Crucial day to decide how lockdowns end
National Cabinet will today examine crucial advice on the best way to avoid future COVID lockdowns.
The Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers will be given scientific and economic modelling on the vaccination rate, at which we can start living with some COVID cases in the community.
It’s part of a 4-stage approach to fully re-open the country.
Some experts argue about 80 per cent of the population would have to be fully vaccinated to create enough immunity from COVID but the leaders are unlikely to finalise targets at today. It’s just the start of the conversation.
Speaking with Gareth Parker, Independent Senator in South Australia Rex Patrick said while the conversations are good they need to be transparent for the community and make the modelling publicly available.
“It’s important in all circumstances where we’re using health data.
“Once people have seen the data and had the opportunity to understand it, with that understanding flows confidence.
“You can’t have National Cabinet making decisions about peoples liberties [while keeping them] blind to the information they are relying on to make those decisions.”
When it comes to vaccine passports, Senator Patrick said they already exist for people via Medicare. He questions why passports would be “imposed.”
“We have to be open and transparent about this,” he said
“We all saw what happened with the ‘COVIDSafe App’, lots of money spent and it was a disaster and now we’re running around with QR codes from each different state.
“It’s [vaccine proof] already there on Services Australia website.”
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(Photo: iStock by Getty)