Close borders

WHY on earth did we open the Queensland border?

This question will be asked repeatedly when Queensland returns to lockdown in three to four weeks from now.

A second lockdown will be psychologically difficult, especially when most Queenslanders are just starting to feel that we are moving back to normality.

The first lockdown was a new experience for all of us. We flattened the curve, kept the death rate low, renovated our homes and then decided to get back to work.

But clearly the decision was not ours, it was political decision not a scientific decision.

Fiscal pain trumps public safety as once again everything must capitulate to economic growth. The coming second wave will be more challenging than the first. The reason? Community transmission.

The cases we are seeing now are not from Australians returning home, they caught the virus here and we don’t always know where they contracted it. This fact makes containment much more difficult.

The virus is still circulating and will be for years, maybe longer. Just because Queensland had a period with no recorded cases does not mean we have the virus under control.

We suppressed the curve by social distancing, better hygiene and testing. Perhaps the major reason for the resurgence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is our complacency.

Easing social restrictions simply restores an environment that facilitates transmission. Physical distancing is the only strategy we have in the absence of a vaccine.

I am not advocating permanent lockdown but I am advocating slamming the Queensland border shut right now.

At least Queenslanders can move freely within the state and spend money with businesses who are struggling to cope.

Would it be better to have a Queensland with locked borders where people can function, albeit in a more restricted way than a second draconian lockdown brought about by our own complacency? It’s a no-brainer.

The border has been opened, the Trojan horse is in. GEOFF CASTLE, Toowoomba