In 1809, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote:

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

Two hundred and twelve years here in Australia, you might rightly ask, “what is the relevance of this”?

On 24 July 2021, in Sydney, the NSW Deputy Health Officer, Jeremy McNulty, was asked at a press conference why approved rapid antigen Covid-19 tests were not used.

His extraordinary reply (at around 35:00) ran along these lines – “in this situation where we’re trying to find every single person with covid accurately, we rely on PCR testing” … “it may well be that, down the track, that rapid antigen testing does have a role” … “163 cases, while alarming, is still a tiny proportion of the population” … “what we’re needing to do is to have very rapid, very accurate tests about what is happening”.

In essence, rapid antigen Covid-19 tests are not 100% and are not being considered right now. They might happen “down the track”.

Why would this be said by a senior public health official?  Remember the context.

This was a day after Dr Chant, NSW Chief Health Officer, told us that New South Wales faced “a national emergency”.  A statement qualified the following day, just as people hit the streets in Sydney calling for “freedom”.  A march, in response to which the NSW Police Minister said, “we will get everyone”, referring to the police finding and fining them after the establishment of a special taskforce.

Yet the NSW Deputy Health Officer says “a tiny proportion of the population” is involved. A “national emergency”? Well might you ask why this apparent contradiction? Why not get all tools at work to restore the ability to participate in a working society and economy?

Please now pause and ask, what is the system of NSW government under which we supposedly live?  Last time I checked, it was, in theory, a “representative democracy” with some inalienable rights – the right of association, the right to vote, and the right of freedom and personal choice.  But it is apparent we have all been deluded.  It is indeed time to remember what Herr Goethe wrote when you look at rapid antigen covid testing.

Remember, we are all in this together, and that a police state mentality will not stop the spread of the Delta covid virus. 

Indeed, surely the objectives are to get people back to work, children back to school, and businesses operating in a circumstance of care and caution as we seek to live with the latest Covid-19 variant.  It will not be the last variant.  This we have been told.

So rapid antigen Covid-19 testing becomes an intriguing topic when considering this objective.

It is a test approved by the TGA: https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-test-kits-included-artg-legal-supply-australia.

As a lay person comment, it is a test that takes one half hour instead of up to several days to get the result.  Its cost is about $15 compared to the current covid test, which is said to be between $250 and $300.  It can be self-administered, instead of people having to queue up and have the test administered.

It is a test that picks up high viral loads, but it is not a final answer or, to use the bureaucratic language, “a 100%”.

All of this means that the rapid antigen tests could be used by employers, it has a place on construction sites and in businesses, and is cost effective.  As the Delta strain enters its high viral load within 4 -5 days of infection without any symptoms, the discussion of workers being tested at work is surely warranted.

Instead, a bureaucracy has dismissed the rapid antigen test because it is not 100%. 

People in the private sector do not need to be reminded that no bureaucrat has taken a pay cut since March 2020.  Business has and is continuing to take a real haircut.

So maybe it is not surprising that people marched in the streets, with one arm of the government approving rapid antigen testing and another arm saying no they are not to be used.  Yet this second arm of government is willing to take advice on the efficacy, use and application of the covid vaccination as it changes from time to time.

Fair suck of the sausage! Is it not time Gladys and her merry bureaucrats came clean and said “yes, we want 100% zero covid in the community, and this means serious economic and social consequences for any not on the government payroll”?

This might get a bigger response than a street march.

The people of New South Wales have the right to have the bureaucrats put up a public policy covid response with the least economic penalty and social consequences. 

They are not doing this, and clearly have no intention of doing so.  Pause again, and then understand, that with all our politicians taking the advice of the bureaucrats, we will not get any commonsense or attempt to preserve our general well-being.

Extraordinary how Herr Goethe got it so right over two centuries ago, and when his world simply had horse and carriage.