Sanjeev Sabhlok, an economist, has done tremendous work criticising Australis’s public health system, in the light of Covid: https://ph.sabhlokcity.com/ . Recently he spoke at the Australians for Science and Freedom Conference at the University of NSW, and he delivered the basis of his paper, “The Ugliness, Evil and Impossibility of Public Health.” His position is that “Australia’s Covid response wasted more than a trillion dollars on lunatic policies based on panic - and nobody has been held to account.”
The disease had an infection fatality rate of 0.03 percent for those under 60, and for this reason alone, there should not have been lockdowns. But there was, with enormous social and economic costs that are still being felt by many, whose lives and businesses were destroyed. The useless economic models that were used to justify the lockdowns were all flawed, not adequately considering costs. “The pandemic policies being pursued in Australia – particularly in Victoria – are the most heavy-handed possible, a sledgehammer to kill a swarm of flies. These policies are having hugely adverse economic, social and health effects, with the poorer sections of the community that don’t have the ability to work from home suffering the most.” “Governments should have also realised at the outset that they are hostage to chronic groupthink and actively sought alternative advice. I attempted repeatedly to raise my voice within my public sector role, but my attempts were rebuffed. The bureaucracy has clamped down on frank and fearless, impartial advice, in a misplaced determination to support whatever the government decides.”