THE Great Aussie Bush Camps at Tea Gardens and Kincumber play an important role as two of our most popular school camp destinations, and even more so since the closure in March last year of the Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre.
So it is easy to sympathise with co-owner Brad Love's view of the COVID-19 restrictions that shut the camps in March, leaving little likelihood of them reopening this year.
It's even easier to understand how Mr Love must feel when he points out that pubs, clubs and restaurants - and even brothels - have been allowed to resume trading.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:
- Australian death toll approaching 400
- Auckland cluster ticking over, adding another 12
-
Victoria's death toll continues but daily case toll slowing
- Flareups across the Northern Hemisphere during Summer holiday peak
-
Spain 'losing' second round of virus fight
And to keep trading, despite numerous examples cited by mainstream media and circulating on social media of social distancing going "out the window" when alcohol is involved, as Mr Love observes.
Two wrongs, however, do not make a right.
As we pointed out in this space on Friday, there will be inconsistencies - real or apparent - between sectors in terms of coronavirus treatment.
That's because the aim of COVID-19 policies is first and foremost to minimise the spread of the disease, and to ultimately work towards its eradication.
The aim is not necessarily to treat each sector equally, but to ensure society works as well as it can, while keeping coronavirus infections to their minimum.
Unfortunately, even though the Great Aussie Bush Camps and other businesses of their ilk were hoping to reopen when Term Four of the school year began on October 12, the background to the Tangara School for Girls cluster in Sydney has led the Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, to warn that extracurricular activities such as overnight camps "shouldn't occur" under the state's coronavirus regime.
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington has written to Ms Berejiklian asking how her government is supporting businesses such as the bush camps, but her letter does not endorse their reopening.
COVID-19 might have the heaviest impact, healthwise, on the old and the immuno-compromised, but evidence shows it spreads just as easily among the young, even if they remain symptomatic.
The contagion can be suppressed, but a glance at the global picture shows the the virus returning, and quickly, each time that it's given a chance.
We know the barriers we build against coronavirus come at great cost.
We must realise that each easing of restrictions opens grave risks.
It's an unavoidable equation.
ISSUE: 39,388.
IN THE NEWS:
