WHO suggests pandemic is almost over. We are over the pandemic response.

WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus yesterday announced that the World Health Organisation believes that the Covid-19 pandemic is almost over.

There was no excuse for the harshness of the Covid-19 response earlier, but there's even less now, with even the aggressively statist UN body advising that the public health emergency of international importance may be withdrawn soon.

But it is far too little, far too late.

While the Covid-19 pandemic is reported to have cost 1 million lives, reports from as early as February last year talked about the "shadow health crisis" resulting from postponed or missed health appointments due to the harsh Covid-19 measures. 

And businesses throughout Australia folded due to the strain Covid-19 put on their finances. 

Add to that the thousands of Australians still out of work due to vaccine mandates and you have a health and economic crisis entirely of State and Federal Governments' own making.

The problem is that many health officials focussed on one thing to the exclusion of all others - the prevention and transmission of Covid-19. And that meant that equally important issues like economic devastation, social disconnection and mental health were downgraded or even downright ignored in public messaging and decision-making.

When all is said and done, it is entirely likely that this pandemic cost more in "side effects" from the lockdown - stay home approach than it ever saved from Covid-19.

And that's one reason why the DLP is calling for a Royal Commission into the Covid-19 response where the faceless bureaucrats responsible for untold misery will be held accountable for their actions - and will finally face the consequences.