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THE VIRUS 2020 - the good, the bad, and the ugly

I think I might become an eccentric....

I live in a remote area with about 200 people, Woolies is 120km round trip. Last Friday was my monthly shop in town & I somehow got a virus, sore throat, head cold type of thing. No one was coughing near me, or sneezing, I must have touched a surface that some germ ridden person smothered with their poisoness paws :(

Anyway 3 days of absolute torture getting over this thing, so from now on I'm going to buy a pair of little white gloves and wear them whenever I go into town... Just have to train myself not to touch my face with them on :)

The thing is, you can catch a virus so easily, I was slightly more than average on germophobe scale,. I always grab 3 towel thingys at Woolies to use on their shopping trolleys and either use my foot to open doors or grab the handle with my shirt, still to no avail - I got sick :(

That sucks, are you doing ok now? Such bad luck.

You most likely didn't get it from touching something. Fomite transmission isn't even clear with COVID. It doesn't need someone to be displaying symptoms like coughing or sneezing to fill the air with virus. Especially with Delta.

I assume you were wearing a mask.
 
And what was the excuse before this current outbreak?

The virus is so present around the world that it could have come from almost anywhere!

If you go back far enough couldn't you trace it back to China?

The Crossroads Hotel outbreak in SW Sydney last year was linked to the VIC outbreak. What's your point?

NSW being linked to the recent wave in Victoria doesn't explain all of the other lockdowns there.

Why blame China? It was France who built the lab. The US who funded (in part) the research which most likely leaked and those responsible in the US are covering that up and perjuring themselves to do so. Which apparently is ok??? Which to me speaks volumes of the likelihood of this hypothesis.

The point is, I'm just pointing out it's complicated. As you understand, the existence of COVID in a community isn't necessarily the failure of the leadership. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes even if a line can be drawn, that doesn't mean a wrong decision made or incompetence was involved. This shit is hard.

I think we can point to Gladys fucking up, but also cutting her some slack because part of the blame goes to Delta being a game-changer. She gambled, which I personally don't think she should have and Delta removed any chance of winning. I know people who think Gladys has been doing a great job. We're allowed to have different opinions, something which unfortunately is lost in current discourses.
 
Why blame China? It was France who built the lab. The US who funded (in part) the research which most likely leaked and those responsible in the US are covering that up and perjuring themselves to do so. Which apparently is ok??? Which to me speaks volumes of the likelihood of this hypothesis.

The point is, I'm just pointing out it's complicated. As you understand, the existence of COVID in a community isn't necessarily the failure of the leadership. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes even if a line can be drawn, that doesn't mean a wrong decision made or incompetence was involved. This shit is hard.

I think we can point to Gladys fucking up, but also cutting her some slack because part of the blame goes to Delta being a game-changer. She gambled, which I personally don't think she should have and Delta removed any chance of winning. I know people who think Gladys has been doing a great job. We're allowed to have different opinions, something which unfortunately is lost in current discourses.

At what number of cases do you think Gladys should have properly locked down Sydney?
 
Why blame China? It was France who built the lab. The US who funded (in part) the research.

The point is, I'm just pointing out it's complicated. As you understand, the existence of COVID in a community isn't necessarily the failure of the leadership. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes even if a line can be draw, that doesn't mean a wrong decision made or incompetence was involved.

I think we can point to Gladys fucking up, but also cutting her some slack because part of the blame goes to Delta being a game-changer. She gambled, which I personally don't think she should have and Delta removed any chance of winning.
I'm not blaming any country. It's too complicated of a situation for that!

My point is that we're too far into the pandemic to put this on one country, city or state.

An outbreak could start from an interstate acquired infection or a slip up in the quarantine system

It doesn't matter where it comes from anymore. It matters how you respond.

Some of the criticism of Gladys is fair and the outbreak is diabolical but she didn't deliberately unleash covid.

If it's her fault then shouldn't it also be the fault of every other leader of every other part of the world that Australia's outbreaks can be traced to?
 
I'm not blaming any country. It's too complicated of a situation for that!

My point is that we're too far into the pandemic to put this on one country, city or state.

An outbreak could start from an interstate acquired infection or a slip up in the quarantine system

It doesn't matter where it comes from anymore. It matters how you respond.

Some of the criticism of Gladys is fair and the outbreak is diabolical but she didn't deliberately unleash covid.

If it's her fault then shouldn't it also be the fault of every other leader of every other part of the world that Australia's outbreaks can be traced to?
She may not have deliberately unleashed it but has she really done enough to try and maintain and control it and stop it from getting into vulnerable communities, spread wider through Sydney and nsw, or move beyond her borders?
 
Ford Broadmeadows Vaccination.jpeg

This footage was broadcast on ABC news24 about a month ago now, but I think it's a classic iconic image of the cars that where once produced at the Ford Motor Company of Australia factory at Broadmeadows here in Victoria. The now closed Ford factory at Broadmeadows has become a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination hub. It actually brought a few tears to my eye's when I saw these awesome classic Ford's driving up in this footage as I used to own one just like the red one in the middle when I was younger. My mate also had one like the one pictured on the left in this picture. I love these classic cars I used to work on mine and my mates all the time back in those days it was great. :)
 
/That sucks, are you doing ok now? Such bad luck.

You most likely didn't get it from touching something. Fomite transmission isn't even clear with COVID. It doesn't need someone to be displaying symptoms like coughing or sneezing to fill the air with virus. Especially with Delta.

I assume you were wearing a mask.
No mask where I live, we've never had to wear them. So far away from any cities. The nearest city is 1000kms & regional town is 150 kms, which to date hasn't recorded a covid case;

I took sleeping pills last night & went to bed about 7pm, it appears to have 95% cleared up now
I'd rather look like a hillbilly nutcase with mask on & white gloves to people I don't know and probably wont see again, than suffer that cold flu thing for 4 days again, so I'll mask up & PPE next time :)
 
I'm not blaming any country. It's too complicated of a situation for that!

My point is that we're too far into the pandemic to put this on one country, city or state.

An outbreak could start from an interstate acquired infection or a slip up in the quarantine system

It doesn't matter where it comes from anymore. It matters how you respond.

Some of the criticism of Gladys is fair and the outbreak is diabolical but she didn't deliberately unleash covid.

If it's her fault then shouldn't it also be the fault of every other leader of every other part of the world that Australia's outbreaks can be traced to?
I'm not even that concerned about blaming Gladys or not. It came up given the context of comments said here.

She took a risk with not locking down harder and sooner. An approach that was shown to work in other states. Playing politics, coming out at the start of the outbreak against lockdowns. Against what had been shown to work.

There are no guaranteeing things would have ended up much different. What she did may have worked if it was the alpha varient. It's just interesting to see how it unfolded.

Recognising that is not saying she did something malicious. I'm not even saying she was negligent. Just observing.

By and large, the greats incompetence is the Morrison government. With their, "do the bare minimum required at the time, no foresight or planning ahead" approach to the pandemic. In an attempt to try and remove themselves from all and any responsibility to minimise accountability.

I find the way everyone is so tribal about sides on this dumb.
 
Where I am, the PM has announced that 6-11yos will start to receive their vaccinations in two weeks, and that 3-5yos will follow. By my estimation that means about 93% of Cambodia's total population will be fully vaccinated by the end of the year, not to mention adults also starting to receive a third (booster) shot from next month. Admittedly things run more smoothly when the government controls the media lol. They have done a hell of a job getting the shots out there to the people though.
 
I'm not even that concerned about blaming Gladys or not. It came up given the context of comments said here.

She took a risk with not locking down harder and sooner. An approach that was shown to work in other states. Playing politics, coming out at the start of the outbreak against lockdowns. Against what had been shown to work.

There are no guaranteeing things would have ended up much different. What she did may have worked if it was the alpha varient. It's just interesting to see how it unfolded.

Recognising that is not saying she did something malicious. I'm not even saying she was negligent. Just observing.

By and large, the greats incompetence is the Morrison government. With their, "do the bare minimum required at the time, no foresight or planning ahead" approach to the pandemic. In an attempt to try and remove themselves from all and any responsibility to minimise accountability.

I find the way everyone is so tribal about sides on this dumb.

Hopefully Labor puts up someone that will spark excitement in the electorate for the next federal election.
 
When I got my AZ 6 weeks ago, they told me to wait 12 weeks for my second soe. E-mail and texts today telling me I am overdue for my second shot. So am I now some loonie anti-vax person if I still wait 12 weeks to get a better vaccine response?
 
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When I got my AZ 6 weeks ago, they told me to wait 12 weeks for my second soe. E-mail and texts today telling me I am overdue for my second shot. So am I now some loonie anti-vax person if I still wait 12 weeks to get a better vaccine response?
I guess looking at this article it depends where you live and what your current risk level of getting covid is? I can undertand wanting to maximise the benefit of the two jabs if possible.

 
When I got my AZ 6 weeks ago, they told me to wait 12 weeks for my second soe. E-mail and texts today telling me I am overdue for my second shot. So am I now some loonie anti-vax person if I still wait 12 weeks to get a better vaccine response?
No, they changed the rules again when they wanted everyone jabbed fast.
We waited for the 12 weeks. My doctor told me I could go for it earlier, but it's more effective after the 12 weeks. So why would you?
I now have the documentation in MyGov/Medicare stating I've had the two, and have moved it to my phone if I need to present it somewhere.
 
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I guess looking at this article it depends where you live and what your current risk level of getting covid is? I can undertand wanting to maximise the benefit of the two jabs if possible.


No, they changed the rules again when they wanted everyone jabbed fast.
We waited for the 12 weeks. My doctor told me I could go for it earlier, but it's more effective after the 12 weeks. So why would you?
I now have the documentation in MyGov/Medicare stating I've had the two, and have moved it to my phone if I need to present it somewhere.

It is an interesting one to consider. Obviously it's preferable to wait 12 weeks.

I would consider myself at low risk of catching it based on the limited number of people I interact with. Yet that doesn't matter as Thing's experience demonstrates. Then within the last two weeks, I have been a few steps removed from COVID twice. Even had to get a test a couple of days ago. So am I low risk despite low interactions? It's out there.

I don't think there's a clear right or wrong decision for someone in my position. If I was interacting with lots of people it'd be different. If I was a vulnerable group, it'd be different. So I will hold off for now but it'll be a fluid decision over the next 6 weeks.
 
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