When dealing with two issues at the same time is clearly one issue too many
Forced to divide its attention between multiple forms of disaster, the Palaszczuk Government has been found wanting, writes Madonna King
The origin of the term ‘walk and chew gum’ is contentious. Some record it first being chronicled in a 1954 Texan newspaper, after Lyndon Johnson – later US president – allegedly said that Gerald Ford, who also later became president, couldn’t ‘fart and chew gum at the same time’.
Others credit a US marine who told the story of a man in his squad who was so lacking in coordination that he struggled to ‘walk and chew gum’ at the same time. And others claim it surfaced before both of those stories – prompted by a flat-footed basketball player.
Whatever the case, the Palaszczuk Government is a living, breathing synonym of the phrase; unable to multi-task or focus on two big issues at the same time.
That’s always been the case, but Covid-19 and last week’s flooding provide further damning evidence.
Until last week, Covid-19 was the crisis; that singular focus requiring a daily press conference for almost two years. Day after day, senior members of the government were on hand to reveal how many people had recorded positive tests, and how many had died.
But that stopped this week, as the waters arrived. A new focus.
“Our Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard will no longer be appearing in daily media conferences, unless there are major Covid-19 or health updates,’’ Queensland Health has announced.
“Although you won’t see me on TV screens every day, rest assured I’ll still be working hard behind-the-scenes to manage the pandemic response in Queensland,” Dr Gerrard assured us.
You might like
We’re now apparently encouraged to stay up to date with our vaccines, look after each other, and follow Queensland Health on Facebook and Twitter for daily case numbers.
And the floods present the new crisis. But something else will happen in a couple of weeks and the floods, which have ruined too many lives and livelihoods, will largely be forgotten too.
And the proof of that is in the lack of policy and planning – in developments, recovery, mental health services, community organisation – since the last flood.
We don’t expect our governments to entertain us, but surely they can learn to juggle with more than one ball?
Covid-19 was a crisis. It might not now carry the same urgency, but we are fools to believe that it is not messing with lives every single day.
Cases are still running into the thousands – and many people are no longer bothering to even be tested – because the treatment is the same with a diagnosis or not. Stay at home.
Ignorance, it seems, really is bliss.
Almost 30,000 school-aged children in our State – aged between five and 17 – have tested positive to Covid-19 in less than a month.
And the vaccine roll-out for juveniles has fundamentally failed, with more than 55 percent of the State’s school children not even having had their first jab.
They should get a wriggle on. The Government’s messaging, now it has a new crisis, is that Omicron is no longer requiring the same attention.
Stay informed, daily
That, as winter looms, will be a mistake.
Ask the parents of some of those fit and healthy school children. Hear them explain how their tripled-vaxxed teen couldn’t breathe properly, explaining a feeling like someone was sitting on their chest. One parent listened to her son lie on the floor of a shower, moaning – as he tried to use cold water to wash away a fever.
Weeks later, the exhaustion and need for a daily nap remains for many of these fit and healthy children.
And it’s not just children. One of my fit triple-vaxxed friends contracted Covid in early January. She’s now suffering ‘long Covid’ – debilitating exhaustion, post-exertion malaise, chest pains and palpitations.
Last week, as our focus shifted away from Covid-19, her schedule filled with tests – an MRI, echocardiogram and ECG.
And what about this week’s study by the University of Oxford showing brain structure changes, even after mild cases of Covid-19?
Every second day now, it seems, a note pops up from the principal of my children’s school. About 1400 children contract it each day, so it could be any school on any day.
We have been notified of positive cases of Covid-19 in our school community,’’ it reads, over and over again.
For many, that will mean missed school and sport and scouts. Their parents will be forced to stay at home too; some of them closing their businesses and forgoing a week’s wages.
Omicron might not be killing as many – although every day our State loses a handful of people – but it’s still playing havoc with our lives.
This is when the hard work should happen. The crisis might have subsided, but how do we deal with the horrible tail this pandemic is delivering?
Don’t ask the Government. That was yesterday’s problem. And who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Today, when the television lights are turned on, the three second-grab will be focused on the flood crisis.
Walking. But not chewing gum.
