Triumphant image of Ash Barty at Wimbledon hid a terrible lie

Channel 9 Sydney’s Saturday 6pm news bulletin opened with a package on how NSW’s covid situation had reached “crisis point” with 50 new infections reported on Saturday.

If that’s a crisis, how would you describe the situation overseas right now?

Australians – peppered by sunny images of packed beaches in the US and Europe in recent weeks – are being led to believe we’re one of the only countries in the world still fighting the pandemic.

As Sydney’s lockdown enters a third week, we’re being told we’ve been left behind.

Part of it is true, our vaccination uptake, while improving, has lagged behind most of the developed world.

But in terms of being safe from the virus, we’re still the envy of most countries.

Consider the UK, which invited a packed, mask-free crowd including Tom Cruise and Kate and Will to Ash Barty’s triumphant Wimbledon final overnight.

While Wednesday’s State of Origin III has been shifted from Newcastle to the Gold Coast, the AFL is locked out of Sydney and Melbourne’s Formula One Grand Prix has been cancelled for a second year, the Brits stood shoulder to shoulder as Barty won her second slam. The images hid a terrible reality.

A packed centre court crowd watched Ash Barty’s win against Karolina Pliskova. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

The Wimbledon finals are coming at the end of a week in which the BBC reported 400,000 people in the UK were thought to have been covid positive.

On Friday, just over a week before Britain’s final restrictions are to be lifted, 29 people died within 28 days of a positive test.

Those numbers are unfathomable in Australia, but UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson say they’re just part of “learning to live with this virus” and “we must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths”.

In America, despite the parades they’re holding in New York for medical workers who battled covid, the virus is still killing hundreds of people every day.

Just like in England, the Delta strain has arrived with full force and despite the majority of people being vaccinated in some of the big cities there’s plenty of communities who are relatively unprotected.

Southern states Mississippi and Alabama have only vaccinated a third of their residents and Tennessee has had to issue warnings for its elderly to avoid crowded places after cases spiked more than 90 per cent to 250 a day.

“We’re going to remain vulnerable for a long time,” Mississippi state health officer Dr Thomas Dobbs said this week.

“It’s a disturbing and concerning trend that we’re seeing,” added the state’s Dr Paul Byers. “We’re certainly moving in the wrong direction.”

Despite that Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves told the New York Times he has no intention of responding with new restrictions or asking his constituents to wear masks.

Medical workers prepare to vaccinate people at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic in rural Mississippi. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

Despite the huge attendances at baseball games the sports scene is still being impacted too.

This week Tyson Fury, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, caught covid in Las Vegas forcing the postponement of his trilogy bout against Deontay Wilder.

In Tokyo, covid cases have been increasing rapidly and are approaching 1000 a day.

Despite being in a state of emergency, the Japan capital is preparing to welcome Olympic athletes, support staff and media from all over the world this month.

So while the situation in NSW might appear drastic in comparison to the lofty standards we’ve maintained since last year it’s far superior to pretty much everywhere else.

At least from the point of view of protecting life.

The difference is politicians elsewhere are choosing to make decisions that go against the advice of health authorities and the people are accepting of case and death numbers that we can’t imagine because they’ve seen worse.

That is a question for our politicians. Just don’t tell us we’re in crisis.

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