Coronavirus

[Tigers of Old]

I never said they weren’t, and Andrews has never hidden from this. But so many people out there are blaming 100% of the second wave on one single person, which is ridiculous and unfair. But I disagree it was poorly planned. How can you plan something that was handballed to you at the last minute (by a federal government shirking its own responsibility), in the limited amount of time they had to make decisions? There are so many layers to this. And what is happening in SA just proves how hard it is to deal with.

As I have said before, the major thing that gets overlooked & brushed off with the Vic Hotel Quarantine breach, is that weeks after it occurred the WHO & other notable health organisations declared the virus airborne. That was a significant change to what was considered previous. We were still learning about how contagious the virus was. Even now after all they've learned since, we still have a hotel quarantine outbreak in South Australia.
A lot of people have used the argument that the army instead of private security guards would have made the difference but that's just speculation more than any hard proof. Clearly it is very hard to prevent transmission of this virus.

 

[Ian4]

Reckon people just want to see Dan be accountable for decisions made. Nobody is expecting a single person to hold back the tide.

Disagree. you just need to check the Facey newsfeeds of all the major news services.

 

[Ridley]

I never said they weren’t, and Andrews has never hidden from this. But so many people out there are blaming 100% of the second wave on one single person, which is ridiculous and unfair. But I disagree it was poorly planned. How can you plan something that was handballed to you at the last minute (by a federal government shirking its own responsibility), in the limited amount of time they had to make decisions? There are so many layers to this. And what is happening in SA just proves how hard it is to deal with.

Come on Ian. Every other state was in the same situation as Victoria and have managed hotel quarantine without anything like the issues we have seen here. Senior Vic public servants knew there were issues with the security at these hotels within the first few days of operations but they did nothing to rectify the situation. And the fact that every government minister and bureaucrat that fronted the inquiry suddenly came down with amnesia and/or pointed the blame at someone else is a disgrace. What was the term? "Creeping assumption?" What a joke.

SA is unfortunately experiencing an outbreak now after 7 months of operating hotel quarantine. Hopefully they can rein it in quickly. I agree that it is a difficult thing to deal with but every other state handled it so much better than we did in Victoria.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Disagree. you just need to check the Facey newsfeeds of all the major news services.

It's a place to vent. I think a lot of Victorians feel they do not have a voice, especially when opinion polls are produced to show that we overwhelmingly approve of Dan.

It's not very much to expect the man at the top to answer a question honestly about who approved private security. The fish rots from the head.

 

[MD Jazz]

I never said they weren’t, and Andrews has never hidden from this. But so many people out there are blaming 100% of the second wave on one single person, which is ridiculous and unfair. But I disagree it was poorly planned. How can you plan something that was handballed to you at the last minute (by a federal government shirking its own responsibility), in the limited amount of time they had to make decisions? There are so many layers to this. And what is happening in SA just proves how hard it is to deal with.

Are you serious? Trying to turn it around to blame the federal govt?

Did you not watch the inquiry? Shambles. Poor leadership. Poor management. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an apologist for incompetence.

 

[MD Jazz]

Disagree. you just need to check the Facey newsfeeds of all the major news services.

There's your problem right there. Facebook feeds as a source of info.

 

[AngryAnt]

Agree with this. Off shore quarantine would be ideal but even somewhere in a regional area would be better than in the middle of a city of millions of people. I get it will take a lot of work set up but we spend $200m on hotel quarantine in Vguardian.com/ic and all we have to show for it is 20,000 infections and 800 deaths.

On another note, would it be possible to ensure any returning Australian resident returns a negative test (or two) before they travel? That would help make quarantine less of an issue. Is that feasible? There still seem to be a lot of people returning to Australia Covid positive. Why can't it be a condition of return that they need to test negative before travel?

As I keep saying, are you willing to trust test results from other countries? I'm in Indonesia now, I can tell you that all the test results I've had here look different (depending on the hospital) and are in Indonesian. I could easily fake one up if I wanted to. What are immigration going to do, ring up hospitals or test facilities all over the world in different time zones to check? There is also no check by immigration or airline for people departing the country to be COVID negative UNLESS the airline requires it.

Unfortunately this means that returning travellers to Australia must be tested on arrival and quarantined until we have a working vaccine.

 

[BT Tiger]

Come on Ian. Every other state was in the same situation as Victoria and have managed hotel quarantine without anything like the issues we have seen here. Senior Vic public servants knew there were issues with the security at these hotels within the first few days of operations but they did nothing to rectify the situation. And the fact that every government minister and bureaucrat that fronted the inquiry suddenly came down with amnesia and/or pointed the blame at someone else is a disgrace. What was the term? "Creeping assumption?" What a joke.

SA is unfortunately experiencing an outbreak now after 7 months of operating hotel quarantine. Hopefully they can rein it in quickly. I agree that it is a difficult thing to deal with but every other state handled it so much better than we did in Victoria.

It is apparent that Victoria didn't handle hotel quarantine as well as other states. I don't think you'll find too many who disagree of this.

But we were told that the reason other states had successful hotel quarnatine programs was largely due to the police and ADF involvement. The outbreak in SA's hotel quarantine indicates police presence isn't the fail-safe its been made out to be.

Will be interesting to see how SA's contact tracing performs from here, because in my opinion that was the bigger failure in victoria's outbreak.

 

[Sintiger]

As I have said before, the major thing that gets overlooked & brushed off with the Vic Hotel Quarantine breach, is that weeks after it occurred the WHO & other notable health organisations declared the virus airborne. That was a significant change to what was considered previous. We were still learning about how contagious the virus was. Even now after all they've learned since, we still have a hotel quarantine outbreak in South Australia.
A lot of people have used the argument that the army instead of private security guards would have made the difference but that's just speculation more than any hard proof. Clearly it is very hard to prevent transmission of this virus.

Yes. The ADF and police don't know much about infection control either and the Hotel environment is just not set up for it. I hope they listen to medical experts who know much more now than they did in May. One example is airflow in the hotels which is all wrong for an airborne virus.
This has even caused problems in Hospitals where the older public hospitals have airflow systems too old to be suitable for COVID

 

[eZyT]

Yes. The ADF and police don't know much about infection control either

Yep.

I cant imagine when China invade Australia, we will give doctors and nurses guns and tell them to hold the northern front?

 

[Ridley]

Yep.

I cant imagine when China invade Australia, we will give doctors and nurses guns and tell them to hold the northern front?

Considering the Chinese military numbers are similar to our entire population I reckon they'll need to give us all guns!

 

[eZyT]

Considering the Chinese military numbers are similar to our entire population I reckon they'll need to give us all guns!

Ill be up the back row, running in the same direction as Sgt. Wu

 

[Ridley]

As I keep saying, are you willing to trust test results from other countries? I'm in Indonesia now, I can tell you that all the test results I've had here look different (depending on the hospital) and are in Indonesian. I could easily fake one up if I wanted to. What are immigration going to do, ring up hospitals or test facilities all over the world in different time zones to check? There is also no check by immigration or airline for people departing the country to be COVID negative UNLESS the airline requires it.

Unfortunately this means that returning travellers to Australia must be tested on arrival and quarantined until we have a working vaccine.

I was asking the question, not being definitive. Hence why I asked is it feasible? Your example of Indonesia is a good one and no I wouldn't likely trust those results. But I might trust them from NZ, or the UK, or western Europe, or the USA as an example. Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea as well. Basically any country that has similar medical capabilities as Australia. I'd like to say I'd trust them from China as well but I don't really trust the Chinese Govt not to interfere. We are still going to need quarantine regardless but if we could make a negative test result a condition of entry from countries where we trust the testing procedures then wouldn't that make the quarantine program safer?

 

[Ridley]

Ill be up the back row, running in the same direction as Sgt. Wu

I'd probably shoot my foot off.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

States closing borders with SA now. As Adelaide's nearest neighbour I think it would be prudent for Dan to follow suit, if only for a wait-and-see period.

 

[Ridley]

States closing borders with SA now. As Adelaide's nearest neighbour I think it would be prudent for Dan to follow suit, if only for a wait-and-see period.

Yeah I don't understand his reasoning here. We should be shutting that border immediately. They have an outbreak of a minimum of 20 cases and likely more. We have 17 days of zero transmission and 3 active cases. Yet we risk that just so people can waltz across the border at their leisure? Dan seems much more reticent to restrict the movements of South Australians in Victoria than those of his own constituents.

WA, TAS, QLD and NT have all shut out South Australians immediately. Why aren't we doing the same? Much easier for a South Australian to get to Victoria than those other 4 states/territories.

Bizarre thinking.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Bizarre thinking.

If he doesn’t do it soon it would be showing a lack of respect for the danger posed by the virus, which is arguably what got us into trouble last time.

 

[Ridley]

If he doesn’t do it soon it would be showing a lack of respect for the danger posed by the virus, which is arguably what got us into trouble last time.

Yeah I really don't get it. He won't let us take our masks off outside but he's happy for SA residents to drive across the border when the state is experiencing an outbreak. Who knows how many asymptomatic carriers will cross the border. On face value it's ridiculous and very contradictory.

You want us to keep wearing masks Dan? Then close the SA border until the outbreak is under control.

 

[AngryAnt]

I was asking the question, not being definitive. Hence why I asked is it feasible? Your example of Indonesia is a good one and no I wouldn't likely trust those results. But I might trust them from NZ, or the UK, or western Europe, or the USA as an example. Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea as well. Basically any country that has similar medical capabilities as Australia. I'd like to say I'd trust them from China as well but I don't really trust the Chinese Govt not to interfere. We are still going to need quarantine regardless but if we could make a negative test result a condition of entry from countries where we trust the testing procedures then wouldn't that make the quarantine program safer?

Fair enough Rids... one way you could do it, you could have a program administered by the Australian embassy and going through a selected provider so the embassy could check the test was conducted and verified.

You'd still have to quarantine and be tested at the Australian end though.

 

[Althom]

Yeah I don't understand his reasoning here. We should be shutting that border immediately. They have an outbreak of a minimum of 20 cases and likely more. We have 17 days of zero transmission and 3 active cases. Yet we risk that just so people can waltz across the border at their leisure? Dan seems much more reticent to restrict the movements of South Australians in Victoria than those of his own constituents.

WA, TAS, QLD and NT have all shut out South Australians immediately. Why aren't we doing the same? Much easier for a South Australian to get to Victoria than those other 4 states/territories.

Bizarre thinking.

WA hasn't shut out people from SA as yet.
They have to go into 14 days "self-quarantine" on arrival if they can prove they have a suitable destination to do so. Given the amount of people who sign up for that and then go and do whatever they please I'm expecting a breakout in WA soon.
McGowan has always said he wouldn't hesitate to put the hard border back up and yet right now he's hesitating.