Opinion: A COVID inquiry is needed, but a royal commission may not be the answer | michaelkoziol
The pandemic may not be “over”, strictly speaking, but for most of us, it’s fair to say the worst of COVID-19’s intrusions into our daily lives are now in the rear-view mirror.
Royal commissions are often used to investigate systemic failures and we’ve seen a number of recent examples shed light on injustice in aged care, the disability sector and institutions that covered up child sexual abuse. A video conference on COVID-19 in July 2021, including ATAGI co-chairs Christopher Blyth and Allen Cheng.
Playground closures were a controversial component of COVID-19 restrictions. Did they have any scientific merit?It is easy to brush over this period of history by saying that most countries enacted some form of lockdown and that decisions were made in good faith and in the name of protecting the public from a new and frightening disease. That’s true, but it doesn’t absolve us of the need to critically reflect.
It would be a fairly intellectually impoverished society that was not interested in how exactly these incursions into everyday life were conceived and decided upon, and what effect if any they had on curbing the transmission of the virus. Frankly, the lack of curiosity about these matters is astounding.