Some people would also find it sad we are adults collecting toys, so to each their own. Let's focus on what matters, which is covid that can and does affect all of us in some way.
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Some people would also find it sad we are adults collecting toys, so to each their own. Let's focus on what matters, which is covid that can and does affect all of us in some way.
Yeah the third girl was a sister of one of the other girls.
On the news in Vic, people are not home when being door knocked. They should be home isolating with covid, in some circumstances they door knock twice in a day. They need tougher penalties like prison time.
I saw that on the news as well (a quarter of 500 positive people who were checked on, who should be staying at home in quarantine, were not home), which is really disappointing, and explains why the Victorian numbers just aren't going down, after a number of weeks of restrictions. Millions of Victorians are sacrificing their normal routines and lives to save lives, and selfish people who know that they are infected are going about their lives as normal and spreading the virus. Dozens of people are dying in Victoria of this, and those people don't seem to care, because it isn't them or anyone they care about (if they care about anyone).Quote:
Originally Posted by Autocon
One of the three girls who came back to QLD initially refused to tell the authorities where they had been during the week while they were back, which is similarly selfish, and lacks any concern for anyone else, as if everyone else is too insignificant to care if they get sick.
(two of the places they admitted to visiting (which includes the restaurant that now infected someone else) are only about 800 meters away from my house, so if they infected anyone who lives locally who ate or works there, my suburb could be one of the first hotspots in Brisbane)
I hope that the virus-positive people who breach their quarantine requirements, who are obviously spreading the virus since the numbers are not dropping, face hefty penalties. The unfortunate thing is that we probably can't accurately know if a death could be traced back to one of the positive people who left their house and infected others. For the QLD trio, they are known to have infected a man at the same restaurant they were at, who has a wife (now tested positive) who works at a nursing home. It is just that easy for the virus to make its way to an enclosed (almost isolated) environment that houses the most vulnerable people. Most of the deaths in Victoria in the current outbreak are coming from elderly at nursing homes... once it gets transported into one of those facilities, it just spreads like wildfire, and instead of 1 out of 100 dying, it is closer to 50% of those infected who die.
A better penalty for these people who are selfishly unconcerned about who gets infected (including those who publicly harass others who are enforcing the use of masks or distancing, or even wearing them), should be forced to do "community service" work at a hospital that has these suffering and dying people (and their weeping relatives), and see how much of an insignificant thing or "hoax" it is. (obviously the infected people have to wait until the virus is out of their system, but those people need to see what their negligent actions are doing to others, and it could help lighten the load on the hospital staff, who need to spread their services between treating people, and comforting others).
Yeah, this.Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
I reckon this would be more effective than any fine or jail time could achieve (not that I'm saying we should wave that, but in addition to that).
I think people living in the affected areas of Gold Coast, Logan, and Brisbane get a free pass on the ?outrage? given they?ll be the ones potentially affected. Katoomba is a long way away from a major outbreak, so your outrage mileage may vary. And I hadn?t seen the photos and ethnicity at the time, because it was only the newspaper that printed them initially. Do find it ironic though that the ABC and Murdoch press are both labelled main stream media/Quote:
Originally Posted by SMHFConvoy
They could have come from the most affluent suburbs in Australia, but they were supposed to be self-quarantining and lied about their travel history. One (allegedly) destroyed her phone to make it more difficult to track her movements in Qld because (allegedly) was trying to conceal her crime syndicate contacts here.
And they were charged at the time, and faced court yesterday. The story has gotten worse as investigations have proceeded. If the second had just made up a few visits to some locations then she probably wouldn?t have received the greater police scrutiny and the whole story come out. The covid related charges are, ironically, likely to be a smaller sentence.
Oh and is anyone else really ticked off that apostrophes keep getting changed to ? On the board lately?
Either it?s just me, or it?s been a really bad week.
I can't figure out why it is doing it. I have changed a number of settings, but nothing seems to be fixing it. When the board was upgraded last year, it was doing it to a lot of people, but when I changed one of the recommended settings, it appeared to fix it for most people... except there are 2 or 3 people it is still happening to. And I don't know why. And it is really bugging me.Quote:
Originally Posted by reillyd
Lets see ' if that happened No?
Edit: Hah :D it's ok
Obviously this is a first world problems type situation and there's a lot of bigger issues in Melbourne at the moment, but...
With all shops now closed for six week (and maybe more) and reduced to Click and Collect only, it would be a great time for online stores to sort out the "random assortment/styles may differ" on waves/size classes of TFs.
For companies such as Myer who are in a fight for their lives as a company in the medium term, it's actually vital they improve their online offerings. This is a simple yet effective way for them to greatly improve how easy it is to purchase online.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulbot
From Sleeping Giants Oz on Twitter:
"Three men lie about where they have been & sneak across the QLD border after being in Victoria.
NO Photos on the front page
NO screaming headlines of "enemies of the state"
NO release of their names
NO outing where they work
NO raiding their social media for photos"
It?s been less than 24hrs since the announcement. Give the human flesh search engine time to do its work.
Another record number of cases in Victoria of 725, and I think a new record number of deaths too at 15... which is higher percentage than expected, because there are so many serious cases in nursing homes, who are more likely to die from the virus (most deaths in the last few days were all from nursing homes).
After two weeks since those three ladies snuck into Brisbane and spent several days around the city, could we have actually dodged a bullet, with only a couple of new cases in the last few days? The one known case that came from them occurred a couple days after they returned, and if it had been been rapidly spread among others from the ladies or those that have caught it from them, the thousands of tests that were taken last week would have turned up cases that were asymptomatic that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
And now we have some others who had spent a bit of time in Melbourne and drove back to QLD, and was only found out a few days after they returned when one of them got sick and confessed to where they had been (when being tested, worried that he had covid).
I think everyone who selfishly risks infecting others with a deadly disease like this, should be identified, so that the people around them makes them aware of what they did is serious and has consequences... something they won't know or feel if they are able to hide their identity and continue behaving selfishly because they know they can get away with it. People are known to continue to commit crimes and increase the intensity if the reward is there without any penalty.
It is just unfortunate that the first people got so much coverage, and some negative feedback to the media, that others won't be featured as heavily... and those two girls were significant social media users, caught up in the selfie culture, that it was a lot easier to find images of them for visual media in a hurry. These other people sneaking in don't appear to have a social media identity, so their news reports are less significant if there is nothing visual to go with them.
I also don't like seeing those media programs chasing up ratings by featuring stories or people that try to highlight the frustrations or unfairness of various lockdown measures, as it stirs up the more pro-active people to resist or refuse adhering to measures that are there to save lives, including their own or someone they know who could be a high-risk demographic.
Yes, it is difficult, and frustrating, and there is a long way to go before we will be free of this virus restricting what we can do, or what businesses can operate, but stirring up dissent among people and business leaders, just for ratings, is not responsible behaviour by the media who are doing it... because they will keep trying to outdo each other to get attention, and it could get a lot worse if the media keeps provoking a response for them to cover later, and not take any responsibility for it.
30 something years old man is the youngest death in Aus to date. Just doesnt affect old people. Hoping Palmer doesnt win his high court challenge.
The elderly weren't the only demographic that was at risk - people with pre-existing conditions, particularly respiratory illnesses, are also at risk (some teens and children have died in other countries, at such a significantly reduced rate that we shouldn't see it happen here with our extremely low death/case numbers)... but the elderly are indeed the higher risk.
Why am I not surprised about this:
https://twitter.com/aksmth/status/12...247634432?s=21
And COVID-19 is back in the community in New Zealand; no known cause.
Lockdown in Auckland, high alert for the rest of the country.
It's a worry that it has re-appeared in NZ after 101 days without any community cases, as they have been a beacon of hope and inspiration for countries like ours that also have the potential to eliminate community cases as well... but flights are still coming into NZ with returning citizens that have the virus, so maybe there was a breach of traveller quarantine over there as well.
(the news tonight had said that two of the people worked at a cold-storage warehouse that imports organic goods, which is being tested... hopefully that isn't the source, as it will have a massive impact on frozen imports in every country, which could see countries like ours blocking all frozen and possibly refrigerated imports, which includes a lot of processed foods, and ingredients to a lot of foods, that are in our grocery stores)
I think it is good to see drastic action being taken straight away when there are only single digit cases that have an unknown source, because... why wait until there are 300 new cases per day before the only action that stops the spread is undertaken (like they did in Victoria), because once numbers get that high, deaths are guaranteed. The same is the case in NSW, slowly increasing, and won't go away while everything is open. It just hasn't been as rapid as Victoria because they were more prepared with the expected outbreak, as the Melbourne outbreak was unexpected and spread a fair bit before it's extent was realised. But the best outcome any country has done without a lockdown is just a slower increase, which will still accelerate when daily numbers reach a certain amount that is more than resources can handle and more unknown sources grow.
A drastic action might draw in criticism, which the media will highlight and make worse, but waiting until X-amount of daily cases, will see deaths that will also draw in criticism from community sources and media.
You're damned if you do and damned if you don't... but at least one option will see little or no deaths, and a quicker recovery of the economy.
New Zealand has done an amazing job with quarantine, but I'd wager that the source of the virus is either:
1. A slip-up in the quarantine of international arrivals - and by that I mean the staff working there like what happened in Melbourne.
2. It has come through via those given exceptions in order to keep the country running. This means people working in the transport industry (eg. aircrew, ship crew), medical staff, etc.
Either way, the NZ Govt. has taken immediate action which is the best approach. Victoria's actions always felt more reactionary than precautionary.
14 more cases today in NZ from the new outbreak. :(
I feel a bit more upset over this than the growing problem in Australia, as NZ was doing such a great job being the only country (that I'm aware of) that had managed to eliminate the virus, for over 3 months. As opposed to Australia, which was close to doing the same but took the issue of quarantine too lightly, and now has a long road ahead dealing with the current outbreak in a couple of states.
As I've said recently, I think we should probably be quarantining returning citizens off-shore (at any one of their immigration processing islands), and only transport them onto the mainland after their 14 days and with negative test results. At the moment, Australia has had to cut back on the number of returned citizens (who already have limited flight options and departure windows), because too many resources are now tied up with containing the community outbreak, and processing off-shore will help increase the number of people being able to come home, while preventing future community outbreaks.
It's good to see the case numbers in Victoria coming down in the last week, thanks to all the hard work most of the residents are doing to stop the spread of the virus.
The numbers have been 200-300 in the last few days, down from the peak days of 700+.
It's just the death rates that are still going to take a few more days to reach their peak, as it takes a week or two for the virus to fully develop and shut down the respiratory systems. Today was still seeing increases in hospital admissions and people in ICU or ventilators, so until those numbers start coming down, I fear that we will be seeing more bad news.
The good that can come of it though, is the lag in rising deaths that the media will be focussing on (for ratings) will help encourage people to stay committed to the lockdown restrictions while the case numbers are dropping - when all the numbers are dropping it could lead to people being complacent or demanding an end to the restrictions due to it being less likely to catch the virus, but the higher death numbers will still make it look like the situation is serious and a higher chance of catching it.
It is also good to see the daily numbers in NSW are still falling instead of increasing. I was sure that they would have been following the infection numbers of Victoria, but I guess they had a small enough number of cases for their resources to be able to track down most of the potentially infected people to isolate enough people to limit the community spread.
The numbers of people who they couldn't work out the source of their infection is getting smaller (just one person yesterday), so the contact tracing in conjunction with social distancing, masks and washing of hands and social surfaces, is actually working when the daily case numbers are small enough (under 20 in NSW at the peak of their second wave).
It was a shame that Victoria wasn't able to do the same when it's second wave had its daily case numbers sitting in the teens for a whole week at the beginning, before ballooning out to daily numbers of 70-80 in the second week, and triple digits from then on.
At least we aren't as bad as America, with over a thousand (reported) dead most days for the last 4 weeks... for their population compared to ours, it would be like us having 90-100 people dying each day here in Australia. Hopefully the number from yesterday (25) is the worst for us here.
I found myself having a chuckle at this webpage from NHK.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/n...kstories/1079/
I'd like to draw attention to the picture of people spaced out on the train seats, where is this magical train?
Also down the very bottom,
Work from home or stagger hours with collegues.
Also: Work in spacious rooms.
I appreciate their efforts, but there is not a lot of this going on. Also conflicting information.
One section suggests not travelling to areas with high infections and generally avoid travelling. YET the govt has initatied the ever so awesomely name "Go to Travel" campaign where they'll subsidize one's accommodation. So, am I to travel or not?
They'll follow that up with a "go to eat" campaign subsidizing visits to restaurants. While I see the need to get people spending money (despite the job losses of people), I'd rather see them set up some rules for businesses to follow in regards to spacing and amount of customers per metre etc.
Maybe they're all actually gaijin on the train, and that's why no-one's willing to sit next to them.
One of the schools got shutdown because of COVID. All students told to self-isolate. What about the parents?
Good news about Victoria with new cases down to below 100 yesterday.
Unfortunately the case numbers in NSW and QLD keep putting along, with new outbreaks popping up just after old ones are considered contained (no more related cases in those areas).
Australia has reached 600 deaths :(
The numbers in NSW have been trending well, defying what I was expecting back when they were seeing 10-20 cases each day with a number that were community transfer.
With Victoria also trending well, we shouldn't see any leakage back into other states if they can keep the numbers low and be able to contact trace as efficiently as NSW has proven to be effective.
While the federal government (mostly the PM) is trying to have scientists create a "hotspot" definition to use against states that are protecting themselves with border closures, it is important to reduce the daily numbers enough to track and quarantine... because the PM's "hotspot" attempt won't prevent virus spreading to every other state. Closed borders make it a lot harder for infected people to spread the virus, with only a handful of committed violators managing to sneak into closed states, while many others are being caught with false declarations of where they have been.
Having the borders open to everyone except those in designated hotspot suburbs or towns, will just have people not in hotspot zones being contaminated from those in a hotspot who has travelled for work, shopping, relatives, entertainment, as there won't be a barricade around hotspot zones, so it is up to those in the zones to regulate themselves, to not travel beyond the zone or declare that they live in or have been into the zone. When money or boredom is in play, people will prioritise themselves over others, and not care if they are infected or infect others.
So unless there is a manned, physical barrier around a designated hotspot, it's not going to stop the spread from that hotspot... and we have seen how the virus was able to travel across the country within a day from people who were in Victoria, got infected, and travelled to QLD via Sydney, to avoid quarantine or declaring it.
So if the PM gets his way and we have another outbreak, he would have the states left open and the virus would be more easily be able to travel to all states and create a bigger drain on resources as multiple states are having to spend money and resources containing it, instead of just one state if travel was prohibited.
Fortunately, we have enough state governments with opposing political parties running them to not just say yes to anything the PM says, to have a similar situation in America, with more Republican run states being hit harder with the virus than Democrat run states. (the first states to be hit were Democrat states because they have the main points of entry for the virus from Europe on the East and China on the West... now that it has entered every state, it is up to individual state governments to deal with it in their own way, because there has been no coordinated united effort in the US like we had here for the first wave of infections)
Speaking of the US....
The positive infection of trump was not a surprise to anyone who believed the science behind the virus, instead of listening to trump playing it down, discouraging preventative measures like group meetings & rallies without distancing, and even mocking the use of masks as recently as two days before he was tested positive.
The surprising thing is that it took so long for him to finally get infected.
The attitude he has always had towards the virus, and willing to sacrifice over 200,000 Americans to the virus just to appeal to the 20-25% of uneducated/easy-to-fool people needed to get elected (without compulsory voting in America, he was elected with just 22% of citizens voting for him - which means that you can target the lowest half of the population who didn't even finish school, who are more impressionable by conspiracy theories that prey on people with active imaginations and don't know that the claims are not based on facts).
For the educated people out there who have been screaming out against trump's dismissive attitude of the virus, his infection is a cross between vindication and karma.
Now we just have to see how this plays out.
If he ends up being one of the majority who show no symptoms, it will make it even worse for Americans... as it would give him and his followers "proof" that the virus is not a big deal or serious enough to worry about having any level of protection. It would be leverage against any Democrats standing at the November election (congress, governors, white house), proving that they are scaremongering and that the number of covid deaths was actually a lot less than claimed (earlier saying that people who died due to existing conditions, didn't actually die from covid, when we know that existing conditions is a high-risk category for the virus).
Fortunately, he has already been reported to have some symptoms... which should worry trump supporters, as that was really fast, and based on people who have died from the virus, is not a good sign so soon. Most people don't develop symptoms until a week after infection, so if he is being tested daily as he had claimed several times before (not that he has ever lied before...), his infection has accelerated to symptoms within a day or two of infection.
I think that his testing has been reduced to once every few days or weekly (because he would be quite resistant to being tested so frequently if he didn't believe it was something to worry about catching), because it was only after someone in his inner circle had symptoms that he and others were suddenly revealing that they were being tested and showing up being positive at the same time (several people in the white house and senators at recent events hosted by trump are now confirmed positive).
His recent heavy schedule will work against him too, as his immune system would be rather drained from the last couple of weeks running around the country to host rallies, fundraiser dinners and campaign events like the debate and announcement of his Supreme Court pick... so his age, fitness level and recent activities wearing him out suggest that his odds would be similar or worse to the British Prime Minister, who ended up in Intensive Care with 50-50 odds of survival... and like others who had serious symptoms, has long-term issues that will affect him for the rest of his life.
There are so many scenarios to play out here with trump... and this will be a fascinating few weeks for observers, leading up the election in just over 4 weeks time.
Like, will this draw out a sympathy vote towards him, because the Democrats have withdrawn advertisements that negatively attack trump... something that trump wouldn't do if the roles were reversed.
Or will it finally have trump supporters start questioning everything he has been lying to them in the past if he was now proven wrong about how dangerous and contagious this virus can be. However, if trump recovers quickly, it will be because he was able to get medical care and drugs that most of his supporters won't have access to, or be able to afford... and they won't know or care, because they will just see it as being easy to overcome and survive as trump had been claiming all year.
The body language when he boarded the helicopter to go to the hospital was very telling, as it was the first time I've seen someone of such ego showing some fear. When he was climbing into the helicopter, he started tapping the handrail at the top of the stairs, which was not to the sound of a jamming beat... it suggests that his mind was distracted/stressed by something that was very personally important - so he might actually have believed the seriousness of what his odds of survival really were. Despite the staged nature of him walking out on his own to the helicopter for the benefit of the cameras (he's a showman after all), the fact that he was willing to go to the hospital so soon after being found to be infected (an image of weakness to him), instead of stubbornly staying in the white house while he felt fine... means that he knows just how slim his chances are now and how quickly it can require serious medical attention once symptoms start. I imagine that there has also been some thoughts about how he should have taken it more seriously like biden has all this time (who has been vindicated for staying at home as much as possible and always wearing a mask when with others), but regrets are not in trump's nature, so the thoughts would be fleeting, if at all.
Seeing that footage a few more times on different news programs, I think there might also be a bit of frustration, in that he knows that he has no choice but to go, but he doesn't want to, as he has an election to win, and his ego doesn't easily accept weakness or failure... which being incapacitated by a virus is a big hit to the ego.Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
The reason why I'm more inclined to think that it was ego-led frustration, than being a sign of fear, is not just because his ego deludes himself into believing that he is perfect and invulnerable, but also because of the suspicion of when he really knew that he was infected and that he was annoyed that he was forced to now admit it to the public because he was going to hospital the next day and no other story would have been plausible if he was there for a couple weeks.
The symptoms he had developed on Friday don't show up that quickly (there is at least 2-4 days incubation)... and with him said to be tested daily, I think he knew he was positive days ago, but kept it quiet (including his doctor, who has been known in the past to sign off on anything trump has written up about his fitness tests), hoping to be asymptomatic so that he didn't have to declare it and be able to continue doing his election rallies and fundraiser events.... only conceding to go to hospital when symptoms were impossible to hide from the public (which was already a day after he was being noticed to be a bit off at the rally on Wednesday), which also meant that he had to then announce his infection as if he was just tested positive that day (Thursday).
The timeline of infection suggests that he was most likely infected at the Saturday Supreme Court nominee announcement when there was a lot of hugs and kisses among unmasked Republicans who were attending (who are now infected as well), and in the days following when he knew he was positive, he continued with his rallies and fundraisers, infecting others, because his re-election has always been more important than the health (and lives) of others. That would then be the 4 days incubation before the first symptoms were being noticed on Wednesday, which became impossible to hide by the end of Thursday, and was sent to the hospital Friday... because he is in two of the high risk categories, and often those people can develop serious symptoms quite suddenly.
If that ends up being true (that he knew he was positive days before he made it public and was out infecting people), that will not really shock anyone, as it would just be his normal attitude towards others.
EDIT - just saw on the news that trump was needing oxygen the night before he went to hospital (Thursday night), which shows that he definitely caught the virus at least 4 days earlier... possibly even a week ago, which could mean that he was the carrier who infected others at the Saturday event, and made out that his advisor who was announced as being positive on Wednesday was to blame.
The way Trump has been playing the one-upmanship game against Biden and the democrats, means it doesn't come as a surprise that karma has payed a visit to Trump and his fellow republicans.
Meanwhile, here in Victoria the super spreader idiot from Chadstone has spread covid to 16 different locations:mad:. Last I looked, we've gone up to 24 new cases now.
The bad thing about trump catching the virus, is that if he survives he won't need to wear a mask and continues setting a bad example to his followers. The responsible thing would be to still wear it after recovering, so that he leads by example and adheres to any state mandated wearing of masks, even if you have already had it, as there would be no easy way of proving it if you get ticketed by police for not wearing one. (and there is still conjecture over if you can catch the virus more than once, as different strains might need different anti-bodies)
Things seem to be going according to plan for the most part in Vic. I went to a big park near my house this week to kick the footy with my brother though, and there were many hundreds of people there not wearing masks, picnicking as normal. I'd say maybe one in every two people wasn't wearing one, with a few dubious distancing practices. Seems like a similar situation to the beaches.
Reality is that if you give an inch in easing the restrictions, people will take a mile. Everyone thinks they're the exception to the rule and that their reason to not comply is more valid than anyone else's and there fore justified. Similar to some people's pretty liberal use of "exercise" under stage 4.
They down played Trumps reaction to Covid so people are saying its not a big deal.
He did a drive by while still infected so all those in the car may be infected now. He is going to win the election again. :(
Covid-19 isn?t a big deal if you have a specialist team of doctors caring only for you 24/7, helicopter medivac, an executive suite in a top military hospital and access to the full range of drug treatments...all without having an expensive medical bill at the end.
Some new seasons of American TV shows started this week, and they all had Covid as a plot device or in the background as a real-time issue. (NCIS, Bull, NCIS New Orleans, and probably others too)
Even though we shouldn't be ignoring the seriousness of this virus, I think that fiction is where we should be able to escape those parts of reality when we are trying to relax with a moment of entertainment.
It is something that is all over the news, and in ad-breaks, and I feel that in America where the virus is so much worse (with most Americans knowing someone who has been infected or died from it), this decision was not a good idea. Either it looks like they are trying to make ratings from a current real-world tragedy, or they are not realising that people are already suffering anxiety from the virus (from catching it or the fear of catching it), to not be able to watch a prime-time fiction program that keeps reminding them about Covid.
Even I'm having trouble watching these new episodes (I switched off one of them), because of how much I see of the virus on the American news programs, which often features victims and doctors, to try to encourage the virus deniers that it is indeed real, and a serious virus. (one nurse that recently quit, had patients who were dying, who were adamant to their dying breath that the virus wasn't real - if catching the virus and being near death won't convince Americans to take precautions and wear masks, nothing will, because too many Republican political leaders are still telling citizens to not wear mask, to go back to work, and to do Thanksgiving-Christmas as normal - it is no wonder the worst hit states since the second wave are almost all Republican).
The Sydney outbreak just shows how quickly the virus can spread, when people "get back to living a normal life" after virus was eliminated. It just takes one person breaching the rules (I think it was someone who was part of an airline flight crew that was just here for a day) from north of Sydney, and we apparently have infected people ending up in Victoria and QLD within days.
When it is a holiday/tourist spot, it makes it easy for people from around the country to catch it and spread it on the way back to their city or state, through the airports.
It was the scenario in pandemic movies like 12 Monkeys and Contagion, using the "express lane" of travel that we call air travel, taking a virus to anywhere in the world before the first person is showing symptoms (2-4 days).
It's always a game of catchup, which is why these lockdowns and contact-tracing procedures go large, to capture most or all of the infected people who have already travelled away from the point of contamination, because they won't show symptoms quickly enough, and testing can still take several hours... and how far can you fly or drive in seven hours.
It annoys me when a state premier complains about states locking out her entire state... because unless she can guarantee that she can stop all of the residents in greater Sydney from travelling to other parts of NSW, there is no other way of preventing an infected person from entering other states, especially during the summer holiday period. If it could spread so quickly around Sydney and into other states from just one infected visitor to the country, is she that stupid (or uncaring) to not think it could just as easily be spread into other parts of the country, also by just one infected person leaving NSW.
It may suck for people and businesses affected by these temporary restrictions, but we can either act fast and prevent deaths (like in NZ), or wait until the case numbers get out of control (with about 1 death from every 100 cases), because the politicians believe it is political suicide to enforce restrictions (like in VIC).
Besides, with only about 11% of Australians being committed Christians, why is Christmas so important to the rest of the people, to need to be on that one day? Why do people need that one day to be the only excuse to do all the family things that people do, when they should (and many do) do family things throughout the year.
Just because major retailers (more specifically, the small number of rich CEOs and major shareholders) have commercialised this religious/family day to the point of people feeling obligated to spend a lot of money on presents and dinner gatherings, when the dinner gatherings shouldn't need the excuse of a single day of the year to organise, while presents should be more modest and personal/creative, and not excessive, which just has kids expecting more and more extravagant items, even though parents can't afford it (and still rack up debt just so that their kids don't "hate them" for not helping them keep up with their friends... or if they still believe in Santa, they don't think that he thought they weren't a good enough child this year to get what they wanted).
And the more presents you give kids these days, the less they value them... because there are plenty more to come next year. (it should be quality, not quantity)
When I was a child, kids would do up a christmas wish list, but we knew that it was just that... a wish list that you might be lucky to get something from it... not a checklist of everything we "needed" to see under the tree or in the stocking, just to get our love or affection.
Okay, rambling a little... but I just feel that Christmas has become so commercialised and materialistic, that it has lost its meaning of being a reason for friends and family to just spend time together... without obligations or expectations of getting something out of it.
And when you take out the materialism and commercialism, it is something people should be doing throughout the year... coming together and valuing the time we have left with our family and friends, instead of focusing on just one day a year that ends up prioritising the valuing of gifts and how much you can spend.
Gatherings throughout the year is something that the temporary lockdowns aren't getting to prevent forever... so unless you have some religious commitments that need to be done on that day, I don't see why people on TV and online (here and overseas where the virus is a lot worse) are making such a big fuss about missing out on something that they can do any other day when the virus or lockdowns are over.
Our premier is a *word cannot be used here*
When we have politicians more worried about the economy over people's lives and getting this under control as quickly as possible. The economy was gonna crash no matter what. But if we locked down quick and hard, we wouldn't still be limping on
And that's why our economy is doing so much better than other countries despite our two biggest income "exports" being hit (tourism and foreign students), as more people here are able to get back to work, because we didn't do a half-assed job that let people just do what ever they wanted due to politicians fearing voter backlash or having an election around the corner (like in the US) to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives in an attempt to stay president. The US are estimated to end up with about half a million deaths from this virus, which would be more than double the amount they would have had if they had adopted measures by even the worse European countries.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1AZRAEL1
All because other Republicans preferred to prioritise their own positions of power than the health of the people they are supposed to be representing, by not growing a pair and speaking up against a president who was publicly calling for his supporters to reject the measures that could have reduced the spread (masks, limiting going out, and no crowds).
The worst thing about the virus being out of control, is that they are losing so many doctors, nurses and first responders to the virus... which will impact their medical system for decades to come, and it will be the poorest people who will suffer, because the rich will be be able to secure doctors by paying them more to prioritise them.
Comparatively, we definitely did a better job. But when Gladys kept harping on "open your borders because tourism/economy etc" and I am glad the other states stuck to their guns. The spread could have sparked up again sooner or been worse.
What do you people think aboute the mutated covid19 being more infectious?
Was trying to contact my sister and niece who are holidaying in Mallacoota NSW due to the border shutting soon and now I hear the news that there are 8 cases here in VIC.🙄
So has the Prime Minister resurfaced yet or is he still hiding?