COVID Zero, Truth Zero

The Albanese government’s failure to hold a Royal Commission into Australia’s response to COVID-19 will leave a historic stain on its record.We lost the opportunity to shine a bright light on the worst crisis the nation has faced this century. We lost the chance to test what worked and what didn’t. It is a betrayal of a future generation, in defence of today’s politicians, doctors, and bureaucrats.Instead, Labor opted for a limited, stage-managed inquiry that specifically excluded the actions of state governments—the very jurisdictions responsible for the longest and harshest lockdowns. There will be no public accounting for border closures. No scrutiny of the health bureaucrats who became, briefly and disastrously, unelected premiers. No spotlight shone on the world’s longest lockdowns, or on curfews that we now know were imposed on a political whim.Dr Nick Coatsworth was on the frontline and says one thing was always true:“In a pandemic where nobody is immune, the disease will come through the community. It is not a matter of if, it’s when.”He should know. As one of Australia’s most prominent medical figures during the pandemic—serving as Deputy Chief Medical Officer—Coatsworth was both inside the tent and, increasingly, outside the consensus. He supported the early national response, but what followed was a descent into risk-averse groupthink that lost all sense of balance.“COVID zero had a very, very long tail. And it was that tail that caused the harm.”He believes a key reason states like Victoria and Western Australia resorted to long lockdowns and border closures was because the premiers knew their health systems couldn’t cope with any kind of crisis.“The Western Australian health system will blow over in a sneeze… and I think Mark McGowan knew that, and that's why he tried to keep the virus out for so long.”Coatsworth reflects on healthcare through professional experience and a deeply personal lens. He believes modern medicine too often confuses care with cash.So I don't hold much truck with the clinicians who say, "Just give us more money." Not a solution. You've got to spend your money in a more wise and judicious fashion.His critique extends far beyond COVID. On health economics, Coatsworth is devastatingly frank:“Almost all new medical technology—the benefit to the patient is overstated.”He is not arguing for less investment in healthcare. He is arguing for smarter, focused spending. He says the National Preventive Health Strategy’s modest goal of adding two years of healthy lifespan by 2030 should be used to assess value.He is equally blunt on the political failure of the Coalition to counter Labor’s Medicare scare campaigns:“Labor has them on ground that they are uncomfortable with, and they're not even on the battlefield.”Other uncomfortable conversations are being avoided. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is collapsing under the weight of its own good intentions and mission creep—by covering too many children with learning and behavioural disorders.“How much leakage do you have from what's going to be a $68 billion program in order to get to the people you actually want to target?”Throughout our conversation, one theme keeps returning: the immaturity of our public debate. He paid the price for dissent when he challenged the COVID Zero orthodoxy.“Academics wrote to the Australian National University asking for my clinical academic title to be revoked… and that was all because I committed the mortal sin of calling people Zoom professors.”We now live in a time when an unorthodox truth is treated as dangerous heresy. But it is our refusal to have difficult conversations that is truly dangerous. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.powerlines.au