Originally Posted by
murder most fowl
For me the difficulty comes in the transition from 'double dougnut' press conferences to '200 positive, 4 deaths, all good'. The politicians have taken the short term gain and immense popularity of zero covid and now they are stuck.
We are in danger of becoming a hermit nation in the meantime. The French sent a second string rugby team as the others didn't want to quarantine. Same will happen with the Ashes, IF it still goes ahead. No barmy army tourists spending money. Will Australia lose the F1? How about Australian Open tennis? Will the government give them all special exemptions? That will do down a treat with voters who want the same treatment for Australians.
Clearly a huge policy shift, but Australia needs to come into line with the majority of the rest of the world which is gradually opening up to the vaccinated. Whilst these policies stay in place, I cannot see the Ashes or Australian Open or the next F1 race happening this coming summer.
Governments are also failing to understand how the vaccine actually works - yes, the vaccine reduces your chances of getting it by around 75% but there is infection because the vaccine works in the lungs and not in the upper respiratory tract. So you’re going to get positives but that is a sign the vaccines are working as intended!
Also - models which governments love to cite. The U.K. has proven that these are constantly overplaying impacts of the virus. Whilst our case numbers are still stubbornly high, the numbers of people hospitalised are still below the best case predictions by about 20%.