Married at First Sight star Natasha Spencer goes on COVID-19 rant

Married at First Sight star Natasha Spencer shared her thoughts on COVID-19 and the national economy on Saturday evening. 

In a rant filmed in her car, the reality star lashed out at lockdown policies, making the erroneous claim that the government is spending ‘one billion dollars per death’ by enacting a quarantine period. 

The 26-year-old, who recently posed in a bikini and a face mask in an Instagram post, shared several Instagram stories as she made her case, comparing COVID-19 to a flu.

‘I’m not saying it’s a conspiracy. I’m not saying don’t wear a mask. Wear a mask. Follow the rules. Absolutely. 

‘But there are questions which have to be asked of our government as to why last year even though the flu had 900 people die and 300,000 infections, we didn’t go into lockdown,’ she raved. 

Natasha admitted, ‘There is a vaccine for that,’ but continued: ‘Right now we have less than that with corona. And you can say that’s because of lockdown, yes. I think lockdown is great, that we’ve made people aware of germs and healthy living.

‘But what I am saying is 360 billion dollars has been lost for our economy. A billion dollars per death from coronavrius. 

‘It’s insane when you start thinking about it. And comparing it. Why don’t we go into lockdown for the flu if that’s what we are worried about. 

‘A billion dollars per death could be put into things like mental health, cancer research, could be put into like, so many frickin’ things. And why isn’t it? That’s all I’m asking,’ she said. 

She went on to insist that ‘numbers don’t lie’ and asked why we are ‘doing such extreme circumstances when the death toll is low? There’s more places we can put the money.’ 

Research shows that COVID-19 both spreads more easily than the flu, and has a higher death rate.

An American study released in May suggests the novel coronavirus is about five times deadlier for adults than the seasonal flu.

By using data from the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak, for which complete data is available, they determined the fatality rate was 0.5 percent – a five-fold increase from flu death rates.

‘Although officials may say that SARS-CoV-2 is “just another flu,” this is not true,’ the team, from Harvard University and Emory University, wrote.  

The researchers say that during the pandemic, many hospitals have been stretched beyond their limits such as being shorts on beds and ventilators.

‘The demand on hospital resources during the COVID-19 crisis has not occurred before in the US, even during the worst of influenza seasons,’ they wrote.

‘Yet public officials continue to draw comparisons between seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 mortality, often in an attempt to minimize the effects of the unfolding pandemic.’  

In addition, flu vaccinations are shown to reduce the risk of flu illness by between 40 percent and 60 percent among the population.  

There have been 379 deaths from 23,035 COVID-19 cases in Australia to date, with lockdown and social distancing measures keeping that number from exploding.  

Comparatively, there were 310,000 people presenting to hospital with the flu in 2019, out of which there were 900 deaths.  

COVID-19 has an estimated Infection Fatality Rate of 1.4 percent while the seasonal flu has a fatality rate of around 0.1 percent. 

Natasha’s claims of a ‘multi-billion dollar loss’ may refer to some projections regarding the Federal Budget deficit, partly amassed due to bushfire relief and emergency policies including subsidising wages and boosting welfare. 

The budget deficit – the shortfall in the government’s income compared to how much it spends – will reach $85.8 billion in 2019-20 and $184.5 billion in 2020-21, or about nine per cent of GDP. 

Net debt is expected to be $488.2 billion, or 24.6 per cent of GDP, by 30 June 2020 and increase to $677.1 billion, or 35.7 per cent of GDP, the following year. 

The figure is so high because the government has spent $164billion on propping up businesses and individuals with new policies such as JobKeeper.