micTruely Your Radio

International

Cabinet papers 2005: John Howard’s government was warned in 2005 that schools and borders might need to be shut under a pandemic

todayDecember 31, 2025

Background
share close

Alexander Downer told senior colleagues the H5N1 strain of bird flu could mutate into a pandemic ‘with potentially devastating consequences’ for Australia and the world

Health officials warned the Howard government that Australia might need to close schools and shut international borders in the event of a global influenza pandemic, nearly 15 years before the arrival of Covid-19.

Previously unreleased cabinet papers made public by the National Archives of Australia on Thursday show planning for an influenza pandemic reached all the way to the national security committee of federal cabinet in October 2005. The discussions, two years after the Sars viral respiratory disease spread across Asia, presaged much of the response as Covid-19 spread around the world.

Continue reading…

Source: www.theguardian.com

Read full article

Written by: truelightfm

Rate it

Similar posts

Post comments (0)

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *