Read on Twitter
I'm seeing people with absolutely no data other than their own feelings of alarm saying 'we reopened way too soon.'
Thing is, this is a novel pathogen with unknown epi dynamics. The only way to know how soon is too soon is to try it and carefully monitor what happens.
Thing is, this is a novel pathogen with unknown epi dynamics. The only way to know how soon is too soon is to try it and carefully monitor what happens.
On twitter there's a solid cohort of type A folks with anxiety and near-total intolerance of uncertainty who insist our lack of knowledge means we should have locked down hard and early and stayed that way indefinitely. 2/n
That position is intensely middle-class. Retirees and people with jobs they can easily do from home. They're counting on people in precarious work to continue stacking shelves and delivering their takeaway food and caring for Grandma in her nursing home. 3/n
As I've argued from the start, we cannot control this epidemic if we don't address social inequity. Most of Victoria's cases have been in settings with high rates of casual and migrant labour. Even if we stayed in lockdown, that didn't cover those jobs anyway. 3/n
I used to work in migrant and refugee health in Victoria. I recognised the nuances the Premier used in his presser. Big family gatherings. Outer suburban LGAs. People working despite a +ve test. Signifiers of CALD folks with diverse health literacies. 4/n
In Victoria we message about these inequities in code to avoid stigmatising and blaming migrant groups. I agree with those goals, but this approach makes it harder to talk about our governments' failure to reach migrant groups with in-language education and outreach. 5/n
There is *nothing* about coming from a migrant family or community that prevents people understanding how they can protect themselves and the community from Covo. Groups from countries with past experience of SARS and MERS understand these strategies perfectly. 6/n
There are two issues:
1/ building health literacy takes time - it's not just giving info
2/ many communities consume media in their own languages, and the jurisdictions have been really slow to develop campaigns and media strategies that target those channels.
1/ building health literacy takes time - it's not just giving info
2/ many communities consume media in their own languages, and the jurisdictions have been really slow to develop campaigns and media strategies that target those channels.
