Coronavirus

[Tigers of Old]

Minister Brad Hazzard is an arrogant lightweight. Spin & BS reigns.
That presser was again an absolute joke & questions were cut short.
How naive are these people that they just think people will do the right thing?
Dr Chant seriously doesn't really believe what she saying does she?
So much politicking!

 

[eZyT]

Minister Brad Hazzard is an arrogant lightweight.

he is a model of consistency though

 

[Tigers of Old]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340464745686548481

 

[fastin bulbous]

when I was a kid, I watched a lot of old westerns on the Sunday matinee movie on TV. I can actually remember watching them on a black and white TV.

anyway, usually I largely make sense of the world through footy.

But this year, I find theres vast gaps between my analogies, preventing my mind from processing some things.

cause there isnt enough completely unpredictable stuff happens in footy, really. (if you made sense of the world through world soccer, I guess you could draw on The Argentinian team's plane crashing? I dunno, thats not my bag)

So the last few months, Ive been augmenting how I make sense of the world through the old westerns.

and the last couple of months, ive been drawing on the classic scene,

where a lone cowboy is being pursued by a large posse.

and the lone bloke has a slightly faster, but tiring horse, and he knows a hidden entrance to a dramatic and cosy gorge. It even has its own microclimate.

and his horse just makes it through the obscured pass into the gorge in time. and while the posse keep riding, he boils a pot of coffee and hobbles his horse and stares into the flames,

while an owl reassures him.

My friend In Darwin has a nice little corral lying vacant over the road from the beach in Tiwi (the suburb). I’m thinking of fleeing there on the big bad qantas plane

 

[Sintiger]

Are we reading different threads?

One state has failed their residents more than any other in this country in managing the pandemic- we all know who that is. There is some serious jumping the gun

Have a look at how much information about venues etc they have within 24 hours of positive tests. Watch a press conference and tell me which state is professional and organised.

30 new cases and they already know where 28 got it. And the other 2 are Northern Suburbs residents.

A smarr, efficient co-ordinated response. Imagine if we had of had that in Vic.

MDJ there is no politics in this from my perspective, this is about people’s lives.
I think that everyone learned from Victoria including Victoria. The Chadstone cluster was handled professionally and well, obviously far better than the 2nd wave. I hope NSW is doing as well but to be honest I am not 100% sure yet.
I have said multiple times on this forum there will be outbreaks and the key is contact tracing and then managed lockdowns.
what happened in south Australia, the chadstone cluster and now the northern beaches cluster we have to learn from. In Victoria we now have to look closely at flight crews and diplomatic staff and families.
Everytime there is a crack we need to learn from it.
Personally I am worried that the NSW premier is not doing enough to contain it but I hope I am wrong.
By the way I think all the premiers are doing their very best under extraordinary pressure. I hope they have all learned from each other’s mistakes.

 

[Legends of 2017]

meanwhile,

Qantas' position remained unchanged; it wanted airlines to be able to self-manage quarantine arrangements for their staff and exemptions for crew to remain.

I reckon most 14 year olds would understand that private sector self-regulation does not and has never worked, and why

I’m extremely surprised by this. Didn’t Alan Joyce want passengers to have proof they had COVID vaccinations, when available, before boarding flights? A bit hypocritical of him to want his airline crews to basically do what they want, but force everyone else to follow rules

 

[Sintiger]

this is extraordinary from gladys under the circumstances

“So can I say to everybody in other parts of Sydney outside the northern beaches, please limit your activity,” she said. “We are asking you to do this in good faith.

“If you are planning a night out tonight, we ask you to consider changing those plans and staying at home.”

consider? good faith? This is ideologically informed rather than microbiologically or behaviourally, no?

Doesn't she ask the Santiago air stewards, who are eating Strepsils five at a time, to consider not to hit tinder and salsa classes in good faith?

Surely our leaders know, that only 97.5 people out of every 100 will act in pretty good faith?

and that the 2.5 become 607 by xmas?

meanwhile,

Qantas' position remained unchanged; it wanted airlines to be able to self-manage quarantine arrangements for their staff and exemptions for crew to remain.

I reckon most 14 year olds would understand that private sector self-regulation does not and has never worked, and why

The position of Qantas is exactly why we have an outbreak in NSW. Money before lives

 

[Brodders17]

I’m extremely surprised by this. Didn’t Alan Joyce want passengers to have proof they had COVID vaccinations, when available, before boarding flights? A bit hypocritical of him to want his airline crews to basically do what they want, but force everyone else to follow rules

i assume it is part looking after their staff- they wont want to spend all their no flying time in quarantine, and airlines may end up with not enough staff to fly planes, and part money- who would then pay for the quarantine, and staff would have to be paid more, potentially a lot more, if their work conditions changed.

not saying it shouldnt happen, but i can see why airlines would fight it.

 

[eZyT]

I’m extremely surprised by this. Didn’t Alan Joyce want passengers to have proof they had COVID vaccinations, when available, before boarding flights? A bit hypocritical of him to want his airline crews to basically do what they want, but force everyone else to follow rules

Alan Joyce, just like the overwhelming majority of CEO's, has a moral compass that points West South West.

They were all, to a man (sic), elite at playing pretend when they were little kids though.

The position of Qantas is exactly why we have an outbreak in NSW. Money before lives

Corporations will always try dictate policy to maximise profit,

its the crooked or naive government that gives them carte blancmange

that enables them.

the smarter people on here recognised the irony earlier this year,

that capitalism helps this virus and socialism hinders it.

 

[mrposhman]

Are we reading different threads?

One state has failed their residents more than any other in this country in managing the pandemic- we all know who that is. There is some serious jumping the gun

Have a look at how much information about venues etc they have within 24 hours of positive tests. Watch a press conference and tell me which state is professional and organised.

30 new cases and they already know where 28 got it. And the other 2 are Northern Suburbs residents.

A smarr, efficient co-ordinated response. Imagine if we had of had that in Vic.

It makes it much easier when you've had the time to setup these systems on the back of the Victorian outbreaks.

Just on the Ruby Princess, the level of community transmission was also much less than what we saw in VIC and what potentially is starting out in NSW so is not really a comparable example, much easier to control when it hasn't really broken containment lines. Thats what they are trying to do initially, contain it to one area and then aim to eliminate. We'll see if they are able to do that.

On the questioning from journos, Gladys has clearly engaged which journos will ask what questions and will avoid ones she doesn't want to answer. Andrews chose to let it be an open forum and the Fox crews went hard at him big time. Haven't seen any of that yet for Gladys. Remains to be seen if it will.

I hope she manages to contain it. Personally I don't see a scenario where you can get the balance right with health / economy that we managed in VIC (ie. with the bounce back in the economy following lockdown) as there won't be enough time to bounce back before the vaccine is available if this really breaks out, so IMO they either control and eliminate quickly, or NSW will be stuck with this for a longer period and will be closed off from the rest of Australia.

The next week will be key for what happens next.

 

[caesar]

Thought i heard i heard there were 43 flights from Sydney to Melbourne yesterday with no testing all passengers were given were brochures on what you should do if you were from a hot spot, I am sure some imbeciles will just use it as toilet paper.
I fear it is just a matter of time before all our good work is undone.

 

[Tigers of Old]

My folks are coming down from Canberra to Victoria tomorrow. I reckon the hard border closure is imminent as it won’t take much as this virus spreads given Andrew’s language today. Even if not we’ve decided to control the situation ourselves. Will be stoked to see them after more than a year of being unable to.

 

[achillesjones]

Minister Brad Hazzard is an arrogant lightweight. Spin & BS reigns.
That presser was again an absolute joke & questions were cut short.
How naive are these people that they just think people will do the right thing?
Dr Chant seriously doesn't really believe what she saying does she?
So much politicking!

Possibly the most inept performance ever.
After spending too much time emphasising the privacy of the individual, then proceeded to name the band member and as an aside, at the end of his diatribe admitted "I shouldn't have named the band."
Holy crap! Is this the best our fine country can offer as a Minister of Health?

 

[22nd Man]

I certainly can't understand why air crews have less quarantine, they come into contact with more people, they need to quarantine separately.

I think the calls for quarantine away from population centres will just get louder. Quarantine right in the middle of cities full of people just makes no sense.

DS

Each state makes its own rules with air crews? Vic having learned the hard way surely would not be lax like complacent NSW?

 

[22nd Man]

yes, I think its been dumb luck, and I think Gladys's horse has jumped the rail, exercising its individual rights.

anecdotally, Sydney siders running out of work, not as in impending unemployment, as in legging it.

and jumping on planes and cars and trains to get as far away from Sydney as quickly as possible.

A cluster *smile*, I believe this will become known as.

Im acutely pessimistic on this one.

Lucky states NSW
Unlucky Vic
Well managed WA Qld Tas ACT
SA unknown because I don't know what party is in power there.

 

[tigerman]

Minister Brad Hazzard is an arrogant lightweight. Spin & BS reigns.
That presser was again an absolute joke & questions were cut short.
How naive are these people that they just think people will do the right thing?
Dr Chant seriously doesn't really believe what she saying does she?
So much politicking!

I thought he was a moral of getting flicked with his handling of the Ruby Princess, he was way out of his depth.

 

[22nd Man]

I was always impressed with Dan Andrews fronting up and letting them ask as many questions as they wanted. The contrast isn't really a good look.

Were you as impressed by his answers?
Did you applaud his performance in front of the (hardly penetrating) grilling from Judge Coates?

 

[Tigers of Old]

This was the worst thing I heard all day.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1340597523476443137

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

NSW on verge of disaster on New Year’s Eve, says Raina MacIntyre​

Stephen Rice
The Australian
December 20, 2020

NSW is on the brink of disaster as it faces major COVID-19 superspreader events on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, a leading epidemiologist has warned, urging an immediate lockdown across greater Sydney if the infection rate is not down on Monday.

“New Year’s Eve is going to be the mother of all super-spreading events because the people who get infected on Christmas Day are going to be at their absolute maximum infectiousness on New Year’s Eve,” said UNSW Professor Raina MacIntyre.

“That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

The biggest danger is that large numbers of people who are infectious but don’t know it — as around half of all infections are asymptomatic — will travel across Sydney on Christmas Day for lunch or dinner and infect others.

The R number — the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to — is about 3, but it may be higher at this time of the year because so many people are out mingling and socialising.

“So if we have 40 new cases on Monday that’ll be 120 new infections that those people pass on by Christmas Day,” Professor MacIntyre said.

Those people will be at the peak of their infectiousness on Christmas Day, she added. If they have lunch or dinner with family and friends they will in turn infect 360 people. Six days later, on New Year’s Eve, those 360 people will be out partying at the peak of infectiousness.

“That 360 cases becomes over 1000 cases on New Year’s Eve, so by the end of the first week of January we could be looking at 3000 cases,” she warned.

The answer, she said, is to act quickly, extending the northern beaches lockdown across greater Sydney if the case numbers are the same or bigger on Monday.

“We could avoid that situation, and even have a prospect of being able to celebrate Christmas with our families as we all want to, if we do a short sharp lockdown with the same restrictions we’ve got in the northern beaches now but for greater Sydney,” she said.

That could be reviewed by Thursday. “Given the prospect of potentially having a massive epidemic by January, it’s better to be safe than sorry, that the businesses that might have to have a short, sharp shut down, it’ll be saving them in the longer term so we’re not facing a three month lockdown like Melbourne.”

Professor MacIntyre was alarmed by reports of people waiting for five or six hours to get tested. “We’ve got to ramp up the testing capacity, you can’t have people wait for five or six hours, they’re just going to walk away.”

If case numbers are not down to single digits by Christmas Day, she said, the government should ban all indoor mass gatherings on New Year’s Eve. Wearing masks in public should be mandatory, she said. “Asking people — please will you do it, doesn’t work.”

NSW Chief Health officer Kerry Chant defended the government’s refusal to make masks compulsory. “People have sent me photos of supermarkets where the vast majority of people are wearing a mask,” she said. “So we have had a lot of co-operation from both the community and business.”

- - - - -

Haven't agreed with this person in the past, seems to be a dial-a-quote type. But probably on the money here.

 

[AngryAnt]

Another comparison - Murdoch rag in Vic vs Murdoch rag in NSW