Mega Thread COVID & AFL

Team,
as the season is approaching and there’s still much to discuss with regards to covid, please use this thread to talk about it and the potential impacts of it on the AFL season and the league more broadly. Please note however that if you want to talk about the politics of covid, the politics thread is the place for this and political posts in this thread will be deleted, please keep this thread to how it may impact the competition
 

Dockeroo

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Wonder how Liam Jones feels todays seeing Djokovic play unvaccinated, and tens of thousands of fully vaccinated Australians getting covid every single day.
Some farce the whole thing is
 
I think the AFL should introduce ten to fifteen train on list spots per side right now that will be able to train with the side, learn the game plan and running patterns expected.

I'm expecting the AFL to require the squad to train in groups of seven or eight already, splitting up the players so that when one tests positive it doesn't spread to all the rest, but we will need players who can come in and not be a total liability running around like a headless chook.

We need these positions scouted out now, getting ahead of other sides.
 

anchor man

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I have a very very bad feeling about 2022 AFL season.
I can not see us getting anywhere to near the end of the season. The country will be rife with the virus.
No chance of hubs or bubbles as has happened the last two seasons.
Could be another season of paying for a membership where we will not see any games.
 
Two things will help the season IMO
- BBL has set the scene for whats accepted - players can play until actually positive with COVID like other sports
- Unlike other sports, games are played weekly, with the new international guidelines, players should be missing 1-2 games AT MOST (and more often just 1).

The season will go ahead, it will be all over the place with players missing games left right and centre and it will not be a fair fixture. Pretty much nothing new for Freo players then...
 

Eski3

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Towards the end of the NFL season they had it worked out pretty well. Players testing positive were unable to play and had to isolate until they had 2 negative PCR tests in a row. They found this happened significantly faster to the vaccinated players. Given every AFL player is going to be vaccinated, players will likely only miss one game if they test positive

If COVID rips through a club to the point that they can't field a team, the game can be delayed. We have a rolling fixture and bye rounds so we should be able to work around this
 
Aug 16, 2009
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I have no fears for the season.

Going by how it is here in the UK where we had 218,000 cases yesterday - no one gives a s**t anymore. People wear masks in shops (mostly) and people are working from home but nurseries and schools are open, businesses are open etc. Pubs are rammed. Everyone has either had it multiple times or are triple vaxxed or both.

High vaccination rates and boosters mean we can do that. Hospitalisations aren't skyrocketing, they're up but not overwhelming. Deaths are relatively low. Everyone in ICU is unvaccinated.

It'll be like this until it becomes endemic or fizzles out. But it's not going to derail the season.
 

Halfbaked

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This is correct, in India no one cares about covid anymore because everyone has had it, doesn’t even get reported anymore.
I think someone has just started to care.
Screenshot_20220105-113019_Chrome.jpg
 
Apr 7, 2010
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Mindboggling how angry people are at Novak instead of the disgusting hypocrites granting him the exemption. One of the worst features of this pandemic is how the elites and their mates get to flaunt the same rules they impose on ordinary citizens, and how brazenly they've done it. They shove it in our face again and again and then expect unwavering obedience and compliance.

Wonder how Liam Jones feels todays seeing Djokovic play unvaccinated, and tens of thousands of fully vaccinated Australians getting covid every single day.
Some farce the whole thing is

This should be the straw that breaks the camels back but you never know.
 
Aug 16, 2009
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Mindboggling how angry people are at Novak instead of the disgusting hypocrites granting him the exemption. One of the worst features of this pandemic is how the elites and their mates get to flaunt the same rules they impose on ordinary citizens, and how brazenly they've done it. They shove it in our face again and again and then expect unwavering obedience and compliance.



This should be the straw that breaks the camels back but you never know.
Nothing will ever break the camel's back. The camel has booze, netflix and processed food keeping it in check. As long as we keep the peasants numb and arguing with each other, they will never rise up and cut our heads off.
 
Oct 5, 2004
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So is that it? is the AFL never going to be the same again?

This virus is never going away

Either the AFL is never going to be the same again, or we going to have to go back to normal one day

What's it going to be?


25,000 people a day are testing positive in NSW and there's probably a similar number that catch it and don't even know or are doing RAT tests so that's roughly 50,000 people getting Covid each day in NSW. If that rate continues the whole of NSW will have had the virus in 4 months. Same applies to WA once the borders open, by the end of winter Australia will have herd immunity.
 

Clemen

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Mindboggling how angry people are at Novak instead of the disgusting hypocrites granting him the exemption. One of the worst features of this pandemic is how the elites and their mates get to flaunt the same rules they impose on ordinary citizens, and how brazenly they've done it. They shove it in our face again and again and then expect unwavering obedience and compliance.



This should be the straw that breaks the camels back but you never know.
I agree.. but it was the smugness in his tweet that has put people off. I imagine he will get quite a few boos in the matches.
 
Oct 20, 2010
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Am I right in that reading the Atagi rules, if you have had Covid in the last 6 months then you can have a medical exemption on the vaccines?

  • Acute major medical condition (e.g. undergoing major surgery or hospital admission for a serious illness). Typically, these are time-limited conditions (or the medical treatment for them is time limited).o
  • PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, where vaccination can be deferred until 6 months after the infection. Vaccination should be deferred for 90 days in people who have received anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody or convalescent plasma therapy.
  • Any serious adverse event attributed to a previous dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, without another cause identified, and with no acceptable alternative vaccine available. For example a person <60 years of age, contraindicated to receive Pfizer vaccine and in whom the risks do not outweigh the benefits for receipt of AstraZeneca vaccine, is eligible for a temporary exemption.
  • If the vaccinee is a risk to themselves or others during the vaccination process they may warrant a temporary vaccine exemption. This may include a range of individuals with underlying developmental or mental health disorders, but noting that non-pharmacological interventions can safely facilitate vaccination in many individuals with behavioural disturbances and that specialist services may be available to facilitate the safe administration of vaccines in this population.

I assume this is how Novak got his.

So basically anyone will be able to get an exemption soon enough as Omicron spreads, I guess for those anti-vaxxers that were thinking the mandates would just go away, well they may actually be right?
 

Dockeroo

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Am I right in that reading the Atagi rules, if you have had Covid in the last 6 months then you can have a medical exemption on the vaccines?

  • Acute major medical condition (e.g. undergoing major surgery or hospital admission for a serious illness). Typically, these are time-limited conditions (or the medical treatment for them is time limited).o
  • PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, where vaccination can be deferred until 6 months after the infection. Vaccination should be deferred for 90 days in people who have received anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody or convalescent plasma therapy.
  • Any serious adverse event attributed to a previous dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, without another cause identified, and with no acceptable alternative vaccine available. For example a person <60 years of age, contraindicated to receive Pfizer vaccine and in whom the risks do not outweigh the benefits for receipt of AstraZeneca vaccine, is eligible for a temporary exemption.
  • If the vaccinee is a risk to themselves or others during the vaccination process they may warrant a temporary vaccine exemption. This may include a range of individuals with underlying developmental or mental health disorders, but noting that non-pharmacological interventions can safely facilitate vaccination in many individuals with behavioural disturbances and that specialist services may be available to facilitate the safe administration of vaccines in this population.

I assume this is how Novak got his.

So basically anyone will be able to get an exemption soon enough as Omicron spreads, I guess for those anti-vaxxers that were thinking the mandates would just go away, well they may actually be right?
This was obvious even a few months back.
vaccinating the whole world approach is a total fallacy. Even the astra zeneca ceo admitted that the other day.
to me, the science is clear on just one thing - that Vaccination reduces greatly the risk of hospitalisation and severe illness and death from covid.
When the Liam Jones controversy was raging in October, we were told all sorts of crap such as “he’s being incredibly unselfish”, “vaccination reduces transmission and protects vulnerable people” etc etc.
Nobody including the AFL foresaw community transmission of this kind of scale amongst vaccinated people.
the evidence so far clearly shows that the vaccine seems to slow down/reduce community transmission for a period of maybe 4 or 5 months before going back to pretty much no effect on community transmission at all.
therefore the mandates are pointless. Is the AFL going to force every player to get a booster every few months now? Meanwhile in the developing world, less than 10% are vaccinated at all.
You could not make this s**t up.
Before anyone has a go - I’m fully vaccinated too and not an anti vaxer
 
Oct 20, 2010
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This was obvious even a few months back.
vaccinating the whole world approach is a total fallacy. Even the astra zeneca ceo admitted that the other day.
to me, the science is clear on just one thing - that Vaccination reduces greatly the risk of hospitalisation and severe illness and death from covid.
When the Liam Jones controversy was raging in October, we were told all sorts of crap such as “he’s being incredibly unselfish”, “vaccination reduces transmission and protects vulnerable people” etc etc.
Nobody including the AFL foresaw community transmission of this kind of scale amongst vaccinated people.
the evidence so far clearly shows that the vaccine seems to slow down/reduce community transmission for a period of maybe 4 or 5 months before going back to pretty much no effect on community transmission at all.
therefore the mandates are pointless. Is the AFL going to force every player to get a booster every few months now? Meanwhile in the developing world, less than 10% are vaccinated at all.
You could not make this sh*t up.
Before anyone has a go - I’m fully vaccinated too and not an anti vaxer
Hard disagree, mandates are not pointless, they are protecting those that are too dumb to go out and get the vax but not quite dumb enough to be anti-vax


I just think its an interesting point that we are giving out exemptions to those who have had the virus albeit they are temporary
 

blue shark

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Hard disagree, mandates are not pointless, they are protecting those that are too dumb to go out and get the vax but not quite dumb enough to be anti-vax


I just think its an interesting point that we are giving out exemptions to those who have had the virus albeit they are temporary
This will be like the flu shot, a jab once a year. To put a number on this, and need a booster?
Israel are up to 4 injections, I just see this as ongoing, so why bother with the number?
This is all about ICU numbers, the number of people per person to look after one patient.
Lose control of that number and it’s a total collapse of the health system.
 
Oct 20, 2010
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This will be like the flu shot, a jab once a year. To put a number on this, and need a booster?
Israel are up to 4 injections, I just see this as ongoing, so why bother with the number?
This is all about ICU numbers, the number of people per person to look after one patient.
Lose control of that number and it’s a total collapse of the health system.
Thankfully all the statistics are saying Omicron is milder than other variants and this coupled with high Vax rate should be good news


Just need to try and trickle down the exposure so it doesn't all happen at once
 

Dockeroo

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Hard disagree, mandates are not pointless, they are protecting those that are too dumb to go out and get the vax but not quite dumb enough to be anti-vax


I just think its an interesting point that we are giving out exemptions to those who have had the virus albeit they are temporary
If the vaccines prevented transmission, then I would wholeheartedly agree with you.
but they don’t, at all. That realisation has slowly but surely dawned on everyone over the last 6 months despite the signs being there early. So many people in sept/Oct were like “oh no, it’s only unvaccinated people that are getting covid now” when there was a steady few hundred cases a day in VIC and NSW. That was totally false - the authorities would never release the case numbers of vaccinated v unvaccinated as they were clearly showing that you could get community transmission fully vaxed. Now we have tens of thousands of fully vaxed cases every day in Australia.

I just think What is the point in mandating a vaccine that has pretty much no impact on transmission a few months after it’s administered? I mean, where does this story end? Will the AFL for example, force every player to be boosted before round 1? Is that even feasible?
I would have liked to see the vaccine mandated for vulnerable and older people and then let they heathy population decide for themselves, as their risk of getting covid and dying is vanishingly small in younger healthy people.
 
Jun 25, 2006
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You are missing a critical point, the vaccine mandate has made people who weren't going to get the vax, end up getting it.

This will lower hospitalisations in the future, it was absolutely necessary in this social media misinformation day and age.

Mandates will save lives for those who weren't smart enough to make the informed decision themselves, its as simple as that.

EDIT: and just adding, it will also save strain on our health system which in turn will save other people from possibly passing away from treatable illness
The edit part is the main one, the more vaccinated the less in hospital meaning people with cancer can get the appropriate treatment and attention. So yeah, if you don’t get vaccinated for reasons other than medical you are selfish.
 
Oct 20, 2010
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Ok well even if I accepts that point, and yes you are right that it probably did get a few extra people across the line to be reluctantly vaxed, why is it still in place now? Surely it is no longer relevant or effective given the vast community transmission amongst fully vaxed? It seems the only purpose of the vax mandate at this rage is to punish the people who didn’t get vaxed and rub their noses in the dirt. At 95% vaxed or thereabouts, isn’t it enough at this stage?
Especially when different rules apply for the rich and famous.
it seems the prevailing mood on social media has a bigger influence in public covid policy than actual facts. That’s never a good place to be.
The rules are in place to continue to encourage others to get the vax, the backlash on the Government if they removed the rule now would be too big aswell.

is 95% enough? I'd say no, try and save as many lives as possible IMO, why remove the rule when the only thing it does is help people?
 
The data early had Covid-19 running at about 10% case fatality rate, people were rightly scared and the world reacted.

It's now a tiny fraction of that but the fear is still there, the news still presents the cases as if they are the death tally.

Something like 95%+ of all deaths have been above the age of 70, a significant number of those remaining are people who already had significant medical issues.

The vaccine was sold at preventing transmission to protect these people, now we know that we need to mandate vaccines on those vulnerable people more than everyone. We can target the vaccine at those vulnerable and everyone else can get their cold and have superior natural immunity than from the vaccine.
 
Oct 20, 2010
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The vaccine was sold at preventing transmission to protect these people, now we know that we need to mandate vaccines on those vulnerable people more than everyone. We can target the vaccine at those vulnerable and everyone else can get their cold and have superior natural immunity than from the vaccine.
You underrate the hospitalisations without deaths

and overrate our hospital and healthcare systems
 
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