Lessons learnt and Still To Be learnt

Hi Horse Deals,

Like many others, I have complained about the handling of this crisis but I now think that almost everyone involved has done their (imperfect) best. It has been a v.tough lessons for us all on a highly contagious, foreign disease coming here. It is SO contagious. I dread the day that a human foreign disease as contagious as this arrives. But there are valuable lessons to be learnt, and if anything positive comes out of this, I hope it is better planning for highly contagious diseases whether animal or human in the future:

• plan for worst case scenario from the outset
• bring in whatever vaccine, medicine etc available from day 1 (and in advance if possible)
• plan in advance to use the latest IT to plan, track and monitor it
• listen to what people affected are saying of their experience (ie. anecdotal evidence that it was wind blown should have been accepted much earlier)
• treat all affected equally regardless of their 'economic value' (BIG mistake this time!)
• learn from overseas (we are NOT that special!)
• empower people - if they want to take action (eg. vaccinate) and its not damaging to the overall strategy then let them
• be ruthless - if what it takes is a total lockdown bearing in mind the
• above, then enforce it with NO (rich) exceptions
• put in place communication mechanisms for all groups affected and for the mainstream media.

Here's hoping that we do not see something as contagious as this to humans come here. Its v.v.sad for those losing horses but it could have been a lot worse. There were fears of losing 10% of foals but it seems the sad figure is 1%. Next time we need to be ready. And for this time, from here on, we need to accept reality and have realistic plans that is Australia-wide.

Regards,

GCR

Postcode: 2756

ps. Thanks Horse Deals for becoming the centre of news and discussion