28th Jan :

• China completely quarantined 50 million people

8th March:

• Italy quarantine 16 million people in northern Italy 

Last 48 Hours:

• Entirety of Italy under quarantine 60 million people
• Albania, Greece, the Czech Republic, and Panama close all schools
• British Airlines, Air Canada & Wizz air suspend flights to and from Italy
• The Vatican and the capital of Mongolia are under quarantine
• Morroco, Albania, Portugal, Spain and Denmark bar flights to and from Italy
• Kazakhstan and Austria bar all visitors coming from Italy
• The Czech Republic, Greece, Close Schools
• Algeria suspends all sports and political gatherings
• National Guard sent to New York City in response to COVID-19
• Large cultural events in Berlin's theatres, operas and concert houses are canceled for the next 5 weeks
• Germany and Italy to play soccer in an empty stadium
• Bernie Sander & Joe Biden cancel political rallies
• Coachella is postponed until October 

In Australia??

• $1.6 billion health package delivered
• 300,000 people, including many foreign tourists from infected countries are encouraged to gather together en-masse for the Grand Prix.

This does not make sense. Washington state has banned congregations of more the 250 people. There will be no crowds at the Bahrain Grand Prix on 20 March because of the coronavirus outbreak. Daniel Andrews said sports games will be canceled in the future. Why not now? Why wait for 1000's people to become infected to take action. There are possibly hundreds of people infected currently in Melbourne in an incubation period or untested. Why encourage them to intermingle when every other place in the world is doing the exact opposite.

The Grand Prix, brought in $40 million dollars in revenue and could go ahead without a hitch if there was no crowd. The cost to the Australian people and economy will be far less if decisive, proactive actions are taken. 

Now for some maths:  Currently, outside of china, COVID-19 cases are increasing at 15% per day. Strong preventative actions can reduce this rate to 5% as seen in countries such as Japan and more recently in South Korea where transmission has slowed. Let's say there are 100 Melbournians with COVID-19 at the moment. 

100 x 1.05^60 = 1868

100 x 1.15^60 = 876,799

If we can keep the growth rate to 5%, only 1868 people will be infected in 2 months' time. At 15%, almost 1 million could be. 

Let's try not to end up like China, Italy or Iran with an entire nation under lockdown. 

Sign this petition to pressure the Grand Prix to run without spectators. Let the fans of Grand Prix have a beer in front of the TV and know they doing it for our great country.