At the time:

1. no one knew that much about COVID. Even the authorities and experts!

2. It was a respiratory thing kinda like a cold or flu that killed some people. And then more people. And of course the news hyped that. So many theories and crackpots and experts and armchair-experts spouting all kinds of shit. It was tiring to open a web browser.

3. No vaccine. No vaccine for at least a year. You just have to wait for this tidal wave of sickness to hit you and everyone around you.

4. I recall seeing on the news what was happening in Italy. March 2020, something like 600 people a day dying of covid. Italy's hospitals were being overrun with covid patients. It wasn't obvious who needed treatment and help to survive the night and who could just go home and be (quite) miserable for a bit. There were so many unknowns! Hospital overrun resulted in not just covid patients dying but also anyone else who needed to go to the emergency department was affected to some degree. Partly because the system didn't have the capacity and partly because you'd catch covid on top of the reason you were there. The systems were choking.

I was in Melbourne the whole time, through every lockdown. Everyone has an opinion on whether it was the right thing to do, but for me, it was the society agreed upon (via authority and literal epidemiologist expert guidance) way to avoid killing a single digit % of the population.

Don't get me wrong, I was so fucking sick of being couped up... but I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I had've put some of my neighbours through that first wave harsh covid. I couldn't say as to whether it would have killed some of them.

Yes, many people had it rough in so many different ways. Bureaucratic shit was being made up almost day to day and people were also trying to scam it day to day. So it isn't surprising shit happened. Everyone has a story.

However, to say "We should have.." belies the fact that hindsight is easy and recollection is rose tinted.

Thank you.

1. They still don’t, you just lived through an episode though so you feel good because you survived and it feels like you’re prepared.

2. Cool story.

3. Another cool story.

4. Yeah. People lost their minds because people got sick and gate crashed the ED for what’s to mostly normal person a bad flu.

You’re proving my point that people lost their minds. Our hospitals are more up the creek presently. I can’t emphasise that enough. All the billions upon billions of dollars spent during & since on R&D, staff, resources, beds. PRESENTLY - no covid outbreak - thank the lord.