24 January

The ‘live with the virus’ slogan has driven a huge escalation in anti-vax beliefs and behaviour. We’re told that vaccinations will protect us from Covid, but nobody is getting them. And they’re also stopping their vaccinations for other diseases too, rates are declining. This isn’t accidental. It’s a political strategy, part of a long tradition to dismantle public life. Public education and transport have been under assault for years, public housing is dead, Medicare is almost terminal, new roads are privatised user-pays, and public health was the next target. We’re even paying for our own Covid tests, in a pandemic! We privatised the pandemic, lockdowns never ended. Now the sick have to lock themselves down, at their own expense, many have no sick leave left either. The old and chronically ill are prisoners in their own homes, unless they want to allow themselves to become infected, which is killing them at historically high rates.