COVID-19 updates comments and concerns

[1AZRAEL1]

Cases start spiking, health says keep up with masks and QR codes, premier says no we'll stop those. Never thought I'd say it, but this new guy is worse than Gladrags.

[griffin]

I think the daily reports and mass media should start focussing on the hospital numbers, and not the case numbers, as we don't want people to think that the vaccine isn't working if we are seeing huge case numbers, because the vaccine isn't a force-field... the virus is airborne and anyone can catch it... the vaccine will just make it better for you to fight off the virus when (not if) you catch it, increasing the odds of keeping you out of hospital and death.
I am really hoping that this new variant that is super contagious ends up being very mild with its symptoms and risk of death, so that it spreads fast and prevents people from catching the more deadly variants, which causes them to die off. I would imagine that is what happened with the "Spanish Flu" 100 years ago, as it didn't just disappear and we didn't vaccinate the world against it, so it should have kept killing millions every year since then. It is likely to have also mutated into a milder version that then blended with the regular global flu viruses (which still kill people every year, but not nearly as many as Covid/Sars does).

Cases start spiking, health says keep up with masks and QR codes, premier says no we'll stop those. Never thought I'd say it, but this new guy is worse than Gladrags.

He's probably just towing the company line to help his party's Prime Minister to keep his job at next year's election, who is really ramping up his election pitch of "government is to take a step back from controlling our lives"... which in itself is pitching to the radicals looking to United and One Nation, not because Morrison agrees with them, but to (re)capture that 5-10 percent that may get him over the line next year. (Morrison is just following trump's play-book, of appealing to the extremists, not because they share any common values with the party, but because it was enough to get him over the line in 2016, along with the party faithful who would vote for anyone who is their candidate - it was just easier to appeal to that small number of extremists necessary to win, than to work hard at winning over enough swing-vote independents or democrat followers).

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Welp, Tassie opened up on the 15th, and right away first case the next day. For all that the risk of quarantine etc. was kind of a pain I did quite like living in a State that was pretty Covid-free. It was nice while it lasted.

[DELTAprime]

I just got my brain tickled. I hope I get the all-clear before my shift on boxing day so I don't miss out on them penalty rates.

[griffin]

Those case numbers in the last few days is really eye-watering. Such rapid increase shows just how contagious this new variant is.
We thought Delta was really bad with it being 3-4 times more contagious, but Omicron looks to be at least ten times as contagious as that, particularly when you take into account the preventative measures Australia has in place making us one of the best countries in the world for limiting the spread (vaccine rates the highest in the world, mask mandates, density limits in public places).
The friday numbers was just under 10,000 for the country, with every state and territory reporting case numbers.
QLD certainly had the fastest growth in numbers this week, most likely due to the flood of tourists from other states now allowed to spend their christmas vacation there, and people only needed a negative result 3 days before they travel, allowing them to catch it at any time after that and bring it across the border.

The important thing to hope for is that this variant is indeed less deadly, and we don't see those huge numbers translate into hospital admissions. I think the vaccine will play a major role in that, as it will be helping most people fight off the virus before it multiplies too much within their body and overwhelms their immune system.

But even if people aren't filling hospitals, the current processes require people who have had a positive result to isolate along with any close contacts, and if we start getting close to 100,000 cases per day within a week, it will disrupt events and businesses worse than when there was the advance-warning of a government-announced lockdown, as thousands of events or businesses will now have to suddenly be cancelled due to just one positive case, who could be a close contact to others.


One of the new workers at my workplace is a mid-20s guy who thinks he's invincible, boasting the other day that he'll never get the vaccine or wear a mask, because he believes that he won't die because he doesn't believe he has any other underlying conditions.
There is so much to unpack with that... even healthy people get sick, and if you don't die from it, you are likely to have symptoms for the rest of your (shortened) life... not to mention the irresponsibility of possibly passing it onto someone who is at high risk, either from an immune system that didn't respond to the vaccine, or have other medical issues.

[Sinnertwin]

Either this new strand isn't as deadly as it's being made out to be, or the government simply doesn't care enough about the health of the general public and wants them to spend big during the Christmas & New Years period.

We've seen it before, LGA's & States going into lockdown as a result of far, far fewer cases, yet here we are. Off you go, mask up, wash your hands & climb into each other's pockets.

[1AZRAEL1]

Always used to talk about it at work. We have thousands of workers that can come into contact with each other every day. And without knowing you're contagious for at least a few days, could pass it on to alot of workers. And we were lucky it didn't rip through. Now this contagious strain, well now we're starting to see internal comms with crew with positive tests and where they were. I think we've run out of luck and we're gonna start having staff shortages when people have to start isolating

[DELTAprime]

I quickly went to KFC after work. That's the third restaurant I've been in since Queensland's "strict" laws preventing people that are not double vaxxed or wearing a mask from ordering. Nobody seems to care about the law. The only thing I've seen is the young girl serving at KFC asked a guy without a mask to stand behind the screen. That's it, I've seen no other effect of the new law at all.

[Autocon]

Liberals dont want more lockdowns coz then it means more lockdown payments. Always wealth over health

Think we are up to 7 cases now. Surprised theres not more

[1AZRAEL1]

Yep. Wealth over health. Been the problem this whole time. But then again, alot of tinfoil hat wearers have outed themselves too