energeticlotuseater wrote:
Australia deployed the military against its citizens in order to enforce a lockdown.
I would take the <1% risk of getting sick and that kind of tyranny any day. You, on the other hand, seem willing to accept that tyranny. There is no objectively right answer- it just depends on the kind of society one wants to live in.
Less than 2 pages and I cannot actually choose which is the worst reporting, so these are the facts from Sydney, Australia.
A limo driver (employed by airlines), transporting crew to quarrantine hotels and back did not follow simple protocol and got infected by a crew member (likely source as they have quick turnaround), with the Delta variant, two weeks ago.
All of the current infections , bar one child, is directly genomically and by contact tracing , linked to that patient zero, one of those flew to Wellington , NZ last weekend. (we have travel bubble with them)
The NSW premier is very measured in responses, and has not locked down the state. Only as of last night, four (4) Local Govt. Areas (councils) have had restrictions imposed. These people can still do a range of close activities (shops, exercise etc) and go to work if they cannot work from home.
Other states have imposed various levels of travel restrictions on us, in some cases no one from NSW can enter, or in Queensland/Victoria case only those from certain areas.
The 'military', or more accurately Army Reservists are usually called up for a range of logistical problems, be it help clearing/managing roads, building temporary accomodation etc during bushfires/storm/flood damage etc, and helping traffic check at borders is no different. Fortunately we live in a safe country where we are not scared seeing police or military at checkpoints, usually it is a "G'day mate, where you off to...have a good day " etc.
Next weekend Queensland has a music festival of up to 10,000 people attending in the Simpson Desert (Birdsville). Most Sydneysiders were still able to go as of Thursday , except those in rerstricted local areas, and the rest of NSW are free to attend. Can you imagine the outbreak if this was not managed?
We do not want the delta (nor any other) variant, and this will be under control in a week.
We are able to contact, track and trace and isolate individuals prior to +ve test because we are on top of the low numbers. Other countries lost that battle ages ago, and now pretend they are 'Covid free'...you aren't, you killed another 379 people yesterday, infected another 15,000 many of who will have ongoing health issues.
Countries like Australia/NZ (don't even mention the 3rd world) have not been able to get enough supply of mRNA, because others like Canada have had orders to supply 4 times the population. We have local manufacture of 1M per week Astra Zeneca, but because of the clotting side effect, we have restricted use to 60yrs plus only. So our roll out is reliant on Pfizer and we are progressing towards late 2021 completion . (I have had both).
When you have 1,000's of deaths from Covid, then obviously the clotting is a lower risk, but when you don't have any deaths then two deaths from AZ vaccine is unacceptable, if not criminal.
So seeing that you guys are concerned about us, how has it affected our lifestyle?
Well, I go to work as usual, visit and work at customer sites. I went to run with my running group on Thursday. I have attended/worked at 5 running events in the past three months. Our rugby stadiums (to last week) has been full capacity. We are having a huge interstate game tomorrow night in Brisbane with full capacity. The music festival is going ahead
etc etc, seems pretty normal under ciurcumstances.
What is the economic cost?
Our unemployment is lower than what it was prior to Covid.
Our GDP is growing, and we only had one quarter of -ve growth last year at height of Covid
Interest rates and inflation are at record lows
I personally earned more in the last year than ever before (we got bonuses).
I'd rather you guys keep your Covid and Covid deaths over there please.
Thank you