From The Saturday Paper, 2 November 2024:
In 2018, the Australian government conducted a simulated pandemic stress test of how well federal departments on the frontline of a major health crisis would cope. It found they would perform well enough for shorter or “ordinary” crises but were not equipped for a significant, near-existential crisis dragging on for years.
The minister who might have benefited from knowing this wasn’t told of the findings until after SARS-CoV-2 started its deadly rampage in 2020.
The government had pandemic preparedness plans before the pandemic struck, according to the Covid-19 Response Inquiry Report released this week – it just hadn’t thought big enough or scary enough. Measures such as border closures, school closures and quarantine were previously thought too extreme to plan for, so they weren’t. Ministers weren’t told because no one in positions of authority or influence thought that such a catastrophe could happen. Read more (paywall).
Bianca Nogrady 