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Original poster

Australia in a mess - NZ with a plan

999 replies

StartupRepair · 13/08/2021 03:20

More than half of Australia is in lockdown now, sparked (imo) by the intransigence of the NSW Premier who ignored all warnings about Delta. Our procurement of and messaging around vaccines has been dangerously incompetent.
It all feels a bit bleak today. At least NZ seems to have a plan.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
18
L1ttleSeahorse · 22/08/2021 06:13

From reading the guardian Australia updates from the press conferences it does seem the tide is turning towards an acceptance that eventually they will be "living with " covid and more of a debate around the 70/80 %. It is interesting to see the move from "zero covid" to this.

TheKeatingFive · 22/08/2021 07:46

If we must lockdown for now to get as many people as possible vaccinated then we must. But lets not pretend that this is without cost. And lets not judge the people whose lives we destroy with that decision when they object

This is the crux of it for me. It still blows my mind that no one seems to have attempted to calculate the short and long term costs of locking down, economically, socially, psychologically. And used it properly to inform debate.

MaxNormal · 22/08/2021 08:19

They sent 9 police to hospital with injuries

They policed the protest in a shockingly heavy handed way including pepper spraying a child in the face. No wonder tensions flared.

Toesies · 22/08/2021 11:36

@MaxNormal

They sent 9 police to hospital with injuries

They policed the protest in a shockingly heavy handed way including pepper spraying a child in the face. No wonder tensions flared.

The child shouldn't have been there in the first place. Protesters were warned well in advance they should not turn up and police would be present in numbers if the did. His father was spouting some idiotic anti-vaxxer governmental-control nonsense - that says it all for me. I feel sorry for the child who got caught up in a dangerous situation.

PicsInRed · 22/08/2021 12:39

The child shouldn't have been there in the first place.

In theory yes, but that's thin end of the wedge stuff.

The protestors shouldn't have been in Tiananmen Square in 1989 either.

Protesters were warned well in advance they should not turn up and police would be present in numbers if the did.

T Square protestors were warned similarly.

TattyDevine · 22/08/2021 16:05

@Kokeshi123

NSW is now vaccinating like the clappers. Good! If they can roll it out really fast, Oz will get away with a low death toll.

If Oz and NZ do go all "endemic COVID-y" (not certain but possible), I wonder what the Zero Covid people on here will do when they want to point out examples of countries that Did It Right? Will they have to go the full-on "tankie" route and start suggesting that the People's Republic of China isn't really as bad as everyone's making out? Or will they be reduced to pointing at specks of rock in the Pacific Ocean, while saying "See? The plucky little island of Tavalaha (population 813) managed to keep COVID out altogether. ITS PERFECTLY SIMPLE."

😆😆😆
MRex · 22/08/2021 17:32

That's insane. Clearly easy to just have people step back and pop the dogs in the van themselves, is this covering up something else they did to the dogs?

TattyDevine · 22/08/2021 18:49

That's the worst "cos Covid" I've seen yet 🥲

Oysterbabe · 22/08/2021 19:05

Some of the stories are coming out of Australia are truly shocking.

MercyBooth · 22/08/2021 19:18

I dont know how the Australians are coping. I really dont Sad

Watapalava · 22/08/2021 19:48

Mercy are you having a laugh? They’ve had not even 1% of the restrictions we have here!

MercyBooth · 22/08/2021 19:55

I still think being stopped from seeing our families or anyone outside of our own homes for months was fucking cruel especially for single people.

Clearlyunhinged · 22/08/2021 21:13

You could be in a bubble if single though

PicsInRed · 22/08/2021 21:18

@Clearlyunhinged

You could be in a bubble if single though
Which was fine for those with family nearby, but not so useful for the many living far from them - also as most people were using the "bubble" for family, bubbling with friends wasn't usually realistic either.
AllHailTheGreatGoddess · 22/08/2021 21:25

Children maced, dogs shot, and police deciding what is law - any price for "safety" though?

Clearlyunhinged · 22/08/2021 21:28

PicsInRed

Oh don't I know it as sibling two hours away but you could bubble with a single friend though which is what happened here.

Original poster
StartupRepair · 22/08/2021 21:35

@watapalava people in Melbourne have had over 200 days of hard lockdown in the last 18 months. Covid has been a different experience for many people across Australia due to its size and the closing of state borders.

OP posts:
PicsInRed · 22/08/2021 21:57

@Clearlyunhinged

PicsInRed

Oh don't I know it as sibling two hours away but you could bubble with a single friend though which is what happened here.

Yes, unless single friend is bubbling with their own family, which they usually would be.
Clearlyunhinged · 22/08/2021 22:02

PicsInRed

It was London, plenty of single people without family close by

PicsInRed · 22/08/2021 22:10

@Clearlyunhinged

PicsInRed

It was London, plenty of single people without family close by

They're not all friends with each other though and not all in London ...bubbles between singles rely on two close friends who have no family and no other bubble. Realistically, a lot of people living far from family would have done a long hard 2020 with no bubble and a bleak winter.

The point being: UK lockdown was long and hard.

HarrietOh · 22/08/2021 22:37

Single people in London who were house sharing couldn’t form a bubble outside of that house…

MercyBooth · 22/08/2021 22:41

And if i remember rightly they wernt allowed to be in a bubble at all until June/July last year so they had already done four months without one. Alone.

bluetongue · 22/08/2021 22:41

[quote StartupRepair]@watapalava people in Melbourne have had over 200 days of hard lockdown in the last 18 months. Covid has been a different experience for many people across Australia due to its size and the closing of state borders.[/quote]
I’m in Adelaide and it’s been easier for us here than for most in the UK. That doesn’t mean I support the ongoing pursuit of Covid zero and I also recognise how others interstate have suffered, in part to protect the rest of the states.

I’d hate to be in Western Australia. State border closures need to go once vaccine rates are high enough. We’re one country and it’s disgusting how some state premiers are prepared to keep their populace imprisoned within their borders ‘for their own good’. Worse still, plenty of people that live there are loving it. If the South Australia premier tries this stunt I’ll seriously consider moving states.

BunsyGirl · 22/08/2021 22:52

@MercyBooth You are correct. My dad lives alone so was on his own for months between March and June. Cruel and unnecessary. We were quite happy to break the rules for him but he was too scared.