Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania

However, disasters like this don't just throw light on the world as it is. They also rip open the fabric of normality. Through the hole that opens up, we can glimpse possibilities of other ways of doing things.

For years, the conventional line in mainstream politics has been that government intervention is a bad thing. Instead, we have been told that what works best are "marketplace" solutions, which pass responsibility to corporations motivated purely by a profit motive, rather than by outdated notions like "the public good".

But then COVID-19 started spreading, and we realised that what had been 'normal' was not working any more. Governments have spent trillions in days and, suddenly, the question of what is feasible now feels different.

Our response to disasters in the past has effectively been to rely on the fact that we are rich and so can buy whatever we need.

If you have enough money, adjusting to the pandemic is easier. You may have to wait in line a bit longer at the grocery store. You may not be able to buy everything you're used to getting, but you won't starve either.

However, this game-changing pandemic is making it clear that money won't always enable us to buy what we want - individually and as a society. Shortages of toilet paper, face masks and PPE have brought that home.

If you don't have enough money, even feeding your family becomes a challenge. The bureaucratic phrase for this is "food insecurity". In the past, we've seen this a problem for poorer nations - but it is now without a doubt a first world problem.

Another lesson coming out of this situation is that we have overdone globalisation and our reliance on the free market.

The demise of our domestic manufacturing industry is a hot topic of discussion across the nation. It is also obvious in the increasing marginalisation of our farming sector - through deliberate decision, neglect and downright ignorance.

Over past years, we have dismantled old and unquestionably clumsy agricultural marketing bodies but put nothing in their place. We have hamstrung our farmers through burdensome regulations and ever-increasing input costs. At the same time, returns at the farm gate have been kept artificially low by both political imperatives and commercial pressures.

The world feels strange because the past few weeks have exposed the fact that even the biggest things can change dramatically at any minute. It isn't clear who first coined the phrase 'never waste a good crisis' - but it is wise advice.

This simple truth, both destabilising and liberating, is easy to forget. We can only hope we all learn from this crisis and do things better when we come out the other side.