Australia’s Covid Madness: Goodbye to the Free Paradise

By Erin Spellman

I moved to Texas in June of 2021 and haven’t worn a mask since that last one-way American Airlines flight out of Boston. Every Saturday night, I go out for drinks with my friends at the busy bars on Henderson Avenue. I elbow my way through the sea of unmasked people at the Dallas Farmers Market every Sunday. There isn’t a single person here who has asked me my vaccination status. The only thing that has changed between my pre-pandemic life and now is that I think I like to wear sweatpants more often. For all intents and purposes, I live the same way as I did in 2019.

That is why it is hard to imagine that I am living on the same planet as a country that arrests teenagers for swimming at the beach, corrals sick people into internment facilities, and blocks perfectly healthy travelers from leaving the airport all because of a virus with a 99.98 percent survival rate. The world spent the past two years watching the beautiful nation of Australia fall victim to tyranny and suffer through extreme draconian lockdowns. Unfortunately for our dear friends down under, their lives have been dramatically transformed for the worse.

Between the reports of internment camps for the unvaccinated and police crackdowns on contract tracing protocols or social distancing violators, it’s clear the continent has gone off the deep end. After Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic was ordered to leave Australia after authorities deemed his visa’s vaccine medical exemption inadmissible, many started wondering how the country got to this point. More importantly, will it descend further?

Prior to the pandemic, Australia already laid the foundation for a surveillance state, as the government steadily eroded citizens’ civil rights each year. Australia does not have a national charter or a bill of rights, which places insurmountable pressure on elected officials to protect individual liberties. After passing surveillance legislation for decades, Australia was downgraded from an “open country” to one where civil space has “narrowed,” according to the 2019 Civicus Monitor report.

At the start of the pandemic, Australia showed that its preferred policy to combat Covid was mass lockdowns, with the goal of zero cases. As time went on, this goal proved to be nearly impossible without prolonged, stricter lockdowns. Almost immediately, the government pushed a media fear-mongering campaign to first convince, then coerce, citizens to comply with their draconian restrictions.

Travel was limited between states in the country, apps were developed to enforce home quarantines, and even dogs were shot and killed by the police to prevent volunteers from going out to rescue them. With the opening of quarantine camps, even those who tested negative for the virus were forced to stay in effectively solitary confinement for 14 days, as they were not trusted to self-isolate at home. Individuals who didn’t abide by these orders faced hefty fines and years of imprisonment.

It’s very frightening to see such a beautiful country with such a rich culture lose its title as a member of the free world. Australia’s Covid regime won't be ending anytime soon. The government recently secured 200 million vaccine doses, which equates to nearly 8 doses per person that lives in Australia. The legislature recently passed a bill that authorizes an unchecked surveillance state.

The optimism and hope for change lies in the hands of the thousands of Australians that take to the streets in protest. They carry signs reading “This is not about a virus, it’s about total government control of the people” and “SOS free Australia.” Australia’s goal of zero cases continuously proves to be unattainable. Even with its military-enforced lockdowns, the Australian state of New South Wales had 2,000 more cases than the U.S. state of Texas today.

There’s no country that absolutely nailed it in its Covid response. We all can play “Monday Morning Quarterback” and discuss policies that different countries should’ve taken, but the reality is that our time on Earth is very limited and we are not meant to live in fear or isolation. As we approach the second anniversary of the virus’s outbreak, we must stay vigilant in guarding our own rights in America and stand in solidarity with those down under as they fight for theirs.

Photo via @ellifrederick Instagram (TC fan, fashion designer, & Australian native.)