Londonrake wrote:Looks like one Aus miner left a quarantine hotel for Alice Springs carrying Delta and now it’s cropping up in all the major cities.
Australia has a pretty poor vaccination record. 5% I think.
I don’t believe the “Fortress Aus” idea’s ever really been credible.
Outbreak is very minor at present, if you can even call it an outbreak right now as that might be a far stretch. They are trying to track dozens of miners on their R&R who are on fishing boats or camping in remote spots. That's what miners do on their R&R.
And a Cabin Crew member came out positive after she did 5 sectors between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth. So all those cities in lock down until all the passengers and close contacts are tested.
The vaccination process in Australia will not proceed very fast because the messaging is mixed. Australians are now the least trusting of the vaccinations in the world.
And today, Australian Government just said all medicos will be indemnified if anyone comes down with severe reactions, complications such as blood clotting or dies from the vaccine.
Australians, are more worried about the vaccine than they are of COVID.
And the other thing going on is that massive supplies of Pfizer and Moderna will not come till October. So it could be people are waiting till that happens. No one knows.
All I can say is that there is no urgency from the people. When you ask anyone, the standard reply is they will wait.
The other thing that is perplexing is that the authorities have already said that vaccinations will not stop COVID. They are saying it will reduce symptoms though, and reduce the chance from dieing of COVID. And the reporting of complications has been the most transparent in the world so we got to give credit to our authorities for that. Our Pharmaceutical Watchdog has been very boisterous and not shy from even banning or taking on the big Pharma companies and challenging their claims.
But when we look at the global data in countries like Cyprus, where most of the population are vaccinated, and COVID is on the increase again and people will start to die again, Australians are scratching their heads and coming up with their own conclusions.
As for the current outbreak. The last few days we are getting 18 to 20 community cases in Sydney.40 odd cases nationwide (including returning expats in quarantine). It's caused a nationwide locked down. Only Adelaide and Tasmania not in lock down right now.
The response, once again, has been phenomenal with thousands of people being tracked and tested if you are a close contact.
We have seen this before a few times, and in all those times it got snuffed out pretty quickly. Even the massive Melbourne breakout which was really a serious one in comparison to this one, was eventually snuffed out.
Policy seems to be eradication once again.
Borders are still closed to all countries except New Zealand who are more or less opeating like their own bubble.
We still have International Flights. Most of them empty coming in other than some Australian citizen expats coming home, and approved workers. Flights leave empty other than Australian Exports. How the airlines are making money is anyone's guess. I guess fresh produce, seafood, etc are lucrative for the exporters and airlines.
Oh and the Flight Crews are not allowed to have contact with Australians. Sound like North Korea...That's how Australia is operating right now. A little hermit kingdon.
We should start calling our PM our Supreme Leader and erect massive busts everywhere.
