The ‘gold standard’ state is in crisis We get so many COVID-related numbers thrown at us these days it can be eye-glazing. But these numbers demonstrated better than any others how the nature of the pandemic has morphed as much as the virus itself in the last couple of months. It’s no longer just about protecting old and vulnerable people. The chances that you will catch it from a casual contact are much higher. It’s a disease that is hitting people of every age, and hard. It’s not just a race to vaccinate the vulnerable groups — it’s a race to vaccinate everyone. Politically, too, it is morphing. The all-too-easy politics that seemed to flow from Victoria’s woes last year — the implicit message that it all came down to various forms of incompetence in one state — are also a thing of the past now that the “gold standard” state is in such a crisis. This isn’t just a shot at the fact the Prime Minister has put so much store on NSW Premier Gladys Berijiklean’s handling of the pandemic in her state until now. It is that so many more variables than tracing systems and hotel quarantine are now open to question, and set different political hares running. It is vaccine supplies and

Source: The NSW COVID outbreak shows the pandemic is morphing in many ways — politically, too – ABC News