COVID-19 Virus.

[Yenn]

DUKW an interesting vehicle. You could inflate and deflate the tyres while running along. Not a vehicle I would recommend for city traffic.

[red750]

Back in '56 I was at Deniliquin High, during the '56 floods. There was a DUKW in town for flood rescue work. When things settled down, it came to the high school for the kids to scramble over. 

[willedoo]

Dawn Wells, aka Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island has died of complications from Covid.

[red750]

That only leaves Ginger. 

 

Unfortunately another outbreak in Victoria with six cases, linked to a Thai restaurant. What is it with Thai restaurants?

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, red750 said:

What is it with Thai restaurants?

They are full of Tyfood Marys.

[onetrack]

We're currently on holiday in the Gold Coast (from Perth), visiting my wifes son and his wife. It was the stepsons 50th birthday on Dec 31.

 

We originally planned to fly to Coolangatta Airport, because it saves us the 80 km drive down from Brisbane.

So we booked with Virgin and we had to accept a stop in Sydney as part of the deal, because Virgin no longer fly PER-OOL direct.

 

But within 2 days of booking the flights, the virus exploded in Sydney. We quickly cancelled the booking (costing us $280), and rebooked PER-BRI direct.

 

We got here and several Victorian relations of the stepsons wife rolled up from Victoria to celebrate the birthday and New Year with us - when the news came through that Victoria was going into lockdown.

 

Several of the Victorians promptly took off, back to Victoria, to avoid being caught out with the enforced quarantine period, which would ruin their income and other plans. They're not happy campers.

 

We've got a pass to get back into W.A., provided there's no breakout in QLD. We're on tenterhooks at present, hoping that no virus breakout happens in QLD while we're here. If that happens, that will mean we'll be forced to go into quarantine on our return to W.A.

[Admin]

We are in a similar situation. My daughter's university graduation is on the 20th Feb on the Gold Coast and couple of weeks ago we booked and paid for 5 days accommodation at a hotel for the 4 of us. We had planned to drive up to Qld from Melbourne via the Newell Hwy, cheaper than Flying being 4 of us and therefore having a car there to visit friends also in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Then the Sydney outbreak happened. 

 

Today the best case is looking like we will have to fly and hire a car, worst case is our daughter won't be able to attend her graduation ceremony and we lose a lot of money.

 

And the bastards are still going to hold the 3rd test with a crowd of nearly 30,000 people risking the entire country of another wave just so Melbourne doesn't hold it for them.

[onetrack]

Ian, 20th Feb is a long way off in COVID outbreak and control terms, the situation could have changed dramatically during the intervening period.

 

One thing I've found recently, is that airport and inner-city car hire has become a rort with COVID.

 

We hired a Kona for 9 days, the difference in pricing was the difference between $2200 for hire at the airport, as compared to hiring from Budget Rocklea, where we paid just over $1100 for the 9 days.

 

It cost us $52 with Didi to get from the terminal to Rocklea, but we saved a few kms of hire car driving anyway, that way. It was worth it to get the much lower hire rate. 

The only snag was, we found out after we got to Rocklea (at 6:45PM), that Budget Rocklea had no after-hrs service, they just locked up at 6:00PM, and they all went home.

 

But when I called Budgets 1800 number, I only got their roadside assist, where the lass was very nice - but couldn't help me, either, as she only handled hires in progress, with problems.

She gave me the Brisbane Budget terminal number - but when I rang them, they were closed, too! - I only got a recording stating their normal business hours!

 

Fortunately, the Budget Rocklea franchise owner had his name and personal number on the fence, so I called him, and he was very good - even though he couldn't help personally, because he lives on the Gold Coast!

But he organised one of the young blokes to come back in and open up again - which he did in about 20 mins.

I slipped him $50 in cash for his trouble, which made him very pleased, and he also organised for us to drop the Kona back at the airport for no extra charge - thus saving us a $30 relocation fee, and another $50 ride fee back to the airport, when we return the car! So, a win-win all round.

[willedoo]

I wonder how long it will be before we start to see some noticeable drop in infections due to vaccine roll out. I'd guess in 3 to 4 months we might start to see some influence happening. The other part of the research we don't hear much about is the development of drugs to treat Covid and reduce the mortality rate. Russia has recently announced they are developing a direct acting antiviral antidote and are claiming 99% effectiveness in early trials. It still has a lot more testing to go. So far, a lot of cocktails of existing antivirals have been tested, but if successful, this one would be one of the first Covid specific direct acting antidotes. I'd assume laboratories world wide would be working on similar projects.

[pmccarthy]

I am tipping adverse reactions in a few people which cause a halt to vaccines.

[old man emu]

7 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

I am tipping adverse reactions in a few people which cause a halt to vaccines.

It is a matter of medical fact that in a population of 7.8 billion people, some will exhibit adverse reactions to any chemical introduced to their bodies. It happens with antibiotics like penicillin. It happens with blood pressure tablets, It happens with any vaccine. The point is that the number who suffer from adverse reactions will be a very, very small percentage of the population, but you can bet that the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists will trumpet the news from the highest hill. 

[spacesailor]

And so they should !,

THEY forced fluoride on us & the kids teeth are just as bad as ever, 4 year olds with 4 fillings.

spacesailor

 

 

[onetrack]

Scotty from Marketing is pushing the "slowly as we go" line, as regards introducing the vaccine rapidly. 

 

The problem is, the rush to get the vaccine into production has short-circuited a lot of the regular time-related cautions and testing procedures, as regards side-effects.

 

I won't be rushing in to get the first shots, I can tell you that much. I didn't get the first polio shot, and my parents were rightly concerned about the level of testing of the first polio vaccines.

 

The Cutter vaccine was rushed, and the results were horrendous for many people and their families. Around 250 children contracted polio from the vaccine, and around 10 died. The incident probably started the anti-vaxxer movement.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/#:~:text=PMCID%3A PMC1383764-,The Cutter Incident%3A How America's First Polio Vaccine,to a Growing Vaccine Crisis&text=In April 1955 more than,virus proved to be defective.

Edited January 1, 2021 by onetrack

[old man emu]

9 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

4 year olds with 4 fillings.

That's been put down to too much fruit juice, or more correctly, fruit drink. Young mothers have been scared off milk for fear of lactose intolerance, and think that they are doing the right thing by letting the per-schoolers drink fruit drinks, which are like soft drink, but without the bubbles. 

[old man emu]

13 minutes ago, onetrack said:

The Cutter vaccine was rushed, and the results were horrendous for many people and their families. Around 250 children contracted polio from the vaccine, and around 10 died. The incident probably started the anti-vaxxer movement.

But the cause wasn't the science behind the vaccine.  Three larger companies produced safe polio vaccines according to Salk's protocol for inactivating the virus with formaldehyde. The lack of experience and expertise at Cutter Laboratories, undetected by the inspectors, caused the disaster. The Cutter incident led to the replacement of Salk's formaldehyde-treated vaccine with Sabin's attenuated strain. Though Sabin's vaccine had the advantages of being administered orally and of fostering wider `contact immunity', it could also be re-activated by passage through the gut, resulting in occasional cases of polio.

 

The court ruling that Cutter was liable to pay compensation to those damaged by its polio vaccine—even though it was not found to be negligent in its production—opened the floodgates to a wave of litigation. As a result, `vaccines were among the first medical products almost eliminated by lawsuits'. The contemporary climate of risk aversion and predatory litigation deters the introduction of new vaccines and discourages innovation in a field which boasts some of the most impressive achievements of modern medicine.

[spacesailor]

Just another excuse.

Mother,s Do sometimes breast feed their kids for the first 3 years,

AND STILL have dental problems, without fruitjoice.

spacesailor

[willedoo]

I heard Scotty from Marketing on the radio this afternoon sticking up for States closing borders. He's certainly changed his tune now that the Queensland election is over. He's still got Annastacia's boot print on his arse.

[Marty_d]

5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Just another excuse.

Mother,s Do sometimes breast feed their kids for the first 3 years,

AND STILL have dental problems, without fruitjoice.

spacesailor

Do those kids brush twice a day, for 2 minutes a time, with fluoride toothpaste?

[red750]

I read just yesterday that diet lemonade was better for kids teeth than fruit juice.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes it probably is as there is no sugars and the common chemicals, aspartamine, cyclamates, saccharin, acesulfame-k, or sucralose.. These, however, are all acidic and have other health impacts. There is conflicting evidence that points to them having the same general health iimpact as sugars, so even without calories, they can contribute to weight gain - hard to believe - but the evidence is that they can contribute to hunger and therefore increase calorifc intake of other foods and beverages.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Here's by billion dollar idea... NEGATIVE CALORIE BEER . The more you drink the more weight you will lose.

I will order some as soon as it hits the market.

[pmccarthy]

I have had a bad cold for three days. Tried to get tested today. Had to drive an hour to the test place in Bendigo. The wait was five hours yesterday and they think longer today. I am quite ill and drove home again, was worried I might run off the road. They say Victoria has a good testing system...absolute bollocks!

[spacesailor]

I WANT CAKE, negative colorie of course. LoL

spacesailor

[willedoo]

I've been reading about the Pfizer vaccine in Israel. So far more than 200 people have contracted the virus in the days after the vaccination. And that's the thing, people still need to be Covid cautious well after the first injection.

 

Research has shown immunity to Covid-19 increases only eight to ten days after the first injection and eventually reaches 50 percent. Three weeks later, the second injection increases the immunity to 95% a week after getting it. A month from the first shot to maximum immunity.

[red750]

I've just been down to Box Hill, where my wife is in Epworth Eastern Hospital, across the road from the Covid testing station in the Box Hill General Hospital. The queue was right down the street and around the corner. No idea how long it would take someone joining the queue.