The COVID diaries #13 – where to from here?

We're in a strange situation here in Australia. Over the course of the last year we've done a pretty stellar job of stamping out eruptions of the plague, probably better than anywhere else in the world (except New Zealand). Despite myriad fuck-ups we were the proud owners of a Covid-free nation (more or less). But…

The COVID diaries 10 – Schadenfreude

It's October. Schadenfreude season. Let's start with the obvious one - Donald Trump reportedly has Covid, along with a number of his White House staff, cronies, and trophy wife. Clearly this is justice in its purest form - that the man who by his combination of inaction and blustering incompetence has allowed the more than…

The Covid Diaries 8 – I miss Iso-Life

Iso-Life is ending and I miss it already. A week or so ago some of the restrictions were relaxed here in Victoria. Playgrounds opened again, you can have small groups of visitors around to your house. In light of the apparently well-controlled Covid caseload here, as well as the escalating difficulty of keeping people at…

The COVID Diaries 6 – Learning things

I've learned a lot about myself these past few weeks. I'm not a very good teacher, for one thing. I mean, I spend a lot of time teaching for my job, and think I'm all right at it. But that's with adults, who are already quite well trained, are highly motivated, and for whom I…

The Covid Diaries 4 – Phony War

It feels a little bit like Paris in 1939. Everyone is waiting for something to happen, whether it be German invasion or viral apocalypse, but very few people have seen the real deal yet. We're sitting at something like 3000-4000 confirmed infections across Australia, which doesn't seem too bad until you realise that testing is…

The COVID Diaries 3 – The New Normal

It's occurred to me that this may be the new normal. It's certainly the old normal. It's been 102 years since the 1918 flu pandemic, which has certainly got to be a record for how long we've gone without a major outbreak of disease. It's especially surprising given how interconnected the world has been for…