OPEN LETTER Honolulu Baby and coronavirus – do not send children to school

OPEN LETTER

Perth, 23/03/2020

Subject: Honolulu Baby and coronavirus – do not send children to school

Our national Honolulu Baby seems not to understand that every day lost, is a day more for coronavirus to kill Australians. Schools should have been closed immediately, as soon as we knew there was a case of coronavirus in the Country but we understand from today’s news that they are not going to do it! That is something they will have to do anyway, to postpone it’s nonsense. It is also bullshit that children aren’t affected by the virus: in China 6% of children's cases were severe, compared with 18.5% of adults, it means 1/3. I’ve been teaching for 30 years and something I did learn is that you do not expose children when there’s a virus around as they are going to spread it faster and the bullshit that not closing the school will save grandparents would have sense only if we’d be talking about infected children, something they will be only if the school aren’t immediately closed at the same time of a total shutdown and national quarantine enforced! This way and this way only there will be much less problems for families and singles because everyone will be at home. Is there anyone thinking that this virus will disappear by magic? Well done for Western Australia South Australia, Northern Territories and Queensland in closing the borders but it’s not enough. These governments are the same that didn’t manage the bushfires, the same that did cuts to fundings to fire brigades after two years of drought; do you think that now they bought dozens of water bombers airplanes, hundreds of fire trucks and employed thousands more firemen? If you think so, you’d be very wrong and we are only lucky that mega-bushfire didn’t reach our cities…. This Prime Minister and the Premiers are still thinking of the economy and not enough to the people but as when during the bushfires they were ready to terrorize people with a campaigns of advertisements and to turn onto people the responsibility saying "be prepared, have a plan" when who should be prepared are the institutions, not single citizens who normally can’t do much against walls of fire up to 30 meters high! Now Scott Morrison tell "we need Australians to do their bit" (22/03/2020) and "keep social distancing" but I say no: it’s the Governments who need to do their bit, it’s their duty to take full responsibility, not to delay something inevitable! If they think that the way they are managing things will work out the best way, why Western Australia has 400 ventilators due in May? Ventilators are for extreme cases, meaning that they know it’s going to spread and hit very hard but at the same time they are not doing what they have to do: tell people to strictly stay home for two weeks or more, so the number of infections can be reduced and taken under control! The South Korean method should be enforced immediately. Our Ministers seems not to pay attention to what's happening in Italy where hundreds of people a day (793 on 21/03/2020 and 651 on 22/03/2020) are dying to this virus. People can walk around with the virus for over a week before they show symptoms, that's when the contagion is happening. TELL YOUR CHILDREN NOT TO SIT OR PLAY ON THE GROUND AND DO NOT SEND THEM TO SCHOOL.

Honolulu Baby…

Matteo Cornelius Sullivan