3 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

There's a gouging opportunity here. Sell 499 tickets to each game at an astonomical price. 

I’ve got 6 tickets to Collingwood vs Richmond in Round 2 that I purchased for some American guests who have cancelled their trips. 

Postpone the season at least 6 weeks

Player welfare must be paramount as well as spectators 

1 hour ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

yet china has been praised by the who for their response to handling this pandemic...

it is quite extraordinary what this is doing to the world

China denied the virus at the beginning,  and then they refused to send out live cultures of the virus to scientists around the world.  We were one of the first to successfully grow live cultures,  from an infected person within Australia. 

And we forwarded cultures around the world,  for scientists to start work on

3 minutes ago, MyFavouriteMartian said:

China denied the virus at the beginning,  and then they refused to send out live cultures of the virus to scientists around the world.  We were one of the first to successfully grow live cultures,  from an infected person within Australia. 

And we forwarded cultures around the world,  for scientists to start work on

Yes the selling of diseased live animals by the Chinese to themselves is something we must never forget to remind them about. 

1 hour ago, loges said:

most other countries have much higher population than Australia and our land mass is much larger with population mainly spread around the country in the capital cities

Dense populous in capital cities is a pandemic's feast.

This is our weakness in Australia is the lack of Dee-Centalisation.

If they postpone the season for say 6 weeks, does that mean we open the season on Sunday 3 May against Essendon per round 7?

OR

We still have to play WC over there and round 1 gets deferred until early May?

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Edited March 13, 20205 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

9 minutes ago, Demonland said:

I’ve got 6 tickets to Collingwood vs Richmond in Round 2 that I purchased for some American guests who have cancelled their trips. 

That's a pity. 

Would've been a cracking early season Thursday night game.

This is going to be the most boring winter of all time once they cancel all sport. I'm going to need way more beer than usual, and hope that staring at the wall is made more interesting by drinking said stockpile of grog.

Never eat a pangolin past it's sell by date. 

5 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

If they postpone the season for say 6 weeks, does that mean we open the season on Sunday 3 May against Essendon per round 7?

OR

We still have to play WC over there and round 1 gets deferred until early May?

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Let's make Rd6 the new round 1. Start the year with Richmond and Melbourne on ANZAC eve. And then create a new 17 game fixture from there

2 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Covid-19 is just another of several zoonotic origin viruses that have spread within and from China specifically because of the hideous lack of basic hygiene, animal handling, animal welfare and workplace safety standards. 

They are far from alone in these issues but as a country with the logistical resources to incarcerate millions of people for being a 'suspect' ethnicity and to monitor the exact location, occupation and connections of any given person, the continued total failure to enforce standards in this trade is a choice made by the Chinese government.

Similarly, the culture of Chinese officaldom in choosing to arrest and threaten the doctors who initially reported on and advised action on the outbreak was a key factor in the scale of the outbreak and is also a persistent characteristic of Chinese authority.

There's no value in getting into blame but there is also no question that the particular features of Chinese government and the accepted norms of a neglected and exploited filthy underclass were major factors, as was the deep culture of utter disdain for animal welfare.

Also, the reason Spanish Influenza is referred to as such is largely because Spain was one of the few countries which did not massively cover-up the scale of infection, so there were regular news reports of it's spread there while in UK, France, Germany, etc there was dramatic under-reporting and minimal coverage.  Spain was not the origin point, did not have unusually high cases, and there was no feature of Spain which made it a greater vector of virus spread than anywhere else.  So there is entirely zero similarity between the two.

Sounds like the kind of propaganda which was once reserved for the Dreaded Communists. Unfortunately there are many here among us who believe everything we're told. What irks me is when this surrender to propaganda results in racial smears and the kind of idiotic posts I referred to above.The human species is prone to this need to have a scapegoat, someone to blame, someone called 'the other'.

12 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yes the selling of diseased live animals by the Chinese to themselves is something we must never forget to remind them about. 

The wet markets need to be either abolished completely, or at the very least very heavily policed with regards to the conditions and hygiene.  Unfortunately, there is so much corruption at local government level that it would probably never work.

Just now, hardtack said:

The wet markets need to be either abolished completely, or at the very least very heavily policed with regards to the conditions and hygiene.  Unfortunately, there is so much corruption at local government level that it would probably never work.

Totally agree. This was a virus waiting to happen for years. The Chinese are great at keeping their corruption quiet, but when this becomes a world problem with no end in sight yet, they must be held fully accountable. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

 

Trouble is, Australia's population is actually very heavily concentrated, with 10 of 25 million in just two cities and another five million in just three more.

It doesn't even help Echuca or Tamworth much, because so much of our activity is concentrated in these huge hubs that all these other towns must keen interacting with them.

It's not like, say, Germany where you've got dozens of cities of 100k, 200k, 500k population. (With the nod of course to the Ruhr super-metropolitan zone)

In the end, it is all about personal habits.  Wash your hands, sneeze into your elbow, semi-obsessively clean surfaces, try to avoid touching any 'contact points', avoid touching people in greetings, stay clear of medieval theocracies.

One of the things driving people crazy is that there is nothing 'special' they can do to protect themselves or change the situation.

Oh, also, if you can, see if you can work out a plan to support casual workers because they're going to spend the next 18 months being sent home every time they get a sniffle, and support payments are only available for people actually required to self-isolate for genuine COVID-19 exposure risks. 

At this stage, people pressed into a decision of 'take the chance and hope it is just a sniffle' versus 'fail to pay rent and be made homeless' are one of the highest medium and long term risk factors for Covid spread.

It's it almost as if managing this kind of thing was part of the original rationale for the welfare state!   So, let's all take a moment to be glad we don't live in the USA.

I would argue that it's good hygiene and a sensible approach to prevention more so than purely population density.  As I have mentioned already on more than one occassion, Taiwan has an almost identical population to us, but is the 4th most densely populated country on the planet, yet they have "officially" 49 cases, whereas we have 156.  All customer facing workers wear masks, all restaurants, department stores, cafes, cinemas etc provide hand sanitiser on entry and most also take your temperature before you can enter.  I think the numbers speak for themselves.  We need to start taking all of the precautions that we can.

For anyone that's interested in the back story behind this and similar viruses appearing in China I came across this little 8 minute video on Vox. (No, NOT Fox!) 

https://www.vox.com/videos/2020/3/6/21168006/coronavirus-covid19-china-pandemic

 

 

Talk about a timely release.

Perhaps AFL Season 2020 can be an eSports season.  Each club nominates 1 computer geek as their champion. Can be done remotely.

I'm starting to get a sense of what it might have been like during 1939-45 when profucts were in short supply and all sorts of activities were stopped for part or all of the duration. I suspect as a society we will whinge a lot more than the war-time community did who just got on with life knowing there was a reason for their deprivations.    

22 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yes the selling of diseased live animals by the Chinese to themselves is something we must never forget to remind them about. 

This is what you get in a culture where humanity is second fiddle. And power is the first and main fiddle. = China wants to be the major power,  leader of the world;  as does Putin,  and others,  most religions want to lead the world, In their own style.  Most.

 

When the nation is more important than its constituents, then it is failing already. Leadership has rotted, and they are lost.

IMV, people are the most important above all.

 

31 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

Let's make Rd6 the new round 1. Start the year with Richmond and Melbourne on ANZAC eve. And then create a new 17 game fixture from there

I don't think there's going to be any magic fix by r6 just because we delay the start of the season. there will probably be the same problems at R6 as there are now, only many times worse.

"BREAKING: The Prime Minister has announced non-essential, organised events of 500 people or more will be banned from Monday. That does not include schools or universities."

 

Dang

 

good to see the govt is gonna do some woodworking...

this coag presser is just like a post-match presser; can't hear the questions

23 minutes ago, hardtack said:

The wet markets need to be either abolished completely, or at the very least very heavily policed with regards to the conditions and hygiene.  Unfortunately, there is so much corruption at local government level that it would probably never work.

What makes you think this Corona virus,  is a natural occurrence?

Edited March 13, 20205 yr by MyFavouriteMartian

7 minutes ago, roy11 said:

"BREAKING: The Prime Minister has announced non-essential, organised events of 500 people or more will be banned from Monday. That does not include schools or universities."

 

Dang

 

it's okay though he just announced he's going to the football tomorrow (assumes he means NRL)

27 minutes ago, roy11 said:

"BREAKING: The Prime Minister has announced non-essential, organised events of 500 people or more will be banned from Monday. That does not include schools or universities."

 

Dang

 

I better check what the capacity of The Rose in Fitzroy is for next Sunday then. And bring my own pint glass just to be safe. In fact it might be where I decide to self quarantine if need be. 

Edited March 13, 20205 yr by Rab D Nesbitt

8 minutes ago, MyFavouriteMartian said:

What makes you think this Corona virus,  is a natural occurrence?

That is a possibility 

The World Stock Markets are in Free Fall

The Coronavirus does not affect children or the young (almost)

It could be planted quite easily.

A possibility....