The Reality of Living in Australia and Covid

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

............
My own opinion is that the current open door policy was premature, with Omicron exploding, but we'll have to wait and see what actually happens. I've been wrong before.

Ann

Originally Posted by GILow

I thought Tassie might do it well, I wish I was down there to be part of it.

.............
As for the door opening policy… I kinda felt for the state authorities. They’d all built up to the opening in time for Christmas, if they’d cancelled they’d have had a riot on their hands. (In the case of Melbourne, another riot.)

I agree, the Tassie 'open up' policy was predicated on the Delta variant and Christmas travel.

Omicron arrived in the mainland hot spots, the 'Tassie guvmit' couldn't/wouldn't adjust their policy and Omicron hitched a free ride on the first planeloads from the mainland hotspots.

I'm not sure if the cat has been let out of the bag or if Pandora's box has been opened - time will tell and I hope to live long enough to see the end game!

[olaf hart]

Latest UK data suggests omicron death rate in vaccinated older folks(over 75) is the same as the influenza death rate.
Unvaccinated, it’s ten times more.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Wotname

I agree, the Tassie 'open up' policy was predicated on the Delta variant and Christmas travel.

Omicron arrived in the mainland hot spots, the 'Tassie guvmit' couldn't/wouldn't adjust their policy and Omicron hitched a free ride on the first planeloads from the mainland hotspots.

I'm not sure if the cat has been let out of the bag or if Pandora's box has been opened - time will tell and I hope to live long enough to see the end game!

Amen! On the end game.

[Jim Cate]

and Omicron hitched a free ride on the first planeloads from the mainland hotspots.

Who coulda possibly foreseen that? Now we will see if the high vax/boost rate is actually useful... sure hope so!

As to the end game... we likely haven't even reached the half-time dancing girls and marching bands yet.

Jim

[Wotname]

Breaking news - booster interval decreased to 4 moths today (down from 5) and further deceased by end of January to 3 months.

Off to book now!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-...iant/100723998

[GILow]

Originally Posted by olaf hart

Latest UK data suggests omicron death rate in vaccinated older folks(over 75) is the same as the influenza death rate.

Unvaccinated, it’s ten times more.

Promising news indeed.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Breaking news - booster interval decreased to 4 moths today (down from 5) and further deceased by end of January to 3 months.

Off to book now!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-...iant/100723998

Do it properly. You should book it at Hobart hospital then sail in to Con Dock. Free parking and only 600 meters from the hospital foyer.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Who coulda possibly foreseen that? Now we will see if the high vax/boost rate is actually useful... sure hope so!

As to the end game... we likely haven't even reached the half-time dancing girls and marching bands yet.

Jim

We get marching girls?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

The number of heart attacks and cancer deaths in Florida is about 90,000, but that stat is not newsworthy...

Funny you should mention that. Have a look at the death rate from heart attacks and cancer and it has been dropping steadily since the 60’s.

Why?

Because we listened to the scientists and took their advice.

The stat isn’t newsworthy because we are winning that battle and very few people accuse heart surgeons of a conspiracy to create heart attacks.

The odd person reckons they know more than their oncologist, but oddly enough they don’t seem to stick around for long to prove their point. Being dead makes it hard to argue I suppose.

[MicHughV]

Unfortunately, yes, the conspiracy theorist have been hard at work here to dismiss any vaccine as nothing more than " guv'mint control", etc. Rumors have been whirling around about secret " micro-chips" embedded in the vax shots, etc, etc, etc, etc, Stillborn babies being used to provide some or other gene, etc, etc. World denomination control by the Chinese, etc, etc, you name it, it's out there.

There is no end to the conspiracy theories, their respective authors and so on, with one story more unbelievable than the next.

To my eye, modern technology is partly at fault. It provides a soapbox for the masses. These days, anybody can post everywhere about anything. Youtube and other venues are filled to the brim with "experts" on the topic offering advice, opinions, miracle cures, and everything in between.

Walk down any street, anywhere, at anytime, it's a sure bet that the majority of people will have their heads buried in a cell phone, listening or watching to who knows what.

That's the one side, the other side off course, is a gullible public, that can be led by the nose in any of a dozen directions.

For my part, I'm glad I live in Florida. Besides the sunshine, for the most part, here where I live, we have escaped most of the madness.

I can but only hope that 2022 will see an end to it all.

I read now that a " pill" has been developed to combat Covid. This may be more palatable to some than getting a shot, or several shots as the case may be.

We can but only hope.....

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

..........!

As to the end game... we likely haven't even reached the half-time dancing girls and marching bands yet.

Jim

Originally Posted by GILow

We get marching girls?

No, Jim has only promised dancing girls and marching bands, not marching girls - big difference, ask salty Ben.

Me, I am waiting (impatiently) for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxjpWPJo8vM

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by GILow

Do it properly. You should book it at Hobart hospital then sail in to Con Dock. Free parking and only 600 meters from the hospital foyer.

Maybe I should!

Dropped into the local official booster jabber and he was very surprised to hear about the reduction in the booster interval. He went into a monologue that might challenge Ben's new vocabulary. Seems he had booked in a lot of folk based on his advised supply line of vaccine. Overnight they (the vaccine suppliers i.e. Lieutenant General John Frewen's crew in the federal department of health) delayed the supply, pushing from Jan 7 to Jan 14. This of course messed up a week's worth of booking. Then they advised him they were going on holidays and wouldn't reopen until Jan 20. They would look at his complaints then. He has been screaming for more supply for a few weeks now...

Anyhow, we managed to get a spot on Jan 19.

Dunno what Lieutenant General John Frewen did before his current gig, maybe it was submarine procurement - any which way, it seems like a standard Mark I clusterf....

I have deleted him off my Christmas card list along with a couple of others of Canberra's finest.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by GILow

Do it properly. You should book it at Hobart hospital then sail in to Con Dock. Free parking and only 600 meters from the hospital foyer.

Or you could do as we did: walked into the Cygnet Pharmo on Monday, got jabbed on Wednesday. Slightly longer walk from the dinghy dock and PCSC, but didn't have to move the boat to Hobart town. (To be honest, I drove the 1.5 km into Cygnet, but I coulda walked!).

Jim

[Alan Mighty]

Picking up on the usual schedule of data releases from the Aus Bureau of Statistics, I present two ABS tables summarising doctor-certified deaths of landlubbers AND cruisers (without distinction) in Aus:

[1] death events from 26 October 2020 to 31 October 2021. Total deaths (i.e. of all causes) are represented by the solid red line. For comparison, the range of total deaths in the years 2015-19 is represented by the mid-blue band with the average as the solid orange line. New infection cases (not deaths) of Covid-19 are represented by the solid blue line (and use the Right Hand y-axis scale).

[2] an analysis of the 1,671 deaths certified as due to Covid-19 starting from the WHO declaration of the pandemic and up to 31 October 2021 (note: 1,744 death events referenced Covid-19, but Covid-19 was certified as the cause in just 1,671 of those 1,744 deaths). The analysis segregates the deaths by age and sex.

[Alan Mighty]

QLD, ACT, SA, and TAS each posted new records for daily confirmed new Covid-19 infections today. The 2/3 compliance with the mask mandate in QLD likely helps.

Charts of the two well-established plague states are the usual ball of fun: