The road to recovery from COVID-19 is an uncertain one, but we must walk it according to University of Wollongong academic Chris Degeling.
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The social scientist and bioethicist has spent the past six years examining the politics of managing a pandemic.
He says there are no "right" choices, but decision makers can use the available evidence and their values to take an educated guess about the best choices for the community.
"It's a bit like an experiment and we're in the middle of it - we don't know which of the restrictions are most important, and over the next three to six months were going to find out," he said.
"To find a pathway out of lockdown without overwhelming the health care system we have to take calculated risks informed by the things we're learning about the virus and looking at things happening elsewhere in the world.
"It looks like this particular virus is very persistent.
"If we were to try to wait it out, we could be waiting for a very long time, but if we just open everything up and lift restrictions there is a risk that within two or three weeks we would be back to square one."
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Trying to eradicate the virus with an extended lockdown presents its own set of health risks.
People living with chronic illness will find it more difficult to manage their condition without access to their usual services, and this can lead to more deaths from conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
If cancer clinics are not open, or if GPs are less available, it's possible that there will be an increase in people whose cancer is detected too late for life-saving treatment.
It is also possible that prolonged social isolation can lead to an increase in mental illness and suicide - in March Lifeline Australia received the highest volume of calls in its history.
"There is always risk, there is no easy decision or magic bullet," Dr Degeling said.
"Policy makers have to rely on their values and try and reflect the values of the communities they represent - how do we balance the idea of lots of people dying vs an economic depression, what are the values that pull us together, what things are most important to preserve and protect?
"Decisions are shaped around those values as well as the evidence."
Looking at the evidence, Dr Degeling said a staggered approach to lifting restrictions would help ease the pressures of lockdown while moderating the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks.
Controls that have been put in place since the pandemic first began, such as increased capacity for contact tracing, more intensive care unit beds, and restricted international travel, means Australia is in a better position to treat and contain outbreaks as they occur.
Two-to-three week cycles of policy relaxation would allow the government to see which restrictions were having the greatest effect on preventing community transmission.
High levels of testing make it possible for health services to act early and contain outbreaks before they become widespread.
"Staggered withdrawal means we can pick things that are low risk, we don't exceed the health system's capacity to track and monitor cases and in two-to-three weeks we can evaluate and see if we are able to relax another restriction," Dr Degeling said.
"We want to see what measures are safe to lose without leading to an explosion of outbreaks.
"Experts around the world are in contact and very interested in seeing what's happening elsewhere - we're a little behind other places relaxing certain types of restrictions and we'll be watching them closely."
Dr Degeling said history shows us that it takes a community working together to beat a pandemic. Until a vaccine is found, however, Australians will have to adapt to the new normal.