Five years later, is Australia better prepared for the next one?

What happened during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The infectious diseases specialist from the Australian National University said “communication and trust between the public and federal and local government” was key to Australia’s ability to manage the pandemic.

“It is something that we will never forget, although I think people are trying very hard to forget it.”

Responding to a global challenge

How did Australia react to COVID-19?

“That was really helpful for us to be able to use that new knowledge to assist people in their decision making.”

Former chief medical officer Paul Kelly says 2022 was Australia’s “pandemic year”. Source: SBS News

‘We did not have the wise and rational voices’

“And I think what happened in April of 2022, where mainly no one wanted to talk about COVID anymore, the media lost its interest, but for Australia, that was our pandemic year and we did not have the rational and reasonable voices of the chief health officers in the states and territories and at the national level that we’d had for two years nonstop before that,” he said.

“The Australian public was enormously trusting of medical advice and the politicians that were in charge at the national and the state and territory level. I’m not sure that that’s the case now.”

Are we ready for the next one?

“There was a tendency for us to hide behind our border and to ignore the rest of the world. And Australia can be counted in that unfortunate statistic as well.”