Australia in a mess - NZ with a plan

[StartupRepair]

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.

We don’t use lft’s here, I know there was talk of it but PCR is the go to.

that is crazy blue - I bet that changes though
kids do them here - my 7 year old nephew does them himself!
yes ok you do need to supervise a bit as a parent but not much

Teens soon realized that you could trick the test by using lemon juice or similar (tactics shared on tik tok of course) so you have to watch for that. Teens wanted positive tests to get sent home from school!

[quote Ineedsomebody]Meanwhile in Australia. Queensland premier closes to all interstate nsw, act and Vic.
There are so many people effectively homeless now after selling up to relocate. Absolutely heartless.
www.google.com.au/amp/s/australianaviation.com.au/2021/08/queensland-to-shut-down-hotel-quarantine-for-two-weeks/amp/[/quote]
Relocation from hotspots is going to be paused for 2 weeks, not forever. It's a major inconvenience for sure, but I wouldn't say they were "homeless".

They're trying to sort out a bookings process for hotel quarantine and to make sure they have capacity for evacuees from Afghanistan.

Sorry but I think homeless is accurate. They interviewed a person at the airport that missed the cutoff by minutes and he said he didn’t know where he was going to stay.
Another person said he and his kids were staying in their car.

If the hotels are at capacity then why can’t they quarantine at their home? This is acceptable for politicians to do but not the general public. It’s all so wrong.

apple.news/AH_XOi0aJRieyy3lZgMekwQ

@disco123 I was going to say - I think it’s a bit rich to say everything is normal in qld when they have made people homeless rather than letting people cross the border. Let alone the poor sods who live on the tweed and are having their lives ripped apart because a mad Premier is playing some kind of insane secession cosplay.

I’ve flown 16000kms to be here and will leave having not seen my qld based brother as he is effectively in another country. Not normal at all.

@flyornofly that must be incredibly hard but any cursory look at Australia in the last 18 months must have shown that we are always at risk of sudden border closures. In the absence of proper quarantine facilities and will h 25% vaccinated it is the only tool available to limit the spread and enable some people at least to have relatively normal lives.

Guardian blog saying nsw hospitals are struggling. If this is before they unlock ... its only going to get worse isn't it ?😔.

Does seem Gladys has been talking about move to hospitalisation/deaths rather than covid cases. And Scott Morrison is talking about living with. I guess it will take time to filter thru. I'm still seeing fb status shocked that schools would open up even at 80% vacced...

I don’t know how hospitals are struggling when we’ve had 18 months to prepare for this. Absolute negligence in my opinion.

@StartupRepairI know and was expecting it. But it’s ludicrous to suggest that things are “normal” in australia when millions of families can be cut off from loved ones on a whim, and if you do manage to travel you can be barred from returning to your home. In any other country that would be a national scandal and simply wouldn’t be allowed to happen. Just shows how deep the covid-zero cult is in australia to my mind - you can literally cut someone off from their home in service to zero covid - acceptable short term at the beginning of the pandemic but this has been going on for coming up to 2 years.

Even the people in Qld and WA saying “we’re fine!” I think show a massive misunderstanding of what normal life is like, and also a misapprehension that it can stay like that forever.

[quote Flyornofly]@disco123 I was going to say - I think it’s a bit rich to say everything is normal in qld when they have made people homeless rather than letting people cross the border. Let alone the poor sods who live on the tweed and are having their lives ripped apart because a mad Premier is playing some kind of insane secession cosplay.

I’ve flown 16000kms to be here and will leave having not seen my qld based brother as he is effectively in another country. Not normal at all.[/quote]
Yes, I did say apart from travel related restrictions. I am also separated from my family. Clearly that is not normal. But the poster was talking about schools, shops opening up etc and I was explaining that that kind of day to day stuff is not closed here.

@Ineedsomebody

Sorry but I think homeless is accurate. They interviewed a person at the airport that missed the cutoff by minutes and he said he didn’t know where he was going to stay. Another person said he and his kids were staying in their car.

Its whole other level homeless - it's not really homeless, but being made to live as if you are whilst somehow trying to keep paying for the home you do have whilst not being able to access it or your job

So in the Guardian Blog looks like in question time the reason they wont establish a "centre for disease control" and follow international best practice- is that they are already superior to UK/USA (look at the deaths etc etc.) Hmmmmm!

Also this jem -

"The main difference between Australia and the UK and the US systems?

The federation and jurisdictions largely united on what to do." 15 11

Really!? The states in Australia seem pretty accusatory of each other in a way we haven't seen (presumably due to different way we run etc )

[quote disco123]@MRex

1. is being done
2. ICU capacity has been increased. Future lockdowns will be based on local hospital capacity. So even at 70/80, IF there is any danger of being overwhelmed, local measures will be put in place.
3. kids are in school unless they're in a current outbreak. Letting covid spread uncontrolled in schools would be an extremely BAD idea right now and would result in unnecessary deaths
4. I agree only necessary measures should be in place, but id rather err on the side of too strict than not strict enough
5. home quarantine for the vaccinated has been suggested for the next phase. There will be an increase in caps as well[/quote] This article suggests #2 is not correct: amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/26/nsw-hospitals-warning-nurses-and-staff-flat-out-and-exhausted-as-covid-numbers-soar. Just 23 in mechanical ventilation beds in Westmead. That's not large numbers for your main covid hospital, it's the same number as Guy's and St Thomas in London right now! Most hospitals around England have at some point during waves had that many in mechanical ventilation beds, and the large hospitals had far more. Lockdowns take weeks of hospital numbers still growing until they work. It's actually really frustrating to watch this; Australians really need to look outside their borders, actually understand what is coming when you open, and prepare accordingly.

No they dodon'need to look outside Australia for any evidence of best prsctice handling covid once it hits... because the Australian way is already superior 🙄. Was the Question Time response to that.

Don't. Not dodon. Grrr.

This is the thing. Australian politicians seem to have not prepared the country for covid, practically or mentally. How??! It’s been 18 months. It makes it look like the current situation will continue. I know some people it effects less and they don’t mind that idea. NSW lockdown at very low cases hoping I assume that delta would go away. Is it being made clear it’s not going anywhere? If so, when will the lockdown be released and other measures be used? I understand the 4 stage plan but in each stage they say that lockdowns will be used to a greater or lesser extent, so the question is when will this end. Sydney locked down at 18 cases or something like that. Do they have to get to fewer than that to be released?

I’m surprised that the caps on entry to Australia by Australians is even legal (not saying it isn’t legal im just surprised because it is such a fundamental infringement by the state).

All week it does seem SM has been plugging "living with" covid once they get to 70/80%. I'm not sure if they've made clear what that will look like.

It’s so clear that even hard lockdowns don’t work against delta. Victoria’s cases so far are doubling about every 3 days, and New Zealand hasn’t been able to bring them down either, despite drastic crackdowns.
I wanted to look at the figures comparing days 1-20 in NSW and 1-20’in Victoria to see what the cases were like in comparison but I haven’t had time yet.
Either way, the hardcore lockdown in Melbourne isn’t working yet and so what do they do then? His whole rhetoric is based around “crushing” cases.
On a good note, my children are pretty happy that they will be able to meet with some friends in the school holidays but a lot of people are saying our new “freedom” (meeting in a group of 5 vaccinated people) is woeful.

‘The federation and jurisdictions largely united on what to do’. Lol. They’ve hidden that well.

That surprised me too!! They still all seem in differing directions.

@newstart1234 some Australians abroad have taken it to the European Court of human rights. It is yet to be heard in the Hague. By the time it gets through maybe the borders will be open again. Wrt people not being able to leave the country, I did some research as I'm pretty disturbed that if I had to go back to help my parents I might not be allowed to leave again. It seems like only people with "active" cases of trying to leave aus can take the government to court. Therefore none of the cases has progressed enough to actually get challenged in court. Really all the govt need to do is approve your departure and they can avoid legal challenge. Disturbing.

@Ozgirl75

It’s so clear that even hard lockdowns don’t work against delta.

But they did in Brisbane only a few weeks ago...

Could the (weirdly) successful lockdown of Brisbane be giving people a false sense of hope/security regarding lockdowns?