Andrew Christopher, Byron Bay
Despite having over two million visitors per year, Byron Bay has only had one case of community transmitted COVID-19 (and he was a visitor from Queensland).
Why has Byron Bay been bulletproof? In a nutshell: healthy, outdoor lifestyles. Let’s leave the over 70 at-risk-group aside as it’s through no fault of their own.
Studies have shown vitamin D deficiency is a main contributor to hospitalisations owing to COVID-19. The other main contributor to covid mortality is obesity. Studies have shown countries with high rates of obesity have death rates ten times higher than countries that don’t. Seventy-eight per cent of those hospitalised from covid in the US were overweight.
As the Byron experience, and science, shows; if you’re under 70, sun and healthy living are the key to keeping away this virus.
Yet we have a government who responds with fear-based, one-size-fits-all restrictions whenever there is a case. Bluesfest was a perfect example of this. Despite zero evidence worldwide of any super-spreader events occurring outdoors, the government took the knee-jerk reaction to cancel Bluesfest the day before. Consequently, the town was hit pretty hard. Many local businesses rely on the Easter weekend to generate most of their income for the year. Food stalls were devastated, having bought all the supplies needed for a busy Bluesfest weekend.
In reality, the population of Byron has suffered owing to ‘wokeism.’ We live in an era where feelings matter more than facts. If the government really took a science-based approach to covid, they would isolate those at risk – the elderly and the obese. Why should those who’ve made correct life choices lose their livelihoods to protect those who’ve made poor life decisions?
Yes, we have our share of nutbags here – the Bill Gates microchipping, 5G conspiracy theorists.
But let’s use the Byron Bay experience to help make more informed decisions in future. Where approaches and good outcomes are backed by science. Isolate those at risk, and let everyone else live their lives. Who knows, maybe it’s the wake-up call most people need.
Ed note: The one local man who caught the virus at the Beach Hotel from infected Queenslanders was from Ballina Shire, not QLD.
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