Thread: Covid Mk ll

Originally Posted by vnx205

It seems that the current problems with supply and with staff shortages are evidence that the same problems that occurred in 1919 are developing now.

Many are saying it is going to be worse,talk to anyone in the Hospitality industry,the whole industry is shot at the moment.

Even the couple of pubs we do work at are doing it very tough,the bottleshops are not even doing the business they were during lockdowns,for whatever reason.Most of the Christmas,New year bookings were cancelled.

Just finished reading a good article on the economic comparison between "lock downs" vs "let it rip". It is an early analysis and validation of the argument read many times on this thread that of the two evils of "lock down" or a "let it rip" sick population, lock downs are the lesser of the two evils.

There is enough data apparently to have an early comparison between the two different outcomes from the two different strategies that Australia has been in - "lock downs" vs "Let it rip".

From The Conversation.

Healthy humans drive the economy: we're now witnessing one of the worst public policy failures in Australia's history

Originally Posted by windsock

Just finished reading a good article on the economic comparison between "lock downs" vs "let it rip". It is an early analysis and validation of the argument read many times on this thread that of the two evils of "lock down" or a "let it rip" sick population, lock downs are the lesser of the two evils.

There is enough data apparently to have an early comparison between the two different outcomes from the two different strategies that Australia has been in - "lock downs" vs "Let it rip".

From The Conversation.

Healthy humans drive the economy: we're now witnessing one of the worst public policy failures in Australia's history

The only problem with that is that is extremely unlikely that a lockdown would have been effective against Omicron unless it is done Chinese style. Given the unrest in Victoria and to a lesser degree in other states even the protests that would have resulted would have been enough to trigger the situation that we have today. Not to mention the potential damage caused to our democracy, If some nutbag can set the doors to old parlament house on fire what would 20,000 nutbags driven by a desire for "freedom" do if they were locked down from Christmas until who knows when. Also the point of the lockdowns last year was to get as many people vaccinated as possible, those people are now getting a mostly mild case of covid which is leading to the staff shortages. You cant hide from covid forever, at some point it will need to become endemic and Australia is in the best position to make this transformation now. The measures mentioned in the article such as reducing density limits and changing to different styles of masks are just fiddling around the edges of a pandemic driven by young people who are sick of being denied the ability to socialise and see covid as a very minor inconvenience, not the bogey man it was six months ago with Delta.

Regards,
Tote

Mum the Chemo type just got it. A funeral sounds like a super spreader event sadly. Good news is triple vaxed and seem at day 3 not to be in trouble.

Just finished work. Extracted all covid bookings checking if the kids have a second booking. Added 50 ish, then checked the 2nd was 56 days after the first or more. Corrected 20ish

The poor mums and dads got booked texts well after 8pm. Swapped a few dozen after that.

=True IF in MS excel and date as a number is my best mate tonight A-B = 56 or < I feel for the poor sods doing it manually and I bet there is more than a few!

The training modules for the poor sod doing this make me chuckle. My expertise in Freezers I do not have and will not have is yet another outstanding waste of my time Doctors/nurse get a lot more waffle which should have a NOT APPLICABLE option


There is one very odd bit. the Kids last in my fridge for Pfizer (COMIRNATY) 12+ years (Purple cap) "Thawed and unopened vaccines can be stored at +2°C to +8°C for up to 31 days, including up to 2 hours in room temperature up to +30° C (Pfizer, Australia, 2021b"
Pfizer (COMIRNATY) (For Age 5 to <12 Years) (Orange cap)
Thawed, undiluted and unopened vaccines can be stored at +2°C to +8°C for up to 10 weeks.

31 day and 10 weeks! Not fussed yet I am certain the only difference between the 12+ and the 5 to 12 is the vial size and the cap colour. ( It actual says that)

Such is life 100s of kids and over 12 to 103 year olds inbound in the morning. Sadly not much time to chat with those nice people. wearing my sheep dog shoes for moving them fast

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Mum the Chemo type just got it. A funeral sounds like a super spreader event sadly. Good news is triple vaxed and seem at day 3 not to be in trouble.

Just finished work. Extracted all covid bookings checking if the kids have a second booking. Added 50 ish, then checked the 2nd was 56 days after the first or more. Corrected 20ish

The poor mums and dads got booked texts well after 8pm. Swapped a few dozen after that.

=True IF in MS excel and date as a number is my best mate tonight A-B = 56 or < I feel for the poor sods doing it manually and I bet there is more than a few!

The training modules for the poor sod doing this make me chuckle. My expertise in Freezers I do not have and will not have is yet another outstanding waste of my time Doctors/nurse get a lot more waffle which should have a NOT APPLICABLE option


There is one very odd bit. the Kids last in my fridge for Pfizer (COMIRNATY) 12+ years (Purple cap) "Thawed and unopened vaccines can be stored at +2°C to +8°C for up to 31 days, including up to 2 hours in room temperature up to +30° C (Pfizer, Australia, 2021b"
Pfizer (COMIRNATY) (For Age 5 to <12 Years) (Orange cap)
Thawed, undiluted and unopened vaccines can be stored at +2°C to +8°C for up to 10 weeks.

31 day and 10 weeks! Not fussed yet I am certain the only difference between the 12+ and the 5 to 12 is the vial size and the cap colour. ( It actual says that)

Such is life 100s of kids and over 12 to 103 year olds inbound in the morning. Sadly not much time to chat with those nice people. wearing my sheep dog shoes for moving them fast

Sorry to hear about mum. My mother is 91 and isn't letting covid get in the way of her socialising, She's also double vaxed and boosted but I guess when you get to her age who are we whipper snappers to tell her how to live her life....

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tote

The only problem with that is that is extremely unlikely that a lockdown would have been effective against Omicron unless it is done Chinese style. Given the unrest in Victoria and to a lesser degree in other states even the protests that would have resulted would have been enough to trigger the situation that we have today. Not to mention the potential damage caused to our democracy, If some nutbag can set the doors to old parlament house on fire what would 20,000 nutbags driven by a desire for "freedom" do if they were locked down from Christmas until who knows when. Also the point of the lockdowns last year was to get as many people vaccinated as possible, those people are now getting a mostly mild case of covid which is leading to the staff shortages. You cant hide from covid forever, at some point it will need to become endemic and Australia is in the best position to make this transformation now. The measures mentioned in the article such as reducing density limits and changing to different styles of masks are just fiddling around the edges of a pandemic driven by young people who are sick of being denied the ability to socialise and see covid as a very minor inconvenience, not the bogey man it was six months ago with Delta.

Regards,
Tote

Agreed, we struggled to control Delta with lockdowns, so Omicron would've been worse - but it would in hindsight have been wise to try to limit the numbers of infections, even if Covid zero wasn't possible.

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Agreed, we struggled to control Delta with lockdowns, so Omicron would've been worse - but it would in hindsight have been wise to try to limit the numbers of infections, even if Covid zero wasn't possible.

Not just hindsight - in particular, the NSW government decision to scrap just about all precautions just as the omicron variant was starting to appear was widely criticised by most if not all medical and scientific advice.

And, as has long been predicted, the economic effects of allowing a pandemic to run freely are far worse than lockdown.

Of course, there are those who think that the only alternatives are either lockdown or no restrictions. The reality is that there are a wide range of actions that are in between. These include firstly, widespread wearing of masks, limiting or even banning high infection risk activities especially those involving crowding, indoors and singing or shouting (potential superspreader events), restrictions on travel, restrictions on activity for the unvaccinated etc.

Allowing and even encouraging these in December has had the inevitable and predicted result of supply chain problems, empty shelves in supermarkets, hospitals and other health services close to crisis, and tourism and hospitality booking cancellations becoming widespread as customers "take personal responsibility" and the cancellation or postponement of events as organisers see this..

And then we have the chaos resulting from the (again predicted) shortage of testing capability, and the unavailability of RA Tests (also predicted).

An interesting take on the shortage of RA tests and those who would believe that the medical community is always right. In Most states RA tests were illegal until late in 2021 and indeed in WA they have only in the last week made it legal to sell them for personal use. Most of the reasoning behind this was from the medical community who were adamant that they weren't accurate enough and that self administration would lead to huge inaccuracy and the sky falling. As a result retailers did not stock them, importers did not build up warehouse levels and then in one week as PCR testing was overwhelmed suddenly, everyone was blaming the government(s) for not having massive stockpiles. Maybe the medical advisers should take a little blame here, although I doubt that is likely. The conspiracy theorist in me also suspects that RA Tests being freely available earlier would have disrupted the nice gravy train that the pathology labs were riding.

Regards,
Tote