Because the government has (rightly in principle, but poorly in execution) determined that a slightly open border (for controlled return of expats and continuation of flight crews for freighters etc) outweighs medical risks of a virus escape turning into an overloaded health system. The mitigator is lockdowns.

Re funding - How many ICU rooms can you build and equip from scratch in - say - 6 months? Or maybe 12 months? And how many frontline health workers would we have spare if it spread like Europe or USA? Would they have been built in time to stop the health system being overloaded? With a huge country like AU with many regional areas remote from hospital facilities it would be a disaster. That's why many communities have been off limits. In WA you fly a pregnant woman the same distance as London to Budapest to get to hospital if she goes into labor more than 4 weeks early.

I'm getting a bit tired of these knee-jerk Lockdowns.
Crippling a city again because some infected returnee in a hotel gave it to a guard who went free-range.
I'd like to know how these 6 people are doing...are they really friggin' sick? Is one of them going to die?
Sure would like Channel 10 to do a story on this, but I'm guessing that there is nothing much exciting to relate.

It does seem frustrating, but every wide scale outbreak which overwhelmed a health system started with 1 or 2 patients. If the level of underlying positive cases circulating in the community isn’t stamped out by the time winter comes around they’ll increase exponentially.

Of course immunisation stops that. The government needs to ensure all workers within 50m of a potential Covid case are fully vaccinated at the earliest opportunity.

The more vaccinations the less strict precautions will need to be. As pilots the best we can do is get vaccinated and then become braggarts. Tell everyone we know we got vaccinated and encourage them to do the same, show it’s safe, quick and free. It’s the only way this lockdown/closure/isolation cycle will end.

I understand your point. I just don’t think it’s worse than all the other ways we lose our Medicals. Diabetes / Coronary Disease / Cancer etc are much worse. The under-reaction to those diseases makes the over-reaction to CV that much worse.

Can you catch coronary disease from being in a close space for a few minutes with someone who has coronary disease?

Can you catch diabetes from touching the same door handle that someone with diabetes did?

Sometimes pilots should just stick to piloting.......

Gladys has done an outstanding job so far, her downfall will be allowing the bluefest music festival to go ahead. This will be end of NSW streak which will result in a state wide outbreak. We will be back to where we were in April last year.

Seems like Melbourne is the place to be now!

Brisbane was going to fall over eventually just a matter of when.

Why are unvaccinated nurses dealing with positive cases with the assorted strains? Madness.

No but 3000 people take their own life in Australia each year.

Another 3000 people a year die in car accidents. Should we ban cars as well?

meanwhile that health care backwater of the USA is pumping out 3.5 MILLION shots a day. Ok even on a per capita ratio we should be at 350,000 but no…… Australian exceptionalism

I think you missed the point again.
It’s ok that we disagree on this. Someone had to vote for Labor and buy into the “chicken little” song and dance.

why arent they and the doctors in iso

There's licensing, policing, awareness campaigns and once upon a time people protested seatbelts, just like the fools protesting masks.

Well perhaps because the Australian government even mid 2020 was saying they were not required.

probably wait a day or two then make a decision I reckon. The testing que’s in Byron today were huuuuge. Any positive results she might can it. If it’s all clear, there’s a chance Byron might have escaped this one.

utter incompetence from the Queensland government. Given the way P and Miles carried on, it was only a matter of time.

Once upon a time a scientist somewhere reported “possible” or “a chance” that the vaccine may not prevent infection. Once that headline goes out, it’s incredibly hard to change the narrative (even with clear results suggesting otherwise!).

Real world results in countries doing a far better job of vaccinations (USA/UK/Israel/UAE) would suggest the vaccine DRAMATICALLY lowers your chance of getting infected, let alone passing it on to someone else.

Overall, there were 170 SARS-CoV-2 infections among HCWs in the period between Dec 19, 2020, and Jan 24, 2021, of which 99 (58%) HCWs reported symptoms and were designated as COVID-19 cases. Of the 170 HCWs who became infected, 89 (52%) were unvaccinated, 78 (46%) tested positive after the first dose, and three (2%) tested positive after the second dose. Among the 125 infections that could be traced, 87 (70%) were community acquired and there were no nosocomial clusters.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...448-7/fulltext


A case control study, which has been peer reviewed and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, compared 596 618 people who were newly vaccinated in Israel and matched them to unvaccinated controls. Two doses of the mRNA vaccine reduced symptomatic cases by 94%, hospitalisation by 87%, and severe covid-19 by 92%, according to the data from the Clalit Institute for Research which is Israel’s biggest healthcare provider.

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n567


The ONLY thing that will change your life and get aviation back up and running in Australia, is saying YES to a vaccine when it’s your turn.

*For the record, I’m overseas in a country that actually gets s*** done. Wife and I have already had both doses, so we are keen to see Australia get a move on so we can actually visit family again.


Thanks faction, the link below should be widely shared and reported on!!

The lock down in Brisbane won’t end on Thursday ( my thoughts).


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-...down/100039466

Nobody wanted to see this happen but as you say the way P & miles carried on its nice to see them get a slap in the face. They were so arrogant & thought themselves invincible.
Hopefully there arent more cases today & everybody can look forward to easter being somewhat as planned.

Going off the news this morning, Brisbane cluster has expanded waiting to be confirmed. Easter is not looking good now and with NT are on the fore foot by declaring Byron Bay a hot spot anticipating an out break there. I wonder if the emperor of the West will just close to NSW for being idiotic and continuing with the Byron Bay blues festival.

If cluster has grown you can bet the lockdown will be extended.
Hopefully Byron bay shows no more cases but always a chance.
Although they are saying all healthcare staff will get the jab,wouldnt it be appropriate for ALL healthcare & hotel quarantine staff to be tested at the start of every shift so that the chances of a transmission happening are reduced as much as possible.
As far as states slamming borders shut i guess its really a case of them being dammed if they do & dammed if they dont,the people in the unaffected states dont want it to enter so not an easy choice,just my opinion,many will disagree so no easy choice.

It was also reported the original cases in Brisbane Dr and Nurse had not been vaccinated. It’s been discovered QLD and other states including NSW have been with holding up to 40% of doses on the shelf incase of short fall for the second jab even after the federal gov have assured them of enough supply now. States are responsible for this Australia is an embarrassment after seeing the statistics of the UK and USA

would have happened even if they were vaccinated as the vaccine doesn’t stop you getting it.

and something I have been saying for a while now about the vaccines themselves.

Two-thirds of global disease experts believe coronavirus variants will make vaccines ineffective within ONE YEAR

• Surveyors interviewed 77 epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists about coronavirus vaccines
• A total of 66.2% said they believe that within one year, mutations of the virus will render vaccines ineffective
• Of that group, 18.2% said they believed it would occur within six months and 32.5% said within nine months
• Another 18.2% said vaccines would be ineffective within two years while 7.8% said they believed mutations would never cause vaccines to become ineffective

I know it does not, but it can reduce the severity in most cases and preventing things like death which is what everyone is worried about right?

yep, but none of those tested appear to be sick at all.

looks like Gold Coast will go into LOCKDOWN today.

It’s been nearly 6 months since anyone has died from an acute COVID infection in Australia. We are well and truly beyond worrying about deaths, zero cases is the only acceptable COVID status. Which is why borders will not reopen until the vaccines prevent infection.

Yeah, that’s not going to happen.

AstraZeneca Vaccine suspended in Canada now for anyone under 55 years of age

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canad...d-19-1.5968657

That's incorrect https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7013e3.htm

Vaccines are not 100% effective, as evidenced by one of today’s new cases in Queensland that had been previously immunised, but they are not far off 100% depending on the variant.

After the 9:00 am press briefing I think it looks positive for an end to lockdown on Thursday. Only three cases.

We can survive even if we don't achieve zero COVID cases, we can survive if vaccines aren't 100% effective. We just need to get to a point where CHOs are confident hospital systems won't be overloaded leading to preventable deaths. (WA isn't in good shape in this regard apparently, hence hard border stance) So give me a few hotspots, most of the population vaccinated with a >70% effective vaccine and let's get on with living. It's all hypothetical unless the government accelerates the vaccination program such that the vaccines remain effective in light of a mutating virus. Otherwise it will be an endless game of catch up.

An easy, risk free stance to take as they have multiple vaccines available. Always easier to err on the side of caution when it won’t affect much. Doesn’t mean it’s not safe to use, only that there is some risk.

Exactly right. Our politicians now need to get this message across to all of the scared little children they’ve kept scared.

Well here we go again. I’m sure Emporer of the west will be closing to NSW by tonight. Confirmed case in Byron after press release this morning.

I wouldn't be surprised unfortunately, it is ridiculous - they really need a hotspot system. However i reckon all other states will also move to make the northern rivers region a hotspot. Certainly a blow for the busy Easter period

Meanwhile....something on which to ponder

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...6fa4c1a8faebc4

My spidey senses pricked up when I read the words 'terrifying percentage'. No mention of sample size, did they study 10 people, or 10,000? Heaven forbid I should have poor memory 8 months after COVID.......

Looks like Dr Dre science.

I’m interested in any preexisting comorbidities among the long-Covid group, including the BMI of those affected. Does anyone have access to that data?

Fat chance mate. Seriously if you’re so interested google scholarly articles, Lancet in particular, and read for a few hours then get back to us.
If you’re fat, or a smoker, an old fart or all three then you’re fu*#ed.

Love the fact you use a Newscorp journalist reporting on a scientific study omitting to mention the sample size as a basis for discrediting the study. Quite an achievement.

If it's the article "Persistent symptoms up to four months after community and hospital-managed SARS-CoV-2 infection", by Darley et al, published in Medical Journal of Australia:
The study size was 78 patients, of which 9 had been hospitalised. The average age in the study group was 47 years of age. 37 of the 78 had no comorbidities, and at the time of presentation 3 of the 78 were classed as obese.

There were a range of measurements taken to assess the impact across various organ systems, with a substantial proportion of people experiencing ongoing problems across a range of organs, including some with cognitive impairment or ongoing loss of smell, indicating some sort of nerve damage. The authors acknowledged that their study is limited in its ability to generalise across a broader population, as their sample was largely drawn from a highly educated, wealthier predominantly white population with lower rates of chronic co-morbidity - ie the results found in the study are actually likely to be better than those found in a poorer, sicker group with worse healthcare or the general population.

If anyone can point me in the direction of a more recent or different paper, as the journalist keeps referring to an 8 month timeframe, that would be appreciated.