When will we heal?

I’ve been reflecting lately, on when Australia pulled together during the bushfires of the Black Summer 2019–20. People listened to the experts, most didn’t look stuff up on the internet and profess to know more than the RFS. There was a great deal of self-sacrifice, and pitching in for our communities. The kind of thing that makes it great to be an Aussie.

With no time to process what we went through, we essentially transitioned straight into the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially we continued pulling together to do our part to reduce transmissions and save lives. We should take some time to pat ourselves on the back for that, if we had gone down the path of the UK, we would have 50,000 deaths, not the current 1,196. I’m not sure we could have dealt with the trauma of that on top of the fires.

Now we are being pulled apart – by people who now don’t trust expert medical advice or any kind of science. They are being influenced by misinformation that is being generated by people without the best interests of our communities in mind. Some people who would normally consider themselves leftie-greenies, are sounding like Trump supporters! Spouting hateful, hurtful, selfish rhetoric, and not listening to reason or to the experts.

We need to stop and reflect on what we are doing. We need to get the vaccination rate to 80–90 per cent, so we once again can protect our communities. If we don’t get the vaccination rate up, the government will eventually ‘let it rip’, and we will face more trauma, as we watch people, who would not help themselves or their communities, get very sick and unfortunately some will die.

We need to get on with our lives, and begin the healing of the last two years of trauma, but first we just need one more surge of community spirit, to get us over the line.

Wendy Bithell, Brunswick Heads