I'm so over it. . .

There's one sure thing in this world and that's the result you'll get when the media tell you not to panic. Take a wild guess? After my rant last month, it seems like we're moving up another gear!

So here we are in late August and after a few weeks of 'Hey, isn't Queensland great?' 'No new cases here so what are we going to talk about?' our friends in media land are at the pant wetting stage again because 'quelle surprise' as the French folk may say, we have a handful of Covid carriers here on the Goldie so we can all start panic buying toilet paper again.

OK, despite what I may have told the current Mrs Bennett on our first date, I'm not a doctor and my medical knowledge is little more than I've picked up from watching Chicago Med and casualty back in the UK.

What I do know is that Queensland has had relatively low numbers of the 21st century plague since the original contaminated batch of bat flavoured soup mix found it's way into the air conditioning unit of the 23.50 flight from Wuhan.

Come to mention it, Australia has fared better than the majority of other countries we hear about on an hourly basis so why, oh why (as they used to ask on points of view) has the unofficial premier of Queensland Dr Jeanette Young gone into chicken licken mode and had the press running around the circles shouting 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling?' Yes, I know that her official title is Queensland's chief medical officer but everyone living between Coolangatta and Cape York knows that she is running the state. Hell, if the elections were held tomorrow I reckon she would put her name on the ballot papers!

That's not to say she hasn't done a good job keeping the evil pox away from most of us but there comes a time when questions have to be asked about the end game.

What's the plan love?

I for one will not have anyone shoving a needle full of magic sauce shoved in my arm until I know for sure there are no significant side effects. I'm not talking about being able to wirelessly charge my 5G phone by sticking it under my butt after having a shot either, I just want to see it tried and tested first. Again, my lack of medical expertise may be an issue here but, they haven't exactly found a cure for the common cold in the 60 plus years I've been on the planet (hard to believe, I know) so i'm not holding out too much hope on a formula that seems to be OK when tested on a few marmosets in controlled facilities back in Loughborough in the UK. Let's try it on a few other first. Maybe Scomo, Albanese and Her Royal Highness Princess Jeanette will have those sleeves rolled up first?

So back to my point. . .what's the end game?

The so called experts (there are friggin thousands on Facebook and Twitter) say eradication is not an option so we have to live with it until we have a miracle cure (see above, it 'ain't happening yet!)

Control of these clusters makes sense too but going into total meltdown and slowly but surely hitting the reverse gear and heading back to the dark days of lockdown is not the answer. it's no coincidence that there's an election scheduled for October 31st so you can bet your bottom dollar (that's if you still use cash) that all the parties will be point scoring but at who's expense?

Businesses have been totally destroyed including ours. Who want to book a wedding video if you don't know how many guests you will be allowed to attend? As for our media training work? International travel bans simply finished that as the majority of our clients were overseas. Looks like I won't even have my farewell tour!

What about families who have been forced to live apart due to rigid border restrictions that defy any semblance of common sense. Sure, keeping the borders closed will inevitably keep the numbers down but at what cost to business and the mental health of so many people affected by these restrictions?

In my totally uneducated opinion, this time round, the latest Queensland restrictions are a gross overreaction and the natives are getting restless.

We are over the uncertainty, over the mixed messages, over the contradiction, over the confusion, over the daily press conferences, over the media sensationalist reporting, hell I'm even over Jeanette Young's hair style but most of all, we are over having our lives turned upside down on a regular basis by a virus that has a recovery rate of 97%

Or is that just me?

Mike Bennett is a media trainer and radio presenter. An exiled Scot now living in Queensland Australia www.mediaanswers.com.au