To my gorgeous country and to my wonderful friends and family. I’m writing to you from day #15 of self isolation and from inside my 500 sq ft apartment in New York City; where someone is dying every hour from COVID19.
Nowhere else will you find a bigger cheerleader of Australia than right here in this tiny apartment, 16,000 km away. Beaches? We’ve hands down, no doubt, got the best in the world. Have you even been to Perth? Coffee? You don’t even know what coffee is. People? Friendliest, ever.
But i’m not writing to tell you about all the things I love about you. I’m writing because i’m sincerely worried about you; generally, as an amazing country, and specifically about my wonderful friends and family. I’m worried because it’s obvious you’re not all taking this seriously, yet. So for those of you who still think this virus is happening to everyone else and it wont effect you, this post is for you. Please know, that this comes from a good place. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, I just want you to be okay.
I want to be able to travel home for my wedding, I want to be able to walk through South Melbourne and get my freshly brewed coffee from Saint Ali. I want my friends and family to have their jobs back, to put the food back on the shelves in supermarkets and to make sure the oldies have access to toilet paper. And we can make sure that happens, sooner, if we act now as a nation, rather than waiting to see how bad it gets first and then scramble to save lives.
But the way you’re tracking, I need you to know that your life is about to change. Your every day routine is about to be put on hold. And it’s going to be uncomfortable. Soon, you’ll be house-bound, there’ll be rules in place when you go shopping and the military might even show up. and let me tell you; it’s frightening. Then the stories will come thick and fast. You’ll hear about COVID19 experiences in other countries and before you know it, the stories will be coming out of Australia, being experienced by your friends, being experienced by your family. You’ll hear about doctors having to choose which patients to save and which they have to let die a really traumatic and painful death. People across Australia, your friends and your family will be suffocating to death… and they won’t even be in beds. I don’t want that to happen to any of you. To any of those I love, to any of my friends friends, or friends friends friends. And especially not my family.
As these stories continue to come in, soon you’ll start to make the connection between the victims of these real life horror stories and people you know, people you love, who are the same age or fit the persona description. Then you’ll realise that every single time you’ve been out in the last 3 weeks, you’ve been putting Australian lives in danger. And by that stage it will be too late. You would have been in your routine for weeks, exposing yourself to so many people. And i’m so sorry. because what’s to come, is scary.
The numbers will rise. The deaths will double. And just so we’re clear; exponential growth is different to linear growth.
Linear Growth: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 etc.
Exponential Growth: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536 etc
What’s even scarier than that, is if you don’t take any action now. If you don’t self isolate, as so many in badly hit COVID19 countries are begging you to do, you’ll be hit harder than you even thought was possible. Usually its Australia laughing at how stupid things are in the USA; but that’s just flipped, and now we’re looking at how Australia is handling this. And we’re not laughing. We’re quiet, and we’re concerned. You have a lead time of ~4 weeks. We’ve tried to tell you and we’ve tried to warn you what’s coming. But for some reason you’re not listening to us. I’m sorry for what’s coming, because you’re not prepared for it.
I’ve been staying home for everyone I love, everyone I care for, all over the world, in a 500sq ft apartment. I know if you’re reading this back home, you have a backyard & or front yard to stretch your legs and get sunshine in. You have different rooms you can lounge around in. If I can do it, you can do it. So who will you stay home for? Because if you don’t, she won’t be right, mate.
