I completely get the irritation expressed by some UK posters here but there are a few shitty comments that are definitely going to put our backs up.
Like how we like to big note ourselves, and this whole competitive misery theme. And that we are ridiculous for slamming shut the state for 13 cases.
I get that we cannot compare ourselves to the disaster the UK is in. I really do, I have many UK friends , most in the NHS and hear from them often. I also think we should tone down our look at us with sports competitions, parties, Instagram happy happy shots. It's unfair. Plus fuck the sportspeople tossing our citizens off flights who are desperately trying to return. In no way, should the influx of celebrities and sports people have priority.We have failed our citizens badly and have no excuses for it.
But please try to understand that Melbournians are fragile. They experienced Australia's longest lockdown and were roundly abused for it by our Federal politicians and the Murdoch owned media, and it was relentless. They took a big hit for the whole country and got the shit kicked out them as a result.
We have locked down Victorian now because this is the Kent/ UK variant that is highly infectious and looks like requiring extended quarantine periods to 21 days as China, Hong Kong and Singapore have already realised and are implementing. We have also failed to acknowledge that the virus is airborne. This is another problem.
The previous lockdown Melbourne had was for the standard Covid , this variant is worse. Our quarantine facilities are smack bang in the centres of our major cities. An asymptomatic quarantine worker can go about their daily business in a heavily populated area, then we're all fucked if this is not caught in time.
Furthermore, the original outbreak in Melbourne hit in winter( and Melbourne is a notorious misery in winter here). The seasonality arguments re outbreaks I read here are wrong. We also has an outbreak in Sydney in summer. It makes little difference.
Quarantine is a Federal government responsibility hand balled to the states by our PM. He spent months spouting similar crap to Boris Johnson about opening up the economy and living with the virus which was fortunately overridden by our State Leaders.
Unlike the UK ( which I totally understand, given the mess your nation is in) we have zero vaccinations being given. I accept we should be low down on the list, as a high risk individual even I think this is fair. But even quarantine and frontline health workers have not been vaccinated. This leaves us with no alternative other than to lockdown cities and states so our test and trace system can get on top of it.
While the level of lockdowns are very similar, one difference I have noted that in the UK you may still have cleaners, tradespeople, gardeners and the like still attending your homes ( this may have changed now) but that was a key difference to us. Lawn mowing companies were even banned. Your key worker definitions seem quite different and your bastard government is not funding people to stay home to isolate.
Another point of difference has been the exceptionally limited number of symptoms you were originally encouraged to test for. This was out of sync with many countries globally. Our children were booted from school with runny noses/ gut upsets , sneezes etc months ago (still are) and could not return without negative Covid tests and zero symptoms. Mine have had three tests each , the whole family had to get tested each time, and our entire household had to isolate while waiting for the results- that does not seem the case in the UK.
We have been lucky. This is obvious. Slamming shut our borders was the single best decision our PM made, and suggestions are starting to be made to extend this to the UK / South Africa wholesale with no exceptions( again, fucking over our returning citizens).
Your government with its Eat Out to help out, opening for Christmas, limited testing criterion, it's complicated confusing messaging, its failure to sack and censure leaders breaking rules, its absolute failure to slam shut borders, and even now the ridiculous list of countries requiring compulsory quarantine doesn't include the USA ( ffs) is stupid. It should apply to every traveller incoming regardless and be much longer than 10 days. And using freight as an excuse for not doing this is a fallacious argument, this can be managed. The collision with Brexit a disastrous complication.
And lastly, from a regular reader of Mumsnet - there are constant multiple posts from people sharing how they are regularly breaching lockdown rules, holidaying overseas, planning holidays ( neglecting to understand that even vaccinated you can still spread the disease), advocating riots,and many of a similar theme. I recognise this is a small subset of the population but the repeated abuse for whatever a lockdown lover is, the use of the terms fear mongering, scare mongering to bully people is pretty poor, especially when the posters you abuse are usually logical, well informed people trying to make people understand the effect of their actions.
I wish you all the best. I hope your vaccination programme is effective and the hell you are all living in ends soon. And that you absolutely hammer the Tories when the next election arrives because it's their disgraceful leadership that has created this dumpster fire.