Australia/New Zealand New Thread

[Kokeshi123]

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-australia-still-liberal-democracy/619940/

Intrastate travel within Australia is also severely restricted. And the government of South Australia, one of the country’s six states, developed and is now testing an app as Orwellian as any in the free world to enforce its quarantine rules. People in South Australia will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

This is... really really disturbing, honestly.

I grew up admiring (and, let's be honest, envying) Australians because as a nation, they always came across as a down-to-earth, fearless lot who had a healthy skepticism of authority while also being basically very civic/community minded.

What's gone wrong?

Pfizer offered sufficient vaccines to do all of Australia early, like Israel, because the data would have been useful but our graceless and incompetent government refused.

@StartupRepair

Pfizer offered sufficient vaccines to do all of Australia early, like Israel, because the data would have been useful but our graceless and incompetent government refused.

Australia have shut borders. I don't think that it was a good candidate......

I hear the UK is sending Australia 6m Pfizer vaccines as part of a "swap" and that they will be on their way tomorrow but not seen any mention of what the UK is getting in return!

I'm pleased the UK is helping our Aussie friends anyway and hope this helps you guys a bit.

Apols realise this is old news and australia is sending 4m back to the UK one it has ample supplies.
I do think UK should be prioritising sending extra vaccines to countries that have almost none, but I suppose they would have to just send without any promise of getting any back, and apparently that's not the right thing to do

I hear the UK is sending Australia 6m Pfizer vaccines as part of a "swap" and that they will be on their way tomorrow but not seen any mention of what the UK is getting in return!

UK is getting Pfizer but later.

Based on published/leaked EU export information, we have got roughly 22 million doses of unused Pfizer and Moderna. Some of them (Pfizer) will expire over next couple of months. Since JCVI has not yet given a go ahead for either boosters or vaccines for teenagers, it makes sense to swap unused doses for vaccine deliveries in late Oct-Nov.

@Wakeupin2022 it was indeed seen by Pfizer as a good candidate as a virtually closed system
Unfortunately our government did not get on board or we would have been vaccinated much earlier.

@wintertravel1980
That's good to hear. Fairy sure we have or will have a fair bit more Pfizer/Moderna to spare in the coming months unless there is a massive booster programme. Some serious protectionism going on.

Why on earth didn't they do pfizer when they could then?

PileOfBooks

Good question

What happens if the police turn up and you are where you are meant to be? Do you get punished for not responding to the app or not being on quarantine?

As I said, our dickish government was ungracious in the negotiations so Pfizer walked away. Our prime minister even said 'its not a race.' Now our government is scrounging about the world trying to grab any vaccines almost out of use by dates.

@Mybalconyiscracking

What happens if the police turn up and you are where you are meant to be? Do you get punished for not responding to the app or not being on quarantine?

I’m wondering if they ping you during the night? What if you don’t wake up?

Personally I’m all for it if it means I can get home to see my family. At this point I’d happily wear an ankle bracelet! 😂

The isle of mann put prople in prison for not quaranteening.

New Zealand also reported to be secret deals with a “friendly nation” for extra doses too.
Is Boris riding in to save the day in NZ as well? I bet he’d love that
If not U.K. then maybe another European country.
Unlikely to be US I think

Pre kids if I'd been jetlagged I'd have slept through any text message/phone call/knock at the door. Jet lag used to cause me such a heavy sleep. Now I wake at the slightest thing unfortunately.

After reading what countries like the UK, US & Europe went through we deal with it

I’d 1000 x choose what we (uk) went through, than the crazy stuff I’m reading on this thread.

There was some discussion on the previous thread about hospital rates, particularly in NSW, which makes this very interesting IMO

And, of course, it’s not just about the COVID patients, but also the other patients from strokes, car crashes and also “elective surgery” (often not elective at all).

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/04/exclusive-covid-19-hospitalisations-three-times-higher-than-reported#mtr

The wonderful Janey Godley has been watching Gladys. twitter.com/JaneyGodley/status/1433708773873438721?s=19

[quote KowhaiWhy]There was some discussion on the previous thread about hospital rates, particularly in NSW, which makes this very interesting IMO

And, of course, it’s not just about the COVID patients, but also the other patients from strokes, car crashes and also “elective surgery” (often not elective at all).

www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/09/04/exclusive-covid-19-hospitalisations-three-times-higher-than-reported#mtr[/quote]
Given what I've read about the very attentive care given to Covid+ patients in NSW compared to here I'm guessing the vast majority of "hospital-in-the-home patients" would never see the inside of a hospital in just about any other country right now. Yes people will occasionally die at home, this is because some unfortunate people suffer very rapid deterioration before they can seek help.

I read in the Australian press that there are numerous covid positive children in NSW hospitals right now for socialisation reasons -- they're there because their parents are admitted, not because they are very sick. This doesn't sound like something you do if your hospitals are melting down.

10-15% of people who get C19 should not that end up in hospital. If they are then that is an extremely conservative hospitalisation strategy, as we've seen in Singapore. There is an enormous amount of data out there that will disprove that sort of scaremongering.

In the UK there have been 240,182 cases recorded in the last 7 days and 6,565 admissions. That's roughly 2.5%. Even if you double that due to Australia's lesser vaccination rate (although your vulnerable are now mostly vaccinated), that's still 5%. And that doesn't account for that fact that many mild cases in the UK are not captured in the testing.

In the UK I was to be offered hospital the moment my SATs went below 95 (Vulnerable but not ecv) so it isn't even like we are actively keeping people out of hospital either...

And yes 1 in 3 thought to be asymptomatic. There really are many more than those who test.

@IndigoC There are also hotels set aside for people who don't want be at home with Covid, but are also not ill enough to be in hospital. (These are separate from quarantine hotels.) There is one of these near me.

I am in SA. Love the QR check ins because I would never remember where I had been. Pretty happy with the home quarantine option- better than a hotel and means we can have much bigger numbers and get more travel happening when we aren’t reliant on hotel spaces. Would be nice to see family
I really don’t feel imposed upon at all. Life is easy here. And we are alive and well.

I’m very much a liberal and yet I’m probably broadly supportive of the app for home quarantine as I would love to travel back to the U.K. but can’t do quarantine with two children.
Once we’re at 80% vaccinated they’ve said we won’t have restrictions on travel any more but personally I think even a short home quarantine would be quite a good idea.

I’m not a doctor, so not keen to venture judgment on who should be in hospital and when … happy to leave that to the experts 🤷🏼‍♀️.

But the article does state many are HITH patients are on oxygen, which seems quite a serious treatment without dedicated medical care.

Not to mention the issues for paramedics - with emergencies waiting half an hour before they can even send an ambulance out, and paramedics driving 100km (90 minutes) to people suffering cardiac arrest (or in the unfortunate example in the story, the man who had “degloved” his leg in a fall from a ladder 😬.

It scarcely seems ideal. And there is the peak to come yet.