Australia has done vastly better than other rich European countries in the Covid-19 pandemic because (a) it is a large island that accordingly could readily minimize Covid-19 importation, and (b) while notoriously anti-science over climate change, Australia’s neoliberal government chose in this instance to listen to the health experts. However an Australian Senate Covid-19 Inquiry noted but declined to publish or accept as a Submission my detailed offering from a 5-decade career scientist.
The Senate Committee thanked me for taking the time to make this offering, noted that it had carefully considered my information but decided that my statement would only be considered as correspondence, would not be accepted as a Submission and would not be published on the Inquiry website for public perusal. My Submission largely took the form of succinct summaries of a series of Covid-19-related articles I had published (6 in Countercurrents, 1 in Global Research and 1 with Professor Richard Hil in the respected Australian intellectual journal Arena). The further distilled and summarizing titles of the 5 key areas of my Submission are as follows:
(1). Covid-19 Timeline and “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” (“Covid-19 deaths/M”) reveal excellent outcomes as well as massively deadly response failures, and the falsehood of the US anti-China blame game.
(2). Covid-19 pandemic (possibly 1 million to die due to inaction) presages Climate Genocide (10 billion to die this century unless urgent climate action is taken).
(3). Differential Occupier versus Occupied “Ventilators per million of population”, “Avoidable deaths from deprivation” and “Per capita GDP” expose US, Australian and Apartheid Israeli war crimes.
(4). Covid-19 pandemic and lack of Western altruism for the global South, including Indigenous Australians.
(5). Post-Covid-19 Green New Deal (GND) involving a sustainable, needs-based economy, zero emissions, universal basic income (UBI), social equity, justice, and free university education.
For a decade I have been rendered largely “invisible” in my own country by whatever organizations from A to Z, but as a humane, 5-decade career scientist I consider the above matters to be of great importance for Australia and indeed for Humanity as a whole. Accordingly I have reproduced my Submission below so that others can have the opportunity to consider these important natters.
START. Submission by Dr Gideon Polya to the … [Senate] Inquiry into the Australian Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and any related matters.
Personal details. Dr Gideon Maxwell Polya, [contact details].
Professional background and prologue. I am a biochemist with a BSc (Hons) (University of Tasmania, 1966), PhD (Flinders University of South Australia, 1969), Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (La Trobe University, 2003). I was a post-doctoral fellow, Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1969-1971), Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1971-1972), taught science students at La Trobe University over 4 decades from 1972, full-time as a researcher and teacher in 1972-2003, and thence as a part-time lecturer. I published some 130 works in my scientific career in biochemistry, and published a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (2003).
In addition, and most pertinently to this Inquiry, I have had a longstanding interest for over half a century in the science-society interface, inspired by C.P. Snow’s incisive book “Science and Government” (1961) about conflicting scientific advice to the British Government in WW2 over bombing policy. The policy that was mistakenly adopted had a huge impact on major aspects of the war including the Battle of the Atlantic, the bombing of Germany, and shipping shortages. The latter impacted on food shortages in India, and over the last 25 years I have published extensively about the “forgotten” 1942-1945 Bengal Famine (WW2 Bengali Holocaust) in which 6-7 million Indians perished in Bengal, Bihar and adjoining provinces under British rule and with Australian complicity (withholding of grain from its huge war-time wheat stores from its starving ally India), notably in a huge book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (1998, 2008) that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .
I have written extensively (in books, chapters of books, print journals and electronic journals) about avoidable mass mortality associated with famine, disease, war and occupation, notably in 2 further large books “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (2007) and “US-imposed, post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide” (in press, 2020). Notwithstanding the realities that history ignored yields history repeated, that the most fundamental human right is the right to life, and that truthful, science-informed reportage is crucial for the rational risk management required for societal safety, my carefully researched and science-informed concerns have been overwhelmingly ignored by Mainstream Australia, presumably as inconsistent with a dominant, self-adulatory, determinedly myopic, and “nice” Mainstream “narrative”.
During the Covid-19 pandemic I have researched, written and published extensively from a quantitative and science-informed perspective about important aspects of the Covid-19 disaster. I have distilled my analyses (including some circa 10,000-word, and circa 100-reference articles) into circa 300-word summaries that have been sent electronically in the public interest to MPs, media and fellow humanitarians, together with URL links to the original detailed and documented articles. For the convenience of the Senate Covid-19 Inquiry my submission is based on a succession of such suitably edited and succinctly amplified summaries as set out below.
(1). Covid-19 Timeline and “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” (“Covid-19 deaths/M”) reveal excellent outcomes as well as massively deadly response failures, and the falsehood of the US anti-China blame game.
An abbreviated Timeline of the Covid-19 pandemic: (1) 1 December 2019, the first reported case in China of what was retrospectively confirmed as Covid-19; (2) 31 December 2019, notification of WHO and the world by China of the outbreak of a novel pneumonia-like disease in Wuhan; (3) early January 2020 , the first RNA sequence was obtained for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) (genome Wuhan-Hu-1); (4) 11 – 12 January 2020, China shared with the world the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus; (5) 20 January 2020 (Day Zero), China notified the Chinese public and the world via the WHO of human-to-human transmission of the virus; (6) 21 January, Chinese provision of polynucleotide primers and probes crucial for global coronavirus detection; and (7) 23 January, China commenced stringent lockdown of Wuhan, Hubei Province and thence of China. Most other countries adopted stringent lockdown about 60 days later.
Covid-19 deaths per million of population (“Covid-19 deaths/M”) are as follows for the Anglosphere 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing nations: 4/M (New Zealand), 4/M (Australia), 157/M (Canada), 283/M (US), and 521/M (UK) as compared to 42.8/M (the World) (20 May 2020) – a massive failure of 5 Eyes intelligence to prevent mass mortality in 5 Eyes countries.
The shockingly high “Covid-19 deaths/M” values for the rich and technological sophisticated countries of Canada, UK and the US (157-521) can be compared to high values in the range 29-786 (as of 20 May 2020) in similarly rich and technological sophisticated Western European countries, to whit 29 (Iceland), 43 (Norway), 70 (Austria), 95 (Denmark), 98 (Germany), 122 (Portugal), 174 (Luxembourg), 219 (Switzerland), 317 (Ireland), 334 (Netherlands), 371 (Sweden), 429 (France), 532 (Italy), 594 (Spain), and 786 (Belgium).
In stark contrast, “Covid-19 deaths/M” values are 0.1 (Kerala, India), 0.3 (Taiwan), 0.5 (Hong Kong), 3 (China), 4 (New Zealand), 4 (Australia), 4 (Singapore), 5 (South Korea) and 6 (Japan) – the excellent outcome in rich but tardy Australia is still 40 times worse than that in poor but decent Kerala. Despite the Australian Coalition resolutely rejecting expert scientific advice on climate change for decades, in the present instance the Coalition Government has wisely adopted the no-brainer position of accepting expert medical advice over the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The leaders of Canada, the UK and the US in particular should face the International Criminal Court (ICC) for depraved indifference and mass murder in causing avoidable Covid-19 deaths totalling about 6,000, 35,000 and 94,000 in their respective countries (as of 20 May 2020).
Yet mendacious and racist Trump America, backed by Trump-supporting Australia, has sought to turn reality on its head by falsely denigrating and threatening China and the WHO, world leaders in the fight against Covid-19. The Australian Coalition Government falsely denigrating China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, on behalf of a fervently anti-China Trump America may prove expensive for Australia. Indeed former Coalition PM of Australia, Malcolm Fraser wisely warned (2010): “Slavish devotion to the US a foreign policy folly for Australia”.
Greedy, neoliberal and politically dominant Western One Percenters accepted belated lockdown (and an associated $9 trillion economic cost) because the coronavirus cannot distinguish between the super-rich and the wretchedly poor – but are already adumbrating a post-Covid-19, business-as-usual “snap back” to austerity, gross inequality and terracidal climate criminality rather than a Green New Deal of zero emissions, Universal Basic Income, sustainability, needs-based production and social equity.
In 2020 global Covid-19 deaths may total about 1 million, but due to neoliberal One Percenter greed about 1 million people will die from climate change, global air pollution deaths will total 9 million, and 15 million people will die avoidably from deprivation. Indeed in 2020 while perhaps only 200 Australians will die from Covid-19, preventable deaths from “life-style choice” reasons (e.g. smoking, sugar, drinking) and “political choice” reasons (e.g. not banning smoking, sugar, drinking) will total 85,000 in Australia (as compared to 1.7 million, 150,000 and 100,000 in the US, UK and Canada, respectively).
For a detailed and thoroughly documented analysis see Gideon Polya, “Covid-19 Timeline Exposes Falsehood Of US & US Lackey Australian Anti-China Blame Game”, Countercurrents, 20 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/covid-19-timeline-exposes-falsehood-of-us-us-lackey-australian-anti-china-blame-game/ .
(2). Covid-19 pandemic (possibly 1 million to die due to inaction) presages Climate Genocide (10 billion to die this century unless urgent climate action is taken).
The Covid-19 pandemic (in which perhaps about 1 million people may die due to insufficient and tardy action) presages a horrendous Climate Genocide (if urgent, requisite action is not taken 10 billion people will die en route to a sustainable human population of only 0.5-1.0 billion in 2100 ).
There are huge differences in Covid-19 deaths per million of population (Covid-19 deaths/ M) in the nations of the Anglosphere 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, to whit 4 (New Zealand), 4 (Australia), 151 (Canada), 272 (US) and 508 (UK). These huge differences in national Covid-19 deaths per million of population loosely correlate with political conservatism and neoliberal greed. Presently dominant neoliberalism and consequently deficient intra-national altruism are deadly.
The shockingly high “Covid-19 deaths/M” values for the rich and technological sophisticated countries of Canada, UK and the US (151-508) can be compared to high values in the range 43-777 in similarly rich and technological sophisticated European countries, to whit 43 (Norway), 70 (Austria), 94 (Denmark), 96 (Germany), 166 (Luxembourg), 217 (Switzerland), 311 (Ireland), 331 (Netherlands), 364 (Sweden), 423 (France), 525 (Italy), 590 (Spain), and 777 (Belgium) (17 May 2020).
These high levels of “Covid-19 deaths/M” in rich and technologically sophisticated Western European countries are in stark contrast to very low levels (0.3 – 6 ) in similarly prosperous and technologically advanced countries in Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) and in East Asia, to whit 0.3 (Hong Kong), 0.3 (Taiwan), 3 (China), 4 (New Zealand), 4 (Australia), 4 (Singapore), 5 (South Korea) and 6 (Japan) (17 May 2020).
The most crucial intelligence to be shared by the 5 Eyes would be that relating to mass mortality threats (e.g. from climate change, disease, war, non-state terrorism) but this has clearly failed in relation to how to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The horrendous number of Covid-19 deaths in Canada, the UK and the US that presently total about 130,000 (as compared to only 21 and 98 in New Zealand and Australia respectively) (17 May 2020) came about because the neoliberal governments of Canada, UK and the US deliberately put Big Money and private profit before the lives of ordinary citizens. A similar disaster is unfolding in Brazil under a ruthlessly neoliberal and anti-social government.
Well might Trump demand an “international inquiry”. Those responsible for grossly inadequate action and depraved indifference leading to the crime of immense avoidable Covid-19-related deaths – notably Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, UK PM Boris Johnson, US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro – should be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
For a detailed and thoroughly documented analysis see Gideon Polya, “Per Capita Covid-19 Deaths In Anglosphere 5-Eyes Intelligence-Sharing Nations Correlate With Neoliberal Greed”, Countercurrents, 17 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/per-capita-covid-19-deaths-in-anglosphere-5-eyes-intelligence-sharing-nations-correlate-with-neoliberal-greed/ .
(3). Differential Occupier versus Occupied “Ventilators per million of population”, “Avoidable deaths from deprivation” and “Per capita GDP” expose US, Australian and Apartheid Israeli war crimes.
Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War state unequivocally that an Occupier must provide its conquered Subjects with life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”. However in relation to huge Subject avoidable deaths from deprivation, and ventilator non-provision in the context of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, the US and Australia grossly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention in Occupied Afghanistan, and Apartheid Israel grossly violates this in Occupied Palestine.
Annual avoidable deaths from deprivation are huge in impoverished Occupied Afghanistan (84,300) and Occupied Palestine(4,200) but are zero (0) for the rich and war criminal Occupiers. Those responsible for the continuing and deadly 19-year Occupation of Afghanistan and the 53-year Occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are genocidally racist war criminals who continue to remorselessly commit active and passive mass murder in gross violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, life-saving ventilators per million (/M) people are 504/M (Occupier US), 173/M (Occupier Australia) and 407/M (Occupier Apartheid Israel) versus 8/M (Occupied Afghanistan), 38/M (Occupied Palestine) and 13/M (Gaza Concentration Camp).
Annual per capita GDP (nominal) is a deadly $521 for Occupied Afghanistan and a deadly $3,199 for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the West Bank and the Apartheid Israel-blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp) as compared to $62,795 for Occupier America, $57,374 for Occupier Australia and $41,715 for Occupier Apartheid Israel (World Bank, 2018).
Under the fervently pro-Zionist Coalition, Australia has become second only to Trump America as a supporter of nuclear terrorist, racist Zionist-run, genocidally racist, serial war criminal, grossly human rights-violating, and democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel. Indigenous Palestinians presently represent about 50% of the Subjects of Apartheid Israel, but of these 73% are excluded from all human rights, including the right to vote for the government ruling them (i.e. Apartheid). Those fervently supporting Apartheid Israel and hence the UN-condemned crime of Apartheid are unfit for elected office in one-person-one-vote democracies such as Australia and the US.
I am an anti-racist Jewish Australian scientist and humanitarian with a prime loyalty to Australia and from a famous Jewish Hungarian family that was subject to the WW2 Jewish Holocaust. I have a profound objection to the crimes of Apartheid Israel and its ongoing Palestinian Genocide that represent a blot on Jewry, Judaism, Humanity, pro-Apartheid America and indeed on Australia because of massive political support in Australia for serial war criminal Apartheid Israel and for pro-Apartheid, serial war criminal America.
Decent Humanity demands International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions and Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against leaders, collaborators and countries complicit in these continuing war criminal atrocities in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Australian soldiers are presently under investigation for very limited alleged individual incidents of war crimes allegedly committed against a small number of Afghan individuals in the heat of battle. No doubt the highest standards of the ADF will be judicially upheld. Decent Australians will also expect generous medical help for traumatized veterans. However decent Australians will also demand the prosecution of all the politicians who sent our soldiers to fight in all post-1950 US Asian wars (atrocities associated with 40 million Asian deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation), and who have remorselessly and grossly violated the Fourth Geneva Convention on a massive scale by being party to gross and massively deadly non-provision of life-sustaining requisites to Occupied Subjects.
For details and thoroughly documented analysis see Gideon Polya, “COVID-19: Occupiers US, Australia & Apartheid Israel grossly violate Geneva Convention re conquered Subjects”, Countercurrents, 7 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/covid-19-occupiers-us-australia-apartheid-israel-grossly-violate-geneva-convention-re-conquered-subjects .
(4). Covid-19 pandemic and lack of Western altruism for the global South, including Indigenous Australians.
The world has been forced to adopt economically hugely expensive lockdown measures to stem the huge mortality associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. However the global Action Cost/Deaths ratio is $9 million per Covid-19 death for tackling the world-wide Covid-19 pandemic but merely $8,889 per death for tackling malaria that massively and disproportionately impacts the Developing World. When the Covid-19 pandemic is over the World must seriously reassess global humanitarian obligations. Brown and black lives matter.
The Action Cost/Deaths ratio is a crucial measure of global responsiveness to particular deadly circumstances: (1) $9,000,000 per death (in response to 0.5 million Covid-19 deaths pa) as compared to (2) $8,889 per death (re 0.405 million malaria deaths pa), (3) $27,367 per death (re 9 million starvation deaths pa), (4) $32,770 per death (re 5.07 million under-5 infant deaths pa), (5) $10,931 per death (re 15.2 million annual avoidable deaths from deprivation in Developing Counties (minus China)) and (6) MINUS $1.42 million per death (re 9 million air pollution deaths pa that are deliberately and knowingly subsidized by an annual increase of $12.8 trillion in inescapable, damage-related, global Carbon Debt).
To amplify point (6) above, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 9 million people – mainly but not exclusively in the global South – die from air pollution each year, the main contributors to that pollution being fossil fuels and other carbon fuels. But rather than trying to prevent this carnage the world’s carbon economy is blindly committed to burning coal and other carbon fuels that will increase air pollution and hence air-pollution deaths. A dollar value can be put on this deadly investment because UK and US scholars have independently determined a damage-related carbon price of $200 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted. With annual global greenhouse-gas emissions estimated at over 63 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent, rich Western nations disproportionately help run up a global Carbon Debt of $12,800 billion each year, a debt that will inescapably have to be paid by future generations (e.g. if sea walls are not built then coastal cities and arable land will be inundated).
The simple explanations for these shocking discrepancies in altruism are (1) human altruism decreases markedly as one goes from immediate family, to suburb, to city, to nation and to foreigners, and markedly so from the global North to the global South, and (2) that coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2 ) does not distinguish between billionaires and paupers whereas malarial infection, huge avoidable deaths from deprivation and massive under-5 infant mortality are largely confined to the impoverished global South.
It is important and timely to note huge avoidable deaths from deprivation in the Developing World (minus China) prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Deprivation-caused avoidable deaths (avoidable mortality, excess deaths, excess mortality , premature deaths, untimely deaths or deaths that should not have happened) can be measured as the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a decently-run, peaceful country with the same demographics (birth rate, proportion of children) (see Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, this including an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html ).
Best-case Covid-19 Suppression scenarios for rich Australia and the rich UK predict “annual Covid-19-related deaths as a percentage of population” of about 0.0008% pa for Australia and a relatively shocking 0.03% pa for the horribly mal-managed UK. In contrast, “annual avoidable deaths from deprivation as a percentage of population” was already pre-Covid-19 a shocking 0.30% pa for the Developing World (minus China), 0.60% pa for Indigenous Australians, and variously about 0.1% pa – 0.4% pa for Developing Countries (e.g. Indonesia, Morocco, India, and Fiji) that pre-Covid-19 have been popular holiday destinations for relatively rich British and Australian tourists who blithely ignore the underlying deadly social realities. In stark contrast, avoidable mortality from deprivation as a percentage of population is essentially zero (0) for North America, Western Europe, East Asia, China, White Australia and altruistically-run Cuba.
In short, poverty kills and altruism deficiency kills. Brown and black lives matter. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity.
For details and thoroughly documented analysis see: Gideon Polya, “Action Cost/Deaths Ratios For Covid-19, Malaria, Infant Health, Starvation, Poverty & Pollution”, Countercurrents, 17 April 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/action-cost-deaths-ratios-for-covid-19-malaria-infant-health-starvation-poverty-pollution ; Gideon Polya, “UK-Australia COVID-19 deaths, deprivation deaths in Developing countries, Indigenous avoidable deaths”, Global Research, 8 April 2020: https://www.globalresearch.ca/uk-australian-covid-19-deaths-versus-developing-country-indigenous-avoidable-deaths-deprivation/5708948 ; and Gideon Polya and Richard Hil , “Covid-19-inspired Western altruism ignores the World’s unpeople”, Arena, 5 May 2020: https://arena.org.au/covid-19-inspired-western-altruism-ignores-the-worlds-unpeople/ .
(5) Post-Covid-19 Green New Deal (GND) involving a sustainable, needs-based economy, zero emissions, universal basic income (UBI), social equity, justice, and free university education.
Comprehensive social distancing and economic lockdown measures required to suppress Covid-19 have been associated with rapid socialism-style adoption of a needs-based economy (essential services), a decrease in carbon fuel burning and air pollution, a widened social safety net, and on-line learning. Post-Covid-19 one envisages a Social Humanist (socialist, eco-socialist, welfare state) needs-based economy, zero emissions, universal basic income (UBI) , a Green New Deal (GND) and top quality and free infant education, pre-school education, school education, university education and accredited life-long learning. Unfortunately entrenched interests in a neoliberal Australia may well reject this golden opportunity for a decent, equitable, just and sustainable Australia.
Currently dominant neoliberalism demands maximal freedom for the smart and advantaged to exploit the human and natural resources of the world for private profit. In stark contrast, Social Humanism (democratic socialism, eco-socialism, the welfare state) seeks to sustainably maximize human happiness, dignity and opportunity by culturally-sensitive and evolving intra-national and international social contracts (see “Social Humanism: A New Metaphysics” by Professor Brian Ellis). The present gross social inequity is bad for the economy (the poor cannot afford to buy the goods and services they produce) and bad for democracy (Big Money perverts public perception of reality and effectively buys votes) (see “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Professor Thomas Piketty). Ruthless neoliberalism has led the world to an existential crisis that is presently compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. However a silver lining in the Covid-19 cloud is the imperative of a Green New Deal in a decent and sustainable post-Covid-19 world.
Truth and understanding are critical for science-based rational risk management crucial for societal safety. Education is a basic human right and all education – from infant care and pre-school to university and life-long learning – and can and should be free. Thus, for example, (1) all nations need a large body of well-funded science, medical and scholarly experts but why should impoverished teenagers have to pay for it? (2) Top quality accredited on-line learning is 1% of the exorbitant cost of on-campus learning (that for decades has been largely on-line anyway), and (3) free university education is already provided by 25 countries.
As a teacher of science students at a big Australian university over 4 decades, I have long believed in free, top quality, accredited tertiary education. Australia’s Education Export industry was reportedly worth $38 billion per annum pre-Covid-19, and for that reason there is remarkable cognitive dissonance and resolute Mainstream ignoring in relation to free university education (except for the humane and science-informed Australian Greens who support it). In 2017 there were about 800,000 overseas students enrolled in Australian institutions of whom about 350,000 were enrolled for university courses. Due to Covid-19 this large body of university students, whether within Australia or trapped overseas by Australian border closure, are forced to study on-line but of course are still charged huge fees for what could and should be provided for free. Thus, for example, some top US universities like Harvard and MIT provide on-line course for free, the so-called MOOCs or Massive Online Open Courses). The Covid-19 pandemic and extraordinarily bad treatment of overseas students both in Australia and abroad has exposed the truth-susceptible frailty of the Goose that laid the Golden Eggs of Australia’s $38 billion pa Education Export industry.
Some further examples are set out below of key topical truths variously ignored or rejected by Australia’s truth-challenged Mainstream and relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, Covid-19 deaths , and controversy over school closures as an Covid-19 suppression measure:
(1) on an annual basis Australia spends a mere A$1.9 million per death addressing the 4,200 Indigenous avoidable deaths pa in the ongoing Aboriginal Genocide versus A$3.4 billion per death on its likely and hopefully only 200 deaths pa Covid-19 crisis;
(2) Captain Cook (who “discovered” and stole Australia in 1770 and thus initiated the Aboriginal Genocide involving 2 million premature deaths, mostly from deprivation and introduced disease) versus the Covid-19 pandemic (hopefully only 200 deaths in Australia and 1,000,000 globally before a vaccine is emplaced); and
(3) re school closure in the Covid-19 context, top German virologist Professor Christian Drosten (one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003) and his colleagues concluded: “[Coronavirus] viral loads in the very young do not differ significantly from those of adults. Based on these results, we have to caution against an unlimited re-opening of schools and kindergartens in the present situation”, and top UK epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson and 30 colleagues from Imperial College, London, in an important and transformative analysis of responses to the Covid-19 epidemic: “We predict that school and university closure will have an impact on the epidemic, under the assumption that children do transmit as much as adults, even if they rarely experience severe disease. We find that school and university closure is a more effective strategy to support epidemic suppression than mitigation; when combined with population-wide social distancing, the effect of school closure is to further amplify the breaking of social contacts between households, and thus supress transmission.”
The big question is whether the remarkable altruism exhibited at the local, personal level, in Federal and State Government policies, and, of course, by our wonderful health professionals and all those involved in essential services will continue unabated in the post-Covid-19 era or whether the disproportionate political power of neoliberal One Percenters will restore control with business-as-usual, unsustainable economic growth, merciless austerity and burgeoning inequality. One hopes that the political Establishments of Australia, the US and similar rich countries that are normally committed to greedy and unsustainable neoliberalism will be too scared by the huge masses of unemployed to oppose this golden opportunity for a post-Covid-19 Green New Deal (GND) involving a sustainable, more altruistic, more just, more equitable and more decent World.
Pre-Covid-19 it was apparent to scientists that time was running out for requisitely tackling climate change. As for myself, my judgement from reading the expert opinions of leading scientists is that a plus 1.5C temperature rise is inevitable in the next decade, plus 1.2C has already been reached, and that a catastrophic plus 2C is effectively unavoidable given the extraordinary political inaction – but we are obliged to do everything we can to make the future “less bad” for our children, grandchildren and future generations. Brilliant theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has succinctly stated the present dilemma of a growth-obsessed world existentially threatened by nuclear weapons and man-made climate change (2018): “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change”. However the Coalition Government has just reiterated its enthusiasm for gas, notwithstanding expert scientific estimation that systemic gas leakage and a global warming potential for methane 105 times greater than that for CO2 (on a 20 year time frame) means that with a modest 3% degree of systemic leakage, burning gas can be dirtier greenhouse gas–wise than burning coal.
My plea is simply listen to our expert scientists – this has worked extremely well for Australia in the Covid-19 emergency, and is crucial for dealing with the ever-worsening climate emergency. We are badly running out of time.
Acclaimed Indian writer and humanitarian activist, Arundhati Roy (from Kerala), has eloquently urged a post-Covid-19 transformation (4 April 2020): “Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could… Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it”
For detailed and documented analysis see Gideon Polya, “Post-Covid-19 Needs-based Economy, Zero Emissions, UBI, Green New Deal & Free University Education”, Countercurrents, 3 May 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/05/post-covid-19-needs-based-economy-zero-emissions-ubi-green-new-deal-free-university-education; and Gideon Polya, “COVID-19 Pandemic & Coronavirus Suppression – Should Australian Schools Close? ”, Countercurrents, 22 March 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/03/covid-19-pandemic-coronavirus-suppression-should-australian-schools-close .
This submission has been carefully written in the public interest.
Dr Gideon Polya, 22 May 2020 (signature attached). END SUBMISSION.
Final comments – July 2020 postscript.
I have succinctly updated the 5 areas of my Submission as set out below for 28 July 2020:
(1). “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” (“Covid deaths/M)”. Kerala (population 34.8 million) has suffered 63 deaths for a Covid-19 deaths/M value of 1.8. In contrast, India as a whole has had 32,771 Covid-19 deaths/1,380 million population = 23.7 Covid-19 deaths /M. The World has had 652,000 Covid-19 deaths /7,800 million population = 83.6 Covid-19 deaths/M [1]. One can now insert these values into the “Covid-19 deaths /M” data for a range of countries as reported by Worldometer for 28 July 2020 [2]:
0.3 (Taiwan), 1.8 (Kerala, India), 3 (Hong Kong), 3 (China), 4 (New Zealand), 5 (Singapore ), 6 (South Korea), 7 (Australia), 8 (Japan), 15 (Occupied Palestine), 24 (India), 29 (Iceland), 47 (Norway), 52 (Apartheid Israel), 79 (Austria), 92 (Russia), 106 (Denmark), 110 (Germany), 119 (South Africa), 169 (Portugal), 179 (Luxembourg), 228 (Switzerland), 236 (Canada), 357 (Ireland), 358 (Netherlands), 413 (Brazil), 454 (US), 463 (France), 564 (Sweden), 581 (Italy), 608 (Spain), 674 (UK), and 847 (Belgium).
In terms of “Covid-19 deaths /M” Australia has succeeded in doing 96 times better than the UK but performed 4 times worse than poor Kerala and 23 times worse than Taiwan. Australian PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison (aka Scum-o, Skim-o, Scam-o and Scheme-o) is getting great praise in the US Murdoch Media Empire-dominated Mainstream for adopting the no brainer of listening to medical experts, but Australia has failed miserably compared to Taiwan. Indeed the utter failure of the neoliberal Coalition Australian Federal Government to secure safe living conditions in nursing homes for the elderly and decent conditions for ordinary Australians (12% living in poverty before the Covid -19 pandemic) has made a massive contribution to the “second wave” now devastating my home state of Victoria (about 532 new cases in the last 24 hours in Victoria as compared to 17 in New South Wales and zero (0) in all the other states and territories [3].
(2). Global Covid-19 pandemic deaths. As of 28 July 2020 global Covid-19 deaths total 652,000.
(3). Differential Occupier versus Occupied “Ventilators per million of population”, “Avoidable deaths from deprivation” and “Per capita GDP” expose US, Australian and Apartheid Israeli war crimes. There is deadly silence from the mendacious and politically correct racist (PC racist) Mainstream media about these gross and war criminal violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention by Apartheid Israel and by the pro-Apartheid Israel and hence pro-Apartheid US and Australia.
(4). Covid-19 pandemic and lack of Western altruism for the global South, including Indigenous Australians. Each year 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease in the Developing World (minus China) on Spaceship Earth with the rich countries (zero annual avoidable deaths from deprivation) in charge of the flight deck [4]. Each year an estimated 4,200 Indigenous Australians (population 0.7 million) and about 4,200 Occupied Indigenous Palestinians (population 5 million) die avoidably from imposed deprivation in an ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide and an ongoing Palestinian Genocide [5-8].
(5). Post-Covid-19 Green New Deal (GND) involving a sustainable, needs-based economy, zero emissions, universal basic income (UBI), social equity, justice, and free university education. Unfortunately the heartless, neoliberal Australian Coalition Government promises a post-Covid-19 “snap back” to Business As Usual (BAU), ongoing climate criminality and Thatcherite austerity that will impose grinding poverty on millions of unemployed Australians. Indeed the Australian Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has caused alarm in progressive circles by invoking the ruthless neoliberals UK PM Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan in relation to a post-Covid-19 economic recovery (for contrasting Left and Right views see [9] and [10]). Evidently the neoliberal Coalition in Australia and their confreres in the US and UK reject a sustainable, Keynesian, post-Covid-19 Green New Deal, and want another major round of wealth transfer from the poor to the rich in the post-Covid-19 era. Decent, humane people must try to prevent this neoliberal obscenity from happening by informing everyone they can. Critically, everyone must understand the fundamental merit of the common good, and that it can be dangerous and deadly to ignore expert scientific advice.
References.
[1]. “Coronavirus disease, Kerala, India”, Google: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=kerala+covid-19+deaths .
[2]. “Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic”, Worldometer, 28 July 2020: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ .
[3]. “Coronavirus (Covid-19) current situation and cases numbers”, Australian Government, 28 July 2020: https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#total-cases-recoveries-deaths-and-new-cases-in-the-last-24-hours .
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007, that contains a history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the Web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[5]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[6]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[7]. Gideon Maxwell Polya, “US-imposed Post-9/11-Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2020 (for details see: https://korsgaardpublishing.com/portfolio/23945/ and https://www.amazon.com/US-Imposed-Post-9-Muslim-Holocaust-Genocide/dp/8793987056 ).
[8]. Gideon Polya, “Racist Mainstream ignores “US-Imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide””, Countercurrents, 17 July 2020: https://countercurrents.org/2020/07/racist-mainstream-ignores-us-imposed-post-9-11-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .
[9]. Mike Foley, “Treasurer’s inspiration from Thatcher, Reagan has merit: Economists”, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 July 2020: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/treasurer-s-inspiration-from-thatcher-reagan-has-merit-economists-20200726-p55fkv.html .
[10]. Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer, “When Frydenberg talks about Thatcher and Reagan, what does he have in mind?”, Crikey, 27 July 2020: https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/07/27/when-frydenberg-talks-about-thatcher-and-reagan-what-does-he-have-in-mind/ .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: https://countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ). He has recently published Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2020 (for details see: https://korsgaardpublishing.com/portfolio/23945/ ).When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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