The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Your mistake this time.

Productive = producers of wealth and that is anyone ranging from the cottage artist making ceramics in a back yard studio.

Parasitic = consumers of wealth who contribute nothing or a contribution in no way commensurate with the contribution they make.

Not a matter of size or status.

Can you name anyone who is wholly one or the other? I can't.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

Well at least I know who not to go to if I need a 'doctor' in California.

lol maybe he's a "doctor" in the same what Rand Paul is.

ie, is NOT a doctor

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

And people should get over their petty phobias and step up and get it

Indeed. It is unbelievable, but it seems that there is a significant part of the population (not just of Oz) which can't tell the differnence between a one in a million risk and a one in a thousand. It si simply -- profound innumeracy.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by pdjb

What about natural immunization, no one talks about that?

Image result for Immune responses to viruses
Via cytotoxic cells When a virus infects a person (host), it invades the cells of its host in order to survive and replicate. Once inside, the cells of the immune system cannot ‘see’ the virus and therefore do not know that the host cell is infected.
We are not dealing with a bacteria.

[El Pinguino]

The problems in aged care in Australia - especially private aged care - are truly remarkable but when you have a bloke like Colbeck in charge it shouldnt be altogether too surprising
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021...chard-colbeck/

We don't see anything of him these days - I think he has been locked in his room.

Aged Care residents and staff along with frontline workers - about 678,000 in total were all meant to be vaccinated between 22 Feb and 22 March and of those only 70,000 were quarantine and border workers. One of my sons works in healthcare in Canberra - got his first Phizer in Mid March.
I was in the second group - bookings opened on 22nd March, I booked at 0930 on the 23rd, had my first AZ 7 days later. Now depending on how you read the official guvment doco https://www.health.gov.au/sites/defa...phase-1b_0.pdf there should have been in excess of one million over 80's ahead of me but it doesn't work like that. 1A was 1A and 1B was 1B.
All my extended family have now been double vaxxed as have the vast majority of my friends.

The conflicting information pumped out by Canberra re AZ and clots only backed up what we already knew - Phizer was better than AZ cos Macron said so. And the PMfM had said there was no race so why the hurry? Sit back and you will eventually get Phizer while millions of doses of locally produced AZ sits on the shelf.

The outbreak in Sydney was the outbreak we had to have - otherwise we would have been living in our hermit kingdom for years to come.

Getting the vaxx into teenagers has a lot to do with Year 12 exams which are in the offing - trying to get them vaccinated so they could get back to school.

Now it is a free for all and it is everyman for himself from what I can see.

Meanwhile there is a lot of bone pointing going on in the west of NSW with the state blaming the current situation there on the federal government.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/h...31-p58nla.html

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Australia's death rate has passed Norway and is closing in on Sweden:


Attachment 244526


However, these are micro death rates; basically statistical noise, so doesn't mean much. Death rate of under 0.5 per million is basically nothing; over 1 per million and you start to see some strain on hospitals. Over 10 per million is really bad. UK approached 20 per million at the peak. Maybe good for you guys to know since before now you haven't really experienced the pandemic. You will be getting more experience in the coming weeks.

...........

I don't know the Covid infection 'distribution or density' in other countries but I suspect in places like the UK and Europe (in general), it is fairly evenly spread across the populous.
I do know this is not the case in Australia. Currently the majority of all Covid infections are located in the Greater Sydney area and Melbourne and the vast majority occur in NSW and Melbourne. This corresponds to about 50% of the population. The other 50% is physically isolated by distance (generalisation).

So nearly 100% of cases are occurring in 50% of the population which means one should double the figures that show up in 'whole of Australia' numbers when comparing with UK/Europe (if my first assumption is correct).

[RaymondR]

A couple of facts re vacination.

There are 6,000,000 unused doses of AZ in storage in Australia and therefor readily available to the state health care systems.

The states are responsible for the delivery of health care in Australia although the federal government is responsible for some of the funding. The federal government has no responsibility, or authority over, the delivery of health care in any of the states.

So who is going to organize the vacination centres --- the state authorities.

And who is going to stick the needle in your arm --- a medico of some sort employed or instructed to by a state authority.

But hey folks, who is responsible for any screw up --- Scomo, the bloke with no authority over either the health facilities nor the practitioners.

Get real people. It's all about the politics of the left winning the next federal election.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Ah Wotty,

It's not a matter of who is in power it's a matter of who they hire.

It takes years to train a medical professional and no time to train an admin. So if Barnett spent years trying to catch up the deficiency of medical professionals whilst burdened with the cost of Carpenters excess of administrative hires there are no reserves of medical staff to carry any excess cases.

In Australia you always have to be conscious that the major party of the left is owned body and soul by the best organized trade union movement in the world and whilst strong employee representation is good in any state or national political parliamentary entity it does have it's down sides. And, one of the down sides in Australia is that the trade union movement is more a political than a employee representation organization and the power division within it is based entirely on numbers. Consequently, there is a never ending competition to maximize member numbers than to do what is best for the employees they supposedly represent.

One only has to look at the education system to see the long term effects of this concentration on numbers. Whilst Australia's ranking in education quality has declined from the top ten down into the thirties the system has become ever more expensive as the teachers unions have greatly expanded their membership numbers. This has been the trend in all government operated enterprises in Australia.

Trade union leadership is also now predominately lawyers (The sneakiest folks in any society) and far less derived from line employees than it used to be so the quality there has also declined.

Kim Beasly's father was right when he said, "The Australian Labor Party once attracted the cream of the working class but now attracts the dregs of the middle class.". He was right and it's apparent from the handling of the corona virus incident, which is being managed by the left and their cronies in the media in compliance with polls rather than by exercise of leadership by politicians well able to judge and balance the overall needs of Australian society. Modern left wing parties are now extremely deficient of the Keatings, Youngs, Richardsons, etc who once provided a backbone of broadly experienced practical men who once practiced politics for the left in Australia.

Trade union membership used to be around 45% - 50% of all employees it is now down to 11% - 12% however the bloated public services are almost entirely unionized which means they are the prominent influence behind the left wing political leaders running some of the states and have benefited by the lock downs in that whilst getting to laze about at house and doing a bit of gardening or catching up on their reading they have not lost one cent in pay or benefits and in many cases have received increases. This whilst many private sector ventures have gone broke due to the lock downs.

A wide ball, better to let it go through to the keeper.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

A couple of facts re vacination.

There are 6,000,000 unused doses of AZ in storage in Australia and therefor readily available to the state health care systems.

The states are responsible for the delivery of health care in Australia although the federal government is responsible for some of the funding. The federal government has no responsibility, or authority over, the delivery of health care in any of the states.

So who is going to organize the vacination centres --- the state authorities.

And who is going to stick the needle in your arm --- a medico of some sort employed or instructed to by a state authority.

But hey folks, who is responsible for any screw up --- Scomo, the bloke with no authority over either the health facilities nor the practitioners.

Get real people. It's all about the politics of the left winning the next federal election.

Not quite right.
PMfM is the man that we were relying on to supply the vaccines.

The Federal Government decided recently to direct more vaccine to NSW - to the detriment of other states.

The Federal Government is also responsible for vaccinations being administered by GPs and assorted other vaxx centres.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-...ralia/13255390

Rather a lot of people were spooked about AZ as mentioned above and are still hanging out for Phizer.

Politics? No - its all about rewarding incompetence with the Royal Order of the Boot.

[Dockhead]

New Zealand being whacked by Delta: https://news.yahoo.com/zealand-recor...084654066.html

This is going to be bad. More vulnerable population than Oz, even lower level of vaccination (lowest in the developed world according to the article), and slower rate of vaccination. Still in denial and entertaining the illusion of zero covid, which has been wisely abandoned in Oz.

Considering the lively romp the Delta variant is having even through the far less vulnerable population of the UK, I think the antipodean republics are due for a serious pandemic experience for a few months at least, even as they catch up in vaccination (if indeed the Kiwis do catch up, which is not as clear as in the case of the Australians). I only hope they manage to get the vulnerable vaccinated and nursing homes protected before there is a big wave of death like we experienced over here. There's still time as new case levels still aren't all that high. And they've had more than a year to benefit from vaccine development and production, and to learn from our mistakes, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

[El Pinguino]

NZ is still dreaming of a covid free future. I doubt it but they are still in with a chance of keeping numbers very low.
Their contact tracers are still well on top of this - unlike NSW where contact tracing has collapsed in a screaming great heap.

They are doing very well regarding daily doses, nothing like a bit of delta doing the rounds to get people's attention.

'New Zealand is now vaccinating at a rapid clip. Over the last week about 79,000 doses a day were administered on average, with some record days far higher. Most of them were first doses – about 56,000 first doses to 23,000 second.

This is faster than Australia is currently going, proportionately – about 1.56 doses per 100 people every day, compared to 1.08 for Australia. It's faster than the UK, USA, and Canada ever managed.

Indeed, if this rate was maintained the entire rollout would be done by Guy Fawkes on November 5. 80 per cent of the 12+ population would have had a first dose by September 21, in just three weeks, and 90 per cent would manage it by September 29.


https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...d-in-11-charts

Never underestimate New Zealanders.

Was it a public holiday somewhere yesterday?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

NZ is still dreaming of a covid free future. I doubt it but they are still in with a chance of keeping numbers very low.
Their contact tracers are still well on top of this - unlike NSW where contact tracing has collapsed in a screaming great heap.

They are doing very well regarding daily doses, nothing like a bit of delta doing the rounds to get people's attention.

'New Zealand is now vaccinating at a rapid clip. Over the last week about 79,000 doses a day were administered on average, with some record days far higher. Most of them were first doses – about 56,000 first doses to 23,000 second.

This is faster than Australia is currently going, proportionately – about 1.56 doses per 100 people every day, compared to 1.08 for Australia. It's faster than the UK, USA, and Canada ever managed.

Indeed, if this rate was maintained the entire rollout would be done by Guy Fawkes on November 5. 80 per cent of the 12+ population would have had a first dose by September 21, in just three weeks, and 90 per cent would manage it by September 29.

Never underestimate New Zealanders.. .

Wow! I hadn't seen that number. Indeed, I've never seen such a high vaccination rate. That will be massive if they can keep that up.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

New Zealand being whacked by Delta: https://news.yahoo.com/zealand-recor...084654066.html

This is going to be bad. More vulnerable population than Oz, even lower level of vaccination (lowest in the developed world according to the article), and slower rate of vaccination. Still in denial and entertaining the illusion of zero covid, which has been wisely abandoned in Oz.

Considering the lively romp the Delta variant is having even through the far less vulnerable population of the UK, I think the antipodean republics are due for a serious pandemic experience for a few months at least, even as they catch up in vaccination (if indeed the Kiwis do catch up, which is not as clear as in the case of the Australians). I only hope they manage to get the vulnerable vaccinated and nursing homes protected before there is a big wave of death like we experienced over here. There's still time as new case levels still aren't all that high. And they've had more than a year to benefit from vaccine development and production, and to learn from our mistakes, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

1/ More vulnerable population The Pasifika , under 10% of the population, are more vunerable due to many prexisting conditions and large households. They are at the centre of this outbreak largely as a result of the gathering for 6 hours of 700 people from across NZ at the Samoa Assembly of God church in mid Aug.
https://www.sheppnews.com.au/world/2...ses-jump-by-35
The map Jacinda is holding up shows 'areas of concern' based mainly on that gathering - it does not show new cases. The majority of those areas turned out to be of no concern.

2/ lower level of vaccination (lowest in the developed world according to the article), Slow starters they have now overtaken Mexico
3/ slower rate of vaccination. See my previous post.
4/Still in denial and entertaining the illusion of zero covid, which has been wisely abandoned in Oz.
I don't think Jacinda really thinks zero covid will happen but one has to encourage the people. 'Zero Covid' wasn't wisely abandoned in Vic or NSW - administrations there simply accepted the grim reality.

[El Pinguino]

And its good to see some sanity in a world gone mad

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-...uing/100427018

[Cadence]

Great for NZ. Maybe they don't have the # of idiots we have in the US refusing the vaccine. My grandson being one till a friend nearly died at an age of about 30.