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.

No, I said before, not a blanket 80%, but also protection for indigenous communities who may not get there, or who will need different motivations to get there. My friend is senior in the WA communities dept, there's a number of programs underway, but there's no simple or quick fixes.

@DetMcNulty

The point is lockdowns ( preferably short and sharp) are only options at moment until vax can be done, and the other mitigations are finalised, without impacting the people who benefit the least from opening up borders.

Sort of. Lockdowns reduce rather than prevent spread, surge testing definitely helps a lot. Lockdown fatigue can lead to people disengaging though, which is a huge risk when you haven't as a country yet faced actual large covid outbreaks yet, and those will certainly come after opening up. You will need a bit of public goodwill remaining for that stage and not just "I'm alright now mate" from the double jabbed healthy ones. I don't understand why the prep work to look after actual unwell people isn't a bigger priority, hopefully the gaps identified in Dubbo will be used to expand prep work for all the isolated communities in all states before it's needed.

I think we will get there though, and the resources companies will make sure it happens (not for altruistice reasons).

At some point, even with 80% vaccinated, people in Australia are going to have to get used to Covid being endemic. It's simply stupid to go for zero Covid.

I only mean the above for WA, where mining and oil and gas are the key economic drivers.

@bluetongue

Just been reading some of The Age / SMH Covid blog.

My god some Victorians are lockdown zealots. They are outraged by photos of people on the beach or walking in a park in Sydney without masks. They just won’t be happy until everyone is as miserable as they are.

Then there’s the usual hand wringing about long Covid, Covid in children and best of all long Covid in children. It’s as though before Covid nobody ever got sick or died.

Oh we have them here in U.K. too. It is eerily familiar to our press this time last year with photos of crowded beaches in Dursley Dor and Bournemouth plus all the protests and people losing their minds about it. We were warned our second wave was due any moment but it never arrived ( well it did but due to the alpha variant in December not because lots of people went to the beach on a sunny day in August).

It does sound so familiar

I really had an issue with the idea people in U.K. were very different to those in Aus, pretty much throughout this. At one point a poster talked about ‘inner fortitude’ the Aus possess over us.

I’m both so I know one side of my life hasn’t built this up, a few Aussies here laughed but really the comparative narrative was silly at times.

Anyone in the same situation has huge sympathy though from me. It really is awful.

I’m in australia atm (am an Aussie who’s been living in the U.K. for 20 years) - ran the gauntlet and made it into fortress australia and went straight from 2 weeks hotel quarantine into lockdown in melbourne and have been here ever since.

The whole country is BANANAS and it’s been like stepping back in time going here. Utterly dysfunctional - residents being locked out of their homes indefinitely for having the misfortune to travel to another state. There is a shanty town popping up on the vic/NSW border ffs. South Australian Olympians having to do another 14 days of quarantine after completing 2 weeks of hotel quarantine in NSW - I mean wtaf. Millions of people locked down for tiny numbers of cases. Nothing, and I mean nothing, in the news other than covid. An utterly ridiculous mindset that if people just locked down harder/stronger/better/longer this will all go away. And that’s before you get to the discussion about the international border, where australia has shamefully abandoned hundreds of thousands of its own citizens.

I am grateful to be here with my family, but will be equally grateful to leave. This is not a country anyone with an international outlook wants to be in right now (which is clearly reflected in the outbound migration figures - massive brain drain in the last 12 months, limited only by the fact that any are locked in and haven’t been given permission to leave the Hermit Kingdom).

What is the reason why Australia won't give permission to leave? I sort of understood when they said people had to have a valid reason or go for over 3 months, to limit holiday jaunts, but I can't get my head around citizens living overseas needing permission to leave. They're going, they can't pass on covid from outside the country.

They are trying to create uncertainty for people like me trying to come in - threatening to deny permission to exit means you are less likely to try to visit in the first place. You also have to sign a waiver as part of the exit permission application that you will not be allowed to use any consular services if you leave, which is disgusting. It’s shameful, like so much else of the treatment australia has meted out - being Australian is left at the border.

Fly I think I remember your thread, you made it!

Is it hard for you to leave? Ie how long to wait

@flyornofly its really interesting hearing from someone whose been through it in th UK and is now in Oz.

Are you planning to come back? Will you be able to?

Our Australian friends are surprised we arent vaccinating kids here/that we'd risk their lives sending them to school...

[quote L1ttleSeahorse]@flyornofly its really interesting hearing from someone whose been through it in th UK and is now in Oz.

Are you planning to come back? Will you be able to?

Our Australian friends are surprised we arent vaccinating kids here/that we'd risk their lives sending them to school...[/quote]
That's just hysteria though. Kids are so so so so unlikely to die from Covid. Flu and meningitis pose a much more serious threat, not that anyone seems to care because it's not fucking Covid 🙄

@MarshaBradyo yes I made it! I took my kids in the end, quarantine was tough but I would be losing my mind right now if they weren’t with me with all the permission changes so glad I did it. And heart melting to see them with my family. Very precious time.

I will try to leave start of September before the transition period ends for the exit permissions. Have my application in now - have to give them copy of mortgage, employment contract etc. Ridiculous.

@L1ttleSeahorse yes def coming back! If I’m allowed to

Fly Oh tg you took them with you. And so lovely to spend time with family.

Really interesting to hear how it is

Glad you made it back to Australia fly. I remember your thread, had loads of Aussies trying to dissuade you from even trying it so I’m glad you ignored them
Southern Australia in particular seems to have collectively lost their minds, the way they have treated their Olympians and their cricketers is shameful. I’d refuse to ever represent the country again in their shoes.

@sashagabadon yes it’s SA and WA who are the worst offenders altho really qld and Vic have been no better at times. Really feel for those who are stuck outside the state they need to be in - like that awful case of the Belgian guy who flew in to see his dying mother in Perth - of course he couldn’t fly directly to WA as they refuse to take any international flights, so was stuck in melbourne in quarantine and WA refused to put him on a plane to Perth as it “wouldn’t be safe”. So his mum died while he was sitting in a hotel in melbourne.

Disgusting stuff. And most Australians just shrug and say well that’s what’s required to keep us safe. Ugh.

@MarshaBradyo it’s even more bonkers here than it seems from the outside in!

@ExmoorValley oh I agree. There are (very) educated people who I am surprised would think that. Was curious if from Fly's position that's a mainstream view there (as part of media I guess?)

My husband wants to see his family but we couldn't risk not being able to fly back (presumably the idea.)

So glad you made it back @flyornofly I remember your posts.

I have also wondered about how all the tourism-dependent companies/people in Aus/NZ are coping

Would love to hear more about your experience @flyornofly

I just googled Sydney Covid and ‘Literally a War’ came up.

Took me back to our war analogy days last year. It feels sped up but really familiar.

I suppose the uncertainty impact makes some sense. It's interesting to hear your experiences @flyornofly. It's a bit shocking to see soldiers going into Sydney. I'm surprised the state borders can be kept closed without people sneaking back to their homes.

@MarshaBradyo yes it all feels very May 2020

@L1ttleSeahorse sure! I mean it mostly consists of staying at my parents home and walking my parents dog along the beach with a mask on despite me being double vaxxed and the nearest covid case being probably 50kms away . Definitely doesn’t involve anything nice like seeing friends or going to dinner or taking the kids to any activities! Because you know we’re CRUSHING AND KILLING THIS VIRUS TO KEEP AUSTRALIA SAFE.

I also remember your post @flyornofly and am so glad you ignored everyone telling you not to go. Well done, precious time you and your parents will treasure.

It's mind-boggling about wearing a mask on the beach. I don't understand the reasoning for that at all.