The quiet willingness to do the sensible thing - at significant cost, given the numbers of jobs lost and businesses stuck on the precipice of failure - has been consistent.

The talk coming out of Melbourne is of a population that was equally committed during its first lockdown, only for fatigue to set in for the second. But on the Border, the compliance and common sense has continued unabated, despite the community having every reason to feel cynical given the avalanche of hubris from Spring and Macquarie streets.

We're in this together, the respective premiers proclaim, yet Border communities' despair at an inequitable social, health and economic knock-down they concur is conveniently ignored.

Far more worrying though is a warning that has been delivered by Border Medical Association chief Scott Giltrap.

In what is a frighteningly obvious scenario, he says our health system is being exposed to a potential COVID-19 outbreak right here, right now, with doctors being permitted to freely travel between the COVID-19 hotspots of Melbourne and our public hospitals without undertaking appropriate quarantine.

It's not hyperbole to describe this as a total outrage. The fact that somehow these medical professionals - who should know better than most - are granted some kind of get-out-of-jail pass for something that the rest of the community is constantly lectured on as non-negotiable is extraordinary.

Our health professionals' efforts in tackling the pandemic deserve the highest of praise, but let's not be fools. After all, this virus clearly shows no regard for rich or poor alike - just consider the dozens of doctors who have died from COVID-19 in New York City. The welfare of those at the coalface of this virus must be paramount. This failure must be fixed with the greatest of urgency before it all takes a tragic turn for the absolute worst.