An email arrived the other night from the COVID-19 Response Inquiry team and we learned four things:
Significant progress has been made with the inquiry which will be continued over the coming months. The work was likened (repeatedly) to solving a jigsaw puzzle;
We should be prepared for another “unprecedented incident” (Disease X?);
The national response is really the most important piece of the “puzzle”, so we can forget about those decisions taken unilaterally by states and territories (lockdowns and mandates get the free pass); and,
Watch this space for “detailed focus group discussions” and “stakeholder roundtable meetings” (translation: echo chambers and inactionable insights).
Significant progress has been made… (but what is the fascination with jigsaw puzzles?)
Metaphors operate by drawing a comparison between two different things, suggesting that they share a common characteristic or essence. Discordant metaphors, on the other hand, often lead to confusion because the elements don't logically fit together. We raise this because this “update” seems to reveal a fascination with comparing the COVID-19 Response Inquiry to solving jigsaw puzzles. In the update, the work of the team is likened to:
“Bringing the jigsaw puzzle pieces together”;
“bringing all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces together”;
“bring those lessons- the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle-together”'; and,
“all of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are considered” [emphases added].
We will infer that the “bringing the pieces together” and all the variations on this theme mean the same thing: the work of the COVID-19 Response Inquiry is akin to solving a jigsaw puzzle.
Here is the problem with this metaphor.
As anyone who’s “brought jigsaw puzzle pieces together” (i.e. solved them!) would know, the “inquiry-as-a-puzzle” metaphor is an example of sloppy writing, and at best, a tell.
It is sloppy because, in the history of jigsaw-puzzle-solving, everyone has had to “bring all the puzzle pieces together” for the puzzle to be solved. Without all the pieces, we might get the impression of the image, but we will never get the finer detail, the full picture, nor the complete solution. The reference to “all of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are considered” is particularly strange, because again, what puzzle-solver gets to decide which pieces to consider?
It is a tell because it suggests that we have a fixed set of pieces to find the “solution” which is inevitably determined by the puzzle creator. We cannot, after all, deviate from this predetermined solution to the puzzle problem. The act of solving a puzzle involves connecting pieces into their originally intended arrangements.
We ask, therefore, is it appropriate for a critical investigation like the COVID-19 Response Inquiry to have a predetermined outcome like a jigsaw puzzle?
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As we can see, there is only one metaphorical puzzle piece missing: the national response. The rest has presumably been designed by the puzzle-creators (the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) to be solved by the puzzle-solvers (the COVID-19 Response Inquiry team). If the metaphor works, we are merely awaiting the addition of this final piece to solve the puzzle. Therefore, we would, at this point, already have a clear understanding of what the finished image will reveal.
So what will likely be recommended from this Inquiry?
Let’s get ready for Disease X!
The Inquiry team is prepping us for the next pandemic:
Where lockdowns and mandates might become national policy:
We can infer that the Inquiry team are aware of significant social and economic disruptions from the actions taken by state and territory governments in response to the pandemic:
Yet, the suggestion we have actually seen “good evidence” or a “proportionate response” driving any response to the pandemic in Australia is questionable.
We are hopeful that the COVID-19 Response Inquiry will listen to those who will scream it from the rooftops about what should not be done again:
We are hopeful that the COVID-19 Response Inquiry will also find a way to “consider” the largest missing puzzle piece - the COVID-19 “vaccines”.
We are still hopeful of transitioning away from the “Paradigm” that the COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective” and have saved millions of lives, sparing us a fate far worse than we would have experienced were it not for the miracle vaccines.
In other words, we are hopeful of seeing the “Paradigm Shift” and we will be requesting to attend these “detailed focus group discussions” and “stakeholder roundtable meetings” to be a part of putting forward these counter-narrative opinions:
We will bring the extra puzzle pieces for the Inquiry team to consider!
