I'm not claiming that shopping centers are causing these new cases. Just that the logic of blaming the protests is ridiculous considering the conditions of the protest were nowhere near as significant for spreading disease as the every day conditions of shopping centres. As I said before, more people, smaller area, indoors, longer period of time, more often. Neither has any evidence for causing the increased number of cases, but that's exactly the point. Singling out the protests is ridiculous.
However, there is evidence that relaxed restrictions have led to more people in households, leading to more community transmission. This is accounting for most of the new cases.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/...sters-driving-its-spread-20200622-p55504.html
" Events such as large family gatherings, where social distance measures haven't been observed, could have also become "super-spreading" events, experts say.
The two biggest family clusters, in the north-western suburb of Keilor Downs, and in Coburg in the north, have infected residents across at least five suburbs so far and directly led to the temporary closures of four Melbourne schools.
The clusters account for at least 25 cases with family members in the Hume, Brimbank, Moreland and Cardinia municipalities.
The Coburg family cluster has been linked to at least 14 cases, including at least four primary school aged children and extended family members in Broadmeadows, Coburg and Pakenham.
The Keilor Downs cluster has been traced back to at least 13 cases with teenagers and children among those infected.
The catalyst for spread has been attributed to family gatherings where social distancing measures were not upheld, authorities say."
Large family gatherings have only been allowed since the relaxing of restrictions. We actually have evidence that large family gatherings, a direct results of relaxing restrictions, has led more community transmission.
This happened in our state because
at no point did we ever have a situation where we were only getting cases of known origin. We should not have relaxed restrictions until we did. If you're asking why other states are different, well it's a bit of luck, a bit of population density, a bit of the fact that a lot of travellers come through melbourne, and mainly the fact that most other states were accounting for all cases prior to relaxing restrictions. Dan was trying to hold out until we were in the same boat, but eventually folded under federal, social, and political pressure. IMHO that was a failing on his part.
