Did the Morrison government really prevent 40,000 COVID deaths? A health economist checks claims against facts

Mon, 2 May 2022 18:11:06 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/did-the-morrison-government-really-prevent-40-000-covid-deaths-a-health-economist-checks-claims-against-facts-181052>

"As an opening gambit to his re-election campaign, Prime Minister Scott
Morrison claimed his handling of the pandemic had saved 40,000 lives. This
figure compares Australia over 2020 and 2021 with an average derived across
higher-risk predominantly northern hemisphere countries.

He made similar comparisons to much higher-risk countries two years ago, at a
press conference on April 7 2020. Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan
Murphy pointed to COVID graphs comparing Australian cases with modelling.

“We have so far avoided the many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of cases
that may have otherwise occurred by this point across the Australian community
— and indeed the many more fatalities that could also have occurred by this
point,” he said then, urging Australians to “hold the course. We must lock in
these gains.”

But a comparison with equivalent countries tells a very different story about
the claim to have saved 40,000 lives."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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