Coronavirus

[pete and tys]

Politics aside....I think Nic Coatsworths article is a breath of fresh air amongst the hysterical screaming from the very vocal .
Note that he says Omicron is less serious than common influenza.
Importantly he has emphasised that the British health system has coped with far far more cases than we will see. It has not been over run.
Once the kids are vaccinated and that is soon, we need to get on with a near normal life.
The kids, immune deficient aside, appear not to be seriously affected anyway.

We need to stop reporting the number of cases, rather hospitalisation and deaths.
Stop forced testing, stop forced isolation unless unwell or positive, stop shutting down people's lives, businesses, entertainment , family time and NOT force isolation of sports people unless definitively infected.
We are near fully vaccinated and have done all that can be done.

It's time to return to enjoying life, with some simple and sensible precautions only .

PS.. I have been in full agreement with what has been done throughout last years epidemic and think Andrews has done a good job to protect Victorians. Also fully understand the approach of each and every other state.
Each state has done what they thought was best for their citizens. No complaints.
Time to open up thankfully.

 

[MB78]

Politics aside....I think Nic Coatsworths article is a breath of fresh air amongst the hysterical screaming from the very vocal .
Note that he says Omicron is less serious than common influenza.
Importantly he has emphasised that the British health system has coped with far far more cases than we will see. It has not been over run.
Once the kids are vaccinated and that is soon, we need to get on with a near normal life.
The kids, immune deficient aside, appear not to be seriously affected anyway.

We need to stop reporting the number of cases, rather hospitalisation and deaths.
Stop forced testing, stop forced isolation unless unwell or positive, stop shutting down people's lives, businesses, entertainment , family time and NOT force isolation of sports people unless definitively infected.
We are near fully vaccinated and have done all that can be done.

It's time to return to enjoying life, with some simple and sensible precautions only .

Exactly. The most vulnerable need to looked after as well so that it’s ensured that they get their boosters on time. And by the time Winter sets in over 90% of the population should be fully vaccinated.

 

[Brodders17]

Politics aside....I think Nic Coatsworths article is a breath of fresh air amongst the hysterical screaming from the very vocal .
Note that he says Omicron is less serious than common influenza.
Importantly he has emphasised that the British health system has coped with far far more cases than we will see. It has not been over run.
Once the kids are vaccinated and that is soon, we need to get on with a near normal life.
The kids, immune deficient aside, appear not to be seriously affected anyway.

there are 12,000 people currently in hospital in the UK with Covid. 332 deaths reported yesterday (though this number may have some some extras due to Christmas reporting.) Hospitals are building temporary structures to cope. Health officials have said they are "war footing".

Hopefully we dont get to the stage where our hospitals are relying on demountables or tents.

 

[pete and tys]

I noticed Britain has only 82% fully vaccinated .
Population 67 million.
So around 10-12 million not covered.
That is like Australia at only 55% fully vaccinated. ( over 12 ).
This makes their numbers much worse than ours.
We are 90% full vaccinated over all ( over 12).
The reality is we will see many thousands of positive cases, but only some hundreds , perhaps thousands , in hospital and a small but very unfortunate number of deaths....almost exclusively those who refuse vaccination but also some very elderly and vulnerable.
Coatsworth puts it into perspective for Australia.
That's all I am talking about... a sensible perspective.

 

[meownotroar]

Coatsworth puts it into perspective for Australia.
That's all I am talking about... a sensible perspective.

So why is Wordsworth slammed by other medicos with more expertise than him?

 

[IanG]

Well it is the New Year so I am going to dine out on this positive article until it proves otherwise:

Welcome to 2022, the year this pandemic ends

Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer writes that this is the year the world will overcome COVID-19 as a pandemic and move to living with it as an endemic virus.

www.theage.com.au

Its Dr Nick, he's become a meme for a reason

Politics aside....I think Nic Coatsworths article is a breath of fresh air amongst the hysterical screaming from the very vocal .

He's literally been wrong about almost everything covid.

 

[pete and tys]

You ask why Coatsworth has detractors.....Don't know the answer to this but I have two ideas.
1 He is quite pragmatic and is looking for a reasonable and sustainable solution , rather than screaming about worst case scenarios , inducing fear in the community, polarising the population and feeding the media frenzy.
This does not suit everyone's agendas.
2 There is always politics at play.
I don't know his views but his article suggest he is supportive of the federal coalition approach and has been critical of some labour states. Not surprising as he was one of the advisors to the federals.

Politics is like money.....all reasonable and generous thought are immediately extinguished.
In other words, any view with a political aspect will have a vocal opposition.

 

[IanG]

You ask why Coatsworth has detractors.....Don't know the answer to this but I have two ideas.
1 He is quite pragmatic and is looking for a reasonable and sustainable solution ,

He doesn't frame his statements like that though. He makes definitive statements like NSW will never reach 25K covid cases.

 

[pete and tys]

He doesn't frame his statements like that though. He makes definitive statements like NSW will never reach 25K covid cases.

Well they probably will not now that testing has been reduced! ...... Trumpism at its finest.
Does seem a silly thing to say. I guess he was trying to keep a positive spin.
I am not pushing him or his views, just thought it was nice to read a less shrill article that was for once something up beat about covid.
I hope he is right and that this milder strain of covid allows a massive herd immunity to develope.
Without doubt a nastier strain will evolve and we will need all the immunity we can get.

As an aside, I dearly want a year of AFL not ruined by players isolating just because they have been a contact.
So I am supportive of relaxing covid restrictions now, while the opportunity presents. It may not last.

 

[BT Tiger]

He was also adamant that covid was not airborne and therefore masks not required which turned out to be completely wrong. Fortunately he's just a commentator and hasn't had any authority throughout the pandemic.

 

[pete and tys]

Are you certain Coatsworth said covid was not airborne?
That would be very odd.
All respiratory viruses that I can think of are airborne and every medical person would know that.
Wheather masks make a significant difference is another matter.
In general they do not for respiratory viruses like colds or the flu.
He is very highly qualified respiratory and infectious diseases physician...I doubt he would give false medical advice.
Also he was not merely a commentator..he was the deputy chief health officer during the first year of the pandemic.

Ah, I have discovered he was the subject of political discrediting attack. As I said...politics removes all reasonable thought and human generosity.

 

[mrposhman]

He was also adamant that covid was not airborne and therefore masks not required which turned out to be completely wrong. Fortunately he's just a commentator and hasn't had any authority throughout the pandemic.

To be fair to Coatsworth. Almost every medical expert at the time said it wasn't airborne (including the WHO) when it first came out as that was the data they were presented by China. The fact it wasn't, shows the extent of the deception initially from China when Covid began.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Coatsworth said just a couple of weeks ago that the 25k per day modelling in NSW was ludicrous. He's been wrong a lot.

In other news..Queensland just masked up.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1477083349449469952

 

[pete and tys]

He was also adamant that covid was not airborne and therefore masks not required which turned out to be completely wrong. Fortunately he's just a commentator and hasn't had any authority throughout the pandemic.

I have located where this came from.
Get ready.. Q&A. The ABC panel show. This is a highly staged political agenda vehicle.
Coatsworth stated that there was still debate about the extent to which covid was spread by aerosols and his statement was in relation to the claim that a ventoln nebuliser used in hotel quarantine had caused the spread of covid to fellow guests...which is still unknown, although it is almost certain that the spread was caused by people mingling against the rules.
He did not say that it was not airborne spread.
In the same programme Coatsworth was attacked for with holding "better "vaccines from Australia in preference for A-Z.
In the very same programme, every other panelist stated unanimously that no Australian should ever be forced to take the covid vaccine and that if one objected to having it that was their prerogative.
I stopped watching Q& A long ago as it was nothing other than a vehicle for promoting political agendas.

It is very sad that well meaning and well qualified moderate and open thinking people in this country are knocked down by those with a desire to exert their political dogma.

 

[BT Tiger]

I have located where this came from.
Get ready.. Q&A. The ABC panel show. This is a highly staged political agenda vehicle.
Coatsworth stated that there was still debate about the extent to which covid was spread by aerosols and his statement was in relation to the claim that a ventoln nebuliser used in hotel quarantine had caused the spread of covid to fellow guests...which is still unknown, although it is almost certain that the spread was caused by people mingling against the rules.
He did not say that it was not airborne spread.
In the same programme Coatsworth was attacked for with holding "better "vaccines from Australia in preference for A-Z.
In the very same programme, every other panelist stated unanimously that no Australian should ever be forced to take the covid vaccine and that if one objected to having it that was their prerogative.
I stopped watching Q& A long ago as it was nothing other than a vehicle for promoting political agendas.

It is very sad that well meaning and well qualified moderate and open thinking people in this country are knocked down by those with a desire to exert their political dogma.

Aside from the diatribe about the ABC, fair point and I was wrong on those comments. He did argue it was not airborne back in May 2020 but that was when we all thought that was the case.

Still, there are far more qualified experts out there who get a lot less airtime than he does. Writing an opinion piece suggesting the pandemic is nearly over would obviously be popular right now, we're all over it. But there's still more to play out in the pandemic and there's a chance that another variant emerges which isn't as mild as omicron, especially with low vaccination rates in poorer countries.

 

[AngryAnt]

Note that he says Omicron is less serious than common influenza.

How would he know this? Only South Africa has enough data to even start saying that. Early signs are hopeful but that's a really dumb comment for a medico to make this early in Omicron wave.

 

[Redford]

How would he know this? Only South Africa has enough data to even start saying that. Early signs are hopeful but that's a really dumb comment for a medico to make this early in Omicron wave.

As well as that, it’s severity isn’t exactly the total issue anyway. People who keep saying this regarding the severity are missing the fuller point and what it actually is that worries countries overseas: and that’s the astronomical, never seen before, rate of transmission. Ergo, if the entire country came down with influenza …or chicken pox…or whatever….then at the current rate that we’re seeing, and if that rate were to continue, it’d most likely smash the healthcare system to pieces and the country would be in a huge pickle.

It may well be less severe than Delta and more of a flu level. Who knows. But regardless, if we continue to get this level of mass infection with resulting illness, then there’ll still be enough people sick enough to bring the whole system down. Maybe. All depends on the ongoing contagion levels. For some reason in SA the spread stopped in its tracks. Bloody hope that happens here but gee…there’s a bit to play out.

So, it’s not just severity of disease, it’s the mass SPREAD and the possibly overwhelming number of people infected and the resultant number of people still falling ill within that large number, and them requiring care or impacting resources.

 

[pete and tys]

It's good that everyone has different perspectives and that is what this forum is about.
But I am surprised at the negativity to Coatsworths very positive and upbeat article ( politics aside).
I don't think he is being blindly optimistic but obviously others do. I also don't see an agenda here, other than to present a different outlook than the ever present doomsday gloomy mainstream media.
Anyway, my point regarding his article was simply that it was nice to see a different forecast than those we have heard for the last two years and I hope he is right. I am inclined to think so.
Maybe we have become conditioned to look for the pessimistic , anxiety provoking news we are fed continuously.
No doubt there will be other covid variants, some likely to be nastier than Delta, but it is realistic to think Australians will be generally immune to much of what follows.
Whatever your political persuasion, it is true that Australia has come out reasonably well from the pandemic and has a better looking future than most other countries.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Nobody is going to be doing RATs. Especially if they have to buy them from the likes of Harvey Norman. Our leaders let it rip policy is exactly that.
The reality is we’re just going to have a lot of very sick people in circulation. Just protect yourself best as possible. Get jabbed, wear a mask & hopefully dodge the virus.

 

[Sintiger]

Why would you listen to the AMA over this bloke?

There seems to be a fascination with what the AMA says in the Australian media. Probably that is because they are always willing to give a sound bite. The AMA is essentially the trade union of Doctors, something less than 20% of them are members. It represents all Doctors from GPs to specialists.
My view is that if you want an expert opinion then listen to an infectious diseases specialist or someone specialising in respiratory medicine or epidemiology.
Nick Coatsworth is an infectious diseases physician. I am not saying he is right in everything he says but I would prefer to hear his opinion along with people like Sharon Lewin, Alan Cheng and others like them who are experts in the field.
I don’t pay much attention to what the AMA says. They were once dubbed the “CFMEU in white coats” .