Australia: Do Severe Measures Yield the Results the West can Live With?
From TrialSiteNews Staff December 22, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused worldwide panic and, in some cases, overreaction by governments. It appears Australia is one of the countries where the government is overreacting. In November, TrialSite News reported on so-called “Covid-19 Quarantine Camps” located in Australia’s Northern Territory. As initially reported by TrialSite, these camps seemed to be specifically for the indigenous population of Australia as well as purportedly “travelers.” At that point, the Aborigines had a low rate of vaccination. Subsequently, more reporting has come out, including news report from reporter Freddie Sayers’ UnHerd, which was featured on YouTube. Sayers interviewed Hayley Hodgson, who was sent to one of the Australian camps located in Rock Springs. Hodgson says the reason she was sent to the quarantine camp wasn’t because she tested positive for COVID-19 but because she “lied to authorities”. So it would seem the Australian Quarantine Camps have expanded their reach. Yet, it appears the mainstream media has tiptoed around the subject. What is the true intention of these camps? Notably, as TrialSite points out below, camps such as these in the past were used for Australia’s “white only” policy.
Reports are that the cost of these camps ranges from $2500 for individuals and $5000 for families. There is concern this could be the future of Australia. In June, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised $200 million in funding for a new camp in Victoria as a sign the government feels this strategy is working.
Interestingly, in August, mainstream media was investigating these facilities. The New York Timesreported on a camp in Howard Springs. The Timesdeclared this was not Australia’s first foray into internment camps. In the 1800s and 1900s, similar facilities were used to enforce the country’s “white Australia” policy. Formerly a mining camp and controversially, the Howard Springs camp was designated primarily for people from the Philippines or India (traveling into Australia) and concludes with the statement that quarantine in Australia has become a “state of mind”. Given the article in The New York Times was written in August, that “state of mind” has apparently expanded. Clearly, mainstream media has avoided this topic, given the focus of late on equity and equality in places like the United States.
According to the BBC, Howard Springs can hold upwards of 2000 people. What is alarming here is the mental state of the residents. The BBC article reported on teenagers who had escaped from the camp and were later caught. Anxiety over internment is also an issue raised in the New York Times piece and in UnHerd where Hodgson claimed she was offered doses of valium to combat her anxiety over her confinement.
COVID-19 cases are rising in Australia again, despite strict border controls and prolonged lockdowns, not to mention truly questionable internment policies. But the seemingly harsh measures being imposed by the government are doing little to block the spread of the disease in the aggregate. TrialSite News has reported on strict governmental measures specifically in China where severe lockdowns, border controls, and contact tracing programs have slowed down COVID-19 spread. But the social, economic, and moral costs of such a regimen are heretofore not acceptable in the West. Has there ever been a time when mass internment and strict manipulation of a population worked?
