Appalling “journalism”.

In fairness to the author, she claims only to be a 'writer and musician', not a journalist.

More likely to be transmitted by those 5G chips in your arm.

One moment please, my shoulder is trying to talk to me

Its only a pandemic in Australia, Its almost Endemic in rest of the world. There must be a media block on showing footage of whats going on outside Australia. Are we the next North Korea!

Debatable but utterly irrelevant to the point I was making. The reason that newly emerged variants are more transmissible has nothing to do with humour or reporting, it's a simple matter of evolutionary biology.

​​​​​​?!

What an extraordinary post. Appallingly ignorant of the plight of your "fellow" Australians. Appallingly and fanatically self-righteous, deflecting the blame of incompetent governence on Australians with the misfortune of being caught out abroad.

What do you think Australians stuck overseas receive from the government? I'll tell you what they get. Nothing! You get a bill for a hotel quarantine that often presents more of a chance of catching COVID than the country you have left.

At the start of the pandemic, a panicked Prime Minister told Australians through media and DFAT to stay put if safe and gainfully employed. Despite claims from some Australians 12 months later that expatriates should have come home when they had the chance, this original instruction is overlooked. Why do you think the numbers coming home has swelled? Perhaps because of job losses months after the pandemic began? Economic turmoil was staggered.

When all is said and done, Australia has probably bungled COVID. It's also potentially been exposed, providing a template for coercion and defeat, as aggressive nations see ease of division amongst State governments and even the social fabric of our communities.

Back to your opening line. I expect no financial assistance from government. I will not ever qualify for a government handout. This is typical of many Australians returning home. However, some Australians abroad have lost their livelihoods and have limited resources. Just to simply have a chance to repatriate, it may cost a similar to what you claim COVID to have cost you- six figures wasn't it?

Yours is an indecent and once un-Australian attitude.

And with an attitude like that, you shouldn’t be entitled to any taxpayer money even if you needed it!!

I’m glad to see there is a growing number of people on this forum who are finally realising what a farce our current border policy is. It’s good to see people like you becoming the minority.

The “rights of 26 million Australians” are not dependent on your location. Just like “Queensland hospitals for Queenslanders” was abhorrent, so is the idea that somehow you aren’t “Australian” once you leave our shores.

To be clear, “rights” don’t include a handout. Seeing as you are so concerned about precious taxpayer dollars I thought it important to make this CLEAR. “Rights” include something as simple as being able to get home, something that doesn’t actually cost the government anything, seeing as quarantine is user pays and all that…. And I pay for my own ticket... And I pay for the PCR test on departure…

Where does taxpayer money come into that other than getting in my way??

Guess what?! Home quarantine would be even cheaper for the government, probably require far less staff given the high tech monitoring options available (bracelets).

And the staggering part?? Returning Australians are probably more likely to be vaccinated than plebs like you. Wife and I got ours back in March, did Australia even have the Pfizer then?? 😂

I certainly hope you NEVER become PM.

Sadly, a high percentage of Australians are equating the lethality of COVID to that of Ebola! Too much reality TV and celebrity worship? Or just the continued erosion of our education system?

However, politicians are drawing mileage out of the public hysteria and their own bungled quarantine and vaccine programs and have halved caps for retuning Australian citizens. They are looking back and not forward! As you indicated, vaccine roll-outs in other First World countries are way ahead of ours. The way forward is to adjust the quarantine system and consider science for vaccinated returnees.

Now if Aussies are equating COVID to Ebola, they are not going to have much consideration for the vaccinated. Politicians can draw mileage again, out of paranoia of the at home Aussies, and leave Australians abroad to the mercy of their circumstances ( who cares? )

So what would science say? A returning Australian is fully vaccinated and COVID tested before departure. They are put into hotel quarantine where finally, staff are vaccinated. What would science say the risks of a COVID leakage now? Requires a vaccinated to vaccinated transmission and then a further transmission into the community. But look what we've done. Instead of moving forwards, it's a backward step to months ago in the pandemic where airliners are coming to Australia empty due slashed caps.

If leaders looked forward, it is not beyond the realm of possibility to repatriate mostly vaccinated Australians. Government charters of unvaccinated Australians where leakage of COVID a historical issue, could se better concentration of quarantine protocols.

Real data from NSW for vaccinated returned travellers 1 March - 26 June 2021 shows vaccinated travellers posing a very low risk.

NSW Epi report

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f279b04a4.jpeg

You can think of it as being ignorant of those overseas or as it being unAustralian, but while I've always subscribed to the concept of 'doing the right thing', I don't believe it should be done 'at any cost'. That's what people are suggesting. "Reopen the borders, bring our people home, let them quarantine at home, it'll be fine!'

Except it won't be.The PPE for the staff to process you. The ongoing & repetitive cleaning of the vehicles used to transport you. The overtime and diversion of GD police to monitor the respective HQ sites. The salaries of the security guards who monitor the corridors, government-sponsored repatriation flights, if you can get one. And let's not forget, the hundreds of millions of dollars it costs your fellow Australian's whennot if it gets out of HQ again, because some asreclown of a driver of the flightcrew who brought you over wasn't vaccinated, caught it, and spread the love throughout the eastern suburbs, or an UberEats driver tarried in the corridor delivering someone's dinner.

More returnee's = more flightcrew = more chance of it getting out, even if you quarantine at home!. Going back to pre-Covid flight numbers, which some here seem to be suggesting happen, will likely result in a similar number of flight & cabin crew in HQ as we have returning citizens now. And as we've proven so many times, HQ can't keep it contained, and that being the case, where is the reward for the additional risk?

You say you can quarantine at home. Fat chance of that. We have seen far too many examples of returning citizens, or even interstate travelers breaking out of the HQ system, the old couple who was reported to have triggered the northern beaches outbreak after they decided to go for lunch at the RSL, HQ guards getting it on with 'inmates', the bird who climbed down two balconies and broke a door to get out.... Face facts - people cannot be trusted to do the right thing. Vaccinated or not. Home quarantine or not. Most people will play by the rules but there will always be those that don't! And that's probably why home quarantine isn't even on their radar. Because sooner or later, someone will decide home-quarantine isn't all its' cracked up to be, will go to the shops and will spread it through the community. Being vaccinated simply means there is less risk of it happening.

If I read that right, 5% of those in that chart were vaccinated of some description, and still caught, or had, the pestilence.

If you apply that to the so-called magic figure of 30,000 overseas citizens, that's still 1,500 people coming home, to suggested home quarantine, with the virus. Even reducing it to the 2% reported to be fully vaccinated still gives you 600 people coming home with it. Whether that number will stay static or reduce as time goes on, I can't say. If it doesn't though, the Government will be knowingly importing Covid at a rate of roughly 4 cases per aircraft (assuming 200 pax), with the core belief that every one of those people will not pass it on to their housemates or family while they are in home quarantine.....Until we reach herd immunity or the vaccination target, I can't see that happening...

Yes, it did.

Truly a mystery why locals don’t give a toss about emigrants.

Cases have further deteriorated overnight since 8pm. See you in September Sydney.

Nope you’ve read it wrong.

From the 1st March
- 458 total cases
- 11 of the those cases were in fully vaccinated travellers
- 405 were unvaccinated.

If you consider that as a percentage of arrivals:
- 1st March to 26th June (15.5 weeks)
- NSW takes 3000 per week
- 46,500 arrivals.

So those 11 FULLY VACCINATED positive cases represent 0.0002% of all arrivals.

But don’t let some facts get in the way of your irrational fear.

You can't draw that conclusion because you don't know what percentage of travellers were fully vaccinated.

That 11 fully vaccinated people tested positive out of a total of 456 positive results from all sources (fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated) tells you nothing about the efficacy of vaccination in preventing infection. You need to know how many were in the total population of fully vaccinated people to determine whether 11 cases is significant. I can't find that data in the full report.

That’s probably because Australia considers vaccination irrelevant in regards to COVID.

I’ve read plenty of comments from people going through hotel quarantine and they’ve told the staff they are fully vaccinated. The general response is “so?”.

It would be useful to at least collect the data on how many are vaccinated.

No need for a “pilot program” of home quarantine either. Plenty of real world data exists to show the low risk of transmission from vaccinated arrivals.

Taiwan even reports a 98% compliance rate for its quarantine system (tracking location via a mobile app).

Even if we still put arrivals in a hotel, at least raising the limits on fully vaccinated arrivals would be a good start! (Just put them in a “clean” hotel, eg fully vaccinated only)

Unless there is a tightening of restrictions, Sept could be ambitious

no year specified… 2022 ? 2023 ?

Yes, it would.

Someone tell me if I've got this completely wrong, but;

If the vaccine works and you get exposed to the virus you're still possibly going to give a positive PCR result as they can pick up the virus RNA even after its been defeated.
Even the governments seem to be ignoring this in their consideration of PCR results - the PCR doesn't mean the virus is still live.

All hail Comrade Gladys

Looks like it’s taking off in the South West. Ring fence it for heavens sake and kill it.

You cannot rely on the people in those specific areas to follow the rules. She is pleading with them do obey the rules please please please. They are largely the great unwashed and have no idea.

It she would’ve just taken it seriously rather than boast about how NSW can handle anything better than any other state.

I know McGowan is loathed here but 3 quick lockdowns and it’s over in a few days. 12 days in total. Now Sydney is looking at 21 days minimum. That’s if the people of Sydney actually take the restrictions seriously. I saw pictures from Bondi Beach over the last week, it was packed and almost no one wearing a mask even if just strolling or sitting. In Perth it is almost unseen to see a person without a mask outside during lockdown unless they are doing heavy exercise.

You can blame the government for their slow acting, but the people’s lax approach to taking this seriously is equally contributing to their situation.

Gladys and NSW was the Gold Standard that the rest of us should follow… until it wasn’t. She has lost control of this.

It really appears that lots of Sydney is just not listening and/or just don’t understand what lockdown means. (Especially in some ‘multi cultural’ areas.)

This could go on for weeks.

(I for one, think that Mark has done a good job.)

And for the “Covid isn’t really that bad” brigade:

347 cases in this NSW outbreak
37 in hospital (over 10%)
14 of those under 55 (40%)
7 in the ICU, one of those in their 30s.

Yes, vaccination will establish a herd immunity and get things running back to normal but we just don’t have enough vaccinated yet to do this.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-...lled/100273956

Questions as to whether NSW will return to covid zero status. I do wonder if this is purposeful by the state gov, based on the current restrictions blind Freddy can see that it wont be enough to go back to covid zero.

If this is the case it will have serious implications for domestic (and TT) travel, with NSW essentially cut off from the rest of the country until the vaccination reaches the required threshold (Whatever that % is).

There are NO tests out there that can determine if the virus is viable ('alive'), or to differentiate between viable and non viable virus particles. The labs and public health authorities understand this.

PCR replicates a piece of the virus's DNA many times, so that if it's present in a sample (swab, blood sample etc) the DNA can then be detected by traditional lab techniques.

It's debatable whether viruses are living organisms; most of science deems them not to be:
https://www.newscientist.com/questio...viruses-alive/

Did you read the third dot point in the article above?

She is talking about life after October…. I think she is warming NSW up for something. I could we wrong of course.

Sure but at what price? You can argue endlessly about which strategy is best but the other States need to realise how big Sydney is and you can't just keep grinding to halt every time someone sneezes.

If they just let it go, it could bankrupt an airline or both as all the other states won't open up to them.

I think the two majors could cope with NSW out of action IF all the other states are open to each other. The biggest loser would be SYD - the buyout offer could be very timely.

The other potential loser would be the ACT, who are basically lumped in with NSW.

Can you please explain the point you are trying to make. In your fist paragraph you say “ you can’t shut down Sydney”. In your second, you say, “ if they just let it go it could bankrupt an airline. “

Which is it? Lockdown or let it rip? You can’t have both.

Yep, I'll cop that and I agree my figures were wrong.It's only irrational if it isn't based on fact.

Given the response of various state Premiers so far to relatively insignificant numbers of cases, when viewed against population, I'd argue it is completely rational! Take McGowan, no local cases in my LGA since time began, but still locked out - and based on his CHO's 'irrational fear' it doesn't look like I]'ll be going back to work anytime soon. So much for science-driven decisions. The complete lockout is nothing more than scaremongering and political point scoring.

I wouldn't bother comparing WA to NSW, look at how many each state has taken in international arrivals, both raw data and as percentages of the Australian population. WA doesn't hold a candle to NSW in that regard. In the period April 20-April21 (last month for which figures are available) Perth took 35,896 international arrivals. Sydney took 165,018. And let's not forget McGowan is often the first to whine about the number of arrivals, agreeing to take 1000/week, and being pretty quick to drop it to 500-odd if something happens he doesn't like. Fewer arrivals = lower risk = fewer outbreaks = fewer lockdowns and the smug asrehole has the gall to say "look how good we are, everyone should learn from us!":yuk:

That'd be an interesting argument if Gladys wanted to play that game. Declare "No more international arrivals via Sydney - you other Premiers want Aussies to come home, you step up and carry the load, we've got our own issues" and just see how long it took for other states to give in. Melbourne could pick up a bit of the slack, Anna-Stayaway would probably baulk at it. But how long until one of the other premiers blinked in the game of chicken? Or forced ScoMo's hand should QF/VA/Rex go to the wall with interstate travel at a fraction of what it should be?

Personally I think it’s great that it’s out in the community bubbling along. Everyone needs to lose the elimination mindset, it’s not going to happen. The only way restrictions get relaxed is when the general public finally accept that a Covid case is not ‘Breaking News’.

Additionally, every single person in this country (over 18) has now had a chance to vaccinate. If you are that worried about getting Covid you can get the vaccine available. If not, you can have your own private lockdown where you work from home and get everything delivered.

The problem is how the other States will react if NSW just let it go. That is going to cause major headaches for the airlines.

The States went to Canberra and agreed that lockdowns were the last resort. McGowan walked out and said that his definition was different so WA will be carrying on as they were and locking down early. We could very easily be at gridlock again if the country can't agree on a strategy.

The premiers agreed to lockdowns being the last resort as of "Phase 3 or 4" of scotty's cunning plan. Essentially when vaccination has reached that magic number (which is yet to be disclosed).....we are nowhere near that at the moment.

I cant see any other state doing anything other than covid zero until that point. The economic damage would be too great (greater than that of a lockdown anyhow).

oh totally - 347 is an amazing data set to back that position and invalidate all the rest of the data collected around the world that says otherwise.
Maybe you'd like to expand on the metabolic health of these people who've been struck down with this plague to end all plagues. Or didn't news.com.au go into that?

What you describe has been the problem almost everywhere,the minority(in most cases) that thumb their noses at requests to stay home yet complain the loudest when things get worse or the ones who say they dont understand yet have no issues undetstanding how to apply for benefits.
She probably should have imposed a harsher lockdown but as i have said before,governments are dammed if they do & dammed if they dont.

Telling people to stay home or shelter in place is worthless and a waste of time..if you’re going to declare some people “essential workers” and require them to work..then they are exposed. Also they’re usually the poor and minorities filling those jobs, delivering your food, stacking toilet paper on shelves, driving the bus..

​​​​​….usually once their shifts are finished they go back to the most crowded, poorest ventilated and most unhealthy accommodation with their extended families where all respiratory viruses hide.

a half arsed lockdown is worse than no lockdown

What you have just described is why “the advice” pre 2019 was “lockdowns are a last resort”. Because multiple pre-pandemic studies (Eg done with a clear mind), had overwhelming shown lockdowns are bad for poor people every time.

That’s also why countries like Indonesia can not follow the same steps as say Australia to combat the virus.

Even in Australia, there is plenty of evidence starting to show up that the majority of people affected by lockdowns are poor/lower middle class, generally in casual or part time employment, in hospitality, retail or other “people” industries (ie shut during lockdowns).

People on higher income are generally more able to WFH, hence they’re happy to continue lockdowns.

Lockdowns are a bad policy. Especially “snap” or “circuit breaker” lockdowns that contribute to business uncertainty.