The infancy of a Covid tyranny

 

The essence of the Anglo conception of liberty, coming from a long tradition that was seeded as far back as the Magna Carta, are the ideas of inalienable personal liberties and the equal treatment of all citizens before the law.  

 

Opposing this idea, a key aspect of tyranny is a government that exercises unreasonable and arbitrary power, bending or ignoring the law on its whims.

 

Keep these ideas in mind if you will, and inspect some recent happenings in the fair state of Victoria in Australia, a country in the Anglo-sphere, and a place that usually prides itself in being fair-dinkum, true blue, and willing to give each other a fair shake of the sauce bottle.

 

After months of strict lockdown, a young, pregnant working class woman named Zoe Buhler was arrested and handcuffed in front of her children by police for alleged incitement after she sent a Facebook post encouraging people to attend an anti-lockdown protest.

 

In a similar vein, a former Australian Rules Football star and radio and television personality Sam Newman was paid a visit by the police for a tweet in which he called for 250,000 people to gather in the state capital Melbourne.

 

Given Newman’s larrikin persona, which has been on air for decades, and the hyperbole of the message, any reasonable person would assume this is a vent of frustration at being under lockdown since the 16^th of March. But the Victorian police seems adamant to be literal.

 

Keeping in mind that while neither Ms Buhler nor Mr Newman had actually done anything, the police assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius took a firm line, stating of the young mother:

 

“[W]e take offenders and suspects as we find them. ...If we started to say, we can't possibly hold this person to account because of a particular attribute, where do we draw the line? The key piece here is we're focusing on behaviour. In the case, we are alleging this individual engaged in serious criminal behaviour, inciting a public protest at a time when public protest is unlawful. And we have been very clear about that.”

 

To add context, the young woman lives in Ballarat, a small city of 101,000, with a total of 5 active coronavirus cases as of the 3^rd of September.

 

One might well argue that the police are simply doing their job according to the new emergency mandates hastily put in place. And, in a democracy, while you might not agree with the law, it is the duty of a law abiding citizen nevertheless to act according to the law. Though one might point out that one reserves always the right to voice one’s disagreement.

 

But look upon this picture and then this, as Hamlet said. In early June, more than ten thousand people illegally attended the BLM protest in downtown Melbourne, directly against health directives. The same assistant commissioner said of this protest, about something that happened in another country:

 

“We absolutely understand the sentiment and the anger that lies behind that and we are very keen to support the community in giving a voice to their concerns.”

 

The police and the Victorian government decided before the event not to fine any of the protesters, so awash were they with understanding.

 

So here we have it – when 10,000 people gathered in a city with already more than 7,000 cases of coronavirus reported at the time, to protest a misdeed in another continent, the police understands. But when a pregnant woman posted about potentially doing the same thing in a city with a total of 61 cases, to protest against the prolonged denial of her liberties as a citizen by her own government, she is handcuffed in front of her kids. And a celebrity will expect two policemen knocking on his door for a joking tweet. 

 

Given the uniquely trying circumstances, one might expect some degree of leniency, compassion, understanding and indulgence from those who are implementing evolving and patchwork mandates that robs people of their rights, as mandated by the constitution. Yet, like Orwell’s Animal Farm, to the government, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

 

This is perhaps most sharply illustrated by the treatment of a pregnant woman from the small town of Ballina in the state of NSW. The woman, pregnant with twins, required emergency surgery. Instead of allowing her to travel the 160km to Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland, the authorities denied her exemption to cross state borders due to the coronavirus. She was forced to wait 16 hours to travel to Sydney, 600km away, and as a result of the delay lost one of her unborn twins. 

Days later however, the Queensland government welcomed with open arms over 400 players, staff and family members of the Australian Football League, who flocked from every state, to participate in the grand finals, which will be held for the first time in Brisbane. Not only were they given immediate exemption to cross state lines, they were filmed sipping drinks and freely mixing at a resort during what should be their two week quarantine. 

The ethics notwithstanding, few have discussed the important point of whether the citizens have any convincing reasons to protest against draconian and fickle lockdown laws in place in Victoria and elsewhere around the world. One might point to the following:

 

1. Fatality rate of the virus has been revised by the CDC from the initial figure of around five percent made in May to 0.26 percent, an almost 20 fold reduction.

 

2. Recent CDC figures show that 94% of the fatalities with coronavirus had, on average, “2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.” While some of these comorbidities may be caused or exacerbated by Covid-19, many others, like cancer, obesity, dementia, intentional or unintentional injuries, poisoning, assault, terrorism etc., cannot be attributed to Covid-19. These also means that the official death numbers in countries like the US and UK may be overstated.

 

3. Excess deaths from causes other than Covid-19, possibly by people being too afraid to venture out due to the lockdown laws, has also spiked during lockdown, despite little reporting, including due to mental health issues.

 

4. A recent study published in Lancet suggests stricter lockdown laws do not lower covid-19 mortality rate.

 

5. For people under the age of 50, the risk of death from coronavirus in many countries is smaller than seasonal flu. This might argue for caring for the elderly but allowing the young and healthy to study and work.

 

All these points, many of which are recent developments, are not being reported or put to the politicians. Instead, the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews drone on daily about ‘keeping Victorians safe’.

 

Except in his myopic fixation on the coronavirus, he has lost track of everything on the other side of the balance, which among other things include children’s education, people’s livelihoods and the mounting debt that will be handed to the next generations, all made worse by his lockdown. And his police will lock up a pregnant woman for even daring to want to question his methods.

 

Students of history will know the famous maxim of Benjamin Franklin: “they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

 

Governments that will selectively deny some of its citizens the liberty of speech are governments showing their instincts towards totalitarianism and should always be challenged, coronavirus or not.