Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Dr Peter Hobbins, medical historian at the National Archives of Australia, joins Michael to talk about the 'Spanish flu', the pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide.

 

About a third of all Australians were infected when it hit our shores in 1919 with nearly 15,000 people dead in under a year.

 

Responses within Australia varied from state to state but the crisis often led to the closure of schools, churches, theatres, pubs, race meetings and agricultural shows.

 

The result was not only economic hardship, but significant interruptions in education, entertainment, travel, shopping and worship though the funeral business boomed, as the nation’s annual death rate went up by approximately 25%.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren.

Dr Tony Bartone, Federal President of the AMA, joins Michael to discuss the Department of Health’s announcement that it will work across agencies to implement additional measures to manage the risk of novel coronavirus from the region of Wuhan in China.

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy says the department has well-established mechanisms to detect and respond to ill travellers, and processes in place to implement further measures if the risk increases.

After consulting other Government agencies and the states and territories, they are now undertaking evidence based, proportionate additional border measures, particularly in relation to the three weekly direct flights from Wuhan to Sydney.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Michael is joined by Sue Dodds from Sydney Markets regarding the announcement that Coles & Woolworths will stock & market spotty tomatoes, deformed apples and other misshapen produce as part of a push to support Australia's drought and fire-affected growers.

Dr Ian Wright, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at Western Sydney University, about the impact of bushfires on rivers & our drinking water supplies.

 

Some smaller communities outside of the cities have already been affected finding themselves needing to boil their drinking water… and there is a real concern that as our big city catchment areas come under bushfire threat that eventually a flow of burnt debris will enter the water systems.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren