Health experts say COVID-19 complacency has restricted freedoms of the immunocompromised and elderly

From the isolation of her Melbourne home, Carol Davy fights a day-to-day battle against ovarian cancer and systemic lupus. 

With COVID-19 still casting a spectre over every Australian town and city, Carol has found herself cut off from the rest of the world.

“It’s been a very stressful time, isolating to the point of nearly going crazy,” she said.

Carol lives most of her life behind N95 masks and plastic face screens to protect herself from a potentially deadly infection.

Although Carol’s illness entitles her to a home care package, her fear of COVID-19 infection means she rarely takes advantage of it.

“I’ve just been cancelling them one after the other, which has been hard on me but there was a period when they wouldn’t even say whether their staff were vaccinated or boosted,” Carol said. 

Routine medical trips to the Royal Melbourne Hospital have become “absolutely terrifying” ordeals as the rest of the country moves on from the pandemic.

“There are people everywhere without masks,” Carol said.

“I was walking into Coles one day, all masked up and screened, and three young guys came up to me and went ‘Oooh, look at you with all your stuff on’!

“People never cease to amaze me.”

For Carol, the complacency shown by the rest of the country has left her feeling invisible. 

“What annoys me more than anything, particularly in the last month or two, the media and others are speaking of COVID in the past tense,” she said.

“And yet we’re having upwards of 20 people die a night, and they’re people like me.

Australia marked its 10,000th COVID death earlier this month, with health authorities no longer announcing individual details of the deceased.

For Carol, succumbing to the virus after such a long battle with cancer would feel unfair. 

“I’ve fought cancer for years, and I’ve put up a damn good fight,” she said.

“I don’t want to die from the bloody virus.”

Australia’s cases, hospital admissions surge as rules relax

Jurisdictions around the country have rolled back COVID-19 restrictions despite the onset of winter.

Mask requirements at airports have been scrapped in line with advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), while states have rolled back vaccination mandates across many industries.

Masks are now only required to be worn in high-risk settings such as healthcare and aged care, while QANTAS has begun to roll back mask requirements on outbound international flights.

Despite claims from state chief health officers of “increasing pressure” to reintroduce mask mandates, Health Minister Mark Butler has shot down the idea.

“I don’t see a return to very broad-based mask mandates is the advice I’m getting, but clearly the message is take responsibility, make your own choice,” Mr Butler told ABC News Breakfast.

The government’s staunch opposition to mask mandates contrasts with Australia’s rising hospitalisation figures, with the country recording its highest number of COVID patients in hospital since February.

Moreover, Mr Butler said there may still be “several weeks or a couple of months to go” before rising case and hospitalisation numbers begin to reverse.

North vs south comparisons leading to frustration

Kirsty Short is a virologist at the University of Queensland who says the spike in COVID-19 cases was almost inevitable.

“If you lift restrictions, which was always going to happen, you’re going to have more cases,” Dr Short said.

“Certainly if you are someone who is not vaccinated or who is not fully up-to-date … I would strongly recommend you be wearing a mask at the moment.”

Dr Short said many Australians could be reluctant to wear masks voluntarily after seeing countries abroad live largely restriction-free.

“Playing into that is looking at the northern hemisphere and seeing that they’re largely over it,” Dr Short said.

“We’ve got to remember that in the southern hemisphere, we’re in a bit of a different situation.

Dr Short said that while Australians may be fatigued from more than two years of restrictions, keeping the immunocompromised and elderly in mind was of utmost importance.

“We’ve got to remember that there are vulnerable members in the community,” Dr Short said.

“We forget these people at our peril.”

Health experts highlight costs of COVID-19 complacency