An inquiry has found that the slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination in Australia led to excess deaths and a $31 billion hit to the economy. But Australians say it is pretty hard to get a sense of the significance of the findings until a reporter from a major media outlet asks for the opinion of Joe, who runs a café in Surry Hills.
“Look, on the surface it seems as if the implications were pretty serious. But until I hear a sound-bite from some guy called Joe or Jason whose livelihood depends on the three cafes he runs in the inner west, terms like ‘$31 billion’ and ‘lives lost’ really are just gobbledygook,” one woman explained.
“I mean, sure, some of those things sound bad. But is it as bad as foot traffic being down in café strips during 2020 and 2021? Impossible to say without a sit-down interview with a café proprietor”.
Others say they would also find interpretations of the report from local gym owners useful. “There’s a lot of heavy analysis of numbers and figures. But what does Sally who runs a cross fit gym think? This is the type of reporting I think we’re missing here,” one man said.
