Australia vs UK

[JC17fj74]

Ok so I follow some celebrities and influencers on Insta who live in Australia, I've just watched their stories of them out yes that's right OUT in bars and clubs dancing, drinking and partying all close together having FUN 😫 Do you remember what it was like to go out and have Fun? 😂🤦🏻‍♀️
I understand Australia is the other side of the world but they had bad cases not so long ago didn't they?!
HOW are they at that stage where they even have bars and clubs open, let along be able to party with no masks inside in close proximity?!!!
I can't see us doing any of that anytime soon 😭
What are we doing wrong? Why are we in lockdown with no date or plan to get out of this hell when other countries are getting back to normal? Dubai is another one I've seen people enjoying life there too. But surely the Rona is still around in these countries?

@Forgetmenot157 sour grapes there love? Why the hell wouldn't you shut yourself off? Love them or hate them, our government has made decisions which have kept us safe. Our death toll is low, our hospitals are coping fine, and most of us aware living with minimal restrictions.

And absolute rubbish about us not contributing. We may not have contributed much to the global death toll (really sorry about that) but our scientists have been researching and sharing information about the structure, transmission and impacts of the virus from the beginning. A lot of money has been invested in vaccine research as well.

Worth noting that while not a main travel hub NZ usually receives 40-50,000 Chinese tourists per month. So they were still at risk with the initial wave.
Australia is part of the covid initiative so haven't ignored what's going on.
They also were researching their own vaccine which didn't work out but even that knowledge, shared with the international scientific community has helped to further understanding.
So many sour grapes whenever the Aus/NZ comparison comes up, but I do agree they aren't really comparable.

Sorry- that should read covax initiative

@Forgetmenot157

Umm.. Because they essentially saw bad things starting to happen and cometely shut them selevs off along with NZ and said fuck that... We will let the rest of the world deal with that shit while we hide in our own bubble... Do nothing to help the global cause and then happily take the vaccine (but only the best, none of the British shit) once they are ready to come back and play with the rest of the world...

What's not to like? What should they have done to make you feel better - dedded more?

You're lying about the lack of contribution to the global cause.

Playing with the rest of the world? Don't all countries do that?

Give your head a wobble, mate.

🦘😷🐨

I’m in Melbourne. When our cases hit 700 ish a day in July we went into an incredibly hard lockdown. Masks worn everywhere you weren’t at home (yes even on a walk outside) not allowed to go more than 5km from your house without a permit (and they were checked) and only allowed out of your house for a handful of reasons. Lasted until the end of November. It was very hard, but it worked.

We also encourage people to get tested regardless of how mild symptoms are and you have to stay home until you get results. When there is a breakout they clamp down hard and fast to stop the spread. Everyone complies because we don’t want to do that lockdown again.

Apart from a few blips, most cases in the last few months have been in hotel quarantine so there’s not a huge rush to get vaccinated ASAP as there’s essentially no community transmission and people have mostly accepted that it’s just domestic travel this year.

I remember in September, we were down to under 100 cases a day (but still full restrictions) and I spoke to a friend in London who was heading off to Denmark for work. Meanwhile I couldn’t see a friend 6km away in a park... it just seemed surreal (London had much higher numbers at that stage too)

Part of it is down to the state leaders being very firm. I think if left up to our federal government the réponse would have been less controlled and more populist... but thankfully we mostly ignored the PM.

This is interesting:

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/dodged-a-bullet-melbourne-lockdown-may-have-prevented-more-deadly-covid-19-variant

@Forgetmenot157 the bulk of our vaccine plan is astra zeneca. It's slightly behind the Pfizer one in terms of approval because their results were released later.
We also dont have a mechanism that allows for emergency approval of vaccines like the UK did so we had to wait for the full approval process to run its course. And as others have said we have the luxury of being able to wait for this due to virtually non existent community transmission.

@Forgetmenot157

Umm.. Because they essentially saw bad things starting to happen and cometely shut them selevs off along with NZ and said fuck that... We will let the rest of the world deal with that shit while we hide in our own bubble... Do nothing to help the global cause and then happily take the vaccine (but only the best, none of the British shit) once they are ready to come back and play with the rest of the world...

There are always shitty comments like this on MN about Australia, but this ignorant shit post is the worst I've seen in my 10 years on MN.

You sound like a bitter little arsehole @Forgetmenot157

It didn't hit at the right time of year for us, it kicked off in March last year for lockdown, it was autumn in sydney and going towards winter when the pandemic began.

And yes the kids all went back to school this week after their 6 week summer holidays, hotels and campgrounds were booked out everywhere all holidays so tourism within Australia is holding up despite no international travel.

My son is back at surfing and swim lessons this week, we have a friends leaving party tomorrow which is capped at 30people, and I'm having dinner with my girlfriends on Wednesday.

It's pretty sad to see some of these comments that seem so bitter and angry that we shut our borders. We have a huge number of visitors and students from China in normal times and we really only escaped the early part of that transmission because all the uni students were back in China for the long holiday break, they generally return after Chinese New Year in late February when we could already see what was unfolding.

Another Melbourne resident here. We had our tough lockdown, compulsory masks and free testing sites everywhere. Pubs and gyms, schools and non essential shops all SHUT. Couldn’t believe in the UK pubs just closed a little earlier?!!! No bloody garden centres were open. Businesses that could work from home did. My girlfriend is HR where she works, and people had to get permits to keep on going to the office and she had to check the applications. 140 people insisted they were essential, under the guidelines only 4 actually were. Everything was take away, click and collect etc. There was federal and state government financial aid, and rent relief. That’s why we are in a good position now and I was able to have lunch with 3 friends today, husband can now go to his office ( though about 30% are still choosing WFH) and son can see a film with a friend tonight. Clear and strong messaging from a premier who couldn’t care about being everyone’s friend got us through, Victoria has been the worst hit state.
You’re a real whinger Forgetmenot157. Maybe think of all the people who have died or are permanently incapacitated due to the virus instead of spouting bitchy comments about a country I feel sure you’ve never visited and never will.

I'm in Western Australia and we haven't had a case of community transmission now in 10 months. Everything is absolutely normal, bar international travel. We have had hotel quarantine enforced since March last year.
It's kind of difficult to imagine how things are in countries in lockdown like UK.. I have lots of family over there as too many of my friends and it's very difficult to see how bad things are

Also masks here I'm not a common sight! I may have seen a handful of people in mosques in the last year. You would honestly look out of place if you were walking around wearing one

Voice typing fail... 😬

I live right near the beach in a small coastal town. We were absolutely hammered with tourists this summer. One or two people wear a mask here and there but otherwise things are back to normal here and have been for a while.

@Forgetmenot157

Your post wins the 🏆for the biggest pile of 💩 today.

Please keep your ignorant ill informed opinions to yourself.

Oh and agree that you need to give your head a wobble.

We had terrible bushfires last Christmas- smoke coated major cities like Sydney and Canberra for weeks and sadly people were killed. But It did mean that we had a major drop in international tourism and I think that prevented Covid taking hold and allowed us to contain what we had. I think they were terrified of it getting into the remote areas.

They have gone so hard on lockdown and testing - we have loads of testing sites, most offices have closed and told people to wfh and we have to sign into every venue we enter so there is tracing. Everyone landing from an international flight has had to go into hotel quarantine for TWO weeks at their own expense (literally not leaving the room) and I think there’s 30k Aussies stuck on foreign soil that can’t get on a flight as the numbers allowed in are so low. Rules can change very fast and that was tough over Christmas. But schools have largely stayed open outside of Melbourne and we can go to restaurants and cinemas just capacity is massively reduced - we went to the theatre this week and it was 50% capacity. I don’t think they can be making money but it’s keeping some things ticking over. The city centres and rural tourism are pretty decimated however.

@Forgetmenot157
We listened to the scientists
We invested in our public health systems
We thought about the needs of the population rather than our individual needs.
We elected leaders that could make decisive difficult decisions not baboons who were good only at sound bites and nothing else

But you keep telling us how pathetic we are in Australia. But I’ve just collected my daughter from school (it’s her first day back after school holidays and she had a brilliant day). I’m now getting ready for a weekend of catching up with friends and family, going to the gym and going to dinner at my favourite restaurant. Yep, you keep criticising Australia and keep telling us how poorly we’ve handled this pandemic.

Green eyed monster always seems to come out on Australia threads.

Our governments had completely different approaches. UK went for herd immunity, Australia went for eradication. No one could’ve known in March which would be the better option so bit of luck there I suppose. And yes we are a more remote country, but China is our major trading partner and there is a lot of travel between the two countries.

We also had our state premiers go hard which forced the federal governments hand. They’ve never been pro lockdown.

But yes life is fairly normal. Got back from a 10 day holiday earlier this week, eldest back at school today, youngest at ELC next week. We haven’t been in recession since September so a hard lockdown seems to be better for the economy than dragging it out.

But for those who go on about Australia shutting itself off. Do you realise we have an indigenous population? And those remote communities would’ve been utterly decimated if we’d allowed COVID to spiral out of control. It’s one of the reasons WA and the NT have had the strictest border rules. We have a duty to protect the small island populations around us too who don’t have the health care systems to cope.

The government is also providing funding for future COVID technologies as well as modifications to current vaccines to protect against future strains. So no, we’re not just sitting on our asses.

I'm in North Queensland and I have been almost completely unaffected by covid in my day to day lifr. My DC's daycare centre has been open throughout. Clubs and classes have continued. Shops, bars, restaurants etc have remained open. I don't think I've ever even seen someone wearing a mask since March last year.

Back in March 2020 we had about 6 cases of covid in my city which were all travellers returning from overseas. They were quarantined and then recovered. No one here has had it since. If it wasn't for the fact that our borders are closed and I have access to the internet, I wouldn't even think the pandemic was still going, in all honesty.

I have family in the UK and 2 of them have died from covid. Several others have survived but are now suffering long covid. Many of them have lost their jobs. One is not receiving the cancer treatment that they should be. It's fucking horrible. I didn't even get to say goodbye to the ones that died because obviously I can't get there, and it all happened so fast. The funerals were just done over the internet.

I think there are a lot of factors which contribute to this vast difference. It's too simplistic to say that one govt got it "right" and one got it "wrong". The UK was always going to be more vulnerable to this kind of thing. It's home to the busiest airport in the world, it's very densely populated, it's a stop over for a lot of long journeys, it relies heavily on public transport, the NHS was already crumbling and couldn't cope with anything extra... the list goes on and on.

I hope the vaccine is rolled out very quickly and that you start to see a big drop in the death rate. You've had a really shit time of it and whatever you want to blame it on, it's definitely not the fault of the general public who are the ones suffering right now.

Most of East Asia is the same, really.

People followed the rules and so there was no need for big lockdowns and stuff.

Re Australia:

• A genuine island - doesn't have trucked freight coming in constantly like UK (UK is an island but in practice it's not, definitely not in the same way as Aus or NZ)
• V low population density relative to UK which facilitates social distancing.
• Strict border controls from the start - it is very hard to go in or leave, even as a citizen. Australians have accepted that but possibly easier to accept as Australia is hours from everywhere so people were less used to just travelling abroad at the drop of a hat for either business or holidays. The economy was less dependent on it.
• Federal system so could close state borders and limit spread.
• Younger, healthier population

So a combination of good circumstances and good management.

Most of East Asia is the same, really. People followed the rules and so there was no need for big lockdowns and stuff.

Hmm- I'm in HK- my kids have been in school fewer than 8 weeks since last January. The beaches are literally boarded up as are all sports and recreation facilities. We have never had more than 150 cases a day but tbh I'd have been better off being in UK with 50,000 cases a day in terms of impact on my life.

Our local beach last week. Posting this just for @Forgetmenot157

"We will let the rest of the world deal with that shit while we hide in our own bubble... Do nothing to help the global cause and then happily take the vaccine (but only the best, none of the British shit) once they are ready to come back and play with the rest of the world..."

So what, they should have just sucked it up and all got the virus because the "rest of the world" (meaning, in the main, the west), because that's fairer?

Mental.