Lessons from the Pandemic, phase one
Here we go again, maybe.
Just when we had flattened the curve of COVID-19 across Australia, we’re facing a second wave. Greater Melbourne is back in lockdown and Sydney is scrambling too. States are re-evaluating their covid-safe guidelines and closing borders where necessary.
This time there’s nothing novel about dealing with this ‘novel’ coronavirus. For most of us it’s safe to say that the very thought of going back into lockdown or changing our way of life further isn’t new or exciting. It’s depressing. Welcome to Lockdown 2, The Extremely Dreary Sequel no one wanted.
And yet… We can still remember, perhaps, the sense of quiet thrill as we first watched our communities spring to life with kids playing outside and neighbours taking up walking with gusto. How good was it when our politicians put the point-scoring and blame-shifting to one side to work together across partisan divides? How amazing was the everyday sense of pride and purpose that, as a nation, we were really united for a clear and worthy goal?
We don’t actually have to surrender any of that: our wonder, our appreciation for the little things, our desire to focus on what matters most. Our hope, our pride and our sense of purpose as a country is powerful. Our capacity to put the public good first in creative, dynamic ways is powerful. We can write our own story and hang onto the lessons we’ve learned.
Yes, we’re tired. We may be feeling anxious, or vaguely numb. We went into this pandemic just having endured catastrophic bushfires. We have a certain amount of disaster fatigue. We have doom-scrolling fatigue. We just want to get on with life and turn our attention to other important things.
It’s also notoriously difficult to write the lessons of history while we’re still living them. But let’s just take a moment to try: to pause, reflect, notice what’s actually worked — not so we can ignore the bad parts of our story, but so we can use the good parts to address the harms that remain and the challenges that are ahead of us.
What are the big lessons we want to take with us from this time? We think there are three key ideas that have served us well so far as a country:
1) Work together across ideological and partisan lines;
2) Listen to the experts (including people with lived experience); and
3) Put people first.
We’ll unpack these a bit more, but before we do, let’s acknowledge that while we’ve all been weathering the same storm, we have not been in the same boat.
“Covid has been a relatively positive experience for some, while a very traumatic experience for others. Some people are finding the pleasure of more time with family, a re-prioritisation of what is important and a re-localisation and connection to place. Others are trapped in difficult domestic situations, financially broken, desperately lonely and facing the future with huge uncertainties. Some people are experiencing elements of both.”
- Millie Rooney, Introducing the Public Good.
In other words, don’t conflate looking for common lessons with assuming shared identical experiences. Covid has put tremendous pressure on the cracks that already existed. It’s also been an accelerator of change. But it hasn’t impacted everybody equally or in the same ways, obviously.
The splintering of our personal experiences of COVID-19 will only be amplified now that some Australians are returning to lockdown, while others are still relatively free to go about their lives. Also, while we’ve done pretty well on the health front, the impact on people’s lives and livelihoods is no longer theoretical. Close to one million people have lost their jobs. More than 600,000 have applied for early access to their superannuation. Australia is in recession for the first time in almost three decades.
Our sense of a shared national story and collective sacrifice is vulnerable now, all too easy to fracture. This is all the more reason to keep sight of what’s served us well.
We need to tell our own story of what’s mattered, what’s worked and what we want to build on — because if we don’t write the story of what made the difference, others will.
What have we learned from phase one of pandemic? What do we want to take with us as we meet the challenges of this next phase?
Here are six insights to offer.
Lessons from the pandemic, phase one
1) We are all connected. We may have believed this intellectually before. We know it viscerally now. We ultimately rise or fall, not only because of our individual actions and circumstances — but because of the actions and circumstances of others near and far, most of whom we will never meet. Waleed Aly calls this the realisation of our ‘radical interdependency.’ “Once you step back and take it in, it's a hell of a genealogy of dependency,” he writes. “[The second wave] quite possibly begins with security guards who were supposed to be responsible for Melbourne's hotel quarantine, runs via lower socio-economic groups and casual workers without access to sick leave and possibly JobKeeper, then takes in Victorian holidaymakers and freight drivers.” Suddenly issues like poverty , casualisation, lack of paid leave and privatisation of essential public services aren’t just abstractly harmful to society or the people they impact directly; they come with additional body counts. Going forward, covid may accelerate a bigger definition of our conception of public health: one that embraces a higher standard of care and wellbeing for everyone, acknowledging our interdependency on one another, as well as a healthy natural world.
We understand that even the most inspiring individuals or philanthropically-minded billionaires cannot and should not replace the work of well-funded, well-run government and public institutions.
2) The power of a bigger us and the value of public institutions. Notice how rugged individualism, market competition and ‘freedom’ to do whatever we feel like have saved us? Yeah, neither did we. In Australia, the engine of our efforts has been high degrees of public trust and a willingness to cooperate. And the infrastructure of our readiness and response has been our public institutions: our government, civil servants, public health system, the ABC, public science and research. Indeed, in NSW, where hotel quarantine security was managed largely by the Defence Force and police rather than poorly-trained and paid private contractors, we’ve seen strict enforcements and few problems. Whatever mistakes we’ve made so far, we can be grateful that we don’t have to try to resurrect a social contract from the dustbin. We’re not looking to tech CEOs or private charity to save us because we’ve lost all faith in government to do its job. We understand that even the most philanthropically-minded billionaires cannot and should not replace the work of well-funded, well-run government and public institutions.
3) Respect science, listen to experts. Experts have made a comeback. Our political leaders have shown a remarkable ability to listen to the best available advice and act when it comes to keeping Australians safe from COVID-19, without politicising that advice. All levels of government have tried to communicate to the public with a combination of authority, empathy and relative transparency. This has engendered a large amount of public trust, approval and willingness to cooperate. As social researcher and writer Rebecca Huntley put it, the Australian public has gravitated not to the “‘reckless opinion makers of the populist Right,’ but to medical experts and ‘the Norman Swans of the world.’" May the de-politicisation of science and respect for experts — including those with lived experience — continue.
4) A better kind of leadership is possible. The unity cabinet. The unlikely cooperation between Sally McManus and Christian Porter. “There are no blue teams or red teams,” said our Prime Minister in early April. “There are no more unions or bosses. There are just Australians now; that’s all that matters.” How refreshing it was, how deeply the public wanted it to be real, and to last. Approval rates for politicians soared as the toxic acrimony and tribalism gave way to unity of purpose. May our leaders continue to step up; to aspire to better goals than point-scoring or beating the other side. And may we remember that we don’t have to wait for government and politicians to model this kind of leadership. We can all work together across unusual alliances to leverage each other’s expertise, build trust and tackle problems. We can value our different perspectives and knowledge, rather than being threatened by them.
5) We can reimagine work. The way we think about work may prove yet to be one of the most lasting changes from this pandemic, as decades worth of impending changes have been accelerated and brought forward. If it’s assumed that ‘no one wants to commute anymore’, how will businesses respond? What if more employers decided to trial four-day work weeks, as Jacinda Ardern has suggested in NZ? What if we finally started paying essential workers salaries that better reflect their worth, or made childcare free for good? Now that we’ve started reimagining the world of work as we knew it, a lot of the things we once accepted as normal seem far more arbitrary and outdated. One happy prediction would be the development of a new great ‘Care Generation’ — as young people grow up admiring healthcare/essential workers and more people turn away from so-called bullshit jobs to recession-proof their careers. There is still a great deal to be concerned about: lack of jobs for young people, the gutting of our university sector, the future of entire industries including the arts. But it’s exciting to re-examine core questions about the purpose of work: why it matters, what makes it dignified and worthwhile, who’s being left behind and how we set the conditions that allow more people to thrive, participate and contribute their best. We get to change that which no longer serves us.
6) Our economies and the role of government can rapidly change. Many predictions are being made about the future of our industries, cities and economies. The debate about the role of government in the economy is also shifting, even among some conservatives. “The debate for Republicans to be having in the 21st century is not big or small government — it’s what do we need from our government,” according to American conservative policy expert Yuval Levin. Australia’s centre-right federal government has been praised for setting much of its ideology to the side and working across divides to come up with new income support models (JobKeeper), as well as doubling the rate of unemployment payments (JobSeeker); modelled in part on similar policies in the UK and elsewhere. Whatever happens from here, greater awareness of our own vulnerability around work should make us far more reluctant to support arguments that demonise the unemployed. Rather than ‘snapping back’ to an old normal, the recession may well embolden our desire for things like a universal basic income, stronger social safety nets, a federal jobs guarantee and better public services.
What’s worked: a case study
One of the most compelling Australian stories to come out of the pandemic so far has been the successful First Nations response, led by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) and their affiliates. Rather than waiting for government to act, Indigenous leaders shut down their communities weeks before the government issued health orders or travel restrictions. Clinics geared up, shoring up their supplies of respiratory and PPE equipment; getting on the front foot with flu vaccines, telehealth consultations and culturally-appropriate public health advice. NACCHO worked closely with State, Territory and Federal Government departments and leaders to plan, coordinate and fund services.
As of 23 June, when NACCHO Chair Donnella Mills spoke at the Virtual Progress conference, less than 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia had been diagnosed with COVID-19, all of them in urban areas.
“NACCHO serves some of our most vulnerable remote communities, where overcrowding and poverty mean the impact [of COVID-19] will be more severe, and our where precious elders are at the greatest risk,” said Mills in her opening remarks. “We have certainly dodged an enormous bullet with COVID-19...This is no time for complacency or to be idle.”
In their May 2020 Submission on the Australian Government’s response to Covid 19 pandemic, NACHHO wrote:
“As soon as it became evident in January how deadly the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes the COVID-19 illness was, NACCHO, Affiliates and Members initiated awareness campaigns for our communities and began planning for prevention and response. By the time Australia had its first COVID-19 case, our community controlled health sector and local community leaders had already begun making decisions from the national to the local level….Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people turned to their ACCHOs for leadership and clear guidance which has been successfully delivered to date…
“The high level of collaboration by the leaders of the Australian, State and Territory Governments has been instrumental in achieving the low number of COVID-19 cases among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and should be expanded to other areas, in particular finalising the new National Agreement on Closing the Gap. NACCHO appreciates the Government’s commitment to listening to the advice provided by NACCHO and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID-19. State and Territory governments have worked closely with the community controlled health sector, and went into the pandemic cognizant of the need to listen to the advice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health experts.”
This remarkable success contrasts to devastating experiences of First Nations populations in other countries, such as the Navajo Nation in the United States, or Indigenous populations across South America.
Peta Phelan from the University of Melbourne writes, “Indigenous Australia has been spared the impact seen elsewhere, because behind every major decision, strategy, approach and public health deployment we have seen culturally-centred leadership from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
For Mills, it’s evidence that, “things can change even in the face of the worst storm.”
This remarkable success is now being written about in medical journals, academic papers and shared at conferences. Hopefully it will make its way into the wider public narrative.
Work together. Listen to the experts. Put people first.
Examples of COVID-19 graphics created by Indigenous organisations in the community health sector, from NACCHO’s government enquiry submission.
An example of COVID-19 graphics created by NACHHO, from their government enquiry submission.
Conclusion
In this year of Great Disruptions, people do not need to be persuaded that change is possible. Change is everywhere. People do not need to be persuaded to care, for in reality we never stopped. We need to have confidence in one another: in our neighbours, in our communities, our leaders.
This pandemic has offered us the chance to notice that which is usually invisible: what really matters, what we take for granted, what works and what’s broken. It’s been a time of noticing more of what we really need, and what we can do without.
Three things stand out as serving Australia well during this crisis: working together, listening to the experts (including those with lived experience) and putting people first. That’s something we can all participate in and carry forward in our own way.
It’s common to focus on the level of national government and policy, but in our everyday lives one of the best things we can do is get to know our neighbours. We can focus on acting and belonging where we live, work, play, gather and rest. Strong communities help each other. The confidence, agency and trust we cultivate during times of crises will carry us far coming out of them.
The promise of human progress itself is that we continuously work to eliminate gratuitous suffering wherever we find it; and we are most sensitive to that suffering when our own vulnerability and interconnectedness have been right on the surface. The things that hurt you, hurt me. That you care about me and I care about you is the glue in our social contract and the foundation of our pursuit of the public good. It’s what allows us to be our best selves, a vision we’ve articulated more fully here.
It is too soon to write the full story arc of COVID-19 and its lasting transformations. At this point, the best we can do is reflect on the lessons from the first phase of this pandemic. But in doing so, we can lean into the good, to write a better ending.
What about you? What do you think are the key lessons from this time? How has this period influenced your work and thinking? What are you keen to hang onto? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Lilian Spencer
Lilian Spencer is the Communications Lead for Australia reMADE. She believes that the secret to change is to, ‘focus your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’
Other blogs by Lily: broken open in the year of great disruptions
For the love of action: people stepping up on climate change
