COVID Latest: Calls To Dock Welfare Payments For BLM Protesters
Friday: US over 2 million cases; house parties and gyms reopen tomorrow; "fight stupid" 5G campaign launched
Morning! It’s Friday, June 12. Here is today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ — 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Thursday, Australia has 7285 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +9 since the day before), with 6761 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
1 QUICK THING
So last week I asked some of you to do a quick poll for me about ‘5+5’ — thank you to all who filled it in! Very helpful. Could I ask you to do me a huge favour and do one more survey for me? This time it’s literally one question, and it’s a multiple choice! It’d be really helpful for me and 5+5. Click here to do the survey please!
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Calls for BLM protesters to lose welfare payments
The federal government has been very upset about the Black Lives Matter rallies nationwide. Scott Morrison slammed protesters before last weekend’s large demonstrations, telling people not to go and invoking how others have had to miss Anzac Day services and funerals due to coronavirus rules. The rallies, of course, went ahead anyway.
This week, the PM said he thought people engaging in further rallies should be charged. Finance minister Mathias Cormann went further this morning, talking about an idea that protesters should have their JobSeeker welfare payments docked, telling Sky News it was a “conversation worth having”.
While there are legitimate public health and infection concerns around mass gatherings like this, important to note two things:
One: I went to the Sydney rally last weekend, and saw far more use of PPE (masks, gloves, protective face coverings) than I’ve seen anywhere else in this whole pandemic period, with people literally walking around in the crowd distributing hand sanitiser to anyone who wanted it. People were distancing far better than they do at supermarkets or Bunnings aisles. If we’re going to dock people’s welfare for going to a rally, I look forward to the same logic being applied to busy shopping centres with far less distancing and far worse use of hygiene and masks
And two: there was no such concern, uproar or outrage after large anti-5G rallies across the country in recent weeks (I reported on one here), where there was almost no use of masks, no social distancing and indeed, people even mocked virus restrictions and safety advice. Indeed, on May 11, Morrison said “I understand people's frustration”, that “It's a free country, people will make their protest and make their voices heard” (transcript here). No talk of docking welfare or charging people or invoking missed funerals — the most critical he got at the time was saying that protest “needs to be done in an appropriate way and it needs to respect the law enforcement authorities who are just simply trying to do their job”.
Time to ‘fight stupid’ conspiracy theories
Speaking of 5G, Victorian state politician Fiona Patten has launched a campaign she is calling “fight stupid”, putting large aqua banners across the city to call out debunked COVID conspiracy theories. The first posters she has put up focus on 5G, which does not cause coronavirus or have any link to it.
Fears of COVID-fuelled extreme right-wing attack
Speaking of people acting in bad faith, the ABC reports that security agency ASIO is worried about extreme far-right groups looking to exploit coronavirus panic for their own gains (link). “The number of domestic ASIO investigations into far-right individuals is now second only to Sunni extremists. The highest number of investigations are taking place in Victoria and Queensland,” the ABC reports.
“COVID-19 restrictions are being exploited by extreme right-wing narratives that paint the state as oppressive, and globalisation and democracy as flawed and failing,” ASIO is quoted as saying, adding “an extreme right-wing attack in Australia is plausible.” Check out the full report, and podcast, here.
House parties, gyms back in business
Saturday marks a big day of COVID changes in NSW, with a number of restrictions to be gradually rolled back. Gyms and fitness studios can reopen again, along with food courts in shopping centres, while NSW residents will also be allowed to welcome 20 people into their homes and gather in groups of 20 outside. So workouts, house parties, big outdoor picnics and tucking into a burger on a shopping spree are all back on the cards.
People are being urged to remain careful and COVID-conscious, keeping up hand hygiene and physical distancing even as restrictions are slowly wound back.
Today there is also another national cabinet meeting of federal and state leaders. Expect some news out of that later on — high on the agenda will be discussion about protests and what (if anything) they mean for the further rollback of restrictions, as well as more argy-bargy over state borders remaining closed.
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30am AEST Friday) report 7,487,676 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 420,847 deaths.
The United States has 2,021,990 confirmed cases, ticking over the two million mark today; Brazil is next on 802,828, then Russia (501,800). The U.S. has the most deaths (113,783), then the United Kingdom (41,364) and Brazil third on 40,919.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Thursday) show 7285 cases, 6761 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
There is furore over Netflix quietly pulling shows from Australian comedian Chris Lilley which feature him playing characters in blackface (link). Similar controversy has erupted over an episode of Fawlty Towers being pulled from a British streaming service (link), and classic film Gone With The Wind being taken down off American streaming site HBO Max (link). HBO said that “racist depictions” of slavery and race in the movie “were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”
Morrison has been dragged for saying “there was no slavery in Australia” in a radio interview yesterday (link). Many historians and experts pointed out that, yes, there was slavery in Australia — we just didn’t usually call it that, instead referring to a number of terms such as indentured labour, forced work, domestic servitude, or ‘blackbirding’. Click here and here to read more about the history.
On a more positive note, this brilliant mural of Sydney Swans AFL legend Adam Goodes is delighting people after being painted on a Surry Hills building yesterday (link).
Donald Trump has authorised sanctions on the International Criminal Court after it opened investigations into alleged war crimes committed by American troops in Afghanistan (link).
And staying on Trump, he has raised eyebrows by referring to the Secret Service, the government security agency that protects the president, as the ‘S.S’.
Usually, that agency is referred to by the acronym ‘USSS’ — for good, historical reason…
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here; Australian government latest statistics here.
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Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh