Coronavirus - Australia
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@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Trying to paint him as some sort of reckless freedom lover because he... repealed the mask mandate for certain indoor settings for two weeks in December? Hardly Trump 2.0.
there's this weird disconnect where there is this overwhelming desire to brand the unvaccinated as science-denying lunatics, while at the same time screaming for policies that pretend the vaccine doesn't exist, or doesn't work.
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@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
Trying to paint him as some sort of reckless freedom lover because he... repealed the mask mandate for certain indoor settings for two weeks in December? Hardly Trump 2.0.
there's this weird disconnect where there is this overwhelming desire to brand the unvaccinated as science-denying lunatics, while at the same time screaming for policies that pretend the vaccine doesn't exist, or doesn't work.
And just the general view that the current policy settings correlate with 'letting it rip'.
We wear masks everywhere, there are capacity limits at venues, events have been cancelled. This isn't life as normal or pretending the virus doesn't exist.
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@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
A couple of things. Politicians don't get pensions any more, so that's not a thing.
There are still a few in the house who qualify, Albanese included. The rest get a "Reskilling" allowance or some shit, which varies but is a tidy lump sum for people with few skills, I guess. Wonder if coal miners will get the same?
I realise you and I are diametrically opposed on the value of politicians, but nobody with a straight face could say Scott Morrison is worth half a million in the private sector, or that paying Bronwyn Bishop is good value in retirement at $255k.
@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
As for Dom, I have seen no real evidence that he's incompetent.
"Looks like". To me, he's no better or worse than the rest.
Except Mark Latham. Fuck that guy.
Trying to paint him as some sort of reckless freedom lover because he... repealed the mask mandate for certain indoor settings for two weeks in December? Hardly Trump 2.0.
Never said he was. And let's face it: the repeal of that measure only lasted 2 weeks because he had to backflip under pressure - not like he planned it that way.
He was all for opening up as quickly as possible once we'd gotten over the hump with Delta, but none of the governments at state or Federal level seemed to treat Omicron with the least bit of gravity, particularly with summer holidays coming up.
Had we all had enough of wait-and-see? Yep, you betcha. Is the system going to collapse under the strain? Nah, probably not.
But if politics is optics, having to reverse out of the position you wanted never looks great.
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@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
And just the general view that the current policy settings correlate with 'letting it rip'.
The current settings don't, because they were hounded back into masks and other restrictions.
Everything up to that point was indicative of let it rip. Let's not be revionist about a backflip.
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@nta said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
And just the general view that the current policy settings correlate with 'letting it rip'.
The current settings don't, because they were hounded back into masks and other restrictions.
Everything up to that point was indicative of let it rip. Let's not be revionist about a backflip.
How so? All they did was repeal the requirement to check in via QR code, and the requirement to wear a mask in certain (but not all) indoor settings.
There were still limits on capacity, limits on events, you still had to wear a mask on public transport.
They backflipped on a few things because of the growth of Omicron, but it was hardly a staggering backdown.
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@nta said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
A couple of things. Politicians don't get pensions any more, so that's not a thing.
There are still a few in the house who qualify, Albanese included. The rest get a "Reskilling" allowance or some shit, which varies but is a tidy lump sum for people with few skills, I guess. Wonder if coal miners will get the same?
I realise you and I are diametrically opposed on the value of politicians, but nobody with a straight face could say Scott Morrison is worth half a million in the private sector, or that paying Bronwyn Bishop is good value in retirement at $255k.
I reckon coalminers will do all right given most of them live in marginal electorates, but that's beside the point.
Of course they aren't worth that. The previous pension scheme was absurd.
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@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
They backflipped on a few things because of the growth of Omicron, but it was hardly a staggering backdown.
Well that's a bit subjective. I wouldn't say "staggering", but my point is that we knew it was coming from late November, we knew it was highly infectious, and the government proceeded regardless.
(I believe they also reintroduced the 2sqm rule - whatever that is worth).
Hazzard said they weren't going to backfip on their roadmap, and yet they did backfip on parts of it. Good public health policy to do so in that event to try and contain Omicron, but poor public policy to do it in the first place.
That's the optics of the "personal responsibility" directive and the subsequent failrues to ramp up PCR testing or acquire RAT in sufficient quantity. Now we've got places like aged care providers shutting their doors to visitors again because they're unable to operate in the fashion they'd like.
While only 2 or 3 things might have been walked back, the consequences of that are far-reaching, particularly right on the cusp of school holidays.
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@nta said in Coronavirus - Australia:
That's the optics of the "personal responsibility" directive and the subsequent failrues to ramp up PCR testing or acquire RAT in sufficient quantity.
My understanding is the PCR testing wait times were twofold:
- A needless requirement for people who may have been exposed to isolate when contrasted against symptomatic cases and vaccination status of the country.
- The ridiculous demand for healthy people to secure a negative test prior to crossing a State border on holiday.
For the RAT debacle you can look no further than the medical community and thank them for actively trying to prevent their adoption despite overwhelming evidence overseas.
Now we've got places like aged care providers shutting their doors to visitors again because they're unable to operate in the fashion they'd like.
Good. Better them than everyone else and it almost approaches good risk management practises given NINDSS data as of 16th January has 80.2% of deaths coming from 4.2% of the population (i.e. 70+). Meanwhile 0.01% of the estimated population has died from covid and only 0.19% of confirmed cases in Australia have died.
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@nta said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@barbarian said in Coronavirus - Australia:
They backflipped on a few things because of the growth of Omicron, but it was hardly a staggering backdown.
That's the optics of the "personal responsibility" directive and the subsequent failrues to ramp up PCR testing or acquire RAT in sufficient quantity.
Well the RAT failure is surely a Federal matter more than a NSW matter, and I agree that should have happened better than it did.
PCR testing was tougher. Clearly they didn't plan effectively but I'm not sure if you could ever have successfully planned for the influx they have.
The reality is NSW (and every other state bar WA) was caught on the hop by a variant that spread faster than anyone expected. It happened to hit at Christmas which was a bad time on a number of fronts - plenty of parties to spread the virus and plenty of workers on leave to ensure that there weren't enough staff to deal with it.
If you want to hang your hat on two weeks when we didn't wear masks in certain settings as evidence of failure then go for it. But to me we're in this situation regardless of whether that decision was made or not.
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@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
NSW today:
- Cases UP 30,000
- Hospitalisations DOWN 82
- ICU DOWN 5
Active cases down to 278k from a high of 342k just 5 days ago.
cautious optimism?
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@mariner4life exactly the phase i was searching for, am i being naive thinking we may have peaked?
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@kiwiwomble said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@mariner4life exactly the phase i was searching for, am i being naive thinking we may have peaked?
even the more alarmist news sites are using that word.
I'm still hoping to be in Sydney in March so it may be a different world by then. Maybe
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@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@voodoo said in Coronavirus - Australia:
NSW today:
- Cases UP 30,000
- Hospitalisations DOWN 82
- ICU DOWN 5
Active cases down to 278k from a high of 342k just 5 days ago.
cautious optimism?
I'm not even cautious. Even if we haven't completely peaked, hospitalisations are running at 0.01% of infected, and half of that are folk in hospital for some other reason.
Time to move on in this Code Red country
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In The Australian:
'early 30 per cent of the 713,000 Australians who came on Jobseeker at the height of the lockdown from March to May 2020 remain on government support'. Meanwhile the government has waived visa fees for ~175,000 "students" and backpackers to come here and work. People that were going to pay the visa fee anyway.
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@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Australia:
In The Australian:
'early 30 per cent of the 713,000 Australians who came on Jobseeker at the height of the lockdown from March to May 2020 remain on government support'. Meanwhile the government has waived visa fees for ~175,000 "students" and backpackers to come here and work. People that were going to pay the visa fee anyway.
slightly misleading
A lot of those overseas workers will go to places like Cairns, Port Douglas, Strahan. Places that are completely reliant on migrant workers. Those 30% of people without work are not in those towns, and those towns are crying out for staff. Tourism, hospitality, and accommodation are running reduced capacity at a time they cannot afford to, just because they simply cannot get the staff required for full opening.
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@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Australia:
In The Australian:
'early 30 per cent of the 713,000 Australians who came on Jobseeker at the height of the lockdown from March to May 2020 remain on government support'. Meanwhile the government has waived visa fees for ~175,000 "students" and backpackers to come here and work. People that were going to pay the visa fee anyway.
slightly misleading
A lot of those overseas workers will go to places like Cairns, Port Douglas, Strahan. Places that are completely reliant on migrant workers. Those 30% of people without work are not in those towns, and those towns are crying out for staff. Tourism, hospitality, and accommodation are running reduced capacity at a time they cannot afford to, just because they simply cannot get the staff required for full opening.
Are backpackers really going to come to Australia now they can save ~$500 on a visa? I'd suggest they were either going to come or not.
The students are just a backdoor to permanent migration.
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@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Australia:
@antipodean said in Coronavirus - Australia:
In The Australian:
'early 30 per cent of the 713,000 Australians who came on Jobseeker at the height of the lockdown from March to May 2020 remain on government support'. Meanwhile the government has waived visa fees for ~175,000 "students" and backpackers to come here and work. People that were going to pay the visa fee anyway.
slightly misleading
A lot of those overseas workers will go to places like Cairns, Port Douglas, Strahan. Places that are completely reliant on migrant workers. Those 30% of people without work are not in those towns, and those towns are crying out for staff. Tourism, hospitality, and accommodation are running reduced capacity at a time they cannot afford to, just because they simply cannot get the staff required for full opening.
Are backpackers really going to come to Australia now they can save ~$500 on a visa? I'd suggest they were either going to come or not.
The students are just a backdoor to permanent migration.
no, waiving the fee was lip service, something this government (all governments really) are really big on.