The coronabrexit thread. I mean, coronavirus thread

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, TexasRam said:

‘Spin’? I’m sure I’d have termed it bull poo ?

He who smelt it dealt it.

[Eddie]

Incidentally, I find it quaintly amusing (and somewhat scary on the AC scale (abject covidiocy) scale that there are some on here suggesting that Australia is a covid disaster in the making when their total number of cases since the pandemic began 18 months ago is approximately the same as the number of cases we had yesterday.

[RoyMac5]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Incidentally, I find it quaintly amusing (and somewhat scary on the AC scale (abject covidiocy) scale that there are some on here suggesting that Australia is a covid disaster in the making when their total number of cases since the pandemic began 18 months ago is approximately the same as the number of cases we had yesterday.

How close are they to opening up, and what percentage of population is their cases?

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

How close are they to opening up, and what percentage of population is their cases?

I don't know, but that's neither here nor there. Whenever our resident Aussie members post stuff saying "Well, we've actually been locked down for about 10 days in the last 18 months, but other than that, it's been 'business as usual' the UK-based Toryboys and Boris fanboi gammons seem to think that we are doing better than them, so perhaps I'm not really the person to ask.

[G STAR RAM]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Incidentally, I find it quaintly amusing (and somewhat scary on the AC scale (abject covidiocy) scale that there are some on here suggesting that Australia is a covid disaster in the making when their total number of cases since the pandemic began 18 months ago is approximately the same as the number of cases we had yesterday.

It all depends what lens you are looking at the situation through. 

In terms of cases and deaths they have been one of the success stories of the pandemic so far.

The fact that they only have 16% of the population vaccinated so far may suggest that they are going to have more lockdown to keep them numbers low.

It depends on whether you place more value on living or merely staying alive I guess.

56 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I don't know, but that's neither here nor there. Whenever our resident Aussie members post stuff saying "Well, we've actually been locked down for about 10 days in the last 18 months, but other than that, it's been 'business as usual' the UK-based Toryboys and Boris fanboi gammons seem to think that we are doing better than them, so perhaps I'm not really the person to ask.

As above, to pass off having to spend chunks of your life locked up in your house, against your own will, as neither here nor there is extremely sad to hear.

I don't think I have seen one single person say that we are doing better than Australia, other than with the vaccine rollout, could you put up some links to these quotes?

[Pearl Ram]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

He who smelt it dealt it.

He who denied it supplied it. 

[maxjam]

Just incase anyone was under the misapprehension that covid leaked from a Wuhan Lab...

 

[Rev]

15 minutes ago, maxjam said:

Just incase anyone was under the misapprehension that covid leaked from a Wuhan Lab...

 

I often see a Deer Wang while golfing at Wollaton Park.

Didn't know it was such a star.

[Pearl Ram]

32 minutes ago, maxjam said:

Just incase anyone was under the misapprehension that covid leaked from a Wuhan Lab...

 

The lady doth protest too much. It came from a lab in Wuhan (for me and nothing or nobody will convince me otherwise)

[Gone]

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

It depends on whether you place more value on living or merely staying alive I guess.

Nail on the head 

[maxjam]

37 minutes ago, Pearl Ram said:

The lady doth protest too much. It came from a lab in Wuhan (for me and nothing or nobody will convince me otherwise)

I've you've been watching the drama in the US - which is hugely political now, imo it more than likely came from the lab at Wuhan, funded by the US.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57932699

[Pearl Ram]

Thank you for posting that @maxjam.

[GboroRam]

Well I for one am glad that the Chinese bioweapons experts only managed to develop a bad cough that mostly affects the sick and older, and didn't try to develop a virus that affects mainly conscription age healthy soldier types. 

[Archied]

5 hours ago, Eddie said:

I would suggest that statement, especially the emboldened part, could be construed as 'editorial licence'. Unfortunately the article is paywalled, so I don't have access to the relevant statistical data and therefore cannot conduct my own analysis (or 'spin' as @Archied and @TexasRam would call it). What were the reported 'vast numbers', and, more to the point, what was the breakdown of the 'other ailments' between impact injuries (you mentioned 'broken legs' which are clearly irrelevant as far as Covid-19 is concerned) and, say, respiratory illnesses (which may well be highly relevant)?

How about robotics ?

[Archied]

4 hours ago, Eddie said:

Incidentally, I find it quaintly amusing (and somewhat scary on the AC scale (abject covidiocy) scale that there are some on here suggesting that Australia is a covid disaster in the making when their total number of cases since the pandemic began 18 months ago is approximately the same as the number of cases we had yesterday.

How about the vs scale ???

[Albert]

On 30/07/2021 at 16:30, alexxxxx said:

I suspect the hardest part will be moving from the elimination strategy (which could be impossible in NSW anyway now, due to delta variant) to regularising international travel and the inevitability of covid growth.

The official advice, now accepted by the Federal government, is that elimination remains the only strategy for Australia. NSW can eliminate it, but it's going to take them actually putting in proper restrictions, than than this patchwork stuff that keep going for. Sadly, they buggered up the response, but everyone saw this coming when it started. Gladys wanted to play politics with a virus and lost. 

On 30/07/2021 at 16:30, alexxxxx said:

Seeing some australians comments online berating people for exercising outside incase you catch / spread covid shows how worlds apart the attitude is here and there. 

I've honestly not seen any Australians complaining about exercising. Official policy in every state, to my knowledge, has been that exercise is fine. There are rules about it, eg only people from your household, etc, but it is encouraged. You've probably just come across a nutjob. 

On 30/07/2021 at 16:30, alexxxxx said:

How Australia failed to procure the vaccines it required does point to a lack of planning in how to exit its otherwise well executed strategy. There have been so few deaths. 

The federal government have been pathetic from start to finish. The good stuff has been done by the states, Morrison and his rabble have achieved little, but made a lot of mistakes on the way to that during this past year and a half. 

15 hours ago, Eddie said:

Incidentally, I find it quaintly amusing (and somewhat scary on the AC scale (abject covidiocy) scale that there are some on here suggesting that Australia is a covid disaster in the making when their total number of cases since the pandemic began 18 months ago is approximately the same as the number of cases we had yesterday.

It's like how Trump was giddy with excitement when New Zealand had an outbreak of a dozen or so people last year, because he got sick of hearing about how well they did, and basically wanted to celebrate their 'disaster in the making'. The reality is, Australia's method worked for protecting lives and livelihoods, and continues to do so. The states really saved us, as the Federal government really wanted to go down the UK's route, but the states kind of battled for who could be the strongest on it. 

The federal government, as I've discussed on here since mid last year, has been an utter shambles through this whole process though. Literally everything they've touched in regard to it has been a mess. Hotel quarantine, letting in the rich and powerful while leaving Australians stranded, supporting Palmer trying to force WA's borders open, not procuring vaccines, etc. 

The most egregious of all, however, has been their rhetoric around vaccines in general. Due to initial issues around supply, they wanted to blame 'hesitancy', despite there being no vaccines available, so they pushed the line that 'because of the advice from overseas, no-one wants AstraZeneca'. This was then further pushes by their Murdoch mates, which actually has generated a movement of people only wanting Pfizer. This was particularly stupid of them, because AstraZeneca is now in massive oversupply, but only about 15% of people are fully vaccinated, and they've basically bottlenecked us on Pfizer, which is entirely due to them turning Pfizer down last year. 

15 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

How close are they to opening up, and what percentage of population is their cases?

The majority of the country has been opened up for the majority of the pandemic. NSW at the moment looks in deep trouble, but as discussed on here a few weeks back, that's all thanks to the LNP bending over backwards for Murdoch 'n mates and their political hardon against lockdowns. 

Last year, we did so well in keeping our response largely apolitical, but sadly NSW ultimately succumb to the temptation to sling mud at other states to try and win a byelection, and so have been way too lax in their response since. They had the slowest burning of the recent outbreaks, but through lockdown hesitancy allowed it to get out of control. Thankfully, while the same side of politics, South Australia's government is actually competent, and despite a worse initial outbreak, managed to get control of that situation with a 7 day lockdown, and it now looks like it may well be in the clear. Still harsher restrictions on capacity, masks, etc, for the time being, but way better than the months of lockdown NSW now faces for Gladys' mistakes. 

As to percentage of population, the population of Australia is 25.36 million, compared to the UK's 66.65. Times Australia's numbers by 2.5, and you'll get a rough equivalent to what it would be like in a UK sized population. 

[alexxxxx]

1 hour ago, Albert said:

The official advice, now accepted by the Federal government, is that elimination remains the only strategy for Australia. NSW can eliminate it, but it's going to take them actually putting in proper restrictions, than than this patchwork stuff that keep going for. Sadly, they buggered up the response, but everyone saw this coming when it started. Gladys wanted to play politics with a virus and lost. 

I just don't see how it's sustainable long term. Australia will indefinitely have to keep isolated with hotel quarantine to keep this up forever.

Looks like NSW cases may trend down.. The contact tracing really does seem to work at low levels. 

Australia probably handled the pandemic the best in the world after NZ but I don't understand how they can keep up the absolute zero covid policy forever unless you continue with HQ forever.

Even when there's a high level of vaccination you will still get pockets of transmission because the vaccines as shown elsewhere aren't close to 100% transmission. 

[Albert]

19 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

I just don't see how it's sustainable long term. Australia will indefinitely have to keep isolated with hotel quarantine to keep this up forever.

The long term strategy is to relax restrictions further once we've reached some targets for vaccination rates. The current modelling suggests that at 80%+ vaccination, with the delta strain being the prevalent strain, that minor outbreaks can be resolved without lockdowns, etc. 

What that means for returning travelers is still somewhat in the air, but in the next 4-6 months, that works given all the positives gained through the strategy overall. Less deaths, less damage to the economy, and less people who will suffer long term complications from Covid-19. 

19 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Looks like NSW cases may trend down.. The contact tracing really does seem to work at low levels. 

It's contact tracing, not lockdowns, that have allowed Australia to pursue elimination. Lockdowns have only really been used for two purposes:

1. To give time to ringfence outbreaks, ie give the contact tracers time to do their jobs. 

2. Act as a backstop when the decision to do a snap lockdown has come too late (see Victoria last year, NSW now). 

19 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

Australia probably handled the pandemic the best in the world after NZ but I don't understand how they can keep up the absolute zero covid policy forever unless you continue with HQ forever.

Even when there's a high level of vaccination you will still get pockets of transmission because the vaccines as shown elsewhere aren't close to 100% transmission. 

You don't need 100% protection, you just need enough to make it so spread isn't viable anymore. For the Delta strain, that appears to be 80-85% vaccination with vaccinations as effective against the delta strain as AstraZeneca and Pfizer after two doses. 

As above though, the long term strategy is to use a phased approach out of this. As Scomo said, there won't be any 'freedom day' here. He implied that you'd have to be a idiot to go for something like that. 

[Stagtime]

43 minutes ago, alexxxxx said:

I just don't see how it's sustainable long term. Australia will indefinitely have to keep isolated with hotel quarantine to keep this up forever.

Looks like NSW cases may trend down.. The contact tracing really does seem to work at low levels. 

Australia probably handled the pandemic the best in the world after NZ but I don't understand how they can keep up the absolute zero covid policy forever unless you continue with HQ forever.

Even when there's a high level of vaccination you will still get pockets of transmission because the vaccines as shown elsewhere aren't close to 100% transmission. 

We have a 4 stage plan. At the moment we are in the suppression stage. 70% vaccinations will remove lockdowns. Once we reach 80% vaccinations covid will then be treated as a illness. It was never a absolute zero policy as an end game. Still hard to believe our federal government has ducked the vaccine program so bad. Up here in Qld we’ve just gone into our 3rd 3 day lockdown so really can’t complain too much compared with what’s going on elsewhere.

Just seen Albert has given you a response along the same lines

Edited July 31, 2021 by Stagtime

[Albert]

12 minutes ago, Stagtime said:

We have a 4 stage plan. At the moment we are in the suppression stage. 70% vaccinations will remove lockdowns. Once we reach 80% vaccinations covid will then be treated as a illness. It was never a absolute zero policy as an end game. Still hard to believe our federal government has ducked the vaccine program so bad. Up here in Qld we’ve just gone into our 3rd 3 day lockdown so really can’t complain too much compared with what’s going on elsewhere.

Just seen Albert has given you a response along the same lines

Got to be honest, Scomo having a "4 stage plan" never really fills me with confidence, as it always seems like him trying to market himself, but it, and the research that backed it, at least illuminate what that long term strategy is.