Former PM Tony Abbott has criticised government’s response to the COVID crisis, arguing they have, “approached the pandemic like trauma doctors; instead of thinking like health economists, trained to pose uncomfortable questions about a level of deaths we might have to live with.”
Speaking in London to UK think tank Policy Exchange, Mr Abbott called for COVID-19 restrictions to be relaxed, arguing officials have been trapped in “crisis mode”.
“So far, Australia’s national government has committed some $300 billion to soften the economic consequences of state governments’ enforced social distancing. Even if mandatory shutdown (in Australia) really was all that avoided the initially predicted 150,000 deaths, that still works out at about $2 million per life saved,” he said.
“And if the average age of those who would have died is 80, even with roughly 10 years of expected life left, that's still $200,000 per quality life year or substantially beyond what governments are usually prepared to pay for life-saving drugs.”
Mr Abbott conceded not enough attention was given to keeping the virus out of aged care and how to respond once cases were present, but argued, “Whole societies were locked down, essentially to protect the elderly, yet the elderly were still very vulnerable once the infection was among them.”
Perhaps most inflammatory were Mr Abbott’s comments on the elderly.
“In this climate of fear, it was hard for governments to ask: ‘how much is a life worth?’ because every life is precious, and every death is sad; but that’s never stopped families sometimes electing to make elderly relatives as comfortable as possible while nature takes its course. Likewise, people anticipating serious health problems sometimes elect not to be resuscitated,” he said.
