Analysis Coronavirus - The Impact IV “Phasing into the New Normal”

[kane249]

I reckon its time we started calling over the nullarbor “The Diseastern States”

Update the maps like they used to in the olden days

 

[Rowan18]

The UK strain (funny everyone calls it that) sounds quite scary. 70% more contagious than something that was already pretty bloody contagious.

Vaccine roll-out starts next month though!

There is absolutely no way to tell if it is 70% more contagious without a controlled study. The UK grabbed that figure to excuse their failing in controlling the study and the media is running with it because it sounds scary. This is a great article explaining how it could be more or less contagious but that there is no way of knowing due to a number of factors:

New coronavirus variant: What do we know?

How has a new coronavirus variant become the most common form of the virus in parts of England?

www.bbc.com

 

[Rowan18]

That was always gonna be the case in my view. The initial fixture release was just a best-case scenario from the AFL.

The next few months will be very interesting. Once the vulnerable are vaccinated, it becomes very hard to argue that AFL teams travelling between states and adhering to COVID precautions is much of a risk at all. I'd like to think that McGowan might calm down a bit once he's won the election and let a risk based approach prevail.

Plan B is that hopefully this outbreak is well and truly under control by then. Melbourne has had the worst so far and they got it handled within 3 months.

 

[Hap Hapablap]

mcgowan telling everyone to buy masks now. does he know something we dont know?

 

[kane249]

mcgowan telling everyone to buy masks now. does he know something we dont know?

We've been told to work from home next week as a precaution.
We had someone in our office who was over in Queensland recently.
Chances are low, but hey these are the fun times we are in.

 

[Biggie]

RIO made us scramble and call every contractor to ask if they’ve been in contact with anyone from over east or indeed been over east. We had one guy down off site as he landed on the 2nd of Jan and headed to site. Contract tracing who he had been in contact with means most of the workforce (there’s and ours)

A fun Friday was had by one and all.

 

[Mr Eagle]

mcgowan telling everyone to buy masks now. does he know something we dont know?

Mask shopping is fun. So many funky patterns to choose from.

 

[Chris_6678]

The fixture will be kept, I think only us and freo will be forced to hub.

WA have been more relaxed with the BBL teams coming from the eastern states.

 

[DanWCE]

 

[ConcreteWaters]

There is absolutely no way to tell if it is 70% more contagious without a controlled study. The UK grabbed that figure to excuse their failing in controlling the study and the media is running with it because it sounds scary. This is a great article explaining how it could be more or less contagious but that there is no way of knowing due to a number of factors:

New coronavirus variant: What do we know?

How has a new coronavirus variant become the most common form of the virus in parts of England?

www.bbc.com

It's not much of an issue if there's pre-flight screening and then a rapid test on arrival which have now been implemented, yet these ******* campaigners go and halve the caps because they can't train their staff properly to use their PPE. 10 months to sort this s**t out and they still have the attitude of not wanting to deal with it.
With masks, surely you all have one? As one person on Twitter said "everyone in the world is wearing masks, Australia is the only one complaining about it."

 

[Hap Hapablap]

i just dont know why did the government take nine months to put the pre test requirement on all international passengers. could have eliminated any chances of the second waves here.

also i definitely feel the western australian government have not prepared for this virus as well as the other states. we have been absolutely *en lucky that something hasnt seeped through

all in all, should all the high risk people be vaccinated by april, things will begin to relax across the board where the virus will then be treated as endemic.

 

[Ok Boomer]

Yeah, despite my frustrations with some elements of our border policy I have reached the realisation that this is our lot until vaccinations are well and truly underway and that since there is light at the end of the tunnel with this, it is pointless getting too worked up over it now.

I don't think that the general public will tolerate too many games with the borders by mid year though. The election is at a great time for McGowan, not that he will be under any serious threat anytime soon.

 

[hudson2006]

i just dont know why did the government take nine months to put the pre test requirement on all international passengers. could have eliminated any chances of the second waves here.

also i definitely feel the western australian government have not prepared for this virus as well as the other states. we have been absolutely fu**en lucky that something hasnt seeped through

all in all, should all the high risk people be vaccinated by april, things will begin to relax across the board where the virus will then be treated as endemic.

Lol putting a pre-test requirement would have trapped (and probably will trap) Australians trying to get to their own country. Why would every other country suddenly create access to this very specific form of testing on Australia's whim, unless it was a global coordinated effort?

I understand it sounds all good and simple from within Australia, but it just creates a whole raft of issues that complicates the Aus governments' own efforts to repatriate their citizens.

Hopefully just a brief temporary measure, as I've no idea if services in Japan even offers this kind of quick 72 hour testing, let alone anything an Australian bureaucrat will accept. Time for an email to the embassy I guess, yay. We might be in luck given how closely our governments work together.

It's around au$190 for a private test here, and the free ones are only for those deemed as close contacts by bureaucrats with phones. Plenty of sick friends & coworkers have called the hotline but as of yet we don't know anyone who's actually gotten a test.

Jeez it's hard to find information about this pre testing on the health.gov website, nothing about it on Home Affairs yet. Hope they actually send a bloody update soon to those of us with flights coming up.

 

[ConcreteWaters]

Lol putting a pre-test requirement would have trapped (and probably will trap) Australians trying to get to their own country. Why would every other country suddenly create access to this very specific form of testing on Australia's whim, unless it was a global coordinated effort?

I understand it sounds all good and simple from within Australia, but it just creates a whole raft of issues that complicates the Aus governments' own efforts to repatriate their citizens.

Hopefully just a brief temporary measure, as I've no idea if services in Japan even offers this kind of quick 72 hour testing, let alone anything an Australian bureaucrat will accept. Time for an email to the embassy I guess, yay. We might be in luck given how closely our governments work together.

It's around au$190 for a private test here, and the free ones are only for those deemed as close contacts by bureaucrats with phones. Plenty of sick friends & coworkers have called the hotline but as of yet we don't know anyone who's actually gotten a test.

Jeez it's hard to find information about this pre testing on the health.gov website, nothing about it on Home Affairs yet. Hope they actually send a bloody update soon to those of us with flights coming up.

It adds another layer, but airlines like Emirates, and from late December Singapore were requiring it before boarding. I've got a flight on Friday from London, and it was quite straightforward to organise a PCR test here in Edinburgh at the airport, and Heathrow also have testing facilities (£80/test). What would suck is paying for the test and then being bumped off, which is a possibility with the sudden cap change. I don't understand, without any significant outbreaks and tightening measures pre-flight and for quarantine staff testing and PPE, how they can justify a sudden halving of the caps. It's impossible to plan here with all of that.

 

[ConcreteWaters]

Lol putting a pre-test requirement would have trapped (and probably will trap) Australians trying to get to their own country. Why would every other country suddenly create access to this very specific form of testing on Australia's whim, unless it was a global coordinated effort?

I understand it sounds all good and simple from within Australia, but it just creates a whole raft of issues that complicates the Aus governments' own efforts to repatriate their citizens.

Hopefully just a brief temporary measure, as I've no idea if services in Japan even offers this kind of quick 72 hour testing, let alone anything an Australian bureaucrat will accept. Time for an email to the embassy I guess, yay. We might be in luck given how closely our governments work together.

It's around au$190 for a private test here, and the free ones are only for those deemed as close contacts by bureaucrats with phones. Plenty of sick friends & coworkers have called the hotline but as of yet we don't know anyone who's actually gotten a test.

Jeez it's hard to find information about this pre testing on the health.gov website, nothing about it on Home Affairs yet. Hope they actually send a bloody update soon to those of us with flights coming up.

Statement issued this morning with info: https://uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/20210111_update.html
Although, if you're elsewhere, I'm not sure. If you're in the US, some of the airlines may have links to testing facilities. There would be countries where it would be extremely difficult though

 

[ZergMinion]

There is absolutely no way to tell if it is 70% more contagious without a controlled study. The UK grabbed that figure to excuse their failing in controlling the study and the media is running with it because it sounds scary. This is a great article explaining how it could be more or less contagious but that there is no way of knowing due to a number of factors:

New coronavirus variant: What do we know?

How has a new coronavirus variant become the most common form of the virus in parts of England?

www.bbc.com

This article from today on the ABC website:

In recent weeks, a handful of preliminary reports and epidemiological observations have helped to pinpoint the effect of the new variant, with several suggesting an increase in transmissibility of around 50 per cent.

What we know about the COVID variant found in the UK

The new coronavirus variant sweeping the UK is bad. But just how bad?

www.abc.net.au

There are no certainties of course, but this is really looking like it's genuinely quite a bit more contagious than the original strain.

 

[Rowan18]

This article from today on the ABC website:

What we know about the COVID variant found in the UK

The new coronavirus variant sweeping the UK is bad. But just how bad?

www.abc.net.au

There are no certainties of course, but this is really looking like it's genuinely quite a bit more contagious than the original strain.

The best part of that article is the part toward the end, where they say that the vaccines should still be effective against it. That is very re-assuring.

 

[ZergMinion]

The best part of that article is the part toward the end, where they say that the vaccines should still be effective against it. That is very re-assuring.

Yep. If we can get the roll-outs happening effectively we should get some normality back soonish.

 

[Chris_6678]

I see the US is implementing you test negative before entering the country, surely this will limit spread somewhat. Less people in hotel quarantine means less chance of it getting out.

 

[kane249]

Reports the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will officially be cancelled

 

[Chris_6678]

Reports the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will officially be cancelled

No surprise.

Look at the stuff up with the Australian Open and the scale of that is tiny compared to an Olympics.

Those villages would be a hot bed for Covid spreaders.

 

[kane249]

No surprise.

Look at the stuff up with the Australian Open and the scale of that is tiny compared to an Olympics.

Those villages would be a hot bed for Covid spreaders.

Bed being the operative word there given the reputation for what goes on at those villages

 

[Rowan18]

Reports the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will officially be cancelled

Fair enough. Pandemic probably won't be on the wane in Western Countries until H2 2021 once mass vaccine roll-out is finished. Third world countries could be another year or so. Japan has done too well to risk it for a silly sporting festival.

 

[Chris_6678]

There is now a Vacine tracker lol

What times we live in now..

11,697,421 Coronavirus cases in Australia - COVID Live

Live tracking of coronavirus cases, active, tests, deaths, ICU, hospitalisations and vaccinations in Australia

covidlive.com.au

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

If the Olympics are cancelled, that's WW1, WW2 and covid-19 that cancelled the Olympics.

It's wild to think we're living in times that our grandkids will study at school. Like OK yes I was alive but very young when the Berlin Wall came down, and there was/is the whole war on terror etc, but still. They didn't really affect me. This still feels very strange to me roughly one year later with how much things were affected for everyone.