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

Isee said:
I feel deeply uncomfortable with different things happening accross the eastern states at the moment because I have lived a relatively covid free life over the last couple of years and I need to come to terms with the fact that I have to "live with covid" when we haven't before. But I am self aware enough to realise that my personal feeling about this may be influencing how I feel about the states opening up. I know for the mental health of Melburnians especially lockdowns easing is a good thing. I am concerned about things like mask restrictions etc that have been going on in some places as this seems too quick. I have wondered if some people living in the Eastern states are feeling any anxiety going from lockdown to total freedom?
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I am. I guess it's the product of being told what you can't do for over eighteen months because of a very contagious virus and then suddenly being told that you can do almost anything you want to despite that virus mutating and becoming more virulent. I know they are hanging their hats on vaccinations but still it's a lot to take for me personally.
 
Sephrenia said:
I am. I guess it's the product of being told what you can't do for over eighteen months because of a very contagious virus and then suddenly being told that you can do almost anything you want to despite that virus mutating and becoming more virulent. I know they are hanging their hats on vaccinations but still it's a lot to take for me personally.
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I'm sorry to read you are feeling anxious. It is a very quick about face on the messaging for people so I don't blame you.

I am not sure what to say to my collegues in Melbourne. One of them said today "well they must know what they are doing" - I felt like responding - "Are you certain?" but I didn't want to rain on someones parade.
 
rj90 said:
Melbourne reopening seems very fast tracked in comparison to Sydney, despite the same plan. Sydney averaged 400 cases when it hit 70%, then 80% just a week later. Melbourne almost 2000 at 70%.
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When do you think Melbourne should have opened up?
 
Columbo said:
When do you think Melbourne should have opened up?
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I’d say the current road map is acceptable. States can’t stay in lockdown forever.

Provided every Victorian has had the opportunity to be vaccinated, then the reopening should begin. I am unfamiliar with the vaccine rollout in Victoria, so cannot comment past that.

By the time NSW hit 80%, everyone had the opportunity to be vaccinated. Those that weren’t, either declined, or were medically exempt. By that point, it was more than fair to reopen the state. Whether it was fair or not that unvaccinated people weren’t afforded the same freedoms, is another issue.
 
Apparently qld will be getting vaccine passports after 80 percent vaccination double dose. I wonder how well that will work.
 
Isee said:
I'm sorry to read you are feeling anxious. It is a very quick about face on the messaging for people so I don't blame you.

I am not sure what to say to my collegues in Melbourne. One of them said today "well they must know what they are doing" - I felt like responding - "Are you certain?" but I didn't want to rain on someones parade.
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That's my problem. I don't know if they know what they are doing but we all have to go along with it and just hope that they do.
 
Expressive said:
All the outrage the left in this country feel with media bias yet many are very quiet on Dan Andrews/the lockdown ending when cases are still in the 1000's! Where are their concerns about health now? Maybe it was just politics.
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Lockdowns originally were about keeping case numbers down or zero until we had a vaccine. As the majority of the population becomes vaccinated, this reason for locking down goes away. That is where we are now. Opening up is not about cases, but about vaccine rates.

Originally the hope was that the vaccines would be sterilising ones. So we could maybe eliminate the virus. That ain't going to happen. So we have to live with it. This means we will have lots of active cases in the community as a normal part of life. Living with it, with a vaccinated population. Cases will go up in NSW, cases will go up in Vic as they open up.

This is why the COVID free states are in such a bind. They have to let it in and let cases rise. With the virus being less deadly than it would have been without the vaccine.

This is really important to understand.

This is why people aren't annoyed at the lockdown ending in VIC. They understand what is going on. There's now no reason to be lockdown with high enough vax rates. Cases are known to get higher after we lockdown. It's in the modelling. The fictional Dan would be doing the locking down longer with high vax rates. Not the real one.
 
up_all_night said:
Lockdowns originally were about keeping case numbers down or zero until we had a vaccine. As the majority of the population becomes vaccinated, this reason for locking down goes away. That is where we are now. Opening up is not about cases, but about vaccine rates.

Originally the hope was that the vaccines would be sterilising ones. So we could maybe eliminate the virus. That ain't going to happen. So we have to live with it. This means we will have lots of active cases in the community as a normal part of life. Living with it, with a vaccinated population. Cases will go up in NSW, cases will go up in Vic as they open up.

This is why the COVID free states are in such a bind. They have to let it in and let cases rise. With the virus being less deadly than it would have been without the vaccine.

This is really important to understand.

This is why people aren't annoyed at the lockdown ending in VIC. They understand what is going on. There's now no reason to be lockdown with high enough vax rates. Cases are known to get higher after we lockdown. It's in the modelling. The fictional Dan would be doing the locking down longer with high vax rates. Not the real one.
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I understand what you are saying. My point is there were some Dan Andrews fans very critical of NSW's approach, insinuating that things were opening up too early, too carelessly and that the new premier only cares about the economy and not people's health. Those are the types of things some of them were saying. VIC is soon opening up with higher case numbers and there isn't the same level of concern.
 
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up_all_night said:
Lockdowns originally were about keeping case numbers down or zero until we had a vaccine. As the majority of the population becomes vaccinated, this reason for locking down goes away. That is where we are now. Opening up is not about cases, but about vaccine rates.

Originally the hope was that the vaccines would be sterilising ones. So we could maybe eliminate the virus. That ain't going to happen. So we have to live with it. This means we will have lots of active cases in the community as a normal part of life. Living with it, with a vaccinated population. Cases will go up in NSW, cases will go up in Vic as they open up.

This is why the COVID free states are in such a bind. They have to let it in and let cases rise. With the virus being less deadly than it would have been without the vaccine.

This is really important to understand.

This is why people aren't annoyed at the lockdown ending in VIC. They understand what is going on. There's now no reason to be lockdown with high enough vax rates. Cases are known to get higher after we lockdown. It's in the modelling. The fictional Dan would be doing the locking down longer with high vax rates. Not the real one.
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How many lock downs will Victoria have next year?
 
Isee said:
I have wondered if some people living in the Eastern states are feeling any anxiety going from lockdown to total freedom?
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Definitely. I had an old friend message me today and got a wave of anxiety. Not even sure why. Maybe about actually catching up and socialising again? A feeling of a lack of personal achievement or anything during covid? Awkwardness? Turns out he wanted to know something about video editing.

I made plans to see James Bond with people today, and I honestly feel uncomfortable about it.

Intellectually you can understand all this. I have especially been looking at UK footage in the news. People out and about without masks. Often involving Will and Kate looking nice. Life looking normal. I know that'll be life, it'll be normal again. It just feels weird.

Even when we were out of lockdown, social life and nothing ever went back to normal. I have still not seen huge numbers of friends since pre-covid. It's going to be months and months before anything may seem normal. Even could be years.

As part of my own personal plan out of this. I will just try and cultivate some new experiences as far away from here as possible (domestically for now). At the end of the second lockdown last year I went to Sydney almost immediately. Caught up with people, just enjoyed being somewhere different. Then I went to QLD and had an amazing experience. Met lots of great people. Learnt to Scuba Dive. Was dancing in pubs and clubs. Went skydiving. Even dived a Shipwreck. It was exactly the cuicit breaker I didn't.

It was such a massive change in life, but so good.

Unfortunately, all the positive energy faded long ago.

I almost booked a trip to go shark diving interstate for Jan, but I will wait until there's actually a word on a border opening. Like how QLD announced open by Christmas.

Coming out of this massive void of life is going to be so weird, but one day it'll be a distant memory.
 
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From a purely theoretical perspective I do wonder how many books regarding change management will be written using the vaccine rollouts of different countries/the world - how it has been managed, peoples reactions, what worked what didn't, what factors impacted the rollout and people being hesitant etc

up_all_night said:
Lockdowns originally were about keeping case numbers down or zero until we had a vaccine. As the majority of the population becomes vaccinated, this reason for locking down goes away. That is where we are now. Opening up is not about cases, but about vaccine rates.

Originally the hope was that the vaccines would be sterilising ones. So we could maybe eliminate the virus. That ain't going to happen. So we have to live with it. This means we will have lots of active cases in the community as a normal part of life. Living with it, with a vaccinated population. Cases will go up in NSW, cases will go up in Vic as they open up.

This is why the COVID free states are in such a bind. They have to let it in and let cases rise. With the virus being less deadly than it would have been without the vaccine.

This is really important to understand.

This is why people aren't annoyed at the lockdown ending in VIC. They understand what is going on. There's now no reason to be lockdown with high enough vax rates. Cases are known to get higher after we lockdown. It's in the modelling. The fictional Dan would be doing the locking down longer with high vax rates. Not the real one.
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But still more deadly for the covid free states than what they currently have. Its not exactly a win for the less populated states of Australia at all.
 
Expressive said:
All the outrage the left in this country feel with media bias yet many are very quiet on Dan Andrews/the lockdown ending when cases are still in the 1000's! Where are their concerns about health now? Maybe it was just politics.
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I remember saying a while ago here that Dan Andrews after what I think was a national meeting just became a puppet like Gladys was before she resigned. I remember Dan Andrews was tough on lockdowns and crushing the "Delta" strain. Then it was almost overnight everything changed and shifted to now it's all about we just have to live with this virus and go out and get vaccinated as it's the new national strategy.

I actually now loathe watching Dan Andrews speaking on the media. He gets on there with a smirk and smile and says "oh how proud he is of Victorians and look were we have gotten? WTF mate? We have around 2000 new case numbers every friggen day while still under lockdown and you are talking about opening everything up? All I can say is good luck to Melbourne and Victoria.
 
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