Australians must change their way of life and accept the threat of COVID-19 and other viral infections will persist, says a leading epidemiologist.
Professor Raina MacIntyre, who leads the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute in Sydney, says people are wrong to think the pandemic is over.
“The counter-narratives that are flying around, ‘Let’s go back to normal, take off your masks’, is a denial,” he told AAP.
“Socially, we are mourning the lives we had in 2019 before COVID.
“We haven’t gotten to that stage of accepting it and saying, ‘OK, this is here to stay and if we want to have a reasonable quality of life and not end up debilitated with chronic diseases, we really need to change the way we live.'”
Professor MacIntyre said Australia needs to start addressing the built environment, building design and how we live in apartments and how to mitigate risk and make it safer.
The comments came after the professor gave a presentation at AFAC’s emergency management conference in Adelaide, where she outlined key strategies for navigating a better future in the COVID-19 era.
He told the conference that the virus would go nowhere and that Australia needed to be smarter in minimizing the effects, both acute and long-term.
The epidemic waves would continue as more emerging infectious diseases pose a threat to health security.
He said Australia needed to think more about preparedness, including developing early warning systems and stockpiling vaccines and other viral drugs.
Such work should include training exercises to ensure that health officials and others are better equipped to work together.
The professor. MacIntyre also supported an increase in local production of protective equipment, vaccines and other medical supplies.
He told AAP that the idea of waiting two to three years for the situation to improve would result in a future where virtually everyone had been infected and Australia faced a substantial burden from the chronic complications of COVID-19, including heart failure and dementia.
“This is not a flu or a cold, this is a virus that persists in the body in a number of people after acute infection,” he said.
“So we cannot continue to ignore it because in that case we will put a strain on the NDIS and we will have a huge tranche of people with disabilities and unable to work.
“The longer we ignore it and hope for the best, the greater the chronic disease burden we will have to deal with.”