Australia and New Zealand go into COVID lockdown and reinstate restrictions

dfccc wrote:

The silence from the lockdown defenders is deafening.

I guess it would be when you have a cranium of concrete.

Seems like it. Those people dont need to be afraid of china. They are already accepting no freedom.

This is exactly what I've been wondering, not just in Australia, but everywhere (that the vaccine is readily available). What's the goal here? The vaccine is the last thing we as humans can do to 'end' Covid. It's been mostly a success. We have to stop worrying about cases (which is what every stupid headline talks about) and start looking at hospitalizations and deaths of the vaccinated. Assuming those numbers are low, it's time to move on. Any further prolongment of restrictions is done without an actual goal in mind. It's might have been frustrating in 2020, but at least everyone knew what we were aiming for (a vaccine).

In NSW anyway the premier seems to be shifting towards opening up with ongoing community transmission being acceptable so long as the vax rates are 70 or so percent. Quote from her:

“We know, given where the numbers are and the experience of Delta overseas, that we now have to live with Delta in one way or another – and that’s pretty obvious. But the higher the vaccination rate, the safer we all are and the more free we will be”.

So there is at least some logic creeping in finally, i.e. live with it.

Queensland and Victoria though love to fly into snap lockdowns if anyone sneezes so they are still holding on to the idea of zero cases (especially Chairman Dan in Vic). NSW seems to be accepting of the fact that going forward that is almost impossible without constant lockdowns and closed borders which they've been doing an has seen her approval rating drop significantly. Funny how that coincided with the new talk of living with it.

There is 'logic' in both approaches, whilst vaccines are being rolled out and we are not at the level that can have complete open movement. All the premiers are in agreement at National Cabinet that post vaccine there is going to be lingering Covid. The issue is what to do until they get there.

We in NSW have had 'lockdown lite' that is longer lockdown with much more cases than the other states with short sharp lockdowns. Who is right?

But at the end of the day we can only roll out the vaccine at the amount we have, until we get to the laggards that want incentives and the anti vaxxers, and hope to get to 70 to 80% to have normality, if not everyone, at least the vaccinated

The problem was they spent a good month thinking they could snuff it out via soft lockdowns while ignoring what was happening everywhere else in the world.

Delta has been a massive boon for the media though. They can fearmonger and drive traffic scaring people senseless

Yes fair comment. Elimination as a goal worked fine for Australia until delta strain came along. One state is coming to terms with living with it and getting vaccination rates as high as possible. The others are still hoping in vain for elimination.

Americans have an obsession with individual freedom which explains a lot of the reaction toward any restriction attempts in the US.

The US is also a huge country with a federalist separation of power system. For the US central government to enforce the kind of lockdowns we saw in most of the world is unthinkable.

Before the election I chuckled when I heard Howard Stern, who was a big proponent of lockdowns, say something to the extent of “we need to elect Biden so he can lockdown the US properly and snuff out COVID”. I love Howard Stern but this is something a guy who hasn’t left his bubble in the tri-state area in any meaningful way would say. However, I heard the same type demands being thrown at the Trump administration during the height of Covid by some pretty prevalent “taking heads”.

And it continues after one case of COVID was found…

From the article

“ Australia's capital city, Canberra, announced a snap one-week lockdown from Thursday evening after reporting its first locally acquired case of Covid-19 in more than a year.”

Pure madness down under

Yes 1 case has become 4 cases. 7 days only essential workers get to leave their houses and if you want to run you must do it in your local area. Thankfully my group raced last weekend which will probably be the last time in a while. It will be very interesting if Canberra can stop it. Questions remain on how it got here. Someone must have been to Sydney and not followed rules.

coahc wrote:

Yes 1 case has become 4 cases. 7 days only essential workers get to leave their houses and if you want to run you must do it in your local area. Thankfully my group raced last weekend which will probably be the last time in a while. It will be very interesting if Canberra can stop it. Questions remain on how it got here. Someone must have been to Sydney and not followed rules.

Hate to break it to the Aussies but Canberra probably has much more than four cases of Covid running around. Most of the people are probably just asymptotic or simply don’t get tested.

"New Zealand’s strict handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor in Amazon’s decision. More than half of the cast is British and has reportedly had to stay in New Zealand for around two years because of border restrictions and quarantine rules. With a base in the UK, the cast will be much closer to home, and the producers may also be able to make use of other locations around Europe."

"The move to the UK won’t be without controversy. Author J.R.R. Tolkien based Middle-earth’s Shire on his experiences living in rural England, but Jackson’s vivid depictions in the movies has made New Zealand’s landscapes just as closely associated with the franchise, and drove significant tourism to the country."

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/13/22622926/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-production-uk-new-zealand

Looks like the COVID insanity has spread from Australia to New Zealand.

I know the New Zealand apologists will somehow find the silver lining but it’s shocking how the citizens over there are still putting up with this stuff.

out of the shire wrote:Looks like the COVID insanity has spread from Australia to New Zealand.

I know the New Zealand apologists will somehow find the silver lining but it’s shocking how the citizens over there are still putting up with this stuff.

I feel bad for people in NZ and AUS because there's no way out for them without pretty significant loss of life - or forever lockdowns.

Unless somebody develops vaccines with true sterilizing immunity there is no exit strategy that can keep the genie in the bottle. These mRNA vaccines are certainly reducing hospitalizations and deaths on a percentage basis, but cases are still surging in heavily vaxxed areas - see Oregon most recently with an all time new high in cases. The number of patients who are fully vaxxed and still end up in ICU is still steadily increasing.

Man Overboard wrote:

I feel bad for people in NZ and AUS because there's no way out for them without pretty significant loss of life - or forever lockdowns.

Or 80% vaccination, which is on track for end November in NSW

At current vax rates national rate should be 80% dose 1 and 60% fully vaxxed in 30 days. By October 1 80% fully vaxxed.

I am Sam wrote:

Man Overboard wrote:

I feel bad for people in NZ and AUS because there's no way out for them without pretty significant loss of life - or forever lockdowns.

Or 80% vaccination, which is on track for end November in NSW

This is assuming the Aussies and the Kiwis are still willing to live with covid. Just because you are vaccinated doesn't mean you can't catch covid--you absolutely can as we have seen.

COVID is not going away and the lands down under have to deal with it.

The word from the NSW Premier seems to be we open up once we hit the vax number and at that point assume there will be deaths & a constant level of positives (whatever that may be). I think most of us are fine with that scenario

There isn't "living with Covid". 600k American deaths show that. But you can live with a vaccine. NZ has had 26 Covid deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic - all occurring early last year. The current objective is to keep Covid out of the community and have everyone vaccinated, which is expected by the end of this year. We are ok with measures like a lockdown to do that because we would rather get on top of the disease than have it overun our health system or kill us. We leave that to you guys.