Most Victorians are resigned to the fact our government is incompetent and secretly wish we had Gladys running the state. Our mob only just realised during the current outbreak that covid is an airborne disease and strangers can infect other strangers! 

🤣🤣 lol no 

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4119101

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A prominent molecular biologist at Rutgers University claims that a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan has a conflict of interest, due to his ties with the Wuhan lab at the center of the inquest.

British zoologist and the president of EcoHealth Alliance Peter Daszak is the only individual to be part of both the WHO and The Lancet teams investigating the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. However, he has long-term professional and financial ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which represents a conflict of interest.

Richard H. Ebright is the Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, and Laboratory Director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology. He told Taiwan News that Daszak is the contractor who funded the WIV's research on bat SARS-related coronaviruses, with subcontracts of $200 million in USAID funding and $7 million in NIH funding.

Ebright said that Daszak is a collaborator on the WIV research for bat SARS-related coronaviruses. He lamented that the WHO named Daszak as a member of its review team, and The Lancet named Daszak as the head of its review team. Ebright said this makes "it clear that WHO and Lancet reviews cannot be considered credible investigations."

In addition to the funding EcoHealth Alliance receives from USAID, NIH, and other agencies, which it funnels into the WIV, Ebright stated the firm received US$30 million from the US Department of Defense.

When asked whether Daszak had been involved in the controversial gain of function experiments on bat coronaviruses at the WIV, Ebright said: "Daszak has been a contractor, a collaborator, and a co-author on work at the WIV on construction and analysis of novel chimeric coronaviruses."A report by Independent Science News and a search of U.S. government databases revealed that EcoHealth Alliance received US$39 million in funding from the Pentagon from 2013 to 2020. Adding another US$64.7 million from USAID, the report found that Daszak's "non-profit organization" has raked in over US$103 million from the U.S. government.Since 2014, Daszak's organization has funneled some of this U.S. government funding into the WIV to carry out research on bat coronaviruses. In the first phase of research, which took place from 2014 to 2019, Daszak coordinated with Shi Zhengli (石正麗) — also known as "Bat Woman" — at the WIV to investigate and catalog bat coronaviruses across China. EcoHealth Alliance received US$3.7 million in funding from the NIH for this research, and 10 percent was channeled to the WIV, reported NPR.
he second phase, which started in 2019, involved gain-of-function (GoF) research on coronaviruses and chimeras in humanized mice from the lab of Ralph S. Baric of the University of North Carolina. In a video interview originally recorded on Dec. 9, 2019, Daszak mentioned the testing of modified coronaviruses on human cells and humanized mice in the WIV, just weeks before the first cases of COVID-19 were announced in the city of Wuhan, China.Daszak has dismissed the possibility of a lab leak, insisting since the start of the pandemic it's a "conspiracy theory" — without providing evidence for his claim. A report by U.S. Right to Know alleges that emails released through freedom of information requests reveal that Daszak persuaded 26 prominent scientists to sign a statement published in The Lancet on Feb. 19 2020, claiming that any suggestions that COVID-19 was not of natural origin are "conspiracy theories."Four signatories of The Lancet statement are employed by EcoHealth Alliance. Six scientists who signed the statement, including Daszak, now comprise half of The Lancet's panel investigating the origins of the virus.Furthermore, Daszak in 2015 co-authored an article in the journal Nature titled, "Spillover and pandemic properties of zoonotic viruses with high host plasticity," in which he stated that zoonotic virus spillover from wildlife was "most frequent" in a number of settings and occupations, including "laboratory workers." He also warned that laboratories are one of the most dangerous settings for major spillover events."Among all high risk interfaces and hosts, only viruses transmitted to humans by contact with wild animals in the wildlife trade and in laboratories ... were more likely to have broader geographic reach," Daszak said.Daszak's colleague, Shi Zhengli, in 2010 published a paper describing a scenario in which infected rodents led to a deadly virus being leaked from a Chinese lab. The paper, titled, "Hantavirus outbreak associated with laboratory rats in Yunnan, China," detailed an outbreak of hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) at a college in Kunming as the result of a lab leak in 2003.Since the start of the pandemic, both Daszak and Shi have denied that a lab leak occurred at the WIV. However, over a year since the outbreak, Shi has yet to provide independent investigators with access to the WIV's database and laboratory records.Daszak has yet to respond to a request to comment on allegations that he has a conflict of interest in the WHO and The Lancet investigations. The WIV has also yet to reply to questions about their experiments in 2019.

I respectfully disagree

The data we have comes from eye witness testimony that is 3 to 4 days old, backed up by snippets of CCTV footage. Its not something that can be relied on in any other detective work and we saw how a lie brought Adelaide into lockdown. The fact is we have 4 "unknown" cases out of 4200 primary contacts and well over 10000 other contacts in isolation. Hundreds of venues visited (over 300 IIRC) and only 4 cases that are unknown, but not definitively proven

Viruses are predictable. This is the reason we were able to get a vaccine so quickly. If there was any reason to believe the majority or any substantial portion of transmission was bending the rules then we would have seen well more than 4 cases, and in well more than one incident

Thats not to say airborne / aerosol transmission cant happen as there was a case in South Korea that definitively proved this. Thats not to say stranger to stranger transmission cant happen. But it is a rarity. The exception to the rule. The official word on the virus is as follows



We have substantial data and evidence that supports this. You cant argue 4 cases is how the virus works and over 10000 people just got lucky. Social distancing / hand washing works in most situations, we have a small viral load to deal with due to quarantine, and the majority of transmission is still in the predictable places caught in the same predictable way

If Victoria want to stay into lockdown longer to chase a dead end and fear they are up against something they havent studied for over a year then, like you said, its something we are used to. NSW would have managed this without a lockdown

@Bluebird, hate to break it to you but current WHO advisc is it is spread via aerosols. Exert below:

The virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe. These particles range from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols.

• Current evidence suggests that the virus spreads mainly between people who are in close contact with each other, typically within 1 metre (short-range). A person can be infected when aerosols or droplets containing the virus are inhaled or come directly   into contact with the eyes, nose, or mouth.
• The virus can also spread in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor settings, where people tend to spend longer periods of time. This is because aerosols remain suspended in the air or travel farther than 1 metre (long-range).

https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted

In fact scientists have been stating that aerosols are a form of spread since April last year, below article gives you all the info:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2021/05/04/who-coronavirus-airborne/?sh=699272ec4472

Also the government and your comments regarding "stranger to stranger" spread being new are nonsensical. If you truly believe this then you must also believe that the 20,000 infections Vic suffered during previous outbreaks all knew each other. Really? Ditto the outbreak in Sydney where there was stranger to stranger transmission in various locations and not to mention the millions infected in other places around the world.

Both those are just deflections by the Vic government to avoid them having to take responsibility for stuffing it up again.

The woman at the center of the "fleeting" transmission claim has today tested negative. It was a false positive and she was actually in the display home 2 days after the case visited

I'm not saying aerosol transmission cant happen or that stranger to stranger transmission cant happen. It is the smallest percent. In fact recent study has suggested only 1% of transmission is actually outdoors

The virus can be transmitted if you are in close proximity and can be transmitted if you touch the surface and then your face. Not everybody practices social distancing or hygiene

While its true that the 20000 people didnt know each other, 75% were linked definitively. That means only 25% "unknown" at a time contact tracing was impossible and no follow up work was done. Estimates of linkages were closer to 99% because the 25% of unknowns were a cluster that extended from an unknown link

The fact remains there have only been (now) 3 unknown cases with estimates of ~5000 close contacts and ~10000 secondary contacts. You can argue that the initial SA transmission was stranger to stranger aerosol transmission and I'd accept that point. But it is the exception, not the rule

Sorry for the double post but theres a bit more on the ABC feed about it. I wont post all of it but the key part is this:

Kimberley Prather, a distinguished professor in atmospheric chemistry at the University of California, said Mr Weimar's commentary was "a bit baffling".

"The commonality that is there now was there before, which is, all of those incidents that he described are people sharing the air indoors," Professor Prather told ABC Radio Melbourne.

"They kind of make it sound like, well they just passed by each other. But if they were inside, indoors with an infectious person, breathing the air, then that's how they're getting infected.

"This virus is airborne and you get infected by inhaling shared air. So every one of those cases that he described, that's clearly what's happening."

In other words, nothing has changed

provide the source of your stats as they are questionable. In relation to the last out break, what you are saying is at odds with the facts, all those people that contracted covid in the black rock restaurant did not know each other and were sitting more than 1m apart, how was that different to what is happening now?

Stranger to stranger transmission isnt whether they know each other or not. It isnt a literal term that means the virus can only spread from acquaintances. Stranger to stranger transmission means the source of the transmission cannot be pinned down. Like two people passing each other in the supermarket

The thing about contact tracing is not only does it go on memory of events 3-4 days ago, but there is also patient confidentiality. If contact tracers showed faces and names of infected people then they might say "Oh yeah, I remember now. We stopped in the street because we had the same dog and we had a long conversation". Unknown / uninvestigated / unconcluded transmission is not necessarily stranger to stranger transmission. And we dont have the resources to investigate every case thoroughly so we end up with a lot of questions marks, particularly the more cases there are as we saw last year

To clarify, most transmission is not a surprise. If people are in a restaurant then they are eating together in an indoor setting and seated next to one another for a sustained amount of time. They also use shared bathrooms. Same with work places and other facilities. Its no different to what is happening now or what happened last year. In January there was one instance of a "how the hell did I get this" which was the guy who attended the MCG match. Every other case was linked (the other guy was genetically linked). Same as February where all cases were linked

And again today:

"I do not want to overemphasise it. We know that most transmission happens within a household, it happens within the prolonged indoor settings, we still need to have a lockdown to minimise the number of people who will be in those settings," Professor Sutton said.

Like I said, 60 cases, 57 of which can be intimately linked, out of over 300 venues and about 5000 primary contacts. And thats just not for this outbreak, but something we have seen right across Australia

A lot of people have refuted Victoria's recent claims and today there is a lot of backpedaling and change of context. This is the same disease that every other state has had to deal with

I posted months ago about Daszak's disgraceful conflict of interest in getting scientists to sign a publication in the Lancet that dismissed the Lab leak Theory, and his subsequent appointment to the WHO party that investigated the Wuhan outbreak. 

And lets not forget Fauci has links to Daszak's Ecohealth business.

The manner in which he and the scientific community dismissed the Lab leak Theory- and were allowed to get away with it by the Mainstream Media- without presenting a shred of evidence- will go down as the worst cover up in human history. 

The scientists even had the audacity to lie through their teeth and claim that Lab Leaks were rare when there are literally dozens of documented examples and warnings going back decades, and in many parts of the world.

So....why was Daszak  and the WHO allowed to get away with the cover up? Why report it now?

1.  The truth eventually comes out and

2. Covid-19 is the most politicized health emergency in living memory. 

Quite simply, they had to get rid of Trump.  At any cost.  No way could he be seen to be right on this.

Lets step back and take stock : A once in a 100 year pandemic cause by a novel virus has its epicentre, of all places in the entire world, across the road from a Lab that is experimenting on chimeric viruses using the exact same family of virus, but the Wuhan Lab had nothing to do with it and was caused by some bat viruses 1000 km's away, through and unidentified intermediate animal host that didn't infect anyone until it reached the City of Wuhan, precisely across the road from the Wuhan Institute of Virology... what are the odds eh

@bluebird, looks like the mayo Vic gov has been spreading has been called out as BS. Tell me your theory again...

Scientists find no evidence strain is fast-moving ‘beast’

By Chip Le Grand and Liam Mannix

June 3, 2021 — 12.01am

The COVID-19 strain at the centre of the outbreak that has forced Melbourne into a second week of lockdown is not moving faster than other variants of the virus or spreading in new, unexpected ways, Australia’s peak pandemic advisory group has found.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/scientists-find-no-evidence-strain-is-fast-moving-beast-20210602-p57xfk.html

https://theconversation.com/covid-19-why-the-lab-leak-theory-must-be-formally-investigated-161297

The above academic website went from categorically rejecting the Lab leak Theory, without any real scientific evidence beyond speculation, to publishing the above article rejecting the earlier misinformation that was propagated on the same website

Anyone not blinded TDS could have seen the Lab leak theory was credible from the beginning and why the Lab leak Theory needed serious consideration to stop it or something even worse happening again.  But instead we got the left wing media, corrupt scientists, even "academically rigorous" platforms like The Conversation disseminate misinformation and actively suppress the discussion about a Lab leak origin because it didn't fit their anti-Trump agenda. 

Mission accomplished. Trump gone.

Even right now, this most important question of this pandemic is barely rating a mention the usual left wing publishers.

 Biden announces a 90 day time frame to investigated.  This was after closing the same investigation started by Trump.  Long after all the evidence will have disappeared with the predictable conclusion.

Thats right. Aside from subtle differences we really are saying the same thing. This is the exact same virus Adelaide dealt with last year when they also had the virus pass through 4 generation of contacts in a short amount of time. The fact is this virus even in its vanilla form is known for being more infectious than standard flus which is why it got the whole world panicked in the first place

However Australia has quarantine at the shorelines which immediately cuts out 99.99%. They also have regulated social distancing which, while not perfect but given the transmission levels, takes care of the bulk of the rest

The only issue is the unregulated parts such as households, work places and shared facilities (which is why most if not all of the transmission is known to known, or predictable circumstances). Something we have seen time and time again and no different in this outbreak

In places like WA and QLD where they have a better life balance than Victoria we have seen that even in the same household with a more infectious strain all housemates can test negative. Its almost automatic

In Victoria on the other hand where people have been beaten into oblivion with lockdown (140 days compared to 6 for other states) and restrictions other states dont have to deal with (such as permits to return home and permanent mask laws) people do only what is mandated, and not a thing more (and sometimes less). There is no understanding of the virus itself, its just a fight to live between the restrictions and do what the other states take for granted

Its no surprise that Victoria were doing better than NSW at the start of the pandemic and well considering our population, when the whole country was under the same set of rules. Give us the same life as our friends and family in the other states and then things will change. Not immediately, but a hell of a lot better than what we are seeing now. The situation in Victoria wont change until the faith is restored. This is not a virus issue

You are aware that the current outbreak started with transmission in a South Australian medi hotel?

Classic Chairman Dan hurr durr..

It's Dan's fault that South Australia exists as a State. He should have invaded when he became Premier :)

Pay attention son, your comment isnt relevant in the context of the discussion so no idea what point you are trying to score, but keep trying

Well seeing Murdoch owns great swathes of media in multiple countries could you please explain why this is almost a non-starter for him and his media? 

Thanks in advance.

WOW.  A single sentence consisting of two conjoined lies. .

Lie 1: Murdoch ownership of "great swathes of media ie  ignoring there are many, many more media companies that lean left which have a combined audience that dwarfs Murdochs media

Lie 2: That Murdoch's media didn't and isn't reporting the Lab Leak theory when they have been the *only* ones reporting- countless times- going back years to Trump's days and is the only media organization- including self proclaimed "Fact Checkers" and various  "de-bunkers-that isn't now back-peddling trying to re-write their own history of lies and misinformation. 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/realclearpolitics-fact-checkers-practice-caution-lab-leak-about-face

https://www.foxnews.com/media/critics-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory-critics-accuse-amnesia

CNN can explain it though: it was Trump's fault they acted like morons.

But you know what, Muz, unlike you I always had faith in the science. 

It was clear from the outset that mainstream media and some scientists acceptance of zooonetic origin and quick dismissal the of Lab Leak Theory was not based on the science but on speculation and political expediency.

The science was always going to expose the frauds in both scientific circles who use science as a cloak for their politics, and the media who enable them to perpetuate the greatest lie in human history. Scientific methodology always finds a way.

Regrettably all the Lab evidence is now and forever unattainable due to how long the Chinese have had to cover it up.

CCP was always going to cover its base's in any case.....moot to even bother. They were not going to let themselves be exposed for all to see.
Get over it we just got to deal with the thing thats life now.
In the big picture we're in far better position than many places around the world thanks to being way way down under and boarders closed.
Look after yourselves, feck the media/arseholes, the finger pointing by either sides of politics they all only care about themselves and not accountable enough period.
Gutless leaders and minnions all of them.
Had my jab yesterday, onwards and forwards I guess.

all starting to unravel for PRC
https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/29/covid-19-was-made-by-chinese-scientists-who-tried-to-cover-it-up-study-claims-14672640/

peer review study to be published soon 

British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen are about to publish their research which claims to have found ‘unique fingerprints’ in virus samples which point to manipulation in a laboratory.

The paper says scientists inside the lab were altering naturally-occurring viruses to make them more infectious in order to study their potential effects on humans.

They say Covid-19 was created by splicing a natural coronavirus ‘backbone’ found in Chinese cave bats onto it a new ‘spike’ and it escaped via lower-security areas of the institute.

Prof Dalgleish who works at St George’s University, London, and Dr Sørensen, the chair of pharmaceutical company, Immunor, claim Covid-19 has ‘no credible natural ancestor’.

They say that it is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that the virus was created through ‘laboratory manipulation’. 

The pair were studying samples of the virus while working on a Covid vaccine when they say they discovered evidence that points to human interference.

see link for diagram of inserts into virus, basically adding HIV to corona virus ,

I agree we need to deal with our new reality, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to find out how and why it happened, not to fingerpoint but to stop it from happening again with something even more deadly being released in the future.

Gain of function research should be banned.

Its also a lesson on how to always remain doubtful irrespective of who is saying what-experts in their science conspired with the media the WHO and politicians to deceive the world. Not all conspiracy theories are the imaginings of crack pots. Credentials mean nothing-only facts matter, not who telling them.

You mentioned our closed borders policy making us better off.  One week before the latest Melbourne lockdown the usual left wing nutters and media were frothing at the mouth, calling the policy racist and demanding we open to travellers from India.

They've shut their pie holes now, haven't they?

Good  man. I had mine today... let's get over this bullshit and on to the rest of our lives.

So it's a FACT that when per capita and actual infections were higher in the US and the UK than they were in India travel to Australia was never stopped. NEVER.

So care to explain why travel from India to Australia was banned when travel from the US or the UK wasn't.


Also your mate Bolt called the policy 'racist'.  That must have been a giant stab in the back for a screaming harpy like you.  
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/andrew-bolt-ashamed-of-australia-over-india-flight-ban-threat-of-jail-and-fines-for-citizens/news-story/558ec9e5abbbc73ceb5fd96ab0ed91d1

Surprise surprise, Delta outbreak in Vic is a result of another hotel quarantine leak! FMD they are useless.

It is a miracle we were already locked down because the imbeciles didnt properly track down the SA outbreak, otherwise we would be royally screwed again.

It has gone beyound a joke down there thats for sure.
Sorry for all you good people to tolerate that shit show, how business's have suffered and closed now and unemployed.
Absolutley pathetic.

This is the point we disagree on

The second known outbreak happened on the 8 May, 3 weeks before lockdown. The first known outbreak happened 2 weeks before lockdown. Three weeks of the virus silently bouncing around the community, over 400 venues visited, so where are all the cases?

~80 cases, most recorded after lockdown, 90% linked and caught in the predictable way, and 8 "unknown" cases which means we dont have information rather than assume how it happened

Like I said, Australia has a system in place. 2 cases instead of 2000 like overseas. And 90% compliance on social distancing. We also have effective contact tracing methods in place to break part known to known transmissions so apart from the case here or there everything else is automatic

At the start of the pandemic people predicted 20%-60% total infection, about 4% of those dying, masks will be important, and the hospital system would be overrun. They didnt update their predictions when we, you know, closed our borders and shut out well over 99% of viral activity

Lockdowns will only be avoided when those in charge look at our situation instead of computer simulations, 14 month old predictions and what is going on overseas. NSW would not be in lockdown right now

Only one case today, looks like we're on track to be out of lockdown tomorrow night.

That vaccine would have been nice a couple of months ago, hey.

@BB, dont think we disagree at all. I believe lockdowns are excessive (particularly the Victorian versions) but my point was more about the fact we were lucky the 2 out breaks occurred simultaneously, otherwise we would be in for another lock down with whatever is scarier than beast delta version again!

It is absolutely brutal, there was a guy on the radio talking about how his 4YO niece has cancer and is palliative care in hospital and due to lock down rules family are not allowed to visit her so she may well die alone. Absolutely heart breaking.