Coronavirus 4 - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[eddiesmith]

[eddiesmith]

So the fault wasn’t the protests but the stupid public holiday we had last week…

[Pies4shaw]

No - the mistake was allowing the Grand Final to proceed. It should have been cancelled. Apart from the positive impact it would have had on case numbers, it would have been funny to watch the reactions of the Melbourne and Footscray supporters. They could also retrospectively abandon the 2020 GF, too, by the way.

[Jezza]

General life should be cancelled, and we can just under hide under our doonas indefinitely.

[Pies4shaw]

From the ABC blog:

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

329 cases in Melbourne's East and South-East today.

46 regional cases today. 2 in La Trobe, 4 in Warrnambool, 5 in Shepparton, 6 in Moorabool, 12 cases in Mitchell Shire and a "scattering of other cases".

[Jezza]

[David]

[stui magpie]

That weekend gatherings were the cause of the spike in case numbers is both unsurprising and problematic.

Unsurprising because compliance with the restrictions are at their lowest point at the same time as the case numbers reach their highest. People are over it. Melbournians have spent over 240 days in lockdown. That's 8 months out of the past 18. You see the apathy in the supermarkets, in people standing around outside coffee shops. They're just going through the motions.

Also unsurprising because you need to consider the demographics of the protesters. The first couple of days was a hard core of legitimate construction workers, firstly from Union sites who were pissed off with the CFMEU and then swelled by all the suburban construction workers who weren't union but suddenly were shut down. The construction workers will hold views across the spectrum, from being vaccine believers to mad anti vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, right wing nuts, etc. Then their numbers were swelled by the non-construction workers who were just mad anti vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, right wing nuts, etc. As the real construction worker numbers dropped off, this is the chort that clung on. This is the cohort which won't get tested. They don't believe in it, the virus is fake, we won't know about them unless they end up in hospital
We know there was Covid in the protests. 1 bloke in hospital, 1 tested and the President of the CFMEU positive and their office shut down as a Tier 1 exposure site.

That's what leads to the problematic part. You potentially have a core of Covid infecting people who won't get tested but instead who will infect family and friends and the first we'll know is when the numbers really explode to 2-3,000 daily cases.

I wouldn't be the slightest surprised if there is an element of that in these cases, people going to gatherings and being infected by someone who was infected by someone who went to the protest.

My personal view of where to from here is that the horse has bolted to a degree, they way out is vaccination so focus on that, but in the mean time throw people some hope and get rid of stupid, petty restrictions that people aren't following anyway. Just stick with the actual important ones that we need people to follow and dump the rest.

Having to wear a mask outdoors when you're no where near other people is stupid and unscientific
Ditto curfew.
They open golf courses the other day, but ban people using the toilets there. That kind of thing shows total lack of common sense and only serves to piss people off more.
I saw Swanny tweeted yesterday that he'd got in his car and drove 14.8km away, then turned around and came home.

[Jezza]

[Jezza]

Andrews reminds me of a football coach who's "lost the players".

Most people have given up. Just look at the road traffic in the last few weeks.

[think positive]

[think positive]

[eddiesmith]

And they got it not from NSW, but from a fully vaccinated local worker…

But I’m sure someone will try to blame NSW if they haven’t already