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.

In the end, IMO most governments will get to the point, if they aren’t already, that their main/only aim is to protect their health system from collapse. They’ll adjust continually according to that aim, it’s what might bring in further restrictions in the UK. Of course, the burden on the health system is a complicated mix of factors, with Covid and non-Covid factors all needing to be balanced within your own particular system.

I’ve come to see every country’s reaction to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic as a process akin to the five stages of grief. The U.K. got to the acceptance phase too fast (IMO), skipping over a couple of the steps in a way that has left some us feeling a bit traumatised and out of sync.

Australia and NZ got stuck in denial for a very long time. Much of Oz now seems to be shifting into anger and bargaining while NZ is still in denial.

@IndigoC

I’ve come to see every country’s reaction to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic as a process akin to the five stages of grief. The U.K. got to the acceptance phase too fast (IMO), skipping over a couple of the steps in a way that has left some us feeling a bit traumatised and out of sync.

Australia and NZ got stuck in denial for a very long time. Much of Oz now seems to be shifting into anger and bargaining while NZ is still in denial.

I've thought along similar lines, except in mine it's the U.K. that keeps bouncing around through the stages but always goes back to denial.

And NZ that have reached acceptance and are doing what's necessary even though it's hard.

@PrincessNutNuts

That’s totally fair. I bounce back and forth between which approach is better in the long term. A lot depends on future variants and vaccines (and treatments), which is impossible to predict.

I guess the thing most of us are grieving is our past lives. Our 2019 lives. NZ sort of still have theirs but it’s always on the precipice of being lost again, especially with Delta. Here in the U.K. some people have gone back to living like its 2019 but you’re right that it’s just another form of denial.

Nz haven't got to acceptance yet have they? Thats the "living with" stage...

[quote IndigoC]@PrincessNutNuts

That’s totally fair. I bounce back and forth between which approach is better in the long term. A lot depends on future variants and vaccines (and treatments), which is impossible to predict.

I guess the thing most of us are grieving is our past lives. Our 2019 lives. NZ sort of still have theirs but it’s always on the precipice of being lost again, especially with Delta. Here in the U.K. some people have gone back to living like its 2019 but you’re right that it’s just another form of denial.[/quote]
Why is it "another form of denial"? Why wouldn't you live the life you want to live whilst you can?

I am living 2019. Happy for others to stay in fear.

@PileOfBooks

Nz haven't got to acceptance yet have they? Thats the "living with" stage...

I think acceptance is realising you can't "live with it" and that you have to fight it, hard.

I think acceptance is realising you can't "live with it" and that you have to fight it, hard.

That’s pretty much the opposite of acceptance, in fairness.

Hmmm no.

Thats how it starts.

Umm thinking you can get to zero covid from a position like ours seems a bit denial certainly no other country has. New Zealand not so much seems possible with their current levels but they are in denial about opening up to the world yes but I assume they will just stay shut off. Az os the much more interesting case because of the different states do you shut Melbourne down forever to get zero covid overall?! I myself think oz is the most fucked on covid, not genuinely zero - too many lockdowns and long lockdowns - but seems to be Considered zero by those states that are! How you square that circle of difference I don’t know!

Accpetance is anything but deciding you cant live with it and fighting it hard. That is definitely still denial, anthropomorphising Covid so that there is a belief that humans can fight it and win. Because we cant, we wont win. If anything it has shown it can adapt and come back.

I do agree (indeed I think have referenced on other threads) its like the stages of grief. I also think we are in both acceptance and denial at the moment and oscillate between the two

I think you have it the wrong way round princess. How is zero Covid acceptance? Maybe acceptance that international travel as you once knew it is over?
Far better to accept that Covid is here to stay in the world, we’ll all catch it probably multiple times and most people will be fine.
That’s where I’m at. My daughter has it right now and has a slight headache but otherwise fine and doesn’t seem to have passed it to me but if I catch it, I’m double jabbed so, meh.

The GG has come out and said that if premiers maintain closed borders at 80% they will go to the high court.

What's the GG?

Blessex

I am living 2019. Happy for others to stay in fear.

I agree! You always seem to be on my wavelength

Not that I wasn't very scared to start with but has definitely morphed into acceptance. I'm lucky though, able to be immunised thankfully.

@Cyrsethatballoon yep am double immunised too and now happily living my life as normal again. Back to the office. No masks. And out clubbing tomorrow. Happy my children doing their sports and schooling too. This is what life is about. Balance.

This is what life is about. Balance.

Exactly!

[quote Blessex]@Cyrsethatballoon yep am double immunised too and now happily living my life as normal again. Back to the office. No masks. And out clubbing tomorrow. Happy my children doing their sports and schooling too. This is what life is about. Balance.[/quote]
That sounds amazing. I fear we’ll never get to that point in Australia now. The fear used is just too high and they’re too quick to enact the police state to control us. Lots of us are waking up now but how do we make our voice heard without being labelled anti science or a conspiracy theorist?

I heard the SA premier on the radio this morning. He’s not as extreme as Mark McGowan or Anna P but he still pretty much admitted free travel and fully open borders pretty will never happen again.

There needs to be a High Court challenge to all this eventually. I can sort of live with not being able to travel internationally but not having free travel within my own country even after vaccination targets have been met is outrageous.

bluetongue

That's awful, surely it can't really happen long term? I'm sure the mood will start to shift as it did here xx

@bluetongue that’s awful - I just don’t see how people can say that if they take even a cursory glance at what’s happening overseas with people going back to normal, pretty much.

I was originally going to go to Tasmania this week for a holiday and changed my mind. Now I’m spending my week off at home.

Now I wish I’d listened to the ‘just fucking do it’ part of my brain instead of being ‘sensible’.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful not to be locked down in Sydney or Melbourne right now but I regret not taking advantage of the opportunity and living my life when the opportunity was there.

I imagine it's only when Covid spreads across these states that they will realise it's futile to remain in lockdown forever. It's just a matter of time, meanwhile I guess we just watch with mild amusement at the warring premiers knowing the zero Covid life ship has sailed.

Watching Dan Andrews’ about turn has truly been something to watch. Now people in Melbourne are stuck with this awful restrictive lockdown which he has accepted both isn’t working, and that some of the measures are actually purely designed to punish people and make the police’s lives easier.
How this man is still in power in a country full of people who I assumed didn’t take any crap astounds me.
Plus the figures he’s given to support the ongoing restrictions are wrong, then you have Anastasia giving 100% wrong medical advice about children. It’s worrying that people aren’t questioning this more.