COVID-19 Virus.

[willedoo]

Heard on the radio today that the vaccine being developed at Queensland University is looking promising. They're doing testing with the help of the Sunshine Coast University and have had good immune responses in different age groups. As far as I know, it's a human adenovirus based vaccine like the Chinese, Russian and American vaccines.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

vaccine being developed at Queensland University

Made of banana skins and peanut shells.

[Yenn]

Thats a bit rude OME.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. it was a bit rude..He forgot the mango pips 😉

 

(While I say it in jest, I lament not having Aussie mangoes.. the ones here are mainly imported from Brazil and are a variety that is not that great)

[willedoo]

23 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Yes.. it was a bit rude..He forgot the mango pips 😉

 

That's ok Jerry. We'll stick with our Qld. human vaccine; those south of the border can have their Oxford monkey jab. After they've had it, we'll send the bananas.

Edited November 13, 2020 by willedoo

[old man emu]

Victorians react to the opening of the Queensland border.

 

[red750]

Don't know why anyone would want to spend money in a place that treated us all like lepers.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Victorians react to the opening of the Queensland border.

Very close to the truth, ome. A local real estate lady told me it's been crazy lately. Heaps buying over the phone sight unseen. The two agents in our local town are almost out of stock. Victorians and Sydney people are hoovering up the real estate at the moment.

 

There seems to be some money around. It puts to rest the old Queensland saying that Victorians come up here with $50 in their pocket and a set of clothes and don't change either of them.

Edited November 14, 2020 by willedoo

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

...A local real estate lady told me it's been crazy lately. Heaps buying over the phone sight unseen. The two agents in our local town are almost out of stock. Victorians and Sydney people are hoovering up the real estate at the moment...

A little town near me has run out of old homes to sell; city people buying up rural retreats.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I think this is in part because of the quality of online marketing (I am always looking at realestate.com.au and domain.com.au). If I had the money, I wouldn't need to see a house inthe flesh.

 

I'm half Victorian and half-Queenslander (if we must treat states like different countries). Whichever state I live in, one half of me wants to stay, and the other half wants to get out!

[red750]

i don't know what the situation is with regional housing in Victoria, but I was talking to my brother this morning and mentioned my son working from home during the pandemic, and how it's likely to stay that way. My brother said that's why people are moving to the country. They can have a rural retreat, work from home, miss the daily commute and traffic etc. Employers are finding they like it, because they can save on renting office space and all the services an office requires. Win,win.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I read something about it in The Age or Domain... Can't find the article now.. but why wouldn't you? You still get a lot of the benefits of city living, and the stuff you don't get, you can do without, anyway.Plus, if you fly, the airspace is rarely controlled! I have learned you have to think about the kids when they are teenagers, but close proximity to a major town/city is not a bad option. We moved out - we now live in a 6,000sqft house, with a detached 2 bedroom cottage and 1.75 acres of land. OK, it is a project, but at half the  of a 2,000sqft house on a postage stamp in London, within a 2 hour commute from house to central London on the train commute to London, we canget the fix when we want to.. Even pre-COVID, the London had lost its lustre on the kids.

 

In 2018, the bank I worked for decreed only front office/client facing people (and their compliance teams) were required in the office. Everyone was working from home and only came in when they needed to "press the flesh". It takes sime adjusting, but people quickly realise the flexibility has many great benefits. For trainees and new starters, it is definitely tough, but well thought out processes minimise it. Of course, for younger people, the lack of office interaction I think is a big negative as many human relationships - friend, intimate, and foe are made. However, younger kids of today are growing up in a circle of friends online. They don't have to leave the comfort of their home - they play games on their computers and interact with their friends through Discord and such software like we did with our mates in the back yard or on the bicycle. I thinkthe latter is better, but as long as they get their exercise, don't become tech addicted, etc. they are not going to have as much problem entering a virtual workforce as we or the current generation would.

 

Personally, I lament leaving programming. The work I do requires interaction and I am finding total videoconferencing difficult (especially as I have just started in a new role). If I was still programming, I would not have a problem receiving a spec, having a chat about it and writing lines of code to fill my work day form the comfort of my own home (when I moved back to Australia, I was still contracted to my UK client and did work for them for about 3 months).

[red750]

[red750]

[pmccarthy]

I live in a small Victorian town. A year ago we were surrounded by kangaroos. Now we have four new houses going up in those vacant spaces around our one acre property.

[Jerry_Atrick]

And you live in a lovely Victorian town, too! 👍

 

I am not sure about the integrity of the Victorian planning system and how well it is enforced. My mother has won a case at VCAT to get a neighbour to reign in the development on the neighbours land that well exceeded planning.. No enforcement action has been taken. Apparently the owner of the land is in cahoots with the local council and their local business buys a lot of advertising in the local rag (or did).. so it wasn't really reported and our letters to the editor were never published.

 

A lot of towns are being transformed... The town I intend to retire to, Tocumwal, has had a lot of development over the years. But, looking at satellite images, there has definitely been expansion - but less than 20% I would say over about 30 years... so it is not too bad. Although, a lot of the houses are on tiny blocks of land. Now, I know retirees and possibly youg families don't need a lot of land and it can be a pain to tend to (well, not really.. there's not enough rain for too much to grow), but cramped living in a small country town doesn't seem right. Mind you, as a non-farcebook user, I was mightily peeved when I learned about the Tocumwal airpark after all the lots sold out.. they were not advertisied on realestate sites, the Berrigan shire council set up a farcebook page.

 

Let's hope not too much development to your town happens... Direct them to Bendigo 😉

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[Yenn]

Back to Covid. Did you realise that yesterday the USA had more new cases than 165 other countries have had total cases.

Who would want to live in a city, or even a town for that matter. As I get older my hearing gets poorer, but it is the noise of towns that really upsets me. Not only traffic and barking dogs, but also what passes as music on peoples radios.

[spacesailor]

Yenn, alot of US cities have bigger population,s than some countries 

Like NewYork city (almost 10 million ) and NewZealand (almost 5 million ), says a lot for comparing stats. 

spacesailor

[Yenn]

Those countries with the very high case numbers per million population, mainly have less than 20 million population. Places like Vatican city with 800 plus population.

China and India have over a billion population and China has less cases and deaths per million than Australia.

The USA has more cases than India or China and even though we are told India is in a bad state, the USA is fast pulling away from them in case numbers. A week or so ago it looked as if India could exceed USA, but not now. The really bad case is Belgium and as far as deaths go the UK is shocking.

[Old Koreelah]

Taiwan and Vietnam have both apparently been very successful.

https://www.devex.com/news/behind-vietnam-s-covid-19-success-story-98257
 

 

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

OME,  you will be vindicated by the latest outbreak in SA. The media has been very careful to not disclose the ethnicity of the perps, but somehow the wife found out that they  were Hindus.

Personally, I am staggered by the incompetence of : firstly, the govt which has quarantine hotels in the center of Adelaide. If they were quarantined in country towns, this latest outbreak would never have happened.

secondly, the hospitals: An 80 year-old woman was taken to the local hospital., the Lyall McEwin.. She was tested and then for the next TEN HOURS she was free to infect others around her.

Apparently it takes ten hours for a test to come back. At first I thought that she was waiting for ten hours for somebody to see her, which is my experience at that casualty place. ( twice I have tried it and both times left untreated after getting sick of waiting )

How could they be so bad? I understand that they are understaffed, but surely they could isolate covid suspects while waiting for test results.

My only guess is that this hospital fails the " North Terrace Rule" , which states that government interest doesn't extend further than walking distance from parliament house in North Terrace.

[Bruce Tuncks]

And Yenn, you are lucky in that you are aware or the noise issue. Apparently noise is deadly even to people who think they are tolerant of it. At night, you don't have to actually wake up to have the brain release stress chemicals as a result of noise.

[red750]

After being the basket case of Australia with over 700 new cases in one day, Victoria has now gone 19 days with ZERO new cases and ZERO deaths due to Covid-19. Only 3 active cases of senior citizens in hospital under care.

[Yenn]

Wow Red. That is amazing, I wonder if any other state could have done as well?

Should we really keep commending a state for eventually managing to start to catch up with the rest of us?

Not that it is the fault of the state, but of a failed politician. Nowadays politicians cannot fail, they just get someone to say they are doing well and all is forgiven.

[Marty_d]

On 18/11/2020 at 9:09 AM, red750 said:

After being the basket case of Australia with over 700 new cases in one day, Victoria has now gone 19 days with ZERO new cases and ZERO deaths due to Covid-19. Only 3 active cases of senior citizens in hospital under care.

So... does that mean that Daniel Andrews did a good job?