During the COVID-19 pandemic, I undertook a NU3A (Newcastle, University of the Third Age) course via Zoom about the Silk Road. In high school, we were taught about Marco Polo's journey along this route from Italy to China in 1271, as if such a journey was unique.
As we learnt in the course, the Silk Road was just one of China's many trading routes that reached across the world as far as Europe and Africa. Extensive trade had been occurring in this way for thousands of years.
Unfortunately, this form of travel also spreads disease. For example, the fleas on the rats that hitched a ride from China to Europe on carts travelling on the Silk Road spread bubonic plague throughout Europe.
The worst epidemic began in 1347 and lasted for four years, reducing Europe's population from 80 million to 30 million people.
Six hundred years later, in the 20th Century, travel from China also spread the flu disease over many winters. This included the Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, and Avian flu. More recently, SARS, a progenitor of COVID-19, spread from China in 2003.
When the pandemic began in 2020, all countries tried to stop the spread of the disease by adopting various public health measures, including lockdowns. China undertook this measure extensively across its population, only lifting this restriction in December 2022.
Its government persisted with this strategy for so long because its Sino vaccine was one of the least effective for fighting COVID-19 and its variants.
The sudden lifting by China of its stringent pandemic controls created an explosion of COVID-19 cases in the country. By simultaneously giving the green light for the resumption of international travel to and from China, authorities in many nations have been deeply alarmed, including Australia.
Traditionally, our government's response to new developments during the COVID-19 pandemic was to follow the advice of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). This was the protective cover elected government used to ratify a whole range of infringements on the civil liberties of Australians as they battled to keep COVID-19 at bay.
But towards the end of 2022 there was a clash of views between our senior politicians and the health bureaucrats. The CMO, Paul Kelly, advised that there was insufficient rationale to restrict travel from China to Australia. The government ignored his advice and followed the response of many of Australia's trading partners. Our government, along with those of the US, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, UK, India, South Korea, Malaysia, and Japan, opted instead to require a PCR test before allowing international travel from China. Amazingly, the government in China has taken offence, despite having the exact requirement for incoming travellers to their country. Moreover, they have threatened countermeasures against countries putting such restrictions in place, including Australia, arguing that they were not based on scientific evidence.
Australia's imposition of the PCR test on travellers from China has not been without controversy within our country. What was particularly disturbing to many was that the Australian government broke with the previous practice of following the advice of the CMO.
Dr Kelly's most recent statement to not restrict travel from China had some very influential supporters. Australian businesses, tourism and universities - most highly dependent on Chinese custom, initially argued that Australia's lifting of internal restrictions should extend beyond our borders.
While this dissent faded with the government's official mandatory PCR testing requirements for all travel from China, public confusion had been mounting, and resolution of the clash between the elected government and its health bureaucrats needed to be resolved quickly. Announcing the new policy, federal Health Minister Mark Butler said that cabinet decided to impose the PCR test on travellers from China "out of an abundance of caution".
Unlike other nations, China has not been transparent about the spread of COVID-19. As a result, there is no information on what sub-variants are circulating in their country.
Nor have Chinese authorities released credible statistics on the extent of the disease in their nation.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China's health officials to: "regularly share specific, real-time information on their countries COVID-19 surge." This would include the number of infections and deaths and the genomic sequencing advice all other nations provide.
As the health situation in China has been so opaque, it is possible that new variants of the disease have developed during China's very long lockdown and could be unleashed again on the rest of the world.
Given the above, Australia's "abundance of caution" hardly needs justification.
Newcastle East's Dr John Tierney AM is a former Hunter-based Liberal federal senator
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