Politicians are hiding behind numbers as Covid deaths rise. Human stories must not be diminished | Lenore Taylor

How will history record these years when the pandemic is finally over? How will our children start the story, when they tell their grandchildren about the great pandemic of the 2020s?

When governments were trying to persuade us to stay at home they brought weary health workers to press conferences and occasionally allowed reporters into hospitals.

I note this not to dismiss the importance of statistics, nor to stoke fear, and certainly not to argue for a return to lockdowns. But it is important that human stories are not diminished or obscured by the numbers. Stories inspire compassion. They force decision makers to take responsibility.

Which brings me back to the deft deployment of numbers.

More overt are the politicians hiding behind statistics when faced with the rising death toll, particularly the crisis in aged care.

The health minister, Greg Hunt, sought refuge in a different set of numbers when asked about aged care mortality.

Medical editor Melissa Davey reported this week that aged care and health workers considered it pretty disrespectful to appear to rationalise that the elderly patients were going to die anyway.

Early in the pandemic Guardian Australia began a series called Lives Lost to Covid, to record the stories of those who had died, when their families and friends were ready to tell them. We wanted to know about their loves and losses and idiosyncrasies and adventures. This week reporter Tory Shepherd has returned to the series, recounting the life of Sue Rees as remembered by her daughter Bec.

Whatever history makes of these Covid years, people like Sue must be part of the story.