COVID itself was a test. Many of us failed

We washed our hands until our skin cracked. We developed a fear of doorknobs and shopping trolleys. We held our breath when strangers stepped too close and wondered if we would ever hug loved ones again.

We applauded the nurses and doctors who stayed at their posts, admired the volunteers at food banks and cheered the musicians who played to the lonely from their balconies.

We saluted the sleepless scientists who raced to devise vaccines, delighted in the sourdough-making abilities of strangers, despaired over the elderly robbed of family and wept watching funerals on our screens.

Overall, we reckon we managed it pretty well. Despite a global death toll of 7 million, the collapse of untold businesses and the emergence of an unprecedented mental health crisis, much of the talk accompanying the five-year anniversary of Australia's pandemic lockdowns has resembled old friends fondly reminiscing about a camping trip when supplies ran short and no one could get a phone signal.

You know, more than a little chuffed with our ability to handle adversity.

We should be so smug.

A harder truth emerged in those dark days of COVID we chose to ignore. The pandemic wasn't just a test of our economy, government and healthcare system. It was a measure of character. Despite the acts of heroism and kindness, we failed in one critical area.

We didn't speak up against selfishness and ignorance. Now we're living with the consequences.

I glimpsed it one morning when a frail woman on a walking frame was brutally shouldered aside in one of those frenzied scenes in a supermarket toilet paper aisle. Consumed by lust for scarce three-ply, no one seemed outraged or surprised. Then came those who deliberately flouted lockdown rules. We didn't call them out enough. Soon after came the fights over masks and restrictions. And then the anti-vaxxers found their voice and a growing following.

What began with minor grumbling about personal freedoms and mounting scientific scepticism became a full-throated roar of defiance that didn't quieten but grew louder. Anti-vaccine sentiment slipped into the mainstream, hooking up with its troglodyte relative, climate change denial.

Science is now only "one side of the story". No coincidence Australia's childhood vaccination rates are declining as Robert Kennedy jnr, a man with a toddler's grasp of science, becomes the world's most powerful health official.

Anti-vax sentiment spilled into other areas. Distrust of experts soon became distrust of anyone different. Immigration, once a topic debated with nuance, is now declared the root cause of crime and social decay. Right-wing populism is marching across Europe and the US. The loudest voices are drowning out the whispering of the sensible.

That's the character test we failed. We excused the selfish and the ignorant because it was inconvenient and uncomfortable to challenge them. We allowed misinformation to thrive rather than confront it.

It's the enduring lesson of COVID. Selfishness never stays small. Left unchecked it grows until personal defiance insinuates itself in public policy.

If you still cling loyally to science, many studies have exposed how extremists exploited the pandemic to normalise their messaging.

One, by the American University, highlighted the way extreme groups leveraged increasing distrust with government and traditional authority to spread misinformation, conspiracy theories and scapegoating. An Oxford study last year also linked the surge in extremism during COVID to the rise we now see in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, while a report commissioned by the UK government underlined how hate groups exploited the pandemic to advance their racist platforms.

We didn't speak up loudly enough. We were too complacent - afraid, too - to fight for decency and logic. Now the indecent, having used the cloak of the pandemic, are emboldened. Look at the army of young men recruited to the manosphere where male supremacy and misogyny is celebrated.

And who, five years ago, could have imagined the most powerful country on earth allowing the planet's richest man to wilfully slash welfare services and payments to the poor, and then gleefully boast about it?

Hardly a coincidence, then, that Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart, never a shrinking violet at the best of times, has also turned up the volume on her views about Australia's future and how our policies need to better align with her self-interest.

COVID wreaked havoc on individuals, families and the global economy. Five years later many of us can say we survived it largely unscathed.

But let's lose the self-congratulatory tone. The pandemic unleashed another contagious virus. It thrives today because of our refusal to stand in its way.

HAVE YOUR SAY: How do you rate Australia's handling of the pandemic compared to the rest of the world? What was your lockdown experience like? Do you agree that the current rise in extremism has its roots in the COVID virus? Is the world a better or worse place five years on? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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- The prime minister has vowed to defend Australia's cheaper medicines program, revealing a plan to slash prices further in the face of threats from US pharmaceutical giants.

THEY SAID IT: "Extremism thrives amid ignorance and anger, intimidation and cowardice." - Hillary Clinton

YOU SAID IT: Strident in delivery, loose with the facts. Trump's new press secretary has John reaching for the remote whenever she appears.

Rhonda lists the voices that have her reaching for the remote: "Peter Dutton, Angus Taylor, Sussan Ley, James Paterson, Bridget McKenzie, Michael Sukkar, Dan Tehan, Ted O'Brien, Sarah Henderson, Jane Hume, Alex Antic, James McGrath, Dave Sharma, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Michaelia Cash, David Littleproud and Barnaby Joyce - come to think of it pretty much any Coalition member. They are divisive, have no sense of working toward the common good and too many are in awe of Donald."

"Karoline Leavitt reminds me of Lauren Katlin, that poor, unfortunate dolt from South Carolina who gave the most inane and protracted response to a question asking why some Americans couldn't find the US on a map," writes Henry. "I suspect Leavitt struggles to find herself in a mirror."

Sharon writes: "The only one more grating than Leavitt is the screech of our very own noisy myna bird, Michaela Cash."

"Karoline Leavitt's press briefings have the charm of a dental drill and the accuracy of a weather forecast from 1823," writes Mike. "If she gets any more creative with the facts, she might accidentally convince Trump that he personally discovered America. Leavitt's press briefings are like a car alarm at 3am - loud, repetitive, and completely detached from reality. If gaslighting were an Olympic sport, she'd be taking home the gold ... and then claiming it never happened. They also sound like the customer service experience from hell - except instead of being put on hold for hours, you just get shouted at with 'alternative facts' until your brain crashes like a Windows 95 computer."

John writes: "The letters on my mute button have long since worn out after eight years of Trump and more recent use necessitated by Dutton, Taylor and Cash. Come to think of it, Cash would almost qualify as a Trump press secretary, being shrill, nasty and ideological but she fails the hair and age tests. What is it with the aged orange idiot? He must have a fetish for young, vacuous, long-haired blondes with sparkling teeth."

"Being deaf has some advantages," writes Arthur. "Thank you, Echidna, for making me aware of this one."

Ros writes: "I grab the remote and hit the mute button whenever Trump is speaking - have done for years. Ditto Dutton, Cash and Ley more recently. I don't need to subject myself to sounds ranging from toneless drone to shrill squawks."

"The most annoying is Anthony Albanese with his 'err um arrr Peter Dutton arrr cost of living err umm Peter Dutton'," writes Larry from Hervey Bay. "Then along comes Bowen with his snide 'I know better than everyone' with his renewables are the cheapest form of power. Grab the remote to perform a mute or off action."

Ross writes: "Michaela Cash combines stridency with grating dissonance."