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Original poster

Are you in Australia? Have you changed your behaviour as we have so few cases?

263 replies

Ozgirl75 · 23/04/2020 01:18

I’m in Sydney and I think we had a total of 4 new cases countrywide yesterday.

We are still at home etc but I must say I’m feeling a lot more relaxed now and I’m seeing loads more people out and about. I had my hair cut yesterday and the shopping centre was fairly normal. Roads were pleasingly quiet at 5pm though - almost the best of both worlds!

OP posts:
janeskettle · 30/04/2020 01:07

Gladys is forcing me back to school.

Apparently, having a lung disease and an immunocompromised partner is not enough for work, health and safety to approve WFH.

So although I could do my work online (and do the same work online with my private students), I'll be back on the buses packed with highschool kids, and taking the risk of serious illness, if there is a second wave, along with the risk of infecting my partner who will most likely end up in ICU again.

But boy! It's good to know that my fellow Australians don't give a fuck.

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 01:27

@janeskettle I’m sorry you and your partner have health issues and that you are clearly feeling stressed, but I’m not sure what you want to happen?

It is unfeasible for the current level of lockdown to continue until a vaccine is developed - which is by no means a certainty anyway. They never managed to make a virus for SARS or MERS, the two previous coronavirus epidemics. It may be that we have to learn to live with this disease for an extended period.

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 01:28

Vaccine not virus.

janeskettle · 30/04/2020 01:33

I’m not sure what you want to happen?

For people not to be so blase about going back to 'normal'.

You're all gambling on there not being a second wave.

And meanwhile, the media cares more aboout the fucking NRL than it does about us low income workers being pushed into work places that we do not know are safe.

I was told that I'd worked through the flu and this is no different.

Well, yeah, except that I have partial protection from the flu via vaccine, and before vaccines, from experiencing the flu as a kid.

So maybe what would be nice in all the 'rah-rah, we must get back to normal!' there could be one iota of actual empathy for those of us for whom this race to lift restrictions b/c people don't like them is bad news, not good.

janeskettle · 30/04/2020 01:34

Then again, this is Mumsnet.

LiesHumansTellThemselves · 30/04/2020 01:43

The NRL thing is utterly bizarre to me.

WHY are they getting so much air time? Other than feeling for the people whose jobs are related to the NRL I just can't seem to give a fuck about the football at the moment (to be fair my level of fuckgiving about the football is always low, though I do occasionally indulge in a State of Origin BBQ). Vlandys can piss right off, the players have clearly demonstrated they cannot be trusted.

I quite honestly don't know what would be the best approach. I worry about increased cases and deaths and I worry about kid's futures and education and all of the people out of work as well.

I am inclined to think that as our numbers are SO low it might be worth seeing if we can just hold out a little more and go for elimination. But that is easy for me to say in my big house, full of food with healthy, happy children who can learn online.

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 01:50

No one on here is suggesting going straight back to “normal” least of all me. Confused We are talking about a gradual, staged, cautious easing of some restrictions and assessing of the results.

It’s not about people’s desire to go shopping, or dislike of being restricted. You are not the only person with difficult circumstances. There are many, many people experiencing extreme hardship as a result of the measures that have been taken - who have lost their livelihoods, their businesses that they’ve spent years building up; people whose mental health is suffering enormously, just to name a few. But you apparently don’t care about them. The situation is far more complex and nuanced than you appear to acknowledge.

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 02:00

Just two new cases today in NSW. With only 1 to really worry about because they don't know the source. Same with yesterday.

Yeah this is precisely why NSW need to hold the line... still having unknown links to infection and lifting restrictions?! seems so wrong, when so close to serious possibility of eradication.

With regards to SA - playgrounds were technically "closed" but I believe Marshall said that it would not be policed/enforced. My council has slapped closed signs up on playground/skate park fences but no roping off/ filling bowls with sand. This is similar to how SA did not implement/legislate the Fed 2 person restrictions.
Personally very impressed with Marshells handling of this and feel like SA has been a impressive quiet achiever in this crisis

janeskettle · 30/04/2020 02:05

gradual, staged, cautious easing of some restrictions and assessing of the results

Nope, not how it's functioning in the real world.

But thanks so much for the empathy you lecture me on.

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 02:06

*The NRL thing is utterly bizarre to me.

WHY are they getting so much air time? Other than feeling for the people whose jobs are related to the NRL I just can't seem to give a fuck about the football at the moment*

I suspect much of non eastern seaboard dwelling Australia agrees with this... not from a NRL loving state, I am staggered at the air time and oxygen given to this deluded organisation.

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 02:06

Argh bold fail...

janeskettle · 30/04/2020 02:07

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

StartupRepair · 30/04/2020 02:20

I am sure there will be a second wave as we ease restrictions and move into winter. It is alarming.

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 02:22

Fuck off yourself @janeskettle. Clearly you are not capable any sort of intelligent debate on this complex issue without descending to personal insults.

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 02:23

It is unfeasible for the current level of lockdown to continue until a vaccine is developed - which is by no means a certainty anyway

No one has suggested that... just to hold their roll on certain restrictions for another week or so. NSW is the sick man of Aus and the place most likely to see higher rates of infection with a second wave due to population and density. Why do you think most states (aside vic) have closed /restricted borders to it?

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 02:29

Most states have closed/restricted borders in general though, not specifically to NSW.

Again I am not advocating wholesale lifting of restrictions, just starting to think about realistic timelines for easing up a bit. Because the likelihood is that this virus won’t be completely eliminated and we will have to learn to live with some level of infections for a prolonged time.

We need to start to have a conversation about how to find the balance between lifestyle restrictions and infection risk, that we will be able to sustain long term.

BrendaBeanBag99 · 30/04/2020 02:30

I’m in WA, my 3 children went back to school yesterday, although there are no active cases in my area as I’m a regional area so I felt happy to send them back, I’m not back at work yet though but my husband Is an essential worker so never stopped working but we are still being careful and not letting the children to the shops etc and I only go to the shop once or twice a week

LiesHumansTellThemselves · 30/04/2020 02:37

It is nuanced though, release too much too soon and people die of coronavirus.

Hold on too tight for too long and people die from the lockdown itself (through either mental health issues, lack of attending for other physical health issues, long term poverty). Those deaths matter as well.

There is no 'win win' option in this. People are going to lose a lot, and some are going to die whatever we do.

We need to find the 'least bad' option for the maximum number of people.

It is just totally SHIT.

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 02:41

@Ginandplatonic agree with beginning a conversation nationally. It would help to have specific benchmarks and timelines for those larger states.

NSW worries me but as a whole I think Aus as a collective has done very very well. States and Fed cooperation has been brilliant and actually makes me feel quite positive now we can start dealing with social and economic fallout.
Trans Tasman bubble is a good idea, hopefully we can work together to pivot to high quality manufacturing and our ability to export desired food/Ag and industry will help with the global recession to come...

Original poster
Ozgirl75 · 30/04/2020 02:46

Come on @janeskettle this has been a really friendly thread with useful chat about how different people have been dealing with this. How about we keep this a bit more civil and friendly here. The govt always has this line to tread between allowing healthy people to get back to work to save their livelihoods whilst protecting those who need it. It’s a hard line but it’s not like they can make decisions on individual cases, they have to look at society as a whole.

I agree that I think they are starting to loosen some restrictions in a hope of making people stick to the more important ones (like big group gatherings). By letting people go to a friends house, it will probably stop them in some cases from congregating outdoors.

Also, I stand by what I said earlier - the lockdown wasn’t about eliminating the virus, it was to buy hospitals time to prepare for more cases and to allow people to catch it is a slow and controlled fashion so as to receive treatment if necessary.

OP posts:
Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 03:04

It is just totally SHIT

I think that’s something we can all agree on.

Londonlassy · 30/04/2020 03:11
  • @janeskettle* your response has been uncalled for. This has been one of the most civil supportive threads I have read for a long time.

There are 100 of professionals including nurses, social workers, police officers, disability workers , aged care workers that have continued to work with the community since the pandemic started. The government has very clearly stated that the plan is that we suppress this virus we cannot eradicate it. Professionals are and continue to work during this pandemic the expectation is that school staff need to perform their roles too. Everyone interacting with the public is anxious - I suspect most people have someone in their life with a health condition but we can not lock the country down for 1-2 years to get a vaccine (which may never eventuate)

Ginandplatonic · 30/04/2020 03:18

Hopefully we can work together to pivot to high quality manufacturing...

Perhaps that is something positive that can come out of this - giving more thought to what’s happening with local manufacturing and how important it is to retain some degree of self-sufficiency?

Also Unis maybe refocusing on what should be their core business - educating domestic students - which seems to have got a bit pushed aside recently.

And “instagram influencers” fading into obscurity in favour of acknowledging the contribution of supermarket workers and postmen and bus drivers and the many previously I acknowledged workers who have kept society going.

Trying to think of a silver lining here...

FruChoc · 30/04/2020 03:35

And “instagram influencers” fading into obscurity in favour of acknowledging the contribution of supermarket workers and postmen and bus drivers and the many previously I acknowledged workers who have kept society going.

this!!!

I'm hopeful if we can hold our nerve - this could be a time of positive change for Aus society. It's making us have a deep hard look at ourselves and what we value most.

janeskettle · 30/04/2020 03:47

I've reported my own post and apologise to the OP.