Six months of coronavirus in the Hunter has left us battered but not beaten

A federal government snapshot yesterday.

ALMOST six months have elapsed since COVID-19 was first detected in the Hunter Region.

The virus now pervades virtually every aspect of our existence, from the comings and goings of our everyday lives, to our long-term hopes and ambitions as individuals, as a nation, and as a global population.

But for all of the enormous damage that COVID-19 has done in Australia, we've borne a lesser share of the pandemic than many countries, in terms of the health impact as well as the economic costs.

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This is not in any way to diminish the tragic loss of life, or to ignore the financial hits to those who have lost their jobs or had their businesses torn to shreds.

But it is to say that everyone, more or less, realises what Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other leaders mean when they remind their electorates that "we are all in this together".

This week, the national accounts revealed the size of Australia's recession by confirming that the economy - measured through gross domestic product or GDP - shrank by 7 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, which ended on June 30.

Until recently, both the federal government and the Reserve Bank of Australia had been predicting an economic improvement during the three months ending on September 30, but another substantial contraction now looks likely, given the prolonged restrictions in Victoria, and the still suppressed conditions in the rest of the country.

Australia's case curve, two distinct peaks, the second also, hopefully,brought under control. Source: Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard

David Durhheim, the Hunter New England Local Health District's main spokesperson on COVID-19, describes a coronavirus vaccine as the light in the tunnel.

More than 230 are being developed, including four candidates undergoing phase three trials, usually the final step before a new drug is improved.

As Dr Durhheim observes, COVID-19 is not simply a respiratory infection.

The heart and lungs, the vascular system and the kidneys can all be damaged, and for obvious reasons, the long-term impacts are simply not known.

Worryingly, there is also some evidence to indicate that people can be infected twice.

Whatever happens from here, life as we knew it "before coronavirus" has effectively gone.

There will be a time "after coronavirus" but when that day arrives is in the lap of the gods.

Or in the laboratories of the world's best scientists, with a worried humanity watching anxiously over their shoulders.

ISSUE: 39,405.

26.3 million diagnosed cases and almost 870,000 deaths, heading inexorably towards one million casualties. Source: Johns Hopkins University

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