No answer to mask-wearing question BENEFITS TO LETTING IT RIP LETTING THEM WORK PROMISES TO KEEP A CYNICAL THOUGHT IT’S YOUR CHOICE DOESN’T ADD UP
I FIND it staggering that in Hobart almost no one wears a mask.
While they are not foolproof they still give protection. I went to a pub for a counter meal (the only person with a mask on) and I was even mocked by the publican.
Discussing it with people, I say ‘OK you don’t care about yourself but what about other people, the elderly, the immunocompromised, and the big one for me, the medical staff at the hospital, working under terrible conditions?’
These people I talk to usually shrug their shoulders and just look slightly embarrassed.
Gary Molloy Hobart
IT is becoming more and more apparent that Covid, or a variation, is going to be with us for years, maybe forever.
This being the case, there is no point in trying to control the spread of it. Just the contrary, the sooner we have all been exposed to the virus, or even contracted it, the sooner we might develop some resistance, or even immunity, to it. Such control measures as wearing masks, merely prolongs things.
Of course, there is always a Catch-22: our health system is already at breaking point, what happens if the virus is allowed run free?
Simple really, we’d have to put the clock back some years to before the advent of the welfare state. Years ago, in the advent of a natural disaster, or an epidemic or pandemic, families looked after their own. Temporarily, at least, we might have to go back to that.
Inevitably, lives would be lost, but it would be for the greater good. My own age and situation would certainly put me in a high risk group, but I’ll accept that: the world is overpopulated.
John Solomon
Taroona
ON a purely practical level, couldn’t nurse shortages be addressed by letting unvaccinated nurses go back to work?
There should be about 100 of them in Tasmania. At least the nurses will be properly trained and experienced. I reckon they would save lives. Carrie-ann Smith
Blackmans Bay
WOULDN’T it be nice if our illustrious Premier made a couple of promises and kept them for once.
1. To help keep our population safe by mandating face masks.
2. To improve the lot of our overworked, underpaid nurses and doctors who like all health professionals are doing it tough because of our pennypinching government not paying decent wages or recruiting sufficient numbers to reduce the ridiculous workload and stress suffered by these remarkable people.
These potential promises sound like pie-in-the-sky but, in reality would go a long way to helping Tasmanians live in health and comfort.
Not all people in Tasmania can enjoy the high wages and the access to immediate health services when needed as do our overpaid politicians who don’t understand what the average person has to put up with day by day. Scott White
Sorell
CYNICALLY, I can only wonder if the reluctance of the Liberal Tasmanian government to mandate the wearing of masks to lessen the risks to vulnerable Tasmanians and to protect our very stressed health system has anything to do with the millions of unaccounted dollars that flowed from the hospitality and gambling interests to the Liberal Party in 2018 to fund their election. Sadly we will never know.
Chris Hughes
New Town
I CAN’T help but think that we have or are becoming a society of people that, like children, have to be told what to do rather than make our own decisions.
I for one believe that our Premier is right in not mandating the compulsory use of masks.
If you want to wear a mask wear them, if not don’t.
We as adults are more than capable of making our own life choices. I work in the retail sector and I see a lot of people wearing/not wearing masks – their choice.
My opinion only.
Peter Granquist Austins Ferry
DURING the World War II, 34,000 Australian servicemen and women were killed, an average of 109 per week.
Last week 514 Australians died of Covid as reported by the WHO.
The present Covid death rate is about five times the average wartime death rate.
Yet we are asked by our leaders to simply accept the Covid situation. Surely we should be doing more to control the spread of Covid?
Michael Davis Taroona