Remember the virus: Covid fatigue pushes pandemic to background
Australia has the highest per capita Covid-19 infection rate in the world, with about 40 people dying from the virus every day but health authorities are concerned the pandemic has slipped off the national agenda.
Almost 7800 Australians have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, however, science and health writer Jane McCredie says āwe have pretty much stopped talking about the biggest challenge our health system has ever facedā.
Last week Australia had an estimated 350,000 active cases and by the end of December, just over 400,000 Australians had contracted the virus, she wrote in the InSight, the weekly online news magazine of the Medical Journal of Australia.
The number of total of Australians who had contracted the virus is now more than 6.45 million.
āThatās more than five million people in five months, and itās bound to be an underestimate given the move to reliance on self-testing,ā she wrote.
Due to high vaccination rates, the disease is a lot less deadly than it was at the start of the pandemic although dozens of people are still dying every day.
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āThe reduction in mortality is no doubt one of the factors in our loss of interest, but a more compelling reason I suspect is that we are all simply exhausted,ā she said.
Public Health Association of Australia CEO Terry Slevin told the MJA that theĀ disease had taken an extraordinary toll on frontline health workers.
āAfter two years on high alert, plunging in and out of isolation, starting at every strangerās cough, sanitising our hands like thereās no tomorrow, we just donāt have the energy anymore.ā
Our apathy could have real-world consequences, Professor Slevin said.
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āAlready weāre seeing a fight for people in public health to hang on to what resources theyāve got.
āThe all-important focus groups must be telling our politicians we donāt care about this stuff, because otherwise, theyād be talking about it.ā
Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said a mix of fatigue and complacency have seen the virus shunted from the national spotlight.
āI think, past the silliness of this election, we do need to refocus,ā he told the ABC on Sunday.
āBecause this is adding an extra layer of healthcare needs, which is beyond what weāve had in the past.ā
He warned the health system was also trying to help thousands of Australians suffering from long Covid.
āWhich is, I think, something as a community we havenāt acknowledged,ā Moy said.
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