Joan Carlini1
1 Gold Coast Health Consumer Advisory Group, Parklands Drive, Gold Coast, 4211, J.Carlini@griffith.edu.au
People with disabilities and pre-existing medical illnesses may be more vulnerable as a result of government initiatives aimed at controlling individual behaviours to lower the chance of COVID-19 transmission. Countries successful in combatting the disease shared similar public health responses, that is imposed swift and forceful actions during the crisis. While these mechanisms were rapidly entrenched as normal behaviours, for the most vulnerable in the community, the initiative activated a fear response beyond what was necessary to halt transmission.
The general public’s interest and cooperation declined as a result of the COVID-19 recommendations’ repeated modifications, and vulnerable populations started isolating themselves and acting in unnecessarily restrictive ways. Within Australia, woman, carers, people living with disability and chronic health conditions were hardest hit. The recent report, Fault lines: an independent review into Australia’s response to Covid-19, led by former public servant Peter Shergold, found some responses, such as lockdowns and border closures were not necessary, and schools should have remained open.
These failures have had tremendous and detrimental effects on our most vulnerable in the community. But still the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said she had “made the decisions in the best interests of Queenslanders and it kept Queenslanders safe”. But, for my sister in-law living in New South Wales and unable to get breast cancer treatment in Queensland, that didn’t keep her, or people in her circumstances safe.