Ivermectin that the Indian government has embraced?
- You are not a murderer if you didn’t download the COVID App. Far from it, you have been proven right, as it has become something of a white elephant.
- It’s fine to question our health experts. Unlike in the USA where a strong debate is happening between experts and doctors dealing with COVID-19 patients on the frontline, most of our medical experts just parrot from the same hymn book & still consider WHO a reputable organisation while the USA has stopped funding it.
- If you question how accurate data modelling after putting the fear of God into our governments around the country is and consider this technique should go into the dustbin of scientific methods & replaced with a return to genuine scientific research, debate & discussion. If you do so you would find yourself in agreement with many scientists themselves.
- If you think wearing masks won’t do much, well you’re are right according to many experts who have written on this. The fact that our government has said wearing any face-covering including scarves will suffice, just demonstrates that more than anything else that the mandatory masks initiative was put in place so the government could look like they are doing something.
- It’s alright to question why a filthy rich computer nerd with no medical qualifications is taken seriously in regards to vaccines, while an expert in this area in Harvey Rich, from Yale University, gets ignored when he presents what amounts to a cure. This doesn’t make you an anti-vaxxer, It just makes you SMART
- It’s fine to look at other nations different approaches to this virus, such as Sweden’s and ask could we have used their approach here?
If you, like me, have raised these questions with others by whatever means and have then been pilloried by people living in fear, well rest easy. History shows us, that it is in just these times that important questions should be asked. We all hope our leaders, our governments and our bureaucrats get things right in these times, it’s in all of our interest that they do so and we all gave them some leeway at the start of this crisis. Now though after being in various stages of lockdown and watching events unfold across the globe from this virus, there is enough evidence to begin making some judgements and assessments and from that to ask relevant questions.
In fact, we all must do so, so if you find yourself being attacked stay calm find courage and do your research, if nothing else, in doing that we keep our representatives on their toes
When our government leaders are telling us we are in the fight of our lives and that this a one in a one hundred year pandemic Forgetting that both these claims are blatantly untrue, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. that this is the case.
In such circumstances, shouldn’t all strategies and tools then be placed on the table to fight and overcome such a crisis? Isn’t failing to do so, an act of both incompetence and gross negligence? After all, how often have we been told by our governments and their respective leaders that lives are at stake? How many times have we been lectured that not following government instructions will cost peoples lives? That our actions can lead to deaths?
Sadly the same people placing these restrictions and guidelines upon us and then lecturing us about our inadequacies, have failed abysmally in their responsibilities and duty of care. Even worse they won’t take accountability when things have gone wrong. We have witnessed with every press conference, particularly here in Victoria, question after question being evaded. Even last week the prime minister in response to a question claimed that COVID-19 was five times deadlier than the flu. I would love to see the data he was using to justify that false claim, yet nobody from the media pack questioned him on this false claim.
From their point of view, how do you explain that in the greatest threat to our nation’s health in our lifetime, we sourced security guards for hotel quarantine through WhatsApp? Rather than admit the truth it’s easier to dodge and evade than take accountability and explain the unexplainable.
For example, how do you explain that despite knowing that the most “at-risk” in our community to this virus were our elderly, you somehow have allowed it to run rampant in retirement homes and aged care facilities? Our federal and state governments don’t, they just simply shift the blame between each other, but they do it deftly so as they all have blame to share.
I would prefer for them just to be honest and to own up to their failings, as there is nothing wrong with allocating blame and learning lessons in these sorts of times. Individuals, organisations, states and nations evolve, matures and improve from such self-evaluation.
What we can be sure of is that within our community, especially here in Melbourne and Victoria more broadly, our political leaders and mainstream media have ensured an environment that produces it’s fair dose of fear, confusion, a lack of confidence and little hope for our future even after the threat of this virus has passed.
Sadly though, so far through this crisis, if you dare have the temerity (some would say stupidity) 
to question the government’s direction, especially on social media, you can guarantee a torrent of abuse which would include you being accused of murder for not downloading the COVID app, or people wishing death upon you and your family because you think wearing a mask doesn’t help. Never mind that many health experts (you know the ones we are continually lectured to pay attention to) also don’t have confidence that not only do masks not help but can actually be the cause of other health problems.
In this sort of environment, you are naturally intimidated about offering any opinion, yet in times of national crisis this is exactly what we need, people who can think outside the square, that can pause to reassess, that have the conviction of their opinion, especially after the diligence of proper research. This is even more so for those who sit around the decision making tables of the nation. What I am unsure of though is whether we have those contrary voices around those tables to question whether we have taken the wrong fork in the road and should reevaluate.
As a history buff, you only have to have read the accounts of the charge of our brave light horse soldiers at the Nek in Gallipoli, to realize the sort of disaster and loss of life that a crazed mantra to a strategy with no thought for reevaluation can lead to.
Sadly what is of concern to me, is that as a society we seem to have embraced the idea that to defeat this virus we need to put in place what is effectively a police state to govern us. If this is the case then it’s my opinion that we have collectively lost our intestinal fortitude and our courage to speak out as a society.
The quote “power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely” comes to mind at the moment.
If you think that’s over the top, would we have voted for any government proposing the following at an election referendum last November?
- One hour of exercise per day
- No travel further than five kilometres from your home.
- Only one person per household allowed to shop for essentials
- The requirement to have your business shut down or for you to lose your job.
- Police and military walking our streets and checking your house, now with the ability to enter your home without a warrant.
- Compulsory wearing of masks even if they are of no use and could cause health issues rather than prevent them.
- No travel
- No community sport
- No professional sport, concerts or general entertainment to attend.
- No visiting relatives
- No coffees of meals with family or friends at restaurants or pubs.
- No organised sport, not even gold or tennis.
- A breach of any of these restrictions leads to severe fines, arrest and sadly social shaming and online lynching from the wider community.
- To reinforce the police state mantra, our parliaments have been shut down and an obstacle to legitimate questioning has been put in place through things such as inquiries.
Of course, we wouldn’t.
Just to make thing worse we have to endure our politicians and media telling us daily that “we are all in this together”. All the while watching politicians and fat cat bureaucrats not only keep their jobs but receiving generous pay rises while the man in the street, loses their jobs, their businesses, their livelihoods and their self-respect.
Less patronizing lectures and some more legitimate governing would be more appreciated, I am sure from those of us most impacted by these restrictions.
Our political and health leaders continually say there is no playbook or precedent for this virus, but that is blatantly misleading. Every year we go through a flu season that takes as many if not more lives. We also had to overcome things such as the SARS virus and swine flu, this century yet do you recall any of the above measures being taken.
If our media published every day the number of flu cases and deaths due to that flu strain, do you think we would see similar numbers to the COVID-19 virus?
Yet for this virus, we are content to concede our liberties and freedoms on an unprecedented scale. Have we questioned those actions in the manner we should have? From my perspective, the media in pursuit for a story for that night’s news have surrendered their greater responsibility to investigate and interrogate our political leaders, governments and bureaucracies to ensure the communities rights and freedoms are defended.
Some journalists such as Adam Creighton and Steve Waterson have written strong articles with arguments against lock-downs. Steve’s recent article (linked below) has any rational person question “what are we doing?”
Legitimate questions about government decisions and strategy do not make you a conspiracy theorist, its a legitimate and necessary pursuit in a genuine democracy
When at war you know you are going to take casualties no matter your course of action. So come up with a strategy to win with the least cost in the quickest time as this will ultimately save lives. The fact is that 99% of us will survive through this virus., are we paying too high a price the other way?
If we are in a wartime scenario, shouldn’t all strategies & weapons be properly considered to win that war?
This is what makes the defamation and slander surrounding the drug, hydroxychloroquine so concerning. The campaign has been deceptive, shameful and done in a manner that seems strongly due to political considerations rather than a health one.
I am no health expert and it’s critics continually refer to a handful of studies questioning its effectiveness, yet there is study after study and health expert after health expert trumpeting it’s potential and effectiveness in dealing with this virus. Even our own Chief Health Officer, when asked last week at the Prime Minister’s press conference conceded it was safe to use.
We’ll if it’s safe and I am a patient wanting to use it based on positive referrals from studies and health experts, why is my government standing in my way? Is Trump derangement that strong that it impacts on policy in another country over sixteen thousand kilometres away from Washington DC?
On a second point, our Prime Minister loves to place on his twitter feed pictures of himself in video conferences with other nation’s leaders. Interestingly, I have seen Mr Morrison conferencing with other nations predominately with similar strategies to ourselves. What I would like to be confident of, is that the PM and our appropriate government officials are also talking to the leadership of country’s such as Sweden to discuss their COVID-19 strategy which is opposite to ours.
Despite being ridiculed initially, Sweden’s herd immunity strategy, which is hardly revolutionary, is now seeing some extremely positive results and increasingly looking like it has their populace protected from any second wave of this virus. Many are saying their COVID-19 crisis has ended after four months.
Jamie Spry, an independent journalist has written a particularity good article (linked below) detailing stats, graphs and opinions from Swedish health experts. Jamie has been providing opinion pieces for years surrounding climate change, so his research and analysis skills surrounding date and modelling are first rate.
That course of action was bizarrely written off early and seems to have been given no consideration since.
Unlike Sweden, I believe we’re going to have to tolerate the galling vision of our politicians and government leaders patting themselves on the back at the end of this COVID-19 crisis. They will be doing this standing among the smoldering ruins of our devastated economy while proclaiming how many lives they saved, while at the same time ignoring what will be the ultimate death toll from the ripple effects that this devastation will have caused.
Sweden with a large percentage of it’s population now exposed to the virus and weaponized with anti-bodies from that exposure, is now well placed to open it’s borders as well as being protected against any future second waver. In Australia no matter how many times we lock down, we won’t know what results will come our way when we eventually open our international borders as inevitably we will.
Also while Sweden has had a higher death toll per population than us, it has fared as well if not 
better than many European countries that opted for hard lock-down. Interestingly though deaths in the months covering the virus has been around the same margins as previous years.
Even countries that initially went for the hard lock-down option initially have come around to the Swedish approach. While in New York even with a hard lock-down approach they have had such community spread that they are now seeing a Swedish like decline in cases and deaths. Unfortunately, for New Yorkers, like in Australia they have their economy and way of life devastated. With their death toll could you mount an argument that they should have pursued a less stringent option? Many would.
New York Numbers
European Govt Response Stringency Index
At the start of this crisis, the goal was to control the curve and to ensure the capacity of our health system to cope. Since then we have shifted those goalposts on numerous occasions where we are now being told there will be a new COVID-19 normal at the end of this and that life won’t return to the way it was until we have a vaccine. From all accounts, at best that won’t be for another six to eighteen months, if at all. Sweden doesn’t have that concern for example
Surely we can do better than a new COVID normal? No matter what strategy a society has, with any virus you can reach a heard immunity situation as we have in the past. As a society, we need to demand a return to normality as a priority, not a COVID-19 one, or risk living in fear and destroying our future.
Is it asking too much to have some political & community leadership for us rally behind to win this fight that we find ourselves in?
Many of history’s greatest leaders have risen to their greatest achievements through turbulent 
times when they took difficult and unpopular decisions yet won the day through the power of their ideas and their ability to motivate their people. Engage in some reading and contrast our current leadership to that of Winston Churchill’s at the start of World War Two for example, when he had to give his nation and his people hope when there were none and confidence that the war could be fought and won when on all fronts it looked lost.
In contrast, since announcing stage four of lock-downs, our Premier has said he wants to avoid a six months strategy, the problem with this is at the end of this lock-down, it will have already been six months, not six weeks. A clever manipulation of words, but it doesn’t inspire any confidence that continual lock-downs will get us out of this diabolical situation with a brighter future around the corner.
Of most concern though is witnessing the cheer squad mentality of many in our community who believe the loss of liberties and freedoms is a necessary evil in this fight. If anybody dares to question it, many enter into a lynch mob mentality and cheer on any crackdown of dissent. That’s a dangerous collective psyche for us to have at any time. Let’s hope it doesn’t become embedded in our collective psyche.
Sadly through this, we now find ourselves in circumstances entirely of our own making. We are genuinely in the fight of our lives, but not against the virus, rather for the future of our city, our state, our nation & our freedoms.
Finally, I am not advocating protests or revolution, I will leave those sorts of things to the radical left of our society. For now, we have no choice but to get through this lock-down, not because of our politicians but despite them? We all need to follow these guidelines and restrictions while questioning policy and proposing alternative strategies.
What I am going to do and what I would encourage others who also believe in advocacy, is to simply take the step to write to every single member of parliament to outline your thoughts, but more importantly discover theirs. After all, we should be making these servants of the public earn their self-serving pay rises and make then fully aware that ultimately they are accountable to us.
I will publish that letter next week, feel free to join me.
Links & articles used in this article
Face Masks Face Masks present risk - Chris Baynes - Independent Mask Evidence Astonishingly week - Swedens Head Doctor Dangerous to think masks stop virus - Swedens Top epidemiologisy - Adam Creighton The Australian Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermeticin Aussie Doctor has breakthrough cure for covid-19 but nobody will listen - Miranda Devine - Daily Telegraph The Key to Defeating COVID-19 Already Exists - , Professor of Epidemiology, Yale school of public health - OpEd Newsweek Ivermeticin - A real killer of covid-19 - Chris Kenny - SkyNews HCQ works in high risk patients. Saying otherwise is dangerous - Harvey Rich - Washington Examiner An Effective COVID Treatment the Media Continues to Besmirch - Steven Hatfill - Real Clear Politics Dan Andrews Ban on Drug is TDS - Terry McCann - Herald Sun Sweden Sweden's success highlights UK's failure - Allister Heath - The Telegraph Sweden the winning case against COVID-19 by Jamie Spry - Climatism Blog What we can learn from Sweden - Freddy Sayers- UnHerd newspaper UK Economy shrinks more than any other wealthy country - Jason Douglas - The Wall Street Journal Lock-Downs Lockdowns could be considered an overreaction according to phiosopher Peter Singer - Adam Creighton - The Australian Is coronaphobia more dangerous than covid-19 itself - Ramesh Thaku - Japan Times We're paying for an epidemic of stupidty - Steve Waterson - The Australian General Elderly being turned away from Melbourne Hospitals - Sharri Markson - The Australian Public Servants Shield from COVID while private sector employees suffer - Adam Creighton - The Australian More Cancer deaths from covid lockdown - Australian Financial Review - John Kehoe Worldometer Website - Data and Graphs
