In our third year of the pandemic while the government sends out bland statements, Covid-19 has not gone away.

What if the Prime Minister acquired debilitating Long Covid lasting six months and more!

On LinkedIn I have posted the difference between 121 Australians dying from Covid-19 last week and the same number dying in a plane crash.

By Stephen Alomes

A plane crash is a dramatic and shocking event – that is, it’s news. A similar Covid-19 death toll is not news. We remain in a health war but the press is rarely reporting weekly casualty figures. Nor does it address the Australian Institute of Actuaries statistics on excess deaths since 2020, which Prof. Adrian Esterman has discussed. (https://theconversation.com/thousands-more-australians-died-in-2022-than-expected-covid-was-behind-the-majority-of-them-196281)

The National Cabinet’s bland policy document referred to ‘managing a respiratory illness’, as if Covid is just another flu – deadly echoes of Bolsonaro (‘a little flu’) and even loose words from Albo.

The delightfully attractive blue and green document has lots of words and a vaguely optimistic title “Strategic Framework for Transitioning Covid-19 Measures”.

Except it said nothing about the multiple impacts of Long Covid – vascular, neurological plus – with adverse health events for the heart, lungs, brain, and other organs and increased risk of cardiac events, chronic fatigue, diabetes and of acceleration of dementia.

Covid-19 has respiratory transmission but it works as a systemic disease, especially in its Long Covid form. In the summary of the Mayo Clinic, as well as breathing difficulties and fatigue:

Other possible symptoms include:

• Neurological symptoms or mental health conditions, including difficulty thinking or concentrating, headache, sleep problems, dizziness when you stand, pins-and-needles feeling, loss of smell or taste, and depression or anxiety
• Joint or muscle pain
• Heart symptoms or conditions, including chest pain and fast or pounding heartbeat
• Digestive symptoms, including diarrhea and stomach pain
• Blood clots and blood vessel (vascular) issues, including a blood clot that travels to the lungs from deep veins in the legs and blocks blood flow to the lungs (pulmonary embolism)
• Other symptoms, such as a rash and changes in the menstrual cycle’

(https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351)

In September 2022 Michael Toole and Brendan Crabb of the Burnet Institute wrote that ‘Imagining COVID is ‘like the flu’ is cutting thousands of lives short’. (https://theconversation.com/imagining-covid-is-like-the-flu-is-cutting-thousands-of-lives-short-its-time-to-wake-up-190545)

In Professor Peter Doherty’s summary

“Long COVID afflicts people of any age, and it can be a cause of persistent malaise, inability to work. While many recover, some don’t. There are also hints that the blood clotting effect may be decreasing life expectancy for some, long after the acute phase of the disease.”

“Long COVID afflicts people of any age, and it can be a cause of persistent malaise, inability to work. While many recover, some don’t. There are also hints that the blood clotting effect may be decreasing life expectancy for some, long after the acute phase of the disease.”

(Twitter @ProfPCDoherty, September 22)

The magic blue and green document says nothing about active steps to reduce transmission (masks, ventilation, outdoor functions) or about a rollout of bivalent boosters for the over-70s whose last booster, often in autumn, now has diminishing efficacy.

Where does Albo stand in this situation as he completes his isolation?

We don’t know although we wish him well.

Except his optimistic mien is no guarantee, however politically calming it may be.

He is in a significant age demographic for Long Covid and reinfection increases the probabilities.

Despite models and bland official statements, the future is not guaranteed.

The Prime Minister could acquire Long Covid, now or later, and become incapacitated for three, six or more months.

That would matter. For the Prime Minister, for the Federal Government, for Australia.

I explore this “winning Covidlotto” scenario in poetic terms below.

“The Prime Minister has Long Covid – A Possibility”

No we’re just Kidding (almost),

We thought he would have Kelly’s Luck,

Officially the fourth wave would be minute,

As we can see in the Covid-19 free press,

amnesia abounding – ‘nothing to see here!’

Not much happening until winter –

That’s the Canberra line

Except, as in the official docs,

Anthony thought it was just respiratory

another flu,

nothing to worry about,

all protected by ‘hybrid immunity’,

vaccinations plus prior infection.

He didn’t worry,

Anti-virals a backup,

Minimal masking moments,

Ventilation not on the agenda,

And a PM meets people

and public servants, and lobbyists

and other MPs, every day

Except this time it was different –

It stayed.

Not gone in a week

but eating away at the man from the Lodge,

‘Isolation’ not enough,

Now, international meetings cancelled,

Cabinet only online…often deferred.

What was worse –

the brain fog (‘what was that submarine detail?’),

or the fatigue?

He started to ask for Trump-style briefings –

One para only… even that was too hard.

Suddenly Australia did not have a competent Prime Minister,

the Labor Party had no leader,

the Cabinet had no chair,

as well as no Covid policy

This Covid was serious –

Not kidding,

Post-pandemic was just an idea

It sounded good in the media,

good for Christmas shopping,

only 100 or so deaths a week

Except a country needs a prime minister

We lost that one,

So did Albo.

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/the-prime-minister-has-long-covid-a-speculation/

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW………………..

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/45958