COVID’s Far More Serious and Lingering Malady

In Victoria on Friday, retiring Chief Health Officer (CHO) Brett Sutton was named the state’s most upright and valued citizen, garlanded with the title of Victorian of the Year. Sutton was the face of the COVID lockdowns in the world’s most-locked-down city, the ever-nodding stage prop at Premier Daniel Andrews’ press conferences, where the latest offences against liberty and democracy were daily announced. The right to assemble, to leave one’s home, to appear in public unmasked and, most shameful of all, the all too often violent gagging of free speech were erased at the whim of the Premier and his compliant CHO. In their place, the right to be arrested for posting dissident views on Facebook, and if so bold as to take those objections to the streets, the right to be peppered with VicPol’s rubber bullets.

Three mad years of all this and, while COVID has receded, Melbourne is nowhere near a full recovery. Perhaps we will never see the damage fully repaired. Sure, it’s a subjective…