Packed crowds and euphoric leaders: Australia revels in Covid-free days
"Perhaps most crucially, McVernon said, politicians listened to health experts.
“The same advice was coming from experts in the US and UK but they took less definitive early action. They didn’t have that overarching coordination like we had here, where all of the relevant state and federal governments were singing from the same hymn sheet.”
With cases spiralling in both the US and UK, McVernon said the only real hope was to suppress the virus. But, she said, there were cultural factors that played in Australia’s favour too.
“Particularly in the US it’s totally out of control now. And so they might be able to do some things to suppress it, but it’s also about turning around a population that will actively revolt at the idea of wearing a mask or doing any of these things that might limit its spread,” she said.
"Australians are pretty compliant overall, and we still have that level of social cohesion where these things can work.”