COVID cases are on the rise across Australia as the Omicron variant makes its mark.
Despite a rocky start we've done exceptionally well on the vaccine front with 89 per cent of people aged 16 and over double jabbed. And yet we're staring down the barrel of another COVID-ridden Christmas with thousands predicted to be in isolation for December 25.
It's like a déjà vu flashback circa 2020, except this year there's one major difference: our hospitalisation and death rates are a fraction of the size when compared to infection numbers.
We've got vaccines to thank for that.
Listen to Mia, Holly and Jessie discuss how Australians are feeling about COVID potentially ruining another Christmas. Post continues after podcast.
But the vaccine was never a tool for elimination, just like a seatbelt doesn't prevent car accidents. In both instances, the main goal of preventative measures is to limit death and hospitalisation.
And it's doing that.
The secondary reason we all got jabbed was because it is harder for the virus to spread amongst vaccinated populations. But experts have been warning us from the beginning that it will still spread, especially as the virus mutates (as it has done) into more infectious versions of itself.
Just as predicted, it's doing that too.
Despite how it feels as we watch the media revert back to reporting daily case numbers, the pandemic is playing out how experts told us it would. And the good news is, politicians also planned for that reality. This is what living with COVID looks like. This is what they've been basing their roadmaps to normality on.
Top Comments
I know the Premier doesn't want to "go backwards" ever but throwing all caution out the window is going to lead us right back into lockdowns or massively compromise healthcare. It would make way more sense to restrict mass gatherings and keep mask mandates in public to slow the spread and make it manageable than to go full tilt & crash and burn.