COVID19: Fully close the international borders – with no exceptions

Returning travellers have been the source of Australia's major outbreaks. We have to accept that quarantine just does not really work.

Andrew Mohl Australian Financial Review 21 Dec 2020

Australia has been tantalisingly close to eliminating the coronavirus.

With the benefit of hindsight, we should have bitten the bullet back in March and closed the national border completely to international travellers.

Even now, it is not too late to adopt the optimal policy option for a small remote country like Australia in a COVID-19 world, particularly with effective vaccines imminent.

With so little local community transmission, the single greatest risk to our lifestyle was always going to be the importation of the virus from returning international travellers.

This risk has been effectively managed much of the time, but the consequences of any slippage have been material with the ever-present risk of exponential growth in cases from a single super-spreader.

We should now implement a hard border closure immediately.

Numerous outbreaks in Melbourne and Sydney since March have each been sourced back to returning international travellers.

The social and economic consequences of subsequent lockdowns have been, and are, devastating.

Smaller states have copped plenty of flak in Sydney and Canberra for their so-called populist and parochial policies on state borders.

These consequences are many multiples of the pain and suffering faced by international travellers stranded overseas and desperate to return to Australia who will suffer as a result of this policy.

This is, however, a classic case of accepting the pain of a few to protect the wellbeing of the many.

Some may accuse me of being heartless and cruel for this policy advocacy, to which I would respond that I have a daughter in London and a son in Melbourne who I have not seen for almost a year.

In theory, the experts will profess that we should be able to process returning travellers, test, quarantine and isolate them, and later release them into the community when we are confident they are virus free.

In practice, mistakes have happened far too regularly. Travellers have slipped the processing queue. Quarantine systems have broken down for returning travellers in hotels. People have been tested but failed to isolate while waiting for results. Test results have been faulty with negative cases later shown to be positive.

Humans sadly make mistakes.

To make matters even worse, Justice Coate in Victoria has found no person or agency has ever taken responsibility for the decision to use private security as the first tier of defence in managing hotel quarantine.

Ahead of the game

Premiers of the smaller states have copped plenty of flak in Sydney and Canberra, in particular, for their so-called populist and parochial policies on closures of state borders.

These have been in breach of both World Health Organisation and national government policies.

It is time to recognise that they have actually been ahead of the game and right in their approaches to protect their communities at all costs from the risks of importing the virus.

Certainly, their electorates have fully backed their premiers.

The same approach taken by the smaller states should be taken with our national border, but only tougher in regard to exemptions.

Exemptions will always involve judgments and inevitably be arbitrary and controversial.

Only two rules are proposed in terms of exemptions. The first rule is there are no exemptions. The second rule is to read rule #1 again.

Politicians, past and present, diplomats, movie stars, billionaires with private jets, sports stars, international airline crews, have all somehow made the list of exemptions.

Tennis bubble

The virus makes no distinction between these exempted groups and persons and the rest of us. Much simpler then to rule that there are no exemptions, period.

The community, while observing all the rules of social distancing, hygiene, masks, etc is continuing to be asked to underwrite the risks of a range of exemptions to international border closures that continue to lead to fresh outbreaks.

It is unacceptable that after all its pain and suffering that Melbourne is planning to hold the Australian Tennis Open in February.

Sure, in theory the bubble can be created and players and support teams can fly in from all over the world to quarantine, isolate, prepare and play. In practice, we should expect breaches and potential adverse consequences.

If the organisers were told that they carried the full economic and social risks of hosting the event, they would quickly find their risks were both unlimited and uninsurable. That tells you straight away that this event should not be held.

We have worked so hard as a community to be able to live in one of the least virus-affected countries in the world.

We are living proof that superior health and economic outcomes in a COVID-19 world go together and are not at odds with each other.

Let’s not put all that at risk with “power-based” exemptions to a sound policy of a closed national border to international travellers.

Andrew Mohl is a former chief executive of AMP and former director of the Commonwealth Bank.

Original article here