An obsession with “safetyism” has underpinned Australia’s response to COVID-19, which has seen state governments readily deploy public health restrictions to contain the virus at the expense of all else—a move that has garnered increasing global attention, according to a psychiatrist. Tanveer Ahmed, an author and clinical psychiatrist, says Australia’s low COVID-19 infection and death rates by global standards has fostered an increasing belief in “safetyism”—a culture where individual safety takes primacy over other practical or moral concerns. “I think as a country we haven’t calculated the risks in a healthy way, and it’s been disproportionate,” he told The Epoch Times. “We haven’t considered other important parts of life like sending our kids to school, for example. I think we’ve overreacted in some respects.” “I do hope people don’t come out of the pandemic in a state of fear, obsessed with health and safety, because Australia probably has some of …