I am not a tin foil hat guy and have no doubt covid is a serious disease, but it is impossible to accept that Covid deaths are worse than any other types of deaths and so must be avoided at all costs, even when those costs are at the expense of peoples mental & financial well being and not to mention the loss of freedom.

Covid isnt going anywhere and despite what the government is telling people here, there will still be spreading, infection, hospitalizations and deaths, even with 100% vaccination rates and unfortunately you dont see this message coming from the government because it doesn't suit their narrative for justifying lock downs.

Before I answer what I would like to happen, can you tell me what the Governments plans are in the same periods? They run the joint, why havent they told the public? Also how will governments react in 6 months time when say we hit the magical 80% vaccination level and we have 100's of covid cases in a day with a few deaths a week? Does anyone know? When is this going to be discussed? How do you think the government should react to this?

We are going to have to learn to live with covid eventually so may as well start now and personally I would set a higher benchmark for cases and deaths before allowing lockdowns and take greater steps to ensure the vulnerable are better protected (eg FMD, why isnt there 100% vaccination in aged care workers already?).

Then I would pick a date (say 31 Dec 2021) and ensure there is enough vaccine for everyone who wants to be vaccinated to do so and tell the public after that date there will be no more restrictions and you are on your own. Those that want to cower from covid will be free to do so, me, I will be partying like its 1999!

Thats right. Imagine somebody riding a bike while wearing a cap. Yes their head is covered but the outcome of any crash will be the same. Face masks only work when a) they are regulated to meet a standard, b) they are worn properly, and c) they are used in conjunction with other equipment and techniques. Something that the general public simply dont have and dont do

Australia should call the bluff on its own BS by rounding up 100 people with masks and expose them to somebody with COVID at short distance exactly as they are wearing them

No surprise countries with high vaccination rates have dumped them despite vaccines not providing 100% protection. When you have 1000s of cases a day and no vaccine then the hit and hope coverage masks provided could have saved a lot of lives. In any other situation in the general public they really do more harm than good as we saw in Sydney when people with masks stopped doing the other things

WHO stated in 2019 that there is between 290,000-650,000 deaths from influenza worldwide every year. Precautions for influenza is basically a flu shot once a year,  and is likely not available to most people on the planet. 

Covid-19 has had 4.1 million deaths since December 2019. That's while most countries have had curfews,  lockdowns,  masks, now vaccinations.

Both attack the same groups of people the worst,  elderly,  sick etc...you'd have to be pretty ignorant to think that if we didn't do these things it would be better, it would clearly be worse. 

If it were me I'd have a national response scaled back to a "less is better" of 4 or 5 things:
1/ Quarantine (including people who have visited internal hot spots)
2/ Contact tracing, exposure sites and isolation orders
3/ Social distancing and venue numbers
4/ Testing when sick, fines for work places who dont turn away sick staff

Thats it. A simple response with little public burden that will ultimately trend the numbers of any outbreak downwards. 90% of infections caught in the net and mopping up of the rest. Nothing that will overrun hospital systems because the majority of people can avoid this, even in our worst outbreaks. If you dont want the virus, stay home

I get we're probably not ready for that so the intermediate compromise I'd introduce is every state gets 4 weeks of restrictions above baseline per 6 month period. ie- If ACT want to burn their 4 weeks out now with mandatory mask laws on the chance somebody with NSW might go there with the virus then they dont have anything left for when there is an actual outbreak

In my missus home town, people hang flags out their windows to let people know theyre starving, none of this frst world priviledge baby adults crap sooking about wearing a mask or crying about looking out for your community. They're too busy trying to not die from covid and eat.

No idea what Slomo's (tm) plans are. Fuck they're hopeless at communicating around this thing.

But anyway here's what I wrote on the 19th on page 52 or thereabouts. (I think we're roughly on the same page except I think Covid is more serious than you're making out.)


I agree with podiacide. Set a date that is reasonable for everyone to get their 2 doses and open up after.

Don't want to be vaccinated? Run the risk.

We grudgingly accept that about 1500 people will die every year in car accidents even though we try and limit that. That's an 'acceptable' price to pay for society to function with cars. (There's plenty of other examples.)

With vaccines available and free there is no reason we can't accept that covid is endemic and get on with it.

A doctor mate of mine was saying in the years to come you'll get your flu shot and your covid shot.  Eventually they might even roll them into one.

I also have relo's overseas and covid has impacted them as well, but despite their struggles they still hang shit on us Aussies locking down for a handful of cases which is heaps less than their daily death rate.

100% agree, they are first world problems, but if I wanted 3rd world problems I wouldnt be living in straya!

I have never said covid isnt serious, I just dont agree putting my life on hold and hiding under the bed waiting for covid to go away. Particurlaly since we are now 18 months into this and there still isnt a clear path out other than jailing the citizens

What? There are people in 3rd world countries starving and dying so I should wear a face mask when I'm walking down the street alone?

You might know a lot about 3rd world problems but you dont know anything about 3rd world solutions. Maybe thats why they are still problems. Nobody in those countries are going to be sleeping well tonight knowing that you have to wear a face mask everywhere you go. In fact I doubt anybody from those countries dreaming of moving here are looking forward to a time where they can't leave their house without covering their face first

I read an article about a family from China who came here to escape COVID and ended up right back where they started. I wont bother trying to hunt for it as you probably cant read it from your high horse

At least 4 more weeks for Sydney. Feel sorry for them. I'd say it was economic pressures that has allowed construction in non-hotspot areas. Keeping schools closed but opening construction is a big call. I'm expecting more protests and more
Opening up vaccinatons to pharmacies is seeing a massive rise in under 40s taking AZ vaccine which should really turbocharge our vaccination rollout. If we can get it to 1.5 million doses per week, we should hit 70% first doses before end of September. We need to be having the conversation now about when we will open up and what that will look like. Not wait until the day after we reach that number.

Yeah finally letting pharmacies loose is a winner.

Like I said earlier I'd get the army in and set up literally hundreds of vax sites.

Apparently the NSW Government is aiming for everyone to have at least their first shot by the end of August. Ambitious but doable.

Nationally, we're clocking just over 1m shots every 6 days now. Wonder when we will plateau (hopefully as high as possible). 

Agree with that 

Goes right over your head. 

I'll predict that demand will start slowly declining at 60% first dose 50% fully vaccinated around mid Sept (thats total population not just 16+, also assuming under 16's not being vaccinated yet) and demand to be almost non existent at 70% first dose 60% fully vaccinated.
After that, it will be slow going until we start vaccinating kids. I'd put money on us not getting to 80% first dose (total pop) by years end.

The CHO of Victoria told media today we need at least 80% fully vaccinated to end lockdowns.

We really need to start talking about vaccine passports etc before we get to stage where vaccine uptake falls off.

Leave it to Vicpol to focus on flares: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-29/victoria-police-seek-protesters-who-used-flares/100332306

Saw that.

Interesting how the press is treating Gladys vs 'Dictator' Dan

I hope they set up a Royal Commission to investigate these wrong doers and that all the accused plead on the stand that they cant remember doing it.

OMG NSW....this is an utter disaster - how can they be in this position with all the knowledge and lessons learned?

Also the difference in coverage is a joke. Shows how the media in aus in a propoganda arm of the LNP

All of this stems from the fact we didn't have enough vaccines to start with (thank Slomo (tm) and Murdoch and his fuckhead mates scared the shit out of anyone considering taking AZ despite you being 100 times more likely to die of a blood clot due to panadol. 

As for the media it's great isn't it?  Where's all the 'left wing bias' we are always hearing about and how the 'right' is stifled.

What a joke.

The messed up thing is Slomo's office briefed media against the AZ vaccines so he could have an out or excuse for absolutely screwing negotitians and supply. 
This is where we are at, they'd rather play politics than do the right thing.

You can bet your bottom dollar they are only ramping up the vaccines because pollsters came to his office and says you're hurting. They couldve solved this 6 months ago if there was political will. 

They'd rather fly all over the world for job interviews or canvassing nations to reject Great barried reef endangred status. They are utterly disgusting.

gawd tsf, Melb's infections during varying stages of pre lockdowns and into them had far worse infection numbers....

None of this is good be it 50/100 infections to 230 odd overnight in saying that.

Forget the media and whatever arm is directing it or not, they all are useless.

This is not a comp. Of course ours was diabolical - I know how tough it was. I want that to be avoided again. I'd be furious if I was a NSW resident at their smug head in the sand response (but I guess it's at the behest of political donors and king makers, not the people).

At this rate, we are limping to failure...

This isn't about Melbourne. It's about our half arsed response and ineffectiveness in shutting this thing down.

No. This is about the naivety in thinking there are quick fix solutions and that this is something that can quickly be shut down regardless of circumstance or demographic

The usual suspects are asking for even tougher restrictions like curfews and anything else that can be thrown at it. The response teams, predictably, have decided to tighten down of face mask laws and fines because apparently this highly contagious strain can be scared off by covering your face

There is no easy answer to outbreaks. They simply have to be managed over a period of 3-4 weeks based on what the trends and data shows

Victoria is under heavy restrictions despite no real cases floating around the community. SA did the same. These are the results we are used to

So it's a mere anomoly that the states that lock down stuff immediatley saw the cases become managable/drastically reduce, and he one state that didnt and 'managed over 3-4 weeks' has had cases explode?

ACT recently introduced face mask laws for the first time. Since then there hasnt been any cases, for over 12 months in fact. That means those laws worked, right?

This virus has a 2 week incubation period. If it is in the community then you get a case here or there for a while. Yet with the other states not only were there no cases during the snap lockdown period but also no tail. Australia's success is based on specious reasoning. This is not something that can be "stamped out" quickly. The naivety of this "success" has created the foolish expectation that going in hard and fast can stop this

Here are a few facts. 1/ Victoria were already under restrictions before the latest lockdown. The lockdown went for over a week longer than the expected "snap lockdown" and did again in this instance. Despite this they recorded over 20 cases a day and are still recording cases today. So why didnt the snap lockdown result in 0 cases like the other states?

Fact 2/ Victoria took 16 days to get into their May lockdown after the infection occurred. NSW were well into a Sydney wide stage 4 + bells and whistles lockdown within that timeframe. So why didnt this work?

People who are looking for a simple or template solution simply dont understand the problem. Lockdown simply didnt work. NSW managed to keep two major outbreaks to around 200-300 cases last year without a lockdown because that works best for their demographic. They tried the Victorian response and their public simply didnt take to it. One is a mirror image of the other

Any successful strategy, even a stage 2 or 3 lockdown, will have a downward trend. Its ridiculous to think that the only thing that works is the toughest and hardest measures possible rolled out within the first 24 hours. If NSW's lockdown was the answer we would see it working but not fast enough. It would have gone from 20 cases a day to 5 or 10 but people would have been concerned about a lingering tail and tightened up

Instead they forced the virus into home during winter with faith and trust as control mechanisms and all they have left is begging people to do the right thing. If you're on a football forum I trust you know the folly of changing a successful game plan during a major tournament. Thats what NSW did and fans of the lockdown game plan, with egg on their faces, are claiming they didnt lock down hard enough. Garbage!

Seriously bb . You're not An expert. 

cheeez, it shouldn't ever be a comp and I didn't express it as such but you interpret that way.
ok we're all diff I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Don't you think as residents were all pissed just as you guys have been.
No matter the party our 2 main prems have been woeful in delivering to us, dan has improved purely from the lowest of lows he conducted originally,disappeared and saw he needed to get real.
Ours having tried their utmost keeping things open got bit real hard being its delta. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, should have could have lockded up.
Your end it was a no brainer for its done before time and again.
Rightly or wrongly but this time its saved youse for now.
Burz, yes its not about Melb and their issues weren't with the delta might I add originally - we have screwed up here and hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I don't care to or listen anymore to any leader tbh, they projectile the same shit everday.
We also have a % of people who DGAF, on SM etc influencing the sheep, they are just as much to blame whats occuring right now.
You can't keep attacking the same way time and time again.
Only positive from this right now is people are waking up and accepting to get jabbed now sooner than later.