One of the most contentious decisions taken by state governments during the COVID-19 crisis – the mass closure of schools – was avoidable and should not be repeated unless strong health advice outweighs the cost of closures, an independent review of Australia’s pandemic response has found.
“Women were over 30 per cent more likely than men to leave the workforce in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were more likely to lose pay, burn through leave and fall behind on savings and superannuation.
The six-month review was funded by three philanthropic trusts – the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation and Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation -- and conducted by Shergold; company director Jillian Broadbent; University of Queensland chancellor and former diplomat Peter Varghese; and Isobel Marshall, women’s rights campaigner and 2021 Young Australian of the Year.
Marshall said she was struck when conducting the review by the way the pandemic had affected school-aged children, particularly those who did not have access to technology and parental supervision or were not safe at home.“A lot of these students are getting assessed and their marks are reflecting factors completely out of their control and not accounted for in the pandemic planning,” she told. “We needed to place those disadvantages at the forefront of the pandemic response.
Have these so-called experts live in the era of pandemics before? Did they know the virus well enough when it hits on our land? Have they analysed the possibility of death when lockdown isn’t enforced? I would like to see those evidence before criticising.
Melbchief Sure, it was avoidable in exchange for large scale morbidity/mortality; it saved us from both at the time. Review panel doesn't appear to have health pros so useless. We're now seeing full effects of business-lead health policy with highest ever covid deaths 🙄
Schools were open for the children of essential workers, children for whom home wasn't safe and other vulnerable cohorts. A report that doesn't acknowledge this isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
A rubbish review. Where’s their evidence? Schools were cesspits of Covid after we reopened post vaccinations. Imagine the impact on teachers and families if schools were open prior to vaccines. Yes, They were low transmission environments during remote learning.
Chip Le Puppet writes another bit of pap full of half truths.. Costello must almost be at your desk now to give you your bonus..
Many Deaths to adults working in schools and their families was avoided.
They shouldn't even be open now. The amount of cancelled bookings we get at work because covid is still sweeping through classes and either the kids are sick, or the schools can't find enough healthy staff for excursions is crazy.
'independent review'
Fucking really
A review by billionaire philanthropists who don't believe covid spreads in schools? Yeah, no thanks.
Reading this biased pro-Liberal article based on an 'independent' report funded by charities associated with the private health industry, mining, investment banking and the sporting industry reminds me that one of these blokes is your chair:
Sometimes your donations to the Liberals are monetary and sometimes they are like this article.
Now look at US statistics. The teachers that died. Other school staff who died. The children orphaned by the pandemic... Look a teacher YOU know in the eye and say: 'YOU should have sacrificed your life.' This is a political witch-hunt. Epidemiologists will tell you why!
No worries......Not only put kids at risk but Teachers as well!!!...🙄🙄🙄 Teacherlife
And with the benefit of hindsight, the advice is very useful. Not.
It was the teachers union that kept pressuring state governments to close schools, while they received pay.
😂😂😂behind the 8 ball !! The age is dead
No kidding
Not independent. Vested interest speaking.
Seriously! With a pandemic prevention is the only option when a cure isn't available and the level of damage it will do is still unclear. It's easy to dismiss the actions that were taken in hindsight.
Independent Review 🤣🤣🤣
Seriously? I have never understood melbchief. Is it just that all the competent reporters quit in disgust after a brief stint at ? If so, where do they go?! I suppose there is still GuardianAus.
Labor are rancid. RememberInNovember laborLast
NO FKG WORDS 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
No shit.
It should NEVER be repeated. EVER. The kids have paid a massive price and cannot be treated as expendable again .
Neoliberals say stay open - auspol
A disingenuous group of right wing propaganda person telling lies yet again just like you in the paper I feel
State leaders tried to protect their people. They had no choice when the advice from the federal powers was crap - the virus isn’t airborne, children don’t transmit the virus etc. Stopping the spread of the virus by restricting school attendance was the right decision.
Remember, Melbchief, at Costello’s LNP shitrag, TheAge, lied about many aspects re Victoria’s response to the pandemic. Costello’s TheAge has never been held in such low regard as it is today. Dump Costello’s TheAge, support independent journalism instead.
Billionaires funding the review with no health experts or epidemiologists on board what else would they find. There is more to the report than you are highlighting too.
Hot Chip shit take
So teachers were expected to go into poorly ventilated rooms full of little people possibly carrying a potentially harmful airborne disease with no vaccination so everyone else could go about their business and get repeated covid infections. This is why we're can't get teachers.
it was remote learning. Schools were not closed.
This so called review belongs in the bin
'independent' review
Fooling no one Twiggy.
Review also said that the LNP failed our age and the states by taking too long to get a vaccine.
An independant review headed by one of Howards cronies, no one with a background in science / medicine. Just another panel.
Chip Le Knob
Took you this long to come around to the truth Chip? There are people who could have told you that this was bollocks from the start but you were just like the rest of the MSM, peddling the lies of the Government's, CHO and bureaucrats.
Give me a break. Let’s wait for an authentic review. Perhaps we should outsource all evaluation research on public health to the IPA and Twiggy. Seriously what sort of society governed by oligarchs have we become.
Isn’t 20/20 hindsight a wonderful thing?
Don’t worry about teachers health, and students taking it home to families! All about the economy isn’t it!
So, exactly what happened then. Got it.
The mandate on workers is just as bad
So, the Great Barrington Declaration was right all along. Harmful, unscientific & unethical lockdowns and mandates were wrong all along. And the deliberate suppression and denial of proven, safe & cheap early treatment protocols was criminal.
Try this review
Were parents asked because I wouldn’t have wanted to send mine?
Too late, children have been put way behind because of this rubbish. Lockdowns harmed a lot of people including the kids.
Please let’s vote these wankers out!!!
The triggering of the Covid zero lockdown fetishising cookers is something to behold.
Where was the msm media during the pandemic Melbchief ? All good and well trotting this out now?
An unknown inquiry makes a nebulous at vest finding; and i’m supposed to accept it? Yeah right, ,not.
ABCmediawatch seems Chip forgot that all essential workers kids had access to school ALL through lockdowns. About time someone fact checked this crap.
Did the review find that the delay in the Govt of the day ordering vaccines and even masks and RATs was a major driver behind the shutdown of society? Independent. Always. Yeah right.
The Age should have closed during lockdowns.
While this may be true to certain degree, good luck convincing educators they need to risk their health working thru a pandemic while the bulk of society works from home.
Book sales must be slow 😏
Except schools weren’t closed. Vulnerable kids attended schools throughout, as did kids of essential workers.
I love how ppl are pointing out who funded this study. Welcome to big pharma and all their studies, geez.
Keep the Petrie dishes open? Bahahahahaha 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Keep whipping the masses into more COVID reinfections, Chip. It's your job as a journalist.
Rubbish report with no actual epidemiologists or even doctors involved - should chuck it in the bin if you are not going to do a proper analysis of its biases and errors.
The state government, unions and woke media have a lot to answer for to a generation of kids for their failures
This article is why Doctors get paid more than *checks notes* 'journalists'.
Did the review look at how many lives were saved by the pre-vaccine lockdowns. Waiting….
One thing all of these articles have in common is they never mention a reasonable number of deaths. How many people need to die before we close schools? Put a number on it if you’re going to criticise actions that save lives.
I really think the fact that you’re trying to hock off a book on this subject represents a conflict of interest. No objectivity!
If a pandemic doesn’t warrant a strong health response, then may I ask what does? Additionally schools across the world were closed noting that vulnerable children still had access. Perhaps the author should’ve reflected on the global experience too to keep things in perspective.
Too late, damage is done and the media are complicit
Based on the opinion of who exactly. Shameless herald sun
Chip Le Grand beating that dead horse. Liberal party shill and paid for sycophant 🖕🏽
Not fully aggreable. That time situation was worst and decisions were made to save Australians life which is more precious than anything.
Shergold and co accepted big $ to write it but have delivered a bunch of thought farts. Where's the cost-benefit analysis and modelling? They're critical of the high level of infections in May 2022/lack of prevention and yet also critical of measures to prevent them earlier.
Schools Are Significant Sites of COVID Transmission
This review is really just one group's opinion. Another group might form a different view. This is how policy making with imperfect evidence works - it is usually a judgment based on the best available evidence.
Selective headlining Chip. Fail.
Schools were open for vulnerable children if I recall. Few big holes in this review.
Had a wealth of knowledge from early on in 2020 that schools were safe to open. Our leaders didn't follow the science as they claimed to
Melbchief
Who funded that study? The question everyone should be asking and answering up front.
No shit. Andrews’ Victoria. Generational debt in the trillions, the mental malaise of entire generation of Victorians, and a broken state health care system. Well done Dan 👏🏼
Wonder what Andrews will say after this? I don’t think people should underestimate the significance of this report…our kids were denied their education based on political popularity! Utterly disgraceful and vindication for people who tried to stand against schools being closed
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