The chart featured in the tweet,my friend suggested,was not quite right. For him,it was less a matter of two camps and more the daily cycle of his own views.
Sydneysiders line up for PCR tests at the RPA clinic in Camperdown on Sunday.Bianca De Marchi
Increasingly,I find this is the position of most people. In the morning,say, and our hospitals seem threatened,we believe in doing everything that can be done to slow the virus. By late afternoon when pleasant memories of drinks with friends call out to us,we begin to wonder out loud what choice there is,other than getting on with our lives?
This,it seems to me,is the dominant fact of this particular period of the pandemic:widespread confusion. Society feels a little like the wild west. We come up with our own rules. Those rules chop and change depending not just on circumstances,but also on more fickle factors,like what mood we happen to be in.
Then,when we meet somebody else,we bring our own rules – but we have no idea what their rules are,nor can we tell by how they behave in our presence. Perhaps they are distancing in deference to our own habits,but have come straight from a crowded pub or theatre. And so,while making decisions about our own rules,many of us are also involved in an act of constant evaluation:how risk-averse is this person in front of me? More likely than not,these evaluations are often wrong.
There are other uncertainties. How many hours will I have to line up for this PCR test – and how many days will it take to get a result? People swap tips about shorter queues,about places where RATs are still available.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet talks with health workers at Nepean Hospital in Sydney on Sunday.Dean Sewell
Well,now we know:this is what “personal responsibility” looks like. If the earlier phases of the virus were exhausting in the demands that governments made of us,this new phase is just as exhausting,in different ways. Only now,of course,we bring our previous exhaustion with us.
Some of this personal uncertainty is a result of the decisions by governments to withdraw from the roles they have played for so long. But it is perhaps also because it is becoming increasingly hard to trust those governments and their intentions,which makes it hard to know how seriously to take what they say.
The NSW Premier lifted the mask mandate. The Prime Minister defended the decision. Almost immediately after that,the Premier reversed himself. Then,last week,asked whether his original decision had been a mistake,he said it had had no impact – in which case,why did he reverse it?
What is driving all of this? Health? Not the way it once did. Economic concerns? Perhaps,but the economic damage of recent weeks,as people stay home anyway,makes this seem foolish. A desire to save face,which of course is tied to politics. Also,what we might call a COVID-ideology that has taken hold in conservative politics,the simplistic idea that restrictions of any sort are bad.
Novak Djokovic’s father has been using rallies in Belgrade to protest against the player’s detention.Getty Images
There are parallels in Victoria,with the,density limits. It will be interesting to observe the state’s approach as Daniel Andrews returns from leave. Yesterday,he extended the state’s pandemic declaration.
Then we have Victoria had made a decision to let the tennis player in,the Prime Minister said,and the federal government’s role was to accept that decision. Then the Prime Minister reversed himself – and now there is a fight over who is to blame. Amidst the mess,the priorities of both the Victorian and federal governments seem unclear – but,again,saving face seems high up the list.
The Djokovic case is interesting for another reason. It is trivial,of course (aside from the light it shines on the absurdities of our detention system). But then isn’t the immense focus it has drawn another symptom of our exhaustion? It seems a relief to debate the abstractions of a relatively meaningless story about tennis rather than turning back to the concerning realities of our lives.
Because they are concerning,aren’t they? Hospital administrators are using words like “crisis” because hospitals seem likely to come under more pressure than before – a combination of a depleted workforce and rising case numbers. Those numbers are rising very fast.
Empty fresh produce shelves at Woolworths in Sydney’s Neutral Bay on Friday.James Brickwood
For many of us,for the first time since the pandemic began,the virus seems like it is everywhere. Meanwhile, and. Yes,Omicron seems likely to be less severe than previous strains. It is also true that than on any other day.
And yet there is a sense of indecision here,too,as though people can’t quite decide how worried or frustrated to be. Like the friend who sent me that tweet,most people I know go back and forth between feeling as though this was an avoidable disaster,and telling themselves that,one way or another,we were always going to get here.
But,as with most things virus-related,this could shift quickly. Politicians congratulating themselves that they have worn people down with their constant messaging that we must “learn to live with the virus” should not yet count their chickens.
It seems likely that we have not yet hit the peak of this wave. That peak might be intense. Or perhaps Omicron as many epidemiologists hope.
If our hospitals become overwhelmed,if deaths continue to rise for weeks,if our governments continue to respond chaotically,then that exhaustion,which right now is letting governments off the hook,could very easily turn to anger.
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