COVID-19 Virus.

[willedoo]

With virus control, governments are damned if they do and damned if they don't. There seems to be two options - lock everyone up and keep low case numbers with a big hit to the economy, or let it rip and accept the loss of many thousands of older people. Either way, people will be critical of which ever way they go. To make matters even more confusing, the treasurer is saying economic recovery hinges on strong virus control, but he is slamming state governments for doing just that. If we listened to the Feds, our death toll would probably be in the tens of thousands by now, but at least everyone would be making money as per usual.

Edited September 3, 2020 by willedoo

[Marty_d]

I think the public is generally on the side of closing down (unless you live near a border, or work in hospitality / tourism).  Our premier currently enjoys over 70% approval, but then again, we don't have a land border.

 

I reckon the idea of having hot spots instead of locking down entire states makes more sense.  Having said that though, I fully support WA being able to lock Clive Palmer out and I reckon every other Australian state should too.

[onetrack]

The COVID-19 App has quietly disappeared from the news and from Govt promotion, simply because it is a half-cocked effort, was never tested properly, and was rushed into use in a panic, without proper and adequate research.

The telling track record of the App is that it has not detected ONE single COVID-19 case, in all the time it has been in operation!!

Manual tracing has provided all the information needed to find suspected cases! - thus meaning the App is a typical Govt money-wasting exercise, and it's totally redundant!

 

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/07/08/covidfail-app/

[willedoo]

Screen grab from the Russian news tonight:

 

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by willedoo

[Marty_d]

7 hours ago, willedoo said:

Screen grab from the Russian news tonight:

 

 

I do think they went overboard.  If someone organises an anti-lockdown protest they should at least get a notice telling them to take it down within 2 hours or something OR ELSE they face arrest.

 

[old man emu]

Take a picture and add your own words that don't tell the full story.

 

 

[Subria]

The public arrest of that pregnant woman was disgraceful! Our corrupt authorities ought to be ashamed of themselves using handcuffs! It's times like these thug type actions I'm embarrassed to be an Australian!

[willedoo]

The Grattan Institute is advocating a zero cases strategy. Sounds like a pipe dream and doesn't seem compatible with the Federal Government's preferred option to open up our borders and wallets. State attempts so far to control the virus spread have met with a lot of opposition, so what's the answer? Some are talking open borders with hot spots locked down, more mass testing, better contact tracing etc.. If what we're doing now is not working, what do we need to do?

 

https://grattan.edu.au/report/how-australia-can-get-to-zero-covid-19-cases/

[old man emu]

On first viewing, it does look like a bit of OTT, but have you got the full facts about the incident. Do you know exactly what the woman did to escalate the incident to a degree that required physical restraint? Let's disregard the posting of an anti-lockdown message. That was something too trivial to warrant the attention of police. There has to be a backstory, and I for one, don't accept everything broadcast by the media, and in this case, the Russian media.

 

As for crying "pregnant", if she was so concerned about the safety of her foetus, why did she gt into a physical confrontation? Any sane would-be mother wouldn't do that.

[willedoo]

The Russian media love stories like that. RT has a branch here in Australia as well as most western countries. Because they always cop flak from our media and governments about civil and human rights issues, they are always on the look out to find something they can use to point the finger back at us and point out our hypocrisy. There's hardly a week goes by without a couple of stories on Australia, and not always negative.

 

As for the woman, the only news on it is that she was charged with incitement after trying to organise a protest gathering via facebook. I thought that in Australia, it was only illegal to hold a street march without a permit, but this makes it look like it's illegal under current laws to try to organise one even if it doesn't go ahead. If that's true, it's no wonder the Russians are having a chuckle, as it's only illegal to hold a march there if you have no permit, but not illegal to try organising one. In their mind, it's a one up on us.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/03/victoria-police-arrested-pregnant-woman-facebook-post-zoe-buhler-australia-warn-lockdown-protesters

 

It would be a shame if she had to carry a criminal record the rest of her life because of a facebook post.

Edited September 4, 2020 by willedoo

[Jerry_Atrick]

Incitement is a general offence that relates to a person inciting others to commit a crime - any crime. I have never head of the judicial college in Victoria, but this was the first item in a search: https://www.judicialcollege.vic.edu.au/eManuals/CCB/4440.htm.

 

A quick scan of the content sees that it is missing content. However, the defence may rely on the fact that it was a general call to arms rather than inciting a specific person/s to protest. Either way, pregnant or not, I think it is right that the police should have tried to stop the incitement, but without knowing the full facts, under the circumstances, a stern warning with any further attempts will result in prosecution, rather than charging her with incitement may have gone a long way in the PR war at the moment.

Also, unless she did actually to to incite, she may have the charge changed to attempted incitement.

[Old Koreelah]

On 3 September 2020 at 1:15 PM, willedoo said:

So what's happened to the mobile phone tracing app? There's almost no mention of it in the press these days. After all the promotion effort the government put into it, I would have thought it would be talked up big time given the number of cases in Victoria. Particularly if it had relevant value in contact tracing during the current second wave. Has it turned out to be a dud that nobody wants to talk about.

A good idea stuffed up by government rushing into it.

If they had convinced people to forget previous broken promises and put a bit more thought into the app it might have been a winner. Apparently it wouldn't work in the background (to save battery life) and only triggered an alert if you spent 15 minutes near a known carrier of the virus.

I believe a cough from a carrier passing a couple of meter away would be enough.

[red750]

Those protesters who claim there is no virus should be taken to a Covid-19 ward without PPE and invited to go in for an hour. Then we would see how strong their conviction was. If they refuse, they are not genuine, if they go in and catch it, they will learn the error of their stupidity. Their choice.
 

[red750]

Another 14 days of Stage 4. My son will probably be working from home till November.

[willedoo]

The Russian developers of the Sputnik V vaccine have published their data in The Lancet.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31866-3/fulltext

 

The head of the development team, Alexander Gintsburg of Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology said yesterday that the immune response documented among volunteers is sufficient to fight any level of Covid-19 infection. At this stage, they're talking about post-registration clinical trials lasting from two to six months and mass vaccination likely to start in late 2020 or early 2021.

[Subria]

Now who would have guessed grubby dictator Dan would continue his reign of terror for a few more weeks? Surprise surprise!

[red750]

[Subria]

Love it Red👍So true too😂

[Jerry_Atrick]

Couldn't decide whether to put this here or in the silly picture thread.. here seems more natural:

[Subria]

I wonder how all the Dan supporters are feeling now, still feeling the love are we?

Edited September 9, 2020 by Subria

[red750]

With you, mate. People are complaining about extended lockdown. Let's jack up the numbers and make it look bad.

 

Remember the good old days of newspapers, when people posted death and funeral notices? How many were there every day, 20 or 30? Nothing to do with Covid - people die, particularly the elderly. That's life.

[willedoo]

It will be interesting to see how AstraZeneca's monkey based vaccine pans out. We've signed on for 33 million doses which might be some time coming if it does turn out to be reasonably safe and effective. Back in June, AstraZeneca said they were aiming at 400 million public doses by the end of the year. There's still no definite  diagnosis on the ill trial patient that halted their stage 3 testing.

 

At this stage, it looks like only time will tell if we've backed the wrong horse. One issue with the monkey adenovirus and mRNA genetic vaccines is that they have never been used and approved before, so they are breaking new ground. On the other hand the human adenoviral vector-based vaccines being trialed by Russia, China and the U.S. are based on decades of known research and results. Johnson and Johnson are using the Ad26 vector, China the Ad5 vector with Russia using a platform based on both. The human adenoviral vector-based vaccines have the more proven safety record, so the big question will be effectiveness.

 

Brazil is saying they've had good trial results so far with the Chinese contender. Russian trials so far have indicated an immunity factor of 1.5 over that of a recovered patient. AstraZeneca's monkey adenovirus vaccine is said to deliver a 1.0 factor of immunity. Initially, AstraZeneca went for a single shot dose which was abandoned for a two shot booster method using the same platform. The Sputnik 5 vaccine uses the same two shot system but differs in that the booster is based on the second of the two vectors to give a better immune response. It's based on a modification of the successful Ebola vaccine that Russia developed, so a lot of the science was already done before Covid. As far as I know, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is single dose and showing good results as well.

 

 

[old man emu]

On 10/09/2020 at 1:26 PM, willedoo said:

One issue with the monkey adenovirus and mRNA genetic vaccines is that

didn't we get AIDS from monkeys?

[Jerry_Atrick]

COVID cases on steep increase in UK.. an R factor also above 1.. We are back to no bigger groups than 6 (except at pubs and schools.. both hallowed learning institutions, I guess)... almost 3,500 new cases yesterday and the weekend figures tend to get re-assessed upwards due to weekend reporting lags.

[red750]

For the non-Melbournians who may not know how tight our lockdown restrictions are, if you live alone like my son, you have not been able to visit a friend or relative, nor have them visit you. Your only contact has been by phone or social media. The only way around it was to organise to do your essential shopping ie supermarket, chemist, bank, at the same place and time, and your time out of home was limited to one hour.. Everyone has had to be home by 8.00 pm. You could not travel more than 5 km from home.

 

The restrictions will be eased tonight. You can now stay out till 9.00 pm. If you live alone, you can nominate one person to visit or visit you. If my son nomiated my wife as his contact, the rest of us in the house would have to go outside while he visited with his mother. Both in the house must wear masks. From 28 Sept, you can get a haircut or take your pet for grooming. Other restrictions will not be lifted until 28 Oct. subject to a 14 day average of less than 50 new cases per day.

 

Welcome to Melbourne 2020, the world's most livable city..