<
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/21/2022-australias-year-of-living-forgetfully>
"Twelve months ago, as Australia’s most populous states savoured new
post-lockdown freedoms, any possibility Covid-19 might slip from public
consciousness was unthinkable.
Borders were reopening. Christmas family reunions interstate were an enticing,
though challenging, possibility. Simply venturing over the Tweed from New South
Wales to Queensland demanded near-impossible dexterity: a negative result from
a PCR station with average turnarounds of three and half days, received inside
a 72-hour window before crossing the border.
Australia seemed to be finally arriving at that highly anticipated place, a
“new post-lockdown normal” where living with the virus would still probably
require precautions – isolating if positive, masks in public – but social
gathering would again be possible.
A year later, and Australia has embraced a great forgetting with almost no
historical parallel. The virus is still rampant, with reported weekly cases
steadily rising above 70,000 through November.
The political and economic imperative to reopen in 2022 was always contingent
on a profound psychological and emotional shift in our society. Central has
been the harsh utilitarian acceptance of an alarming number of Covid-related
deaths. In November more than 70 people a week were still dying of Covid. This
would have been of grave community concern during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns,
when just a few deaths were headline news and panic-inducing. But the great
post-reopening Omicron waves of January (a seven-day average of 92 daily deaths
at its height) and July (83) have inured many Australians to inevitable mass
(and mostly headline-unworthy) fatality. It has been the year of invisible
suffering."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
