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Australian Response

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so


    You seem remarkably convinced that a government, which has been poor to date, can get vaccines out to people. Comparisons with Ireland in May are not all that useful. Our acceleration really began in June and it's been like an express train this month. So best to look at it in two months to see if they match your optimism.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,435 ✭✭✭mandrake04


    The Pfizer supply is improving same as it improved in Ireland and a lot of the AZ will be approaching their 2nd dose so fully vaccinated will jump. Like last May/June once the cases disappear then restrictions will be gradually reduced and the steadily increasing vaccinated population will help that, it wont be that bad. I definitely have it over what you have had, I think if I was in that situation I would have already necked myself but luckily I'm not.


    And...you still wont get your 10 months back.



  • Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so



    I got out of that COVID fugue very early on. A normal year can come and go with no discernible effect on our lives but my 15 months have actually been pretty productive. Finally started things I'd long been threatening to do and set to work on some new projects.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,521 Mod ✭✭✭✭Amirani


    You talk about "not getting 10 months back" like we were in prison, we really weren't. You probably heard lots of moaning, but we've been able to do loads. I've done more outdoor activities and learning over those 10 months then most other 10 month periods in my life.

    We didn't have pubs and restaurants and stuff, but I've had plenty of good times regardless.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,338 ✭✭✭Bit cynical


    Due to Australia's ability to isolate themselves, they have not gained much in the way of natural immunity from the virus, placing more importance on immunity through vaccinations. The problem is, of course, that because cases and deaths have been low, the perceived need for vaccinations has been low when in fact it should have been high.

    However while Australia have made mistakes, it is important to remember that for the vast majority of people Covid-19 is not a life-threatening illness. "Done for" is a bit of an exaggeration. They need to step up their vaccination programme but in the long run they will be fine.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 84,319 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    Katie Hopkins getting deported, those Ozs getting it right



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Except when they let her into the country in the first place which was, obviously, getting it wrong.



  • Registered Users Posts: 971 ✭✭✭bob mcbob


    While I think Boris's approach of dropping all restrictions is reckless even in Scotland which has always taken a more conservative approach, there has been another round of easing of restrictions with indoor drinking / dining yesterday - masks are still mandatory however.

    The issue for Australia as I see it is their success could actually now be a weakness. In Europe after 15 months of lockdown and high death rates there is now an acceptance that zero Covid is simply not possible. Even with high vaccination levels ( in Scotland approx 90% of adults have had 1 dose, 67% of adults are fully vaccinated) there were 1400 cases yesterday and over 500 now in hospital.

    Do you think Australia would be willing to accept these (probably worse) infection & hospitalisation rates to get back to normal? If not what is the alternative?



  • Registered Users Posts: 84,319 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1




  • Registered Users Posts: 32,136 ✭✭✭✭is_that_so




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  • Registered Users Posts: 36,021 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    They get the current wave under control and hit their vaccine targets in about 4 months time?



  • Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 13,937 Mod ✭✭✭✭pc7


    I’ve family in Oz and while they’ve have received first dose, their Circle of Oz friends were shocked they got the vaccine. They would be early 30’s in WA, it’ll be interesting to see what their uptake is like, based on that tiny sample.



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,890 Mod ✭✭✭✭shesty


    I suspect if further strains become more rampant in Oz, the take up will increase rapidly. Long term though, I don't really understand what they think they are going to do - just keep their borders closed indefinitely? Covid isn't going away.



  • Registered Users Posts: 36,021 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    Long term, they are going to distribute vaccines amongst the population.

    You seem to be deliberately ignoring numerous posts above from people living in Australia essentially saying the lack of travel doesn’t bother them one bit. They have spent the vast majority of the last 15 months socially and economically as normal. I don’t particularly understand why people here would place their obsession with travel onto another populace. Every nation thinks differently.



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,890 Mod ✭✭✭✭shesty


    I am simply offering an opinion, not deliberately ignoring anything. Good for them. Their approach is different to ours, and that's it really.



  • Registered Users Posts: 12,127 ✭✭✭✭MadYaker


    If they do the rollout like we did and get to the point we're at now where basically anyone over 18 can at least register for one and it's easy to do then surely uptake will be higher. They just might have to spend time in and out of lockdowns until they get there.



  • Registered Users Posts: 656 ✭✭✭gral6


    Australia, as a former jail, used to keep their borders closed indefinitely. So, it is not a big issue for them, Stockholm syndrome.



  • Registered Users Posts: 971 ✭✭✭bob mcbob


    Ok so they distribute vaccines - then what? On a best case scenario of 100% vaccine take up and 95% vaccine efficacy that still leaves over one million cases.

    I believe that the current outbreak was not caused by tourists but by the crew from a cargo plane? So ban imports as well?

    Also what would be your solution for the circa 35K Australians currently stranded abroad.



  • Registered Users Posts: 36,021 ✭✭✭✭LuckyLloyd


    They distribute the vaccines in parallel with dealing with the current wave and likely they develop a very high volume of vaccination in the context of very low volumes of cases over the next 6 months.


    The Australians abroad can travel home and go through quarantine, etc.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,184 ✭✭✭TomSweeney


    It's not funny, it's depressing, people have lost their minds over this.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,184 ✭✭✭TomSweeney


    That's exactly what will happen, Australia will never open their borders.


    Not unless you are flash and able to afford crazy quarantine prices.



  • Registered Users Posts: 656 ✭✭✭gral6


    Australia is a shite hole now. Thousand Australians cannot return home since last year. The best Covid response in the world, ha-ha



  • Registered Users Posts: 842 ✭✭✭Hego Damask


    But Natalie Portman,Julia Roberts and Matt Damon can swan in and out ....



  • Registered Users Posts: 656 ✭✭✭gral6


    Yes. That makes Australian Covid response even more farcical and cruel. They do not care about their citizens



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,184 ✭✭✭TomSweeney


    Just check out the Australian health expert here .... evil, just pure evil ... Don't talk to people, even if you are wearing a mask , don't engage with people !!!

    Orwellian, authoritarian thugs...





  • Registered Users Posts: 3,184 ✭✭✭TomSweeney


    111 cases out of 100,000+ tests in Sydney, 1 death (man in his 80s)

    And people can't even leave their homes to work !! - Whole city lockdowned.



  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    You're posing a false dichotomy between "targeting zero covid" and "getting back to normal". The Australian experience is that we have been targeting zero covid with a significant degree of success and experiencing much more normality than Europe or North America has (and at a much lower economic cost and, of course, with many fewer deaths). So we don't see the two as being in automatic tension.

    The real question is whether you can not target zero covid and still experience normality. The experience to date has been that you can't do this; if you don't keep Covid supressed it spreads to a point where you can't sustain normality. The hope is that widespread vaccination will change this. It's not an unreasonable hope, but as yet it remains just a hope; no country has had sufficiently widespread vaccination for long enough to be able to test the hypothesis thoroughly. The UK is about to embark on a large-scale experiment, but it will be some months before it can be properly evaluated.

    The weakness in Australia's position is that, because of the slow pace of vaccination, it's not in a position to try this for itself, even if it wanted to. And it's likely to be many months before it is in that position. So, right now, we have no option but to continue targeting zero covid; any other strategy will certainly have worse outcomes. Politically, that's fine because, up to now, that strategy has produced better outcomes than the strategies followed in other countries, so there are no adverse comparisons being made and there is no pressure to follow other countries. But if and when the "achieving normality through widespread vaccination" strategy is seen to be working in other countries, dissatisfaction with Australia's performance could mount very rapidly. But the dissatisfaction will - or, at any rate, should - focus not on the targeting zero covid strategy but on the failure to vaccinate.

    Yeah. Now ask yourself if there might be any possible connection between these two facts. 'Cause you may not be able to see it, but we certainly can.



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,236 ✭✭✭Dr. Kenneth Noisewater


    So many people on here seem to be hoping to god that it gets out of control in Australia and that they go into a full lockdown, for whatever reason.

    I'm in NZ, and got my first dose this morning. Vaccination rates here, while ahead of Australia, are still slack compared to most OECD countries, but studies have shown that the indigenous Maori population as well as Pasifika (Samoan, Tongan, Fijian etc) are more susceptible to getting very sick from COVID compared to European populations. So, they've prioritised these parts of the population for the vaccine, however, for a multitude of reasons, the uptake is not as high as they would like, so some health centres in areas with large Polynesian populations are massively oversubscribed with vaccines that need to be used and they're being offered to whoever else wants them. My accent went down a storm in there this morning, I might as well have been from Mars.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭Slideways


    I chuckle when I read people living in Ireland with no experience of living in Australia who speak with disdain about the situation we are in.


    I’ m more than happy with how things have been here. Two snap lockdowns and the rest of the time has been life as normal. I’ve missed no work whatsoever.


    I’d love to come back to Ireland to see my parents but even if I could I Don’t think I would travel right now.

    I’m 40 and have my first pfizer vaccine in, anyone over the age of 30 can get it here in WA, I suspect that with the latest outbreak things will pick up dramatically with the uptake.

    The federal government has really let us down with the quarantine but I suspect a dedicated centre will come on line at some stage



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  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    The lack of travel bothers me a lot. My mother in Ireland is in her eighties, and I haven't seen her for 19 months. I don't know when - or even if - I'll see her again. That's not trivial.

    But, taking the rough with the smooth, I have suffered much less restriction that any of my family and friends in other countries.

    And - important factor that keeps getting overlooked - it has paid off. If Australia had Ireland's Covid mortality rate, we'd have something like 31,000 deaths by now. As it is, we've had 915; that's less than 3% of the Irish rate. Onerous restrictions are much easier to put up with, and to accept as worthwhile, when they work as well as this.

    I'd love to see my mother. But would I risk the deaths of 30,000 other people in order to have rules that allow me to travel? OK, that's a bit simplistic, but it does point to the calculation that people are making here, even if they don't acknowledge it.



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