And McGowan has caught never-ending derision from the east, notably Beryl & associates, for "locking up the whole state over just one or two cases" when he should have been following Beryl's Diamond Standard.
Those diamonds are starting to look like glass.

Yes, you're right, Western Australia has had a number of short lockdowns.

What I should have said is that most of them - the ones in April, May and June 2021 - occurred subsequent to the March-April respiratory syncytial virus outbreak and therefore could not have been causal or contributory. I've tweaked that in the original post now.

No one in NSW hospitals with covid 19 has been fully vaccinated.

And here we are again. 50 new cases, 20 odd in the community. 14k people in iso. 16 in ICU, including a teenager. Hospitalisation rate just under 2%

I wouldnt be surprised if VIC / QLD close the entire border soon.

I cannot fathom why GB wont close non essential businesses.....its a no brainer....

only about 9% of the population fully vaccinated.

The RSV virus is most certainly not minor in NZ..our health system is fairly parlous at the best of times which was the reason for our strict lockdowns in the first place. There is dozens of infant or preschoolers in hospital and over a thousand reported cases nationwide. It’s almost certainly as a result of reduced immunity levels because of Covid mitigation strategies. There’s always a price to be paid for thumbing your nose at the Gods of the Copybook Headings

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/dozens...N6PHPIW6SNQ7Q/

Horses&^t. Hospitalisation rate is closer to 10% at the moment. 47 hospitalised out of about 500 active cases. 16 in ICU, five ventilated.

Recovery rate is about 50% post ventilation. People will die in the coming days. It's inevitable with these numbers. The only positive is that it might refocus attention on just how dangerous COVID is, particularly when compared with the very low risk associated with vaccination.

ah yep sorry. Under 2% in ICU, as it's not the total hospitalisation. My mistake.

Victoria has just issued a ‘ Come Home Now ‘ message to people in NSW. It seems they are about to lock out NSW.

Fair call. Apologies for the terse reply. Been arguing with idiots for too long. Sorry.

With the hospital admissions and ICU numbers and the current number of cases still in the community, I agree with DirectAnywhere,
deaths will soon start, and with the 2 to three week lag with infection to death cases, and still cases increasing now buckle up for weeks of deaths as a minimum.

I can’t believe the rest of the country (including the State Premiers and media outlets) are sitting back and saying NSW should have done this or that sooner. Most States have gotten their response wrong at some point during the pandemic, with differing outcomes. Quarantine leaks due to poor hotel choices, unnecessary lockdowns over single cases, poor or non-existant contact tracing etc etc.

As a country we have done the same thing and looked at other countries around the globe and think we know best. There is no playbook for this, and geography and demographics play a big part in how this virus impacts a nation (or a state).

Comparing WA to NSW and McGowan pointing fingers at Gladys is not really helpful. The arrogance of the guy never ceases to amaze me. Anyone can lock down a sparsely populated city like Perth with minimal high density living and have quick results. Sydney is a different beast altogether!

Why are places like IKEA still open? You can’t eat flat packs.

Agreed. It's too late for a short, sharp lockdown now. They'll be left with a long, sharp lockdown as the only option. They tried to keep non-essential "essential" retail open and it's screwed them.

The list of locations visited by an infectious person on Thursday at Broadway reads like a choose-your-own adventure shopping expedition - Kmart, JB Hi Fi, Coles, ALDI, Harvey Norman and Liquorland.

Meanwhile in Seattle - not known for it's cold weather at the moment
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...rries-parents/

The Gods of the Copybook Headings


AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Rudyard Kipling 1919

They've been seeing the same thing in Texas - the CDC issued a bulletin on it back in mid-June.

In all those places - Texas, Seattle, New Zealand and here - RSV was largely or entirely absent during the typical 2020, 2020-21 winter season. Some regions of Texas reported a previously unheard of zero RSV cases during their fall/winter season. What do you reasonably expect from a transmissible respiratory illness when you start removing the prophylactic effect of masking and social distancing?

The prophylactic for respiratory viruses is regular human contact

the other things you mentioned were not tried before and if we have the ability to learn from our foolishness..never again.

Yes, of course, 'regular human contact' worked so well for the Spanish flu, the Asian flu, the Hong Kong flu, SARS, MERS, ... We could probably just rub dirt into it or try walking it off too.

The other things I mentioned were masks and social distancing. Pretty sure that they've been tried before ...
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d9c593ed4.jpeg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d09033cc29.png
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