Australian Response

And you don't see that there is no end to this, a never ending cycle, but hey seems most Aussies are happy with the situation, so fair enough...

What makes you say there's no end to it? If widespread vaccination has the outcomes that we all hope, then there'll be an end to it when Australian vaccination is sufficiently widespread. We may come to that later than other countries, but at significantly lower cost in terms of lives lost, restrictions suffered and economic costs.

If, on the other hand, widespread vaccination doesn't have the outcomes that we all hope, then Australia has a problem. But in that scenario other countries have much, much bigger problems, and you should probably be more worried about them.

Dedicated centers for all foreign arrivals? Thanks God, I haven't moved to Australia.

Ok I see your point however the only way out of this is and getting back to normal is either vaccination or herd immunity (although no-one with any brains would currently advocate that).

However firstly as Australia's Covid experience has not been too bad, how to you convince a significant enough number of the population to get vaccinated. Currently only 70% of (18-29 age group) have been vaccinated in Scotland even with all the sh*t that has happened here in the last 15 months. I fear that the vaccination rates in Australia may never be adequate because as you said things have not been that bad there.

Second I am struggling to see how Australia gets from a very successful zero Covid strategy (with very few cases, hospitalisations and deaths) to a successful "back to normal" position which will mean the virus circulates widely. This probably means thousands of cases, hospitalisations and maybe hundreds of deaths. This will be the case even with a highly successful vaccination strategy.

In Europe, as I said, the disruption and deaths mean that there is some acceptance by the populace of what is involved in getting back to normal. Do you think on the back of a "not too bad" Covid experience that Australia's populace will be willing to accept what it is likely to mean.

I am not denigrating Australia's strategy - all in all I would rather have lived in Oz for the last 15 months than here. I am just not sure this would be the case in a couples of months time (Scotland's climate excepted).

This thread is gas, all those commenting on how messed up & dictatorial Australia is.

They just passed the one million doses in a week mark thanks to big boost in Pfizer supply arriving - not exactly slow now. Australia is not in lockdown, parts of it are. Just ask folk in Western Australia how life is at the moment even though it is the of middle winter there.

As the country battles cases in the 100s, contrast this with one of their closest neighbors, Indonesia, which is currently grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Asia. Over 30,000 cases reported yday alone.

All the while we are still squabbling over reopening indoor dining...

If you were prepared to get PCR tested multiple times and potentially do a two week self isolation in a hotel on your return at your own expense then travelling was probably possible at any point but most people just didn't bother, it's getting a lot easier now though, as long as your vaccinated. I think the Aussies will be fine and when this is over they'll still have had an easier ride than parts of europe. Just really need to start jabbing more people because lockdowns won't cut it I don't think.

Posters will see what they want to! Some are even prone to the giggles for no apparent reason!

Yea the Pasifika community seem to be very anti vax.

Curious, where did you get the vaccine?

I got it at a Marae where they run a Health Clinic in Porirua of all places!

I really wonder how long they'll keep the lockdown going for. We're at the stage now that anyone over 40 can book their vaccination (it will take much longer since the outbreak). The vulnerable and frontline workers have all had the opportunity to get vaccinated, so you'd have to assume that anyone still unvaccinated in these groups is that way by choice.

I'm in Brisbane, no lockdown here!

Well I for one am very happy to be in the “prison” you speak.

Strolled over to the gym across the road, no mask. Gym session done and stopped in the barber shop on the way back to the house then sat down in the local coffee shop for a biltong toastie and a coffee. No masks, no hysteria. Just a QR code to scan on your way in the door.

But you keep telling yourself Ireland is better off after 4 months of lockdown chief

I got Pfizer back in April before they opened it to the general population, my inlaws got their AZ in mid May and technically not due 2nd until mid August but they might get it earlier now they have relaxed the 12 weeks. There's something like 5m AZ sitting on a shelf most of which are going to go as 2nd doses but there's still a lot of older people are holding out for Pfizer and Moderna. They were only getting 300K of Pfizer a week but that's going 1m a week plus all the outstanding AZ on top of that. Moderna is supposed to be end of August I think.

The original Pfizer was only supposed to be 4m and that was supposed to do phase 1a and 1b, they were relying on AZ as the backbone because it was easier to transport especially to regional areas and manufacture locally. At the time no one could see the problems AZ vaccine would cause, there have been 5 deaths by covid this year and 3 deaths by vaccines so eligible people are hesitant. On the upside Pfizer and Moderna are 3 weeks between doses so even if they arrive later they catch up the 2nd does quicker. The government should have been more greedy at the start and covered their bets, I think at the time RNA vaccines were viewed as more of a risk where AZ was more traditional and expected to win the race. It was gamble that didnt pay off.

Australia is 41K per 100,000 but still a very low number of fully vaccinated they didn't really start ramping up AZ until mid April and 2nd doses are only really due around now. Most appointments for Pfizer are booked out until September in NSW at this stage, but TAS and ACT have like 45% first dose and 20% of fully vaccinated and NT has 25% fully vaccinated.

The other thing is they did 180k test yesterday and 171k today insane testing, good job they had bought all those analyzers years ago.

Designed to function, when viruses like Polio and Smallpox killed hundreds of millions of people.

They didn't have the ability to shut down either, now we do, more or less.