With people swarming the aisles of our supermarkets grabbing every multipack of dunny paper they can lay their hands on, it is clear that the Morrison government and our various state governments have failed spectacularly in preparing Australia for the approaching potential pandemic of Covid-19. Keen not to disrupt ‘business as usual’, the government began by telling people, as is standard fare in most emergencies, to keep calm and carry on with their daily activities; the idea of course being to keep both economic activity at reasonably normal levels as well as to avoid unnecessary panic-buying.