Public Health Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: The Role of the Morrison Government
Stephen Duckett
Abstract
The Australian Commonwealth government has four health-related responsibilities during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: to provide national leadership; to manage external borders; to protect residents of residential aged care facilities; and to approve, procure and roll-out tests and vaccines. State governments are responsible for determining what public health measures are appropriate and implementing them-including managing the border quarantine arrangements and the testing, tracing, and isolation regime-and managing the hospital response. This paper analyses the national government's response to the pandemic and discusses why it has attracted a thesaurus of negative adjectives.
Topics & Concepts
PandemicGovernment (linguistics)Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Public healthIsolation (microbiology)Contact tracingCommonwealthQuarantine2019-20 coronavirus outbreakSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)BusinessPublic administrationPolitical sciencePublic relationsMedicineNursingVirologyLawMicrobiologyInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseasePathologyPhilosophyLinguisticsOutbreakBiologyCOVID-19 epidemiological studiesHealth disparities and outcomesDisaster Response and Management