I read about this article as well, but I didn't realise what the Department of Finance spent was on top of the $440m..... Thing is, when RATs were in low supply, it was extremely expensive to get in Australia and anyone who had them for sale, was price gouging. So many articles on those that the governments had to step in and try to provide them. Not defending the WA government's actions, but I can understand their irrational fear about not having enough RATs.
IMO though, if you asked me whether I would prefer to be in Victoria vs. WA during Covid, I would 100% say I would have liked to be in WA. WA locked their borders, but they didn't lock the people up at home. My friends were living it up in WA, going to the beaches and shops while I couldn't travel more then 5kms from my home.
And as it sink, the rats will abandon ship - but we'll have nowhere to go.
There is always the Moon or Mars, if you are Elon's friend :D
One of the problems was, the RAT tests were far, far less accurate than advertised, making them largely useless. Much like the effectiveness of masks for the general public.
But, both were silly. Finland barely closed down internally at all. Similar rates of death, similar age groups.
Again, silly eh?
Here, going into work was optional. :D
Totally agree that the RAT tests were not the most accurate. A positive RAT test almost guaranteed you were COVID positive, but a negative ones typically doesn't. Also with the evolution of the virus, not too sure how accurate they are now.
Glad it's sort of behind us now. But the flu season is hitting really hard this year again in Australia. Who knows how long the Covid impact is going to last.
My wife likely has Covid at the moment and testing negative. Not that anyone cares :D
I have read that this is part of the Covid lag, where people's immune systems are weaker now, as well as people being more sensitive emotionally to illness, so it can "seem worse" than it actually is.