OzSAGE and John Snow Project join forces to call for covid disease reduction

John Snow was the famous London physician who removed the handle from the Broad Street water pump, thereby stopping a cholera outbreak.

Simple, effective.

Following on from the honest and open comments of Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, where he correctly described the recent Australian COVID wave as neither short nor sharp, with a death toll in the thousands, OzSAGE and John Snow Project are together calling on everyone to promote disease control.

We face a choice as a community to continue to tolerate deaths that have been twelve times rate of the road toll, or to do something about this carnage by promoting clean air and reducing disease spread.

– the increased boosters as announced are welcome, but of course vaccine for the children from 6 months up to 5 years should be delayed no longer – they are now part of the standard USA childhood immunisation schedule.

– we need improved indoor air quality with fresh air brought indoors, keeping carbon dioxide levels always under 800ppm, supplemented by HEPA filtration air purifiers in stagnant spaces where that is not possible

– we need good quality masks – ideally N95 or better – when sharing air in public

– support for people to test and isolate when sick

– access to antivirals on the PBS for anyone that doctors prescribe them for

“Living with COVID” by ignoring it is not really living.