Coronavirus 4 - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[Dave The Man]

The UK at it's peak were having more deaths per day than Victoria has had in it's entirety.

Still believe Victoria's pandemic response wasn't successful?

Why compare us to the UK? Their experience is entirely different to ours, and now for the most part life is carrying on as normal. They're intelligent enough to accept the reality of living with the virus.

The new Premier League season has started and crowds were at full capacity on the weekend. The test match between England and India at Lords had big crowds.

Victoria's been a failure compared to the rest of the country:
[*] The most cases.
[*] The most deaths.
[*] The most lockdowns (six and counting)
[*] Nearly the longest lockdowns in any jurisdiction across the world over the last 18 months.
[*] Curfews, which have no scientific basis.
[*] Economy in ruins. Small businesses obliterated.
[*] Mental health issues skyrocketing.

It really is a case of "burning down the village to save it".

Massive Difference between about 75% to about 20% people being Vaccinated

[Jezza]

The UK is about 58% fully vaccinated, mostly with AZ.

I believe fully vaccinated people should be exempt from some of the restrictions.

[Dave The Man]

The UK is about 58% fully vaccinated, mostly with AZ.

I believe fully vaccinated people should be exempt from some of the restrictions.

Agree Fully Vaccinated should have lesser Restrictions to Non Vaccinated people. Coming from me as I am Fully Vaccinated

Though that be Hard to Police

[Pies4shaw]

So, it's now about 260 days since there has been a death in Victoria reported from COVID. In that time, there have been 57 deaths in NSW (so far) and the total number of deaths in that State has more than doubled.

Deakin chair of epidemiology Catherine Bennett said the only chance Victoria had at getting ahead of the virus was going “really, really hard now” or risk not coming out of lockdown until the end of the year.

“The problem for Victoria is that while the cases are still low, every unlinked case probably signals that there are another 10 linked cases out there and we don’t know where they are,” Professor Bennett said.

“If we don’t knock this over in the next week or two then we will be in lockdown until our vaccination rates get higher.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 58j6p.html

[What'sinaname]

Need to stop just taking advice just from epidemiologists.

Decisions need to reflect the balanced views of mental health experts, education experts, small business representatives, economists etc.

For an epidemiologist, the answer is easy.......lock it down.

[Pies4shaw]

The "balanced" view is that the economic and social costs of not locking down early and hard are way worse than the the economic and social costs of locking down early and hard. I've posted the links previously (most recently yesterday morning) - but no-one seems to want to discuss those. I take it that is because the correct answer is unpalatable and inconvenient.

See: https://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtop ... &start=217

[stui magpie]

Also because it's counter intuitive.

If that were correct, the Victorian economy would have been equal or better than NSW at the end of 2020.

[Pies4shaw]

In Victoria, 24 new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
- 31,519 test results were received

The Government says that "Of the 24 locally-acquired cases, 21 are linked to known outbreaks and 14 have been in isolation throughout their infectious period."

[Pies4shaw]

[roar]

I take it that is because the correct answer is unpalatable and inconvenient.

See: https://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtop ... &start=217

How does the discussion go when there is no real out of lockdown scenario? Is a continuous lockdown preferable to greater loss of life? There is no "correct" answer but rather it's a value decision. Europe seems to be ok with their approach with the deaths being an unfortunate situation that can't be helped, and most of their citizens recoil in horror when they hear about our situation. I have yet to speak to anyone or hear of anyone who would prefer to be in our position. Of course, those who died may think differently but don't you legal types say we can't let the victim be responsible for sentencing?

[David]

[stui magpie]

[David]

For me, one of Andrews’ biggest ****-ups in lockdown 2.0 was trying at first to go suburb by suburb, lock down housing towers etc., when what we needed was a citywide lockdown from the start. Feels like Sydney made the same mistake this time around. The question of whether to extend that to regional areas is a different one, granted. (It’s interesting to see that Country Victoria is off the hook this time around even as things tighten in Melbourne.)

I don’t know if you can really compare these massive outbreaks with one or two cases happening here and there, as all states have had to contend with (and dealt with successfully without extended lockdowns, Victoria included). It’s when things are on the verge of getting out of control that you need the right policy, and I’m yet to be convinced that option 1 above doesn’t cause the least long-term pain.

[stui magpie]

Andrews tried to go Post code/suburb. NSW and Qld are using LGA (Local Government Area) which is significantly larger.

It worked for NSW with the original Covid strain but Victoria failed because the contact tracing capability was rubbish. (Pretty sure that is now acknowledged uncontroversial fact) It's working for QLD now.

The only valid reason for locking down wider than the Metro area in Victoria is because it's so much smaller than NSW or Qld. People here can actually live in Regional towns and commute to the metro area for work.

[stui magpie]