Governments should butt out when it comes to health

Emerging from their homes, Sydneysiders can trade in their FaceTime iso parties for dine-in iced lattes. Monday marks the first day of freedom across the home of Australia’s biggest big smoke. New South Wales adults who are “fully vaccinated”* are able to slither from their homes like disobedient children from the naughty corner, following the easing of some Covid-19 restrictions. After 18 months’ of fear mongering, it is a development that will boost mental wellbeing as well as physical health - benefits that far outweigh the superficial cost of delaying the inevitable.

As communities begin to reconnect and as opportunities arise to engage in group activities, to exercise and to partake in other forms of self care, NSW residents will be spoilt for choice when it comes to making decisions about their health and happiness.

It is a common misconception that nobody is better equipped than government bureaucrats when it comes to managing the health of individuals. Good health means different things to different people and achieving it involves a more sophisticated approach than simply avoiding all risk, at all costs. Despite claiming to act in the interests of constituents, governments regularly introduce rules and regulations that stifle people’s ability to put their own health first, seen on a mammoth scale in the case of draconian lockdowns.

*Fully-vaccinated is a term primed for inconsistency as governments worldwide gear up for perpetual goalpost moving