Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.Originally Posted by Paulbot
Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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"
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
It?s been less than 24hrs since the announcement. Give the human flesh search engine time to do its work.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
Rank 8 - Deluxe Member
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.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
Rank 10 - Admin
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.
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.
Last edited by griffin; 4th October 2020 at 12:03 PM.
Rank 6 - Dedicated Member
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. Last I looked, we've gone up to 24 new cases now.
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