Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Spongbob]

Lockdown off, on, off, on ......

Yes, NSW was the gold standard.
Oh wait, PM & NSW Premier have said Delta changes all this.
Lockdowns are now the standard until 70% of the (eligible) population are fully vaccinated?

 

[Lynda2475]

Again, please stop with this incorrect assertion that for over 50s "all have had ample time for one (if not 2 ...) by now". It is simply not true for all Australians. We don't all live in NSW or in Sydney. There is Australian life outside NSW. Yes, eligible since May, but in some states/cities/towns, eligibility does not equal availability.

My comment was about Greater Sydney lockdown and restrictions, so what happens outside NSW is irrelevant to that. Over 50s have had ample time (over 3 months) to access vaccine in NSW, its a fact.

 

[Must...Fly!]

A key reason why lockdown is back in Victoria is because two people were infectious for a week before returning a positive test, and to do so means that the individuals were symptomatic well prior to getting tested. The tone and words of Dan Andrews during the late afternoon presser radiated that as well.

I would counter (playing devil's advocate here) that a key reason we are back in lockdown is because we are expecting 100% compliance from 100% of the population. We all are perfectly aware that the human race can not in any way be relied upon to be 100% compliant.

 

[Seat0B]

View attachment 254575

Thank you. I needed that.

 

[N860CR]

You could go one step further as in Australia:

• Queensland is for resident Queenslanders only
• Victoria is for resident Victorians only
• West Australia is for resident West Australians only

I could go on but I'm sure you get the drift

NSW is open for people who need to live their lives.

But I suspect nobody will accept that.

 

[jonboixxx]

View attachment 254575

For the sake of my family in Victoria, I can only hope that Premier Dan has only 2 lockdowns left in him.

 

[burmans]

I'm a little more optimistic - I think it's positive to see the whole class rallying to beat this despite one or two kids being naughty (whether that's one or two people in Vic/SA/WA... or the whole of Sydney ). The vox pop on the news tonight in Vic seemed pretty much in favour of the quick response.

Just you wait, the usual crew who have been giving Gladys a hard time for not going hard/fast enough have a history of also giving Dan a hard time for being too fast/hard, it will probably come soon enough.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I would counter (playing devil's advocate here) that a key reason we are back in lockdown is because we are expecting 100% compliance from 100% of the population. We all are perfectly aware that the human race can not in any way be relied upon to be 100% compliant.

Well by way of reply and yes which is why we have police, health bodies, RSPCA, emergency services etc

It is just what happens when an adverse event happens whether it be to negligence, wilful action or an accident. Adverse events are part of life, and you need to have solutions for when they do.

All three can result in say a house catching fire. The housefire still has to be put out. And we do expect that from time to time that housefires will happen.

The alternative is to let the house keep burning, with the risk being that perhaps other houses can also catch fire. If one is too slow putting the fire out then other houses may also catch fire.

You just need to be ready to do what is necessary.

If in this case if the fire brigade had been called in a timely manner the fire would have been put out swiftly. But it was not and due to the delay we have a bigger fire than we would like. But by calling out a number of brigades it will be quenched.

Alternatively, you don't ramp up enough resources to deal with the blaze and you then just get a firestorm growing out of control and hope like hell that it will rain.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Its convenient for the Victorian authorities to point to someone (more than 1 as well) being non-compliant (symptomatic and not testing, visiting households). It avoids scrutiny on whether Victoria authorities decided to lift lockdown too early.

Its unfortunate frustrated people blaming others (victim blaming or blaming certain segments) for not getting vaccinated quickly and thus lots of areas being locked down/restricted. The fact is Australia simply hasn't had enough availability anywhere recently. If there was enough availability, demand would not exceed supply right now.

I guess the way of covid times - its perverse almost always.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Its convenient for the Victorian authorities to point to someone (more than 1 as well) being non-compliant (symptomatic and not testing, visiting households). It avoids scrutiny on whether Victoria authorities decided to lift lockdown too early.

Thankfully it wasn't really lifted! Still 'work from home' if you can, no visitors, masks at all times while outside the home. It seems the 'no visitor' rule might have been breached in this latest outbreak though? (it appears the infected couple visited the home of their relatives?)

 

[bcworld]

Vic update:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1423409651895263238

 

[Pushka]

Yes, but after 130,000 deaths. Adjusted for our population we are still talking 48 times our mortality rate. I'm glad they have pulled it together at the last minute but the supposition that we have performed poorly at this point is a bit off, we've been in the cautious camp all along, low mortality and whilst the vaccines started poorly they are ramping up. People can say we have done poorly but we have just looked at 3 of the leaders in vaccination, acknowledged two are not having a great time right now and ignored another having a death rate much higher than ours. A bit of perspective wouldn't hurt us.

That isn't the current situation and I was referring to post vaccination not the tragedy of last year. They did get the vaccination system down perfectly, managed the media so that this AZ panic in Australia did not happen and largely people just got vaccinated not caring what with. Unlike some of the petals in Australia.

 

[nickykim]

All three of the “new” cases in Melbourne work as “essential workers” (education, medical, warehousing) so aside from whether or not they broke other rules, they would not have been breaking the lockdown by going to work.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1423270903249395716

 

[lovetravellingoz]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1423414322957471749

 

[bcworld]

That isn't the current situation and I was referring to post vaccination not the tragedy of last year. They did get the vaccination system down perfectly, managed the media so that this AZ panic in Australia did not happen and largely people just got vaccinated not caring what with. Unlike some of the petals in Australia.

Supply issues aside...my understanding is that in the UK (with likely differences between England, Scotland etc.) they sent everyone a date and time for an appointment when their group became eligible. I wonder if particularly for the older age groups that is something that could've been done here.

These are some of the vaccination rates (18+) in Scotland (the list is actually all UK but Scotland dominates the higher vaccination rates).

 

[Pushka]

Supply issues aside...my understanding is that in the UK (with likely differences between England, Scotland etc.) they sent everyone a date and time for an appointment when their group became eligible. I wonder if particularly for the older age groups that is something that could've been done here.

These are some of the vaccination rates (18+) in Scotland (the list is actually all UK but Scotland dominates the higher vaccination rates).

View attachment 254618

Yes. Son in the UK, as an Australian on a UK working visa having arrived last October, had to register with a medical practice. He is 31. He was contacted by that practice as soon as his age group was called up to get vaccinated. That was in late June? Originally the second dose was for 8 weeks later but Delta brought that forward. He was done in a clinic where it was incredibly smooth. He didn't care which one he had, he still didn't know after the event so his partner had to tell him. Classic.

Getting back to Australia. Really hope for a better Friday of reporting today.

 

[Simo]

App 15 Million Australians in lockdown ATM

 

[TonyHancock]

I received AstraZeneca in the UK. I had registered at a GP for that purpose. The first text I received was from the NHS, then a week later from the GP, advising that I could book an appointment for a vaccination. (It was done by age groups - I got a text from the NHS because I was testing regularly in order to attend my UK office.) The second vaccination was scheduled for 12 weeks later but after 8 weeks I logged into my NHS account and changed it for the next day.

The booking and vaccination process was very efficient. (Which surprised me given the usual administration failures of the NHS.) I was vaccinated a sports centre converted into mass vaccination hall.

I am still struggling to understand what went wrong in Australia.

 

[33kft]

I am still struggling to understand what went wrong in Australia.

Not that much, really. People weren't screaming for vaccines until Sydney lost control of the situation. All of the praise for what was effectively a roll of the dice opening up in UK start with "if you ignore the first year of the pandemic they have done brilliantly". Well, the first year is what drove them to it. You'd be getting right in line if 130K people had died and not 800.

The hesitancy was because at one point, there were no COVID deaths in Australia for a long time. So you have press reporting on AZ clotting and no deaths from COVID at all and that tips the scales in people's mind.

I'm not saying it is a logical response but both yourself and @Pushka talk about the vaccine component only and conveniently leave out the predicament UK and Europe found themselves in with COVID as if they are unrelated, and they're not.

If we want to ask what happened to questions... What happened to Singapore moving to living with it as an endemic, what happened to Israel being the envy of the world. Not at all negative towards the idea of mass innoculation, but we keep being told we're at the cough end of the world for vaccination and missing out and yet it seems those who rush to pronouncements have hit a few snags upon the way that we can afford to learn from.