WHILE the pandemic is still taking place in the community and the mandatory wearing of masks while in public still remains, there is a shift in how the public has changed over the last several months.
As the world shut down, a local manufacture of personal protection equipment (PPE), Med-Con ramped up production to meet Australia’s need but as we have settled in a holding pattern and other companies have opened up to production, Australians seem to have abandoned Med-Con and in some cases, returned to buying a cheaper product from overseas.
The Victorian Government has a very specific policy on the procurement of PPE as per their website, agencies are obliged to procure local manufacture as specified at the head of the webpage, ‘All Victorian Government Departments and agencies are required to buy locally and ethically manufactured uniforms and PPE, whenever possible, to create and retain local jobs.’
So, what has happened?
While a large volume of PPE is used by the public health system, a much greater volume has been used by the general public and is here that the greatest shift has taken place. As the pandemic unfolded, hundreds of people around the country took to manufacturing their own cloth mask and sold them at almost every available outlet.
It is rare to see people walking down the street with a properly manufactured face mask that meets the basic health requirements in favour of a colour co-ordinated cloth mask that most likely doesn’t.
People have lost sight of the health aspects as well as the need to support Australian independence when things like the pandemic occur.
