Australia has established incredibly strict quarantine rules in order to prevent the spread of the virus. When entering or leaving the country, one must pay for their own hotel room, and quarantine for 14 days in order to make sure that they don’t have the virus. Because of these intense measures, Australia has found 4 cases of a “super” Covid virus. Experts claim this mutated version of the virus is 75% more contagious than the normal Covid virus, which makes it extremely hard to contain. The mutated version of the virus is being called “brexit flu” because the 4 cases of people who have it all were traveling back from the UK.
I feel very happy that such intense measures are taken in order to combat the virus. Even though they may be a little bit brutal to people who cant afford a hotel room for 14 weeks, it is the necessary action that must be taken in order to make life to back to normal again. I would much rather have a country be extremely strict on its entry rules and have normal living conditions after that, than not to have any entry rules and to not have normal living at all.
In class, we discussed the actions of states in relation to their national interest. Australia is focusing on themselves and establishing strong Covid guidelines because that is it biggest priority. Many of its other needs, like prosperity, national recognition, strong military, are already satisfied. It is these factors that allow Australia to focus on dealing with Covid. However in a country like North Korea that still does not have its sovereignty, fighting Covid may not be in its national interest. The national interest of the country still probably is to make nukes so that people respect them.