Jara

Good points, Binman. 

Most telling stat I've heard about our Federal leaders lately: Morrison made around 55 calls to world leaders trying to get Cormann a job with the OECD but not a single one to the head of Pfizer trying to get more vaccines. 

I was dismayed by Morrison's complete lack of moral support for Victorians during last year's outbreak. Barely a syllable: just send in the attack dogs. 

Not that I had very high expectations of Morrison anyway. I'm a CFA volunteer; while we were out getting overwhelmed by those monstrous fires in The Black Summer, he was swanning around Hawaii. His Churchillian war-cry? I don't hold a hose, mate.

Jeez ... just heard today's numbers. 29 - none of them in isolation.

Sorry for any people in hospitality etc but... thank god Andrews went for the snap lockdown. 

Just looked at today's numbers in NSW. 44 in ICU. None of them fully vaccinated.

Draw your own conclusions.

Anybody who's hanging back from getting the jab - toughen up ya wuss!

6 hours ago, FireInTheBennelly said:

I'm starting to think it might be better if we stopped mandating mask wearing, and stopped pushing vaccinations.

I've seen enough stories of anti vaxxers and never maskers dying of covid that perhaps, just maybe, we're better off without them?

Survival of the fittest comes down to brains too.

If you have a brain, get a jab, put a mask on. If you're in an at risk group, stay away from morons. Simple. Job done.

Bit harsh for the poor front-line health workers who have to treat them (I know I said this somewhere back in this thread but my wife's an emergency nurse - recently she was caring for a patient whose partner was refusing to wear a mask properly - in the end had to get security to chuck him out)

10 minutes ago, FireInTheBennelly said:

Who was it on here suggesting Gladbags was the only state premier with half a brain cell?

I found that quite hilarious at the time, as with everything we've seen in other states, it was clear she was just rolling the dice. This was inevitable, if you keep rolling, you'll eventually crap out, and that she has.

Now she wants the rest of the nation to cover for her? That's poor form if you ask me, and she should be removed from her position. As should the big guy giving her the directions she's taken.

Where's the accountability going to come from?

If you can be bothered, track down (on Youtube) her interview with those Sydney FM d**&^heads Kyle and Jackie O, conducted during our last lockdown. Apparently we were asking for more Pfizer. She basically told us to go jump, then spent five minutes boasting about how her own administration was so good, her State 'didn't need' lockdowns. (Mind you some of what she said was true - the criticism of Victoria's lack of uniform QR codes, for example)

But the smugness - unbearable. Then she has the nerve to come out and ask for more Pfizer a few weeks later.

Just now, BDA said:

It was reported today there is plenty of Astrazeneca in NSW

Yep, I presume it's Pfizer they're after. (Dunno why - I had AZ and it was lovely - gave me the best nights sleep I've had in ages)

I suppose I'm being parochial, but really don't like the idea of Victoria giving extra vaccines to Sydney, just because they couldn't bring themselves to implement a proper lockdown.

I know they're on a knife's edge, but so are we, and I suspect our knife is sharper: our State has suffered much more than the others. From what I've observed, so many people, businesses etc can't take much more (not speaking for myself - I can work from home, I'm fully vaccinated and I live in a lovely environment, but lots of others aren't so lucky)

2 hours ago, Webber said:

It’s 3 notoriously headline seeking Medicos in the US who reject the need for randomised controlled trials (RCT) to legitimise drug efficacy. The entire medical model of medication-based therapy (prevention and cure) is based on RCTs. Ivermectin has not met any standards of efficacy in RCTs. That is science. Any quoting of its positive effect anecdotal, and we went down this route early with hydroxychloroquine. It’s a distraction to create notoriety and fuel spurious reportage. If only we could put all that energy into the KNOWN EVIDENTIAL SCIENCE - vaccination and effective quarantine , we’d be a lot happier and healthier. 

Wow. That's one of the best answers I've seen on this site.

Every time we have a lockdown, the press rush out and find some small business owner (or Whiney O'Brien) who tells them how bad it is for business.

I wish, just once, a journalist would ask them what dead customers and mass graves are like for business. 

19 minutes ago, Stiff Arm said:

And I thought it was only Richmond fans that turned on each other!

It's the virus we need to be angry about, despite how we think people behaved, and regardless of only getting select information via the sensationalist media.

We in Vic were in a similar situation to NSW only a year ago, and the virus leaked to other states

Sure, get angry about the virus - but I get just as angry about my fellow citizens who refuse to take it seriously. Whenever I go on the train there's a few people in the carriage not wearing masks. So many of the venues and stores I go to are slack about making visitors use QR codes. The Murdoch scumbags rail against the Premier for implementing life-saving lockdowns.

My wife is an emergency department nurse. As one of her colleagues commented to her recently, we've spent the past 18 months putting our lives at risk and clomping around in this cumbersome PPC gear which makes even going to the toilet a chore - all because a few selfish morons can't be arsed following basic health regulations.

So the removalists came from a hot zone,worked all day in a crowded apartment block not wearing masks, refused to give travel details, roamed all over the place etc

Jail the ba#&@ds and bankrupt the company.

4 minutes ago, Webber said:

Thrombocytopenia, which is the very rare AZ issue, has no relationship, as far as I’m aware, to other clotting issues like your DVT history. I’d discuss this specifically with your GP, though, picket. If there’s no increased associated risk, get the AZ. Everybody who can should, cos who knows when we’ll get the supply our Government insisted we were ‘first in the queue’ for, which they now admit actually means LAST. FMD!

Yep, that's right. The clots are not the same. I heard a doctor on Radio National yesterday saying an ordinary general anaesthetic is much (I think he actually said a hundred times) more dangerous.  Until we all get vaccinated, lockdowns will continue. 

On the train heading in for my second AZ jab. Told the girls if I don't make it sprinkle my ashes on the MCG when we win the flag ?

Just joking - (about the MCG I mean, not the jab) what have we had? A couple of deaths from millions of vaccines? Get vaxed up ya wusses - only way out of this chaos. You're taking a greater risk sitting near the Essendon cheers squad.

8 hours ago, Superunknown said:

Do you have any reports/data to the effect the contact tracers didn't know he existed?

Contact tracing relies on what people tell them.

Tracked down original article in The Age. The guy came down to Melbourne on the Sunday. Began feeling sick on the Tuesday, tested and confirmed on the Wednesday. No report of any involvement at all by the NSW contact tracers. 

2 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

This is a great point!

Yep - and the 'gold standard' contact tracing team didn't even know he existed, even though he was the father of the host. Be really annoying if it gets away in Victoria because Gladys was too proud to order a lockdown. 

Bloody Murdoch press - I reckon they share some of the blame for Victoria's disaster last year- Andrews was slow to impose lockdowns because of the hysteria from Rupert's hitmen (and woman)  Imagine if we'd had Whiney O'Brien as our Premier. All he ever did was to squark 'open up! Open up!' We'd have had a death toll in the thousands.

Uh oh now some bloke who was at the Sydney super-spreader party has tested positive in Melbourne.

I get p'd off with people having parties while there's a pandemic going on. Can't you just give it a break for a while? Remember that party in the northern suburbs of Melbourne during our darkest days? 150 people. Jeez.... 

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Hey, has anyone ever seen Jara and scromo in the same room together?

Methinks I smell a ? 

JK of course. Or maybe not JK

?

Ha - fair enough.

I give Morrison about 5/10 for his handling of the pandemic. Loses marks for 1) pathetic vaccination rates 2) pathetic buckpassing on quarantine 3) pathetic handling of Aged Care facilities, where 80% of the deaths occurred 4) having to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into proper health measures, by the Premiers - 'I don't hold a hose, mate' is his war-cry..   But I do give him a bare pass because, for a conservative, he did generally follow the science - he could have been like Bojo or Trump - we were about the most successful country in the world.

Actually, upon reflection, I'll mark him down a bit more because of his complete lack of leadership during Victoria's darkest days. When Andrews looked like a man torn apart by the weight of handling the crisis, Scomo did nothing but send in his attack dogs (Frydenberg and Hunt) So I'll take back my earlier comment and change my score. I'm giving him 4/10.

Hang on! - the bas*&%d wanted to go to the rugby. Make that 3/10.

Uh - jeez, the more I look at Morrison, the worse he gets. Okay, I surrender. You're right - He's hopeless. 2/10.

5 minutes ago, dl4e said:

There is absolutely no sense in this at all.  There is not meant to be. It is all about government control. We are living in a state of health fascism.

Having said all that this new delta variety seems to spread much more easily than the older versions so get ready for another state wide lockdown. Hope I am wrong.

Health fascism? Gimme a break. You got two choices: you either take appropriate public health measures or you start digging mass graves. Thank god we chose the former.

16 minutes ago, Jaded said:

So this week its 50% at venues but up to 25,000 only.

Next week we return to 85% capacity.

FOR GOODNESS SAKE WHAT SENSE DOES THIS MAKE? What makes it safer next week? 

Makes all the sense in the world, I'd have thought. It's the 'roadmap' the opposition are always asking for, a goal to aim for. Given the crazy nature of this virus, that's about the best they can do. It could all change tomorrow if the NSW outbreak spreads here.

Let's not criticise too much - just pray that our governments of all stripes keep up the good work.  We're about the most successful country in the world - let's keep it that way. 

1 hour ago, Superunknown said:

If I recall correctly , CSL is doing 1 million doses a month and has been for some months. Supply no longer an issue.

But they're only producing AZ, which nobody seems to want. (Mind you I do - I had my first dose - had the best nights sleep I've had in years)

26 minutes ago, Jaded said:

You are more likely to watch Melbourne win a flag than to die from the vaccine... put that into context! 

Uh god...even with a year like this, I still feel like I'm more likely to die from the second jab than I am to see us win a flag - and nobody dies from the second jab (sorry - just joking but jeez it's been a long time - when we won our last I was barely old enough to know what it was all about)

20 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

I had my first AZ shot four days ago. I’m under 60yo so I have to admit I’m super apprehensive about getting the second dose. Meanwhile my sons are on “blood-clot-watch.” It’s like they expect me to keel over at any given moment. ?

Hey Walking - no need to be apprehensive. Every report I've seen says if there is any danger (and it's a minuscule risk, nothing compared to the risk of actually getting covid) it will show up after your first jab. I heard Professor Sharon Leuwin say this morning nobody has died from the second shot. I had my first AZ a couple of months ago, and I was thrilled. Still am, really. I just wish everybody would get vaccinated so we can get out of this. 

I didn't see the interview, but I notice that three more women have come out and made allegations that he behaved inappropriately. That's adding up to a lot of women. Sounds like a creep, if nothing else. Hardly 'fighting for justice' - fighting for his own reputation.

Also, I never like it in these situations when the alleged perp says he (usually a he) was 'proven innocent'. I know nothing about the law, but surely he was found not guilty on the grounds of insufficient evidence - a lack of proof? So many alleged sexual predators get off because there's 'no proof' - that may be because they didn't commit the crime, but it's also likely to be because these crimes usually take place in settings where there are no witnesses.

All of these women who are coming forward - even if their allegations don't result in convictions - are making the world a safer, fairer place.  

On 5/1/2021 at 3:28 PM, Grr-owl said:

Not to be cynical, but this may be one time in which a political party's bid for votes actually is a good thing for everyone. Additionally, it has the benefit, for them, of stealing the Labour Party's lunch. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter which party does it, but a focus on getting Australians into good jobs is the key to a better future.

17,000 jobs have gone in education. Although that sounds tragic, and it is, a lot of those were crap jobs, meaning casual exploitative position in which people were hired for 8 hours and given 16 hours of work to complete (I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea), often servicing international students whose demands (natural, understandable demand from their POV) were the root of practices that were crippling the system, like the larvae of a parasitic wasp. 

I have a feeling that people from the US, Japan, Aus, probably the UK and hopefully Germany have been in behind-closed-door discussions for some time about the limits of privatization and the consequences of off-shoring jobs....

 

jeez, wish I could get my 8 hours of paid work done in 16