The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[GILow]

Originally Posted by chrisr

don't know what you guys are complaining about !



we're in in bundy at the moment...heading north to get away from lockdowns...and it's 6 deg here this morning ! that's ridiculous !



bring on global warming i say...



cheers,

6 degrees! I DREAM of 6 degrees!

Yet to find out how I will go with the South Australian health authorities. Right at the moment Tasmania to South Australia is one of the few open borders. Now, ideally I’d stop in Portland, Victoria on my trip north. However I suspect the South Australians would have an issue with me if I did that.

I’ll be contacting them in a week or so to discuss the options. I don’t expect them to be as flexible as Tasmania. The Tasmanians understand sailing boats a bit better, what with being an island and everything.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

And its not so much about vaccines and whether to get vaxxed or not. The unhappiness is more about lockdowns and state border closures.That - at one level of government - is a left wing lockdown stance v a right wing 'let her rip' approach.

At another level it is two states with Covid outbreaks - Victoria being left wing and NSW being right wing - versus the remaining 'zero covid' states which are a mixed bag of left and right.

Meanwhile Vic and NSW just keep on closing their borders to each other. Just now NSWelshmen can't enter Victoria, a few months ago Victorians couldn't enter NSW.

All very confusing.

The rules of cricket make more sense.
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/...o-a-foreigner/

Crickets simple.. its Aussie Rules Footie that baffles me..

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Crickets simple.. its Aussie Rules Footie that baffles me..

Yeah well, Aussie rules footie was invented so cricketer's had something to over over winter and keep fit at the same time. It was never going to simple...

[ChrisJHC]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

I am not lying in the Whitsundays in the sun, I got bored and decided to go sailing so wandered my way north to Cairns. Right now I am sitting in my saloon in a T shirt and shorts with all the hatches open typing this.

You do realise that 50% of the Aussies on this forum hate you now?

[Wotname]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij_XgKg3_FY

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by ChrisJHC

You do realise that 50% of the Aussies on this forum hate you now?

Nah, a high proportion of the Australians are also up here in Queensland, in twenty years of cruising the Queensland coast I've never seen so many boats. Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island had ninety or so boats anchored there last week and Dunk Island at least fifteen where there is usually two or three.

Ausie rules is based on Irish football where typical of the Irish they could not make up their minds whether to play basketball or football so just melded them together. Alcohol was probably involved (God I'm glad to have that bunch of stereotypes of my mind)

Hi Ann, and thanks for persevering.

There are three conservative governed states at the moment, New South Wales, Tasmania (I think, they have a weird electoral system so you can never be certain) and South Australia. The conservatives are attempting to strike a balance between the economic and health issues whereas the left are doing their usual thing which is "lock her down mate if the economy tanks we'll just crank up the printing presses and print more currency".

You seldom have a shortage of folks willing to help you throw a party it's paying the credit card bill that makes you friendless.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

You seldom have a shortage of folks willing to help you throw a party it's paying the credit card bill that makes you friendless.

Very true.. never seen anything like sailors disappear so quick just before closing time leaving me stuck with the $275 bar tab..

Probably how they get to afford the fancy yachts..
Bass turds..

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Nah, a high proportion of the Australians are also up here in Queensland, in twenty years of cruising the Queensland coast I've never seen so many boats. Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island had ninety or so boats anchored there last week and Dunk Island at least fifteen where there is usually two or three.

Exactly why we gave up on it this year and came back south
Got as far as the Keppels and out to the reef but every day a constant stream of boats

Back in Moreton Bay now, mid week having our usual haunts to ourselves.

[JPA Cate]

Raymond R wrote, "Ann, thanks for persevering."

As it happens, eventually the Yanks butted out and let the Canadians have their thread and quit messing it up. I am hoping they do so here, too. It is messing it up for the other guys that causes the problems much of the time. It isn't such a big ask, to just keep on following the community rules, which in some ways are stricter in covid times.

By the way, what I think we are seeing with travel and people freaking out about restrictions is because NOBODY except lords and their entourages ever left home in the Middle Ages. Today, our society is dependent on travel, and travel is as effective as fleas that travel, for spreading new viruses. There is no reason to assume this Covid and its variants are the last one ever to assail humanity.

Imaginative people are to be forgiven if they don't want to talk about what the future brings. We already have fire and pestilence.

Ann

[goboatingnow]

I’m not sure what people are complaining about. Certainly in Europe lockdowns are over and delta is more advanced here then anywhere. Countries are removing restrictions daily. Travel is fully possible , vaccines are upwards of 80% administered and boosters planned.

Still some minor restrictions like occasional mask wearing etc. But even that is being scaled back. 40000 people at a recent football game here in Ireland ( and were slow at opening up ) chief medical officer expects all restrictions gone in autumn once they evaluate school returns, schools back next week , colleges back on campus in late September as normal.

Australia and particularly NZ have followed a disastrous “ fortress “ concept without speedily implementing a vaccine program and are now going to pay a terrible price because delta cannot , cannot , be contained by barrier based approaches.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I’m not sure what people are complaining about. Certainly in Europe lockdowns are over and delta is more advanced here then anywhere. Countries are removing restrictions daily. Travel is fully possible , vaccines are upwards of 80% administered and boosters planned.

Still some minor restrictions like occasional mask wearing etc. But even that is being scaled back. 40000 people at a recent football game here in Ireland ( and were slow at opening up ) chief medical officer expects all restrictions gone in autumn once they evaluate school returns, schools back next week , colleges back on campus in late September as normal.. .

And remember that significant parts of Europe never had lockdowns in the first place, although Europe as a whole did have travel restrictions with the outside world and there were significant travel restrictions among European countries.

[El Pinguino]

Australians could not give a monkey's banana about what Europe did about this, that or the other.

We responded as did many island states, nations, and territories did - and it worked.
Last year a major outbreak was beaten into submission in Victoria and lesser outbreaks dealt with in a similar fashion in Tasmania and elsewhere.
Delta? Snuffed out at least once in Vic and Qland.

OK we now have yet another delta outbreak in NSW and Vic. Vic outbreak is possibly snuffable or at least manageable - NSW not so much.

We have been let down by a government that failed to get us sufficient vaccines at the start of this year - everything else follows on from this. Oh and their failed hotel quarantine

[UFO]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Australians could not give a monkey's banana about what Europe did about this, that or the other.

Well maybe in your little bubble, but the term Australians covers a tad few more people than that, so don't group us all into your little collective as there's rather a lot if us that would disagree with you.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by UFO

Well maybe in your little bubble, but the term Australians covers *a tad few more people than that*(sic), so don't group us all into your little collective as there's rather a lot if us that would disagree with you.

So... what would you do or have done?... answers on the back of a self addressed envelope por favor

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

So... what would you do?... answers on the back of a self addressed envelope por favor

It's pointless to argue about it. No one really knows yet what the best approach was, and furthermore different countries and situations might very well demand different approaches, so there might not even be one right answer. I think we'll understand this a little better later.


I think what concerns Australia, the interesting bit is now ahead. IF the Delta variant ends up ripping through society despite all the earlier measures, then that's one thing. If however at the end of the pandemic the amount of lockdown employed ends up being much less than other countries, because the measures were successful enough in the first place, that lockdown was not then needed except on rare occasions, then I think that looks pretty good. We shall see.


I think we DO know already that the way we did it in the U.S. was pretty awful. All these endless cycles of lockdown, opening, lockdown, opening, going on and on, and despite that very high rates of infection and death -- worst of both worlds, innit?