Population ponzi has increased Australia’s COVID-19 risk

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On Friday I wrote an article claiming that Australia’s hospital system is poorly equipped to cope with COVID-19, given it has only 3.8 hospital beds per 1000, compared to more than 3-times that number in Korea and Japan:

Now our partners at Nucleus Wealth have provided the below chart showing that Australia’s hospital beds per 1000 has fallen sharply as our population has ballooned via mass immigration:

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As we know, Italy’s hospital system has been badly overrun by the coronavirus. Thus, Australia’s hospital system faces a similar fate if the virus spread is not contained.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.