We’re barely halfway through April and 2020 is already one big dumpster fire. Australia spent the first few months of the year battling devastating bushfires, and moments later we were thrown into the grips of a global pandemic, resulting in a growing number of fatalities.
As we try our hardest to follow government restrictions and social distancing rules in an attempt to flatten the curve, speculations around when life will return to ‘normal’ remain the talking point of everyone’s virtual catch-ups.
Over the weekend, Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham appeared on ABC News Breakfast where he suggested that international borders would be closed for some time yet – and may remain so well into 2021.
As far as end-of-year travel plans go, Birmingham said “December is a long time away and it’s very hard to make predictions about what will happen then, but we could be in this circumstance for quite some period of time.”
A recent report from the New York Times sung a similar tune when it comes to mass gatherings in the States. Zeke Emmanuel, a bioethicist and director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute said that “larger gatherings” including conferences, concerts and sporting events won’t return until 2021 “at the earliest.”
It’s worth noting that as of April 13th, there are 6,359 known cases in Australia while there are over 524,000 in the United States – so, we are at very different stages of the pandemic.
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The Guardian reports that Australia has not yet reached the COVID-19 “peak” and currently, the risk of relaxing on current rules and restrictions is simply too high. The report also suggests that asking ‘when’ life will return to normal isn’t as helpful as asking ‘what?’
“What needs to be in place, what needs to have been achieved, before restrictions can be lifted?” Ben Doherty writes.
Dr Raine MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at UNSW’s Kirby Institute has argued that a “short, sharp lockdown…followed by a phased listing of restrictions,” is what’s needed in Australia, according to The Guardian.
One thing is for certain, as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said, “it is not going to be over in weeks, it is going to be months and months.” We’re in it for the long haul, but if following the rules and restrictions for months is what helps us finally flatten the curve and find normality come 2021, it’s what we need to work together to do.
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