Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Idle chatter. The Doctors are determining the strategies, not the politicians. The strategies and hence restrictions must change at least as fast as the virus does or we go under. We now are dealing with:
1) A British strain that is 70% more infectious.
2) A South African strain that is more infectious and more lethal.
3) An emerging Brazilian strain from Manaus that is apparently more lethal to younger people.
4) Evidence of long term neurological damage in younger people as well as apparently permanent damage to organs.
5) An outbreak in New Zealand of the South African strain that potentially has already crossed the Tasman.
Most of you seem not to understand that the threat from the virus is to do with logistics not lethality (we hope). By that I mean that the virus may not lethal to you personally but it is totally lethal to our health system because we can run out of all medical supplies (materials and people) quite easily and that causes secondary deaths from untreated conditions.
Under these circumstances "opening borders" is not possible as Britain and Europe have found out.
As for local travel, Air travel is absolutely out. You need a car in case you have to make a run for your state border. Then there is the inconvenience; friends kids spent 6+ hours in the queue at YMML on return from Queensland last night.
As I wait to board I can assure you air travel is most definitely not out. One just needs to have contingencies if required. Don’t be so alarmist, travel and tourism industries need people flying to recover.