Contacted the principal of my kids' school to ask about outside options for some upcoming events. Got the…

Contacted the principal of my kids' school to ask about outside options for some upcoming events. Got the standard response I hear from all schools and workplaces now. "We're following the rules" i.e. doing nothing. This is a gap you can drive a truck through. /1

Now that there are no public health orders, people assume (and are encouraged to assume) it's anything goes. But PHOs are just one component of public health law. I Tweeted the other day as an example that you can still be jailed in NSW for not taking precautions.../2

...if you know you're Covid+. The national Covid-19 control guideline also requires a range of things that aren't being done. It's been knee-capped by politicians in multiple ways, but plenty of powerful public health still in it. /3 https://t.co/cehupSgkPW

The much more serious governance issue is how untenable it is to have your health departments strongly recommending things, that politicians then make non-compulsory, and even mock. That's populism, right there. Elected leaders actively sidelining institutions. /4

They'll say they're 'balancing' this advice against other important priorities. Bullshit. That line completely misunderstands public health, which was set up BY POLITICIANS to do that balancing. Notice that there's been zero balancing going on at all? /5

At every twist in the Covid road, balancing has meant 0% action against Covid, 100% action for the economy. Or what politicians see as the economy, in reality it's just people, and not doing the public health destroys the economy too. That's why THEY invented it. /end