COVID presentation hits the mark

There was a little more than a twist of irony last week after tuning into a Horsham online webinar that provided a greater-thanusual glimpse into the complexities, sensibilities, philosophies and challenges society faced in beating COVID-19.

Some of us had just left a news report about renewed vigour in the international space race and had marvelled at human ingenuity.

We were then, after tuning into the question-and-answer webinar, confronted with a stark reminder of perspective and how important it was for us to be just as clever in finding ways to make sure we could live here on Earth, let alone Mars.

CSIRO health and biosecurity director Dr Robert Grenfell earlier this year described how developing a COVID-19 vaccine was as complex as putting a man on Mars.

The former Natimuk doctor, who grew up in Horsham district, provided a relatively brief but compelling snapshot of just how hard it was to find a way to beat this crafty microscopic challenger.

He also reminded everyone about why we all needed to work hard as a collective in efforts to stem infection rates and get the upper hand over the disease.

We’re not sure if it was because we knew he was at the vanguard of international efforts to find a vaccine, whether we immediately recognised him as an academic authority, or whether it was because the presentation simply came from someone from our own patch, but Dr Grenfell hit the mark, with many Wimmera watchers hungry for deeper understanding of what had happened, was happening and might happen.

His presentation was blunt, pragmatic and at times frightening about what we might expect from the disease and how long we might have to endure a world without competitive team sport and activities while practising social-distancing, sanitisation and wearing face masks.

But in his summary of circumstances he also tried to be optimistic and positive, glowing in his assessment of the rate of progress in developing a vaccine – more than hinting that Australian research was at the cutting edge of a potential breakthrough.

Horsham mayor Mark Radford introduced the presentation, which also included comments from Wimmera Health Care Group representatives.

Horsham Rural City Council uploaded the webinar to its website on Friday and made it available on Youtube.

Data revealed about 20,000 people had watched at least part of it by Monday.

There is an old saying that knowledge is power and last week’s information session, by being relaxed, forthright, simple, honest and unembellished, felt empowering.