COVID-19 Virus.

[red750]

Melbourne's lockdown extended another seven days. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Not sure that you can blame the public service when they get no leadership from the ministers responsible. 

I wasn't blaming the public service, but also questioning whether their competence levels may contribute.  As an example, over here, it has generally been accepted that the Dept of Health, who administer the various health bodies, were found so wanting, that there is talk of breaking it up and replacing it with something else; while the NHS were found to be adaptive and responded with speed.

 

I was simply bringing into the question how well the public service heads (who, unlike the US, are "permanent" heads) were prepared and responded well...

 

I think it is fair to say the states' public services responded pretty well by and large, until there was interference by pollies (er. Andrews and his health minister, for example).

 

I have worked for the Vic public service, twice. In general, given the environment, they are reasonably good - some of the best I have worked with (and some of the worst). One department did its job competently and, until taken over by another department, sought to always improve..

 

The other excelled at one of its purposes, but at the other, was woefully incompetent and the head knew it and perpetuated it - and it cost Victorians many hundreds of millions a year that it needn't have.

 

Anyway, I digress from the main point of the thread - never done that before 😉

 

[nomadpete]

When there's a problem that makes the government look bad the usual answer is to engage contractors (privatize) so the government can tell us 'don't blame us'.

 

I read that Victoria outsourced the aged care vaccination programme, and the only way that many aged care workers got a jab was to wait for a left over unused dose. Result : only a third of aged care workers have received the vaccine

 

Government has avoided blame even though it was up to them to organize it.

[Jerry_Atrick]

That's interesting, Pete... My sis in law, who is a GP in Melbourne was telling me that, in general, the delay to the roll out was the dilly-dallying of the federal government. No mention of aged care homes; has the responsibility for the vaccinations transferred/always been the remit of the state governments? Maybe obtaining the supply was what my sis-in-law was referring to.

[nomadpete]

Anecdotally, it seems the supply pathways have been terribly poorly established in some areas. (Mostly news from the mainland?)

 

 

But here in Tassie I've personally only heard good reports of local doctors practices and they seem very well organized without long queuing up.

I don't personally know anyone in the aged care industry.

My previous post was from a news announcement.

[nomadpete]

Quote from ABC news today...

 

"By Wednesday, Greg Hunt had a slightly higher figure to report in question time, claiming "17.3 per cent of Commonwealth aged care workers have received doses”. That still means more than 80 per cent are yet to receive a single jab."

 

That's the current vaccination story for aged care employee's working in Federal aged care facilities.

 

Elsewhere it was stated that over 80% of Victoria's aged care covid cases were actually employee's! And yet they have obviously not prioritized the rollout of vaccine to aged care workers!

 

 

[red750]

Mobile vaccination units should have been sent to all aged care facilities as soon as supplies were received, ensuring that ALL staff and patients were vaccinated.

[spacesailor]

But no information on the Lack of Care for the NSW handicapped & disabled people.

Last count  it was ZERO jabs !.

spacesailor

 

[Yenn]

Our government is very good at saying how good it is, but when you look at what they do it becomes apparent that they are good at stuffing up. If we had to rely on the federal government, we would be in a similar position to all those European countries, The government declared that old people were at risk, but they decided that there was no need to do anything about that risk. Blind Freddy could see that if oldies in care were at risk, the first people to vaccinate were those who looked after them, that is even before vaccinating the oldies. In a similar way blind Freddy would have seen that our quarantine system was poor, because workers were going in and out of the quarantine facilities and into the general population. There is still no move to provide real quarantine for the remainder of this pandemic and for future needs.

Blind Freddy for PM even his dog would be a better bet than thee PM we have.

[willedoo]

Problem is we have a shifty PM who believes in deception, diversion and deflection. He's too busy shuffling the coconut halves on the table to do a decent job. Too much 'don't look here, look over there'. I rate him as one of the poorest PM's we've had. Go back to advertising I say.

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Problem is we have a shifty PM who believes in deception, diversion and deflection. He's too busy shuffling the coconut halves on the table to do a decent job. Too much 'don't look here, look over there'.

 

Which is exactly what a successful ad man does.  

[red750]

The "mystery" case in Victoria that put us in lockdown was a false positive, I've been told. Couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, Marty_d said:

 

Which is exactly what a successful ad man does.  

Apparently, even at that job he wasn't too good.. Booted out of a NZ firm or government department, and I don't need to remind anyone of his total ignorance to the market he was marketing to, with his "Australia! Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign over here.

[willedoo]

Here's a SMH article on China's vaccination programme. 100 million jabs in 5 days, so they say.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/in-just-five-days-china-administered-100-million-covid-19-vaccine-shots-20210604-p57xyu.html

[onetrack]

It's interesting that the last article is an SMH article. In the same media outlet, there's a story that China is now struggling with their COVID-19 response - and that the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are only around 50% effective.

The Chinese vaccine testing data is apparently fudged, and no-one - especially those countries who bought the Chinese vaccines - is prepared to believe the Chinese vaccine data, now.

 

If the article has any ring of truth to it, China has stumbled badly in both the viral race and the economic race - meaning it has lost its race to beat the West economically, and will now, likely never overtake the West.

 

Meantimes, the article reported that America's economy is on track to surge to levels higher than 2019 heights, later in the year - with the COVID-19 virus changing workplace and production methods, to lower-cost methods overall, and reducing employment costs for businesses.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/it-s-china-that-s-fighting-to-contain-covid-s-fallout-now-not-the-west-20210603-p57xmc.html

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by onetrack

[facthunter]

You quoted an Australian newspaper even though it's not the worst one of the MSM and on performance, ALL of them are pretty SUSS..  Australia would be a lot better place without OUR media monopoly. You have Rupee , Nine "Entertainment".. Costello,  and WA news papers, Kerry Stokes..  Nothing to sheer about. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

...Australia would be a lot better place without OUR media monopoly. You have Rupee , Nine "Entertainment".. Costello,  and WA news papers, Kerry Stokes..  Nothing to sheer about. Nev

And it’ll be even worse if Scomo gets back in; his party hate the ABC and some of them openly state their plans to sell it off- presumably to their mate Rupert.

[willedoo]

U.Q. is working on a vaccine patch they say is more effective than the needles. The down side is, they say it will be two years until we get it.

 

https://www.hit.com.au/story/aussie-scientists-trial-a-covid-19-vaccine-game-changing-patch-171994

[facthunter]

The Boss and I got ours 3 days ago. 2 people didn't show up so we slipped in at the end of the day.. Unusual luck (rare). it's all relative. Nev 

[spacesailor]

NOW !.

The boffins are saying that a Third antivirus shot will be necessary.

AND 

They Think a different potion will be a better option, than using the same brand as the first two jabs.

What's next ?, an annual jab.

spacesailor

[octave]

It is quite likely that an annual jab will be necessary just like flu.  But thank goodness for the boffins. 

 

 

 

[willedoo]

The Bahrain Health Ministry has released some encouraging data on their use of the Sputnik V vaccine, saying results on the ground have been better than the clinical trials. The study was based on data collected from 5,000 residents in accordance with WHO guidelines. It showed that the vaccine was 94.3% effective two weeks after the second shot was administered, up from around 91% in clinical trials. The results of the study also revealed there were no deaths, no cases of blood clots and no other serious side effects among the recipients.

[Admin]

I had my 2nd Astra Jab today so I am now fully done

[willedoo]

Dr. Jeanette Young, Queensland's Chief Health Officer, has been appointed Queensland's Governor-designate. The current Governor was due to retire next month but has extended his term to November to allow Dr. Young to concentrate on the vaccine rollout. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that when she was out and about, members of the public kept telling her that Dr. Young should be the next Governor, so she did it. I can't help but notice that Dr. Young bears a resemblance to Queensland's first female Governor, Quentin Bryce.

[onetrack]

My partner had her 1st AZ jab about a fortnight ago. She wanted to get it, because she was concerned that with a history of bronchitis and whooping cough, she'd be hit hard if she got the virus.

 

She's had no noticeable problems with the first jab, but I was surprised to find it's 3 mths before she has the 2nd jab.

 

I'm holding off on getting the jab for a little while because I'm currently applying a skin cancer (BCC) treatment cream (Aldara), which is an immune system stimulant, and I'm a little concerned there could be interaction between the virus vaccine and the strong chemical ingredient in Aldara. As soon as I've finished the Aldara treatment course, I guess I'll line up for the jab.

 

I'm of the opinion a bit of delay before getting the jab gives anything that poses a problem with the vaccine, a chance to come to the fore.

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by onetrack