Uncanny Valley: Healthcare Workers in Settings of Controlled COVID-19 Response

Australia confirmed its first COVID-19 case on January 25, 2020, and closed its international borders to non-residents on March 20, 2020. Australia’s capital city Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), reported its first COVID-19 case on March 12. By mid-2021, the ACT had recorded 124 cases, of whom 3 had died. Most of these cases occurred during April 2020 followed by a smattering of additional cases through to July. The ACT is unusual internationally for managing to avoid a serious outbreak and it presents a contrast to the two large nearby states of Victoria and New South Wales. Internationally, where COVID-19 outbreaks have been intense, healthcare workers (HCWs) have been placed under severe pressure, risking their mental and physical health. Australian HCWs reported elevated levels of distress and fear as they learned what was happening to their international counterparts. At the same time, Australian HCWs became the focus of community anxiety and occasionally public attack in the media about the risk they posed to others. This chapter considers the ACT’s health response to COVID-19. A qualitative study by medical students, anthropologists and sociologists at the Australian National University describes the experiences of healthcare workers from a range of settings and services who reflect on changes to their workplaces as they prepared for the pandemic and their feelings as they wait for a disease outbreak that has not yet come and still may not. The unique experience of COVID-19 in the ACT exposes what it means for a highly trained workforce to be in a perpetual state of readiness. This chapter discusses some unanticipated yet important consequences.