A New Year AMT Chairperson Message
By Subhadra Gerard
As I was unable to provide the usual Chairperson’s Summer Message in December, I feel I should start by accounting for my absence (ha ha).
2021. Phew!!! Such a turbulent year with no respite in sight. Come the beginning of December, I had little fuel left in the tank after having had a demanding time of it, COVID aside. I needed time out to catch my breath so I grabbed the opportunity to get out of town for a few weeks with my beloved and do a road trip of sorts around the south-west of WA.
We did a fair few Ks (about 2500) and walked along some of the most pristine, beautiful, white-sand beaches, with so many shades of blue in the water. We trail-walked in a few of the local forests and national parks, enchanted by all the bird and insect calls, and the different trees, bushes and flowers, plus all those sounds and smells that remind you you’re in good ol’ Aussie bush. There was also a bit of obligatory banter with the locals, about anything and everything. Overall, it was a wonderfully therapeutic and healing time-out, communing with nature.
And here we are in 2022, with January rapidly coming to an end (why does this month always pass by in a blink?). We are now entering the third year of the pandemic. According to the World Health Organisation, the Omicron variant had been detected in 63 countries, including Australia, on 6 continents by 9 December 2021. COVID cases are high across most of the country, with WA being the notable exception as its borders are not fully open yet.
On 20 January, the Premier of WA decided to renege on his plan to open up WA from 5 February, after observing the chaos in the other states. McGowan now wants a good 80-90% of the WA population to be triple vaccinated, and children (5-11 years) to be double vaccinated, before he will reconsider opening up, thank you very much.
Interestingly enough, the decision has been supported by the WA arms of the Australian Nursing Federation, and the Australian Hotel Association, as well as local schools’ associations, who have been recently asking for a one-month delay in opening to get their schools ready. All these organisations represent employees who work in high-risk work environments for COVID infection. There has also been qualified support from the West Australian branch of the Australian Medical Association. (And for what it’s worth, a survey released on Australia Day showed that over 70% of the general WA population support the decision too). There you go… we are a funny lot over here.
Omicron is seemingly less severe than the Delta variant. However, it has fast become a numbers game. The sheer scale and rate of impact of Omicron has been the single biggest disruption that industrie across Australia, large and small, have seen so far with COVID. Various news reports advise that Australia is facing widespread staff shortages, significant supply chain problems, and a sharp drop in consumer activity. Some small businesses could be wiped out without immediate government help, including massage therapy businesses.
I am quite bewildered by the happenings of the past two years and, as we face the uncertainties of 2022, I’m a tad anxious and more than a little frustrated. None of the Australian governments, federal, state or territory, are being open and transparent with us.
Omicron is a game changer that has come at a dreadful time, when most of the country opened up. This far more contagious variant has overwhelmed testing regimes and put the nation’s hospitals under more strain than at any point in the past two years.
I’ve been re-reading a recent article by my favourite epidemiologist, Raina MacIntyre1, on the current explosion of COVID cases across Australia. (The article was published on 5 January, so things have moved on a little since then).
She states that “true case numbers are much higher than official reports” and that “the public has been left to their own devices as all our previous safeguards collapse around us”. On that point, some income support payments, for example, are starting to be made available, but they are piecemeal and hard to access. Not happy, Jan!
MacIntyre continues: “Available data suggests two vaccine doses provides minimal protection against symptomatic infection with Omicron … But there has been inadequate surge planning at all levels of government, leaving us sitting ducks with low third-dose vaccine coverage …”
“The Omicron wave has made health systems buckle in most states … Daily case numbers across Australia (as of 5 January) are already 30 times what they were in the Delta peak (and may be 200 times higher soon). The enormous volume of cases means the small proportion needing hospital care will overwhelm the system”.
MacIntyre’s view is that we need to urgently change our approach and adopt what she calls a ‘vaccines-plus’ strategy, that involves:
- expanding PCR capacity, and free rapid antigen tests (RATs) for all
- building on existing QR code infrastructure for automated digital tracing
- mandating masks in indoor settings and subsidising high quality masks (e.g. N95)
- expediting third dose boosters and ensuring adequate supplies for fourth doses if required
- expediting the vaccination of children 5-11 years
- ensuring safe indoor air, including at schools.
Sounds like a plan! And it’s encouraging to see that many aspects are already being enacted across various jurisdictions, even if only partially at this stage.
If you haven’t already done so, please check out the national overview of COVID public health orders that AMT head office released on 17 January (email sent to AMT members on 17 January 2022). It will give you the latest heads-up on close contact requirements, masking and vaccination mandates.
AMT is a national organisation and, as such, it represents a broad cross section of lived experiences of COVID. At one end of the spectrum there are members who have struggled, or are struggling, big time economically and/or psycho-emotionally because of the effects of COVID. At the other end, there are members for whom (so far) it’s been pretty much business as usual, with the odd inconvenient patch thrown in for good measure.
On that point, AMT head office is currently running a ‘Living with COVID’ workforce survey to ascertain the impact on massage therapy businesses from the latest COVID surge. If you haven’t responded yet, I invite you to please jump on board before the survey closes. (Thank you, in advance).
As I’ve pondered where AMT fits into the scheme of all these COVID goings on, the familiar maxim ‘United We Stand’ keeps popping into my head. I would like to think that we are an association of massage therapists united by our adherence to shared AMT values; namely client focus, best practice, leadership, openness and participation.
- Client focus: By putting quality and safety of care at the heart of our health service delivery. Personally, the question that is always back of mind when I’m with my clients is: how can I best serve you?
- Best practice: By delivering evidence-informed, skilled and ethical care. Hopefully, we are ‘there for our clients’ and their health and wellbeing, in every sense (within the context of our scope of practice).
- Leadership: AMT has continued to set the agenda for industry advocacy for over 50 years. The last two COVID years have been no different, with the biosecurity committee producing a bucketload of media releases, factsheets and other resources. We can support this leadership by, for example, committing to continuing professional development, maintaining professional standards and generally enhancing the reputation of the massage therapy profession.
- Openness: By striving for the highest standards of transparency and accountability.
- Participation: By actively connecting and engaging with colleagues and other health professionals. To my mind, in these COVID times especially, it is really important that we maintain our connections with fellow therapists. Networking together we can share information, advice, friendship and emotional support.
Raina MacIntyre ended her above-mentioned article with the sombre note that “Omicron isn’t the end – there will be new variants. (However) there are promising new variant-proof vaccines on the horizon, so we shouldn’t surrender”. The clear message here is that COVID is not going to be a short-term phenomenon.
Ok, let’s wrap this up. As we face the coming year, my wish is that you’re all doing OK, in every which way, and that you continue to stay that way. Take care everyone.
Reference
About the Author
Subhadra Gerard is a massage therapist and occupational therapist in Perth, WA. He took on the role of Chairperson of the AMT Board of Directors in May 2021.
Cover image by Patricio Sánchez from Pixabay
