It was only a matter of time before someone wrote a book about Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I was expecting it to come from an eminent epidemiologist or public health expert, but it has been written by two economists. As an epidemiologist who covered the pandemic closely for The Conversation, I read it with interest.
The authors are Steven Hamilton, assistant professor of economics at George Washington University, and Richard Holden, a business academic and regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review.
The book covers Australia’s response to the pandemic in roughly chronological order, starting with Australia’s first case on January 25 2020. Although the authors praise the quick border closures, they have some issues with Australia’s early response. For example, they point out that incoming travellers from Italy, where COVID-19 was running rife, were not screened well enough.
