THE public face of the Hunter New England Local Health District's coronavirus response, Dr David Durrheim, is quoted today expressing his disappointment at what he calls "conspiracy theorists" doing "harm and damage" with their "divisive" message that COVID-19 is a "hoax" or "not a big deal".
While we concur with the sentiment he expresses - nobody should be deliberately spreading untruths about something so serious - the public conversation about coronavirus is so broad, with so many legitimately held opinions and beliefs, that there is no single "authorised" version of the COVID-19 story.
Face masks are an obvious example.
COVID-19 snapshot"
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Back in March, when the more cautious among us began asking about face masks, they were told there was no evidence to suggest they helped.
A few months down the track, the evidence is still less than conclusive, but masks have become highly recommended here, and mandatory in Victoria.
Coronavirus policy aside, there are some obvious reasons - the pre-COVID state of politics and the exposures by royal commissions of wrongdoings in all sorts of places, for starters - for Australians to no longer automatically believe (if we ever really did) everything that comes from on high.
Mainstream media, the Newcastle Herald included, still sticks pretty much to the political centre, both in in its reporting and in the choice of its columnists and commentators.
But the internet, as we know, is the wild west, with an anarchic multiplicity of view-points and stances.
That's before deliberate misinformation - a fair proportion, according to our security services, generated by hostile "actors" intent on befuddling Westerners - is taken into account.
Befuddled or not, a large percentage of the population gets their news online, and not all of it comes from trusted sources.
Yet for all of these concerns, the majority of Australians are doing the right things, and following the rules.
Yes, too many are still playing roulette with their own lives, and those of others, but the Herald is confident their numbers are falling.
Like US President Donald Trump, they might argue that the number of cases - 19.8 million and rising - is a consequence of the number of tests.
But they can't say it about the number of deaths, now past 730,000 and heading steadily towards one million.
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IN THE NEWS:
- Dozens of State Emergency Service callouts as gale winds whip the Hunter and Central Coast
- Photos after several days of snow at Barrington Tops
- St Pius X High at Adamstown and St Francis Xavier's College at Hamilton to reopen this week after COVID cases
- Adani could buy Mount Arthur and scrap Carmichael, says prominent coal critic IEEFA
ISSUE: 39,383.
