Quite a few real & implied "probabilities" in your surmise.
And being, like your parents, in the high risk age group I am not at all impressed by a national directive to "just get vaccinated" when the same government will not allow me to do so.

Atagi 24 Dec .....and the practicality is that the earliest that I can get a booster is 5-1/2 months after my last A-Z shot.

I can't help but suspect (strongly suspect) that either the vaccine, hardware or resources for administering same are simply not available.
But hey, you won't win a federal election by admitting that.

Yeah, the booster program for A-Z recipients is skewed against you. You can try your luck at a chemist. My wife went in and explained that she was a carer and she got the booster 3 weeks before she was due. Of course the next day they changed the recommendation from 5 to 4 months anyway.

I heard a Professor of Viral Disease ( or something like that) from UWA interviewed last week. He said that anyone that has had AZ should get a third shot ASAP as AZ is almost useless against omicron.

You would need to luck onto a pharmacy with vaccine.
All pharmacies & clinics in this area advise that they are not taking bookings until vaccine becomes available and that is not expected until the middle of January.

They can cut the recommendation to 3 days and it still won't get me a booster before 5-1/2 months.

If you're in Brissy and you're now eligible for a booster, shop around. I previously had an appointment for 5 months and a day after 2nd dose but was able to move that forward to Jan 4th (2 weeks earlier and closer to home) with a little search on Hotdoc.

Useless as in preventing severe illness, or useless as in preventing infection?

Why isn’t it available now? Some local chemists here have Moderna, and I got a Pfizer booster last week at a local clinic.

Bl..dy good question. If you have an answer I'll be keen to hear it.

Actually.. that is a very good question.

I happened to be listening to the news when they announced that you could get a booster 5 months after initial vaccination course. As luck would have it, the announcement was made 5 months after my initial course, so I booked immediately and had my booster done at the local chemist a week later. The pharmacist told me they were surprised by the announcement, as it happened immediately AFTER chemists had to put in their vaccine order. She told me that I was lucky I booked straight away, as they were expecting demand would outstrip supply as they were unable to amend their order after the changed time frame announcement. Make of that what you will, being third hand information, but it appears consistent with people here not being able to get boosters this month.

It's the kind of question you should be asking yourself before swallowing the crap the mainstream media feeds you and especially before regurgitating the same misleading statement to others

And your information comes from where? Information from YouTube?

I can assure you I use YouTube for more entertaining purposes

So please inform us of what you know. And who told you what you know. My Doctor rang me today to tell me to get my third shot in two weeks.. as I have had AZ. I assume she is telling me crap, because she listens to MSM?

WTF are you on about?? I have not provided this forum any information or opinion regarding covid or the vaccine. You however provided us with a very significant and possibly misleading statement regarding the vaccine and Omicron, which I questioned you on. You then admitted to not knowing the answer. So I’m calling you out on spreading possible misinformation.

Well, I gess this pandemia has shown worldwide that simply we are all the same, so far. It seems to me that selfish attitudes do not fit in this world anymore, and getting vaccinated is a humanitarian reason and has made the difference, saving lives. My conclusion is that no exemption should take place, in respect to Australians, as well as wordlwide people. Talking about athletes, they should be the examples so far, with good attitudes, otherwise think about lockdowns as a consequence of new COVID waves, which also affects their activities. Let's say, a very good example is RF, full of titles inside and also outside the courts.

After much fanfare and backslapping, Qantas will no longer operate to London from early January. Emirates code share tickets only. Loads have obviously plummeted on the back of the UK’s current infection explosion, crushing any demand for travel to London.

source please…..

QF1 is still showing as operating 27JAN

I also checked a number of dates, which showed flights still operating. They are definitely cutting the frequency, however I dont think stopping altogether. I thought maybe 3 days a week or something. Not great for the crew now every port is classed as a D

And in fact that's what they announced recently

The fairly significant change to Tier D for all ports has been nicely slipped into the manual without any explanation, while the managers enjoy their Christmas break. Classic Qantas :rolleyes:

Are Qantas and Virgin paying for the RAT kits for domestic staff overnighting at different ports?

More importantly it sounds like close contacts causing a whole aircraft to isolate is a thing of the past (except WA). That’s got to give a lot of hope to the travel industry.

Except… when a whole lot of people are sick.. because of these “wonderful” new laws … who will be on the aircraft and going on holidays ?

Most people will have a cold for about a week. I know two people who have had it, vaxxed, a bad cold they said.

Just for those outside WA who actually care what we think (I know, I’m certain nobody does), every mate I’ve spoken to over the festive season, all of whom are not in the aviation industry say “let it rip, it’s time”. SOPS is now very much in the minority. We are all looking forward to reconnecting.

Friends of ours had a headache for 2-3 days with no other symptoms (fully vaxxed). The bedwetters like SOPS have had their time in the sun; time to go back to hiding in a cave.

If this is an attempt to stem the loss of crew I think they will find it achieves the opposite. 14 day trips contained in a hotel room? No thanks.

Really? Your mates must be very blessed, that they can afford to be put into isolation for 14 days with no income, perhaps repeatedly, and with no compensation. Because the problem now isn't the disease, it is the fact that even the triple vaxxed are going to be forced out of the workforce if they are within cooee of a coughing backpacker.

I haven't heard a single person who wants the borders open and I'm including medical professionals and police who are going to have to somehow manage this mess while essential staff are under house arrest.

When the big end of town realise they won't be able to get their FIFO guys to work because there are no airline crew, no refuellers, no screeners, then maybe he will sit up and realise what he is doing - opening up on 5 February is madness.

all reverting to Tier C 👍🏻

very much looking forward to seeing who state daddy blames when it all turns to **** over there. The picture he paints about ‘the east’ is not quite accurate. Has he spent a single dollar on extra beds in hospitals etc? It’s amusing. I’ll give Maogowan one thing, he’s better at marketing than Scotty from marketing! Come feb 5th I guess you and SOP’s will be running in circles with steam coming out of your ears. Granted, perhaps the last 2 years have been relatively ‘normal’ for you over there, I wouldn’t know, I’d rather be amongst ‘the chaos in the east’ than the plethora of meth heads I used to come across in Perth city, but all you’ve done is kick the can down the road. Bought some time to prep your health system. But all he’s done is have press conferences.

Did you even listen to what happened today with the announcement from ScoMo? 14 days is a thing of the past.

You and SOPS should build a big house with a moat and ride this out there. The rest of us will catch it in the next few months and live happily ever after. Even your hero Lord McGowan said today that we can’t keep the borders closed forever. Finally I agree with him on something! February 5 will happen whether you like it or not.

P.S. We must move in very different circles. Friends of mine outside aviation realise the time has come to open. McGowan’s fear mongering is wearing thin.

As a West Australian I don’t trust the Emperor to honour that 5 Feb date, but do agree that he’ll have to capitulate sooner rather than later. I have a feeling the Iron Ore price won’t be particularly helpful to us this year either. Whoever wins federal government is in for an unpleasant mess.

Yesterday I was wondering how soon we can expect to see the GST start to creep up to 20%. My guess is within a year of the election.

Where was this seen or heard?

Mate it’s a lot harder to be considered a close contact anymore (WA excluded right at this very moment, but your emperor has even agreed with the new definition in principle), so the chances of ending up in 7 (what most of the country are reverting to for the vaccinated) days quarantine is much less.

How much longer would you like to hide under the bed covers for?

So NSW are at 21,151 cases today it’s nearly double yesterday’s figure and worse than the worst case predictions. Those are only the people who wanted, or were able to get tested. Our healthcare system is under stress and can’t handle the exponential increase in case numbers, the hospital and lab workers are at breaking point already and we’ve only just begin this wave. Industry bodies are warning of collapse. Testing centres are closing because labs can’t handle the testing load.

Open up by all means, but anyone who is welcoming this flood is insane.

Dont worry it will get better, there will be less testing so the numbers are going to go down

NSW ICU Beds total: 1550

Estimated baseline non Covid ICU beds occupied at any one time: 387

September peak at 50% fully vaxxed: 242 (meaning all occupied ICU beds at 41% of max capacity)

Now: 69 ICU beds occupied, meaning total occupied ICU beds at 29% of capacity.

Now can you please define "breaking point" and "collapse" because that to me seems to be very far away from "collapse".

This is backed up by Prof Peter Collignon (he says NSW can get up to 2000 ICU beds if needed):

Pandemic is now 'endemic' on Australia's east coast - ABC PM

I'm in WA and not a single person I've spoken to has said that. I've had medical professionals who have told me they're desperate to start traveling again. And Police sick of manning border checkpoints as glorified customs and wanting to get back on the street and hunt real crooks.

Poll also showing 2/3rds of West Aussies want to open Feb 5 or sooner so that's the majority opinion:

WA border: West Aussies keen to reopen on February 5 - if not sooner

Even McGowan yesterday was talking tougher internal restrictions in masks and vaccine passports because of surging cases post Feb 5 reopening, not one hint dropped that the border opening would be cancelled.

McGowan also confirmed WA would move to the looser definition of close contact and shorter isolation periods after the opening as cases increase.