Coronavirus - Australia
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it's been a couple of weeks since i have had an uniformed COVID rant so
The problem facing Australia was laid bare today. Dan Andrews wants to release a couple of restrictions in Vic. Nothing over the top, you can go a bit further, stay out a bit longer (god even typing that is weird) the AMA have had a go The Victorian branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has hit out at a "reckless" decision by Premier Daniel Andrews to ease some restrictions when the first dose vaccinations reach 70 per cent. While the freedoms will only be "modest", such as expanding the travel limit to 10km and increasing the exercise limit to three hours a day, the AMA is concerned the plan could put more pressure on the already struggling healthcare system. And while first dose vaccinations are almost at 70 per cent, just over 40 per cent of Victorians over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated. "Stress is being felt across the system including in primary care, hospital-in-the-home outreach care for Covid-19 patients, and caring for admitted patients both with Covid-19 and other medical illnesses," AMA Victoria president Roderick McRae told the ABC. "AMA Victoria considers it reckless to open up the current Victorian restrictions until 80 per cent of people 12 years and older, who are now eligible for vaccination, are two weeks beyond their second dose. "That is the time to reassess the state's capacity to manage the inevitable cases of Covid-19 in the remaining 1.6 million unvaccinated Victorian citizens.
Now, i actually get their angle. Their remit is like my beloved Dr Young said up here, they don't want anyone to die, ever. So their entire focus is on that aspect, and that aspect alone. We have been told over and over that this is a health crisis, and therefore must defer to the health experts. The health experts are taking the approach that no one gets or dies from Covid, ever. If someone tries to do anything that will result in one of those two things happening. out come the experts to slam it.
I think the main thing to take away is, the health system is stretched without this, and ANY increase in Covid hospitalisations fucks our health system. We are locked down as a Country not because of Covid as such, but because of years and years and years of underspending on health by state governments intent on buying votes elsewhere. Somewhere there will be a report written about what was to happen if a pandemic hit, and it would have been read, shelved, and the money allocated elsewhere. We in Australia have no capacity. We can barely keep up with normal demand, and so a shock might be fatal.
In my mind, this is the real story. Why are we in this position? Why have we not planned for this? Why have we done nothing about it?
And, even worse, what happens when we open at vaccination targets, and we get the surge of cases, and hospitalisations? Can we actually cope at 70-80% (which still leaves an enormous amount of people susceptible) or are we still facing harsh restrictions to "protect" a health service so underfunded it can't keep up as it is?
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@mariner4life the AMA could focus on a couple of things first:
- Getting their membership to a place where we can start to believe they actually represent the medical profession, and
- Stop killing patients.
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@mariner4life There was a virologist on radio this morning saying opening up the country once a vaccine target is achieved is racist because Maori will have a lower vaccination rate.
I get her point that even of the country at a whole is at (e.g.) 80% there will be pockets, geographically, ethnically, economically who may be much lower but every fucking effort is being made to address that issue.
Should the whole country remain closed because (e.g.) Pahiatua and / or 65+ Greek trans haven't had the jab?
FUCK OFF.
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@dogmeat its as I have been saying all along, they need to be taking the vaccine to the communities, particularly Maraes.
Sure as shit there will be some rural, high % Maori communities in Northland, East Cape, Central NI etc that simply will not jump in thier car to drive an hour to get Vaccinated.
I know this will come across poorly, but there will be some that are multiple generation unemployed, they already think the system is stacked against them, yet they will be highly vulnerable to this, and other respiratory illnesses when you look at some of the shitboxes they live in and thier overall wellbeing...
I see our Govt has started a roady vaccination, guess its a good step, but a month ago they had pretty much a captive audience, as usual, playing catch up.
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@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@mariner4life There was a virologist on radio this morning saying opening up the country once a vaccine target is achieved is racist because Maori will have a lower vaccination rate.
I get her point that even of the country at a whole is at (e.g.) 80% there will be pockets, geographically, ethnically, economically who may be much lower but every fucking effort is being made to address that issue.
Should the whole country remain closed because (e.g.) Pahiatua and / or 65+ Greek trans haven't had the jab?
FUCK OFF.
That hurts man
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@mariner4life My understanding is (at least in NSW) the issue isn't infrastructure, it's staffing. Liberal Governments love reducing recurrent funding to health/education/cops while at the same time building heaps of new infrastructure. So you have new hospitals but nobody to work in them.
So you add to that a pandemic that takes medical professionals out of the system for 14 days at a time and you've got a recipe for disaster.
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@crazy-horse said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@kiwiwomble said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@crazy-horse is there wide spread opposition in the police force or is it a vocal minority?
ive said this before, i dont actually know anyone first hand that is openly anti-vax so i find it interesting when things like this come up
I wouldn't say wide spread, but I do know a couple that are saying they will not be getting the jab. I guess we will find out how staunch they are when they are facing dismissal. I think noses are out of joint because it has been made compulsory. It's not necessarily about being anti Vax.
I’ve heard it’s in the hundreds, but we are taking about a police force of over 15,000
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@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@mariner4life My understanding is (at least in NSW) the issue isn't infrastructure, it's staffing. Liberal Governments love reducing recurrent funding to health/education/cops while at the same time building heaps of new infrastructure. So you have new hospitals but nobody to work in them.
So you add to that a pandemic that takes medical professionals out of the system for 14 days at a time and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Joys of Capex vs Opex and a lack of operational knowledge in budgeting. That basically happened here in Christchurch as well - the government funded an expansion of Christchurch hospital, and then the plan to reduce the local District Health Board deficit included reducing operational spending to a point where the expansion can't be staffed...
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@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
What about Chairman Dan's latest?
Youse can now go for picnics! But you can't take your mask off to drink alcohol. But we've told the police not to enforce it.
Or shutting down transport into the city?
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and it's this feeling, very eloquently captured in this article, that the entire Qld tourism industry is fearing
i agree with so much of this, and empathise with a lot more
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I’m hearing that panic buying appears to be back in Melbourne. Costco stock being stretched and the aisles are absolutely packed with people. Hoping it may be because of school holidays starting and the weather being crap that it’s the only indoor place of novelty to take kids!
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@act-crusader really, that would be weird, i thought we were all just carrying on we were....although it was weird there was panic buying at the start of the current lockdown as i thought we'd shown it was unnecessary over the last year and a half
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so, philosophical discussion
i was reading teh Vic "roadmap" and there are very much different rules for vacced and unvacced
my question is, how do you feel about those? Do you think it is fair on the police, let alone hospo workers etc, to have to identify which group people belong to?
I'm as pro-vax as you can get, but, having these rules where you can have a shitload of vacced people, or 5 non-vacced is placing a lot of pressure on a few people.
How do you feel about being in public in a group of say 20 people, and having to show your "papers" to the cops on demand?
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@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
so, philosophical discussion
i was reading teh Vic "roadmap" and there are very much different rules for vacced and unvacced
my question is, how do you feel about those? Do you think it is fair on the police, let alone hospo workers etc, to have to identify which group people belong to?
I'm as pro-vax as you can get, but, having these rules where you can have a shitload of vacced people, or 5 non-vacced is placing a lot of pressure on a few people.
How do you feel about being in public in a group of say 20 people, and having to show your "papers" to the cops on demand?
We currently have those rules in Sydney. The picnic rules are only for the Vaxxed. I doubt it's being enforced TBH. Most the Australians I saw yesterday while picnicking were unable to count to 5 and that didn't seem to be enforced.
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@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
so, philosophical discussion
i was reading teh Vic "roadmap" and there are very much different rules for vacced and unvacced
my question is, how do you feel about those? Do you think it is fair on the police, let alone hospo workers etc, to have to identify which group people belong to?
I'm as pro-vax as you can get, but, having these rules where you can have a shitload of vacced people, or 5 non-vacced is placing a lot of pressure on a few people.
How do you feel about being in public in a group of say 20 people, and having to show your "papers" to the cops on demand?
im fine with showing "papers", i honestly don't see it as being hugely different to vax passports when i travelled or needing to show your drivers licence or ID to prove your over 18 to get into a bar, cost of living in a society