The results of an inquiry into the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines have revealed that the Liberal Government’s shoddy response resulted in the loss of lives across Australia, $31 billion in damage to the economy, and the erosion of the public’s trust in the government. AKA, your average Scott Morrison report card.
The 868-page report, which the Albanese Government requested in 2023, has revealed that thanks to ScoMo’s “it’s not a race” COVID response, Aussies feel a lingering “resentment about what they lost” during the pandemic and lockdowns.
I won’t lie. You don’t need a fancy government report to tell you I feel a lingering resentment toward Morrison.
That said, it’s nice to have even more definitive proof that Aussies are sick of the guy.
Let’s dive into what some of the findings in the report were, shall we?
COVID-19 inquiry slams government’s response
At its core, the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report gave one resounding finding: “Australia was not prepared for a crisis like COVID-19”.
First of all, the report called out the Morrison Government’s management of the pandemic for how it diminished trust in government, particularly for its “lack of transparency, fairness, compassion, and proportionality”.
“There is broad agreement on aspects of the response that diminished trust and eroded public confidence,” read the report.
“The Inquiry consistently heard that lack of transparency significantly undermined trust.”
Delays to the vaccine rollout were found by the inquiry to have been the cause for a spike in deaths towards the end of 2021 when the Omicron variant swept the nation.
“This meant our staged reopening occurred months later than it otherwise could have, with a direct economic cost estimated at $31 billion,” the report said.
“This led to our highest ever number of case numbers and deaths from COVID-19, particularly among vulnerable populations and groups less likely or as yet unable to be vaccinated.”
Of the many things that came under the scrutiny of the report, vaccine mandates were highlighted as a cause for sects of the public losing their trust in medical science.
“Mandates were among the least preferred and understood measures taken during the pandemic,” the report stated.
“Australians now fear the politicisation of medical science and are placing their trust in local healthcare providers instead of government leaders and media. General vaccine hesitancy and scepticism have increased around the world since the pandemic.”
However, it wasn’t just the mandates that came under fire.
The report also slammed the Morrison Government’s general rollout, the lack of national coordination across all levels of government, the equity of treatment available to all people, and the economic damages caused by government spending.
“These included widespread labour and housing shortages and persistently high inflation, which almost five years after the pandemic continues to have repercussions for the Australian economy,” stated the report.
It also referenced one of the negative terms that Aussies used to refer to the sloppy delivery of the COVID-19 vaccinations and said this spoke to the nation’s growing skepticism toward the government of the day.
“The rollout, notably referred to in 2021 as the ‘strollout’, mostly side-stepped longstanding state and territory expertise in vaccine delivery and also excluded some health professions from efforts to vaccinate the nation,” it read.
Congratulations ScoMo. You didn’t want it to be a race, and now it will forever be remembered as a “strollout”. What a legacy.
Lead Image: Getty
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