Regardless, the tweet is one of the highest rated tweets made by the FDA recently with over 110,000 likes and 70,000 retweets, 50% higher than their news that Pfizer was approved in the US. Is the wit appropriate? well that's personal. Did it get the message circulating? a resounding yes in FDA terms, therefore was it successful use of FDA resources, most definitely. Will a few people feel stupid and alienated, yes they will. Will a lot stay away from taking horse drugs to treat covid, most certainly yes. So did tax payers get bang for their buck, most certainly yes as the message was spread quickly and effectively.

Well, that's your opinion. If you really want to see inappropriate behaviour, check out - as mentioned by 43Inches - The Herman Cain Award for a neverending stream of people mocking and insulting doctors, public health efforts and insulting people who get vaccinated as cowards, weak, sheep and so on, then dying of an illness that could have been largely prevented with vaccination. A lot of them have been vehement defenders of freedom of speech, loudly insisting that anyone who gets offended by what they say are snowflakes and possibly communists, so it's only fair that their own words are remembered as being proven wrong in the most permanent of ways, surely they wouldn't be offended by others exercising that same freedom of speech by remembering their own words?

And why is it called the Herman Cain Award? Because after downplaying the seriousness of covid, insisting it was a media beatup and then proceding to die of covid, his pre-scheduled twitter post went out post-mortem, claiming that covid wasn't as lethal as the media claimed.

Then what is an appropriate way to stop people thinking horse dewormer is better for Covid than a vaccine?

All the medical advice, studies, recommendations, awareness campaigns etc haven’t changed the minds of these people. The FDA trying to tell people in a joking manner that horse dewormer is bad is too offensive apparently. Trying to stop misinformation being pushed on Fox or Sky News is “denying freedom of speech” apparently.

So the message doesn’t get through, and it costs society through increased infections, healthcare costs and deaths.

True - the same types who’ve been crying about “snowflakes” and “don’t get so offended” over the last few years are now crying that their feelings are upset when they’re told to stop taking HORSE DEWORMER.

Murdoch has somehow registered sky news under entertainment. So he can say anything and no one can stop him as it’s just entertainment . No journalistic standards apply , no fact checking , nothing .

It's her hypocrisy that enables many to justify "border hopping". I was up on an unmanned border crossing yesterday and many people crossing over. Some for their work, others to see family. A lot of them Queenslanders who have livelihoods in NSW. It will only get worse. The State borders are porous.

I don’t know if you necessarily have to convince everyone though? The best you can do is be open, honest, and provide the facts, repeatedly. Get to as many as you can. I mean, some people are going to ingest things they shouldn’t no matter what.

Theres always going to be people you can’t get through to. Especially in the US where people seem to have much more freedom to do what they like.

I’ve discussed ad nauseam with some friends who were anti vax or vax hesitant (surprisingly a couple of them I’d definitely classify as of the left of politics, one even pretty far left) about the efficacy of vaccines, vaccine safety, vaccines as a pathway to normality and an organisations’ rights for mandates… in spite of the evidence some people will believe what they will, I don’t know how you change that.

As long as you can get 80% plus of a total population and even higher for the most vulnerable, and the people who refuse to get it can’t attend high risk environments, how much more is suppose to be done? In the end they’ve taken the risk of not being vaxxed or relying on a substance that won’t work and they’re free to do it.

No need to worry, our old mate Darwin will hopefully take care of all of this over the next few months.

On a different note, I don't understand this need for compassionate travel for funerals. To see loved one's before they die, of course but for the funeral?
Yeah, It's a nice to be with with family and grieve under normal circumstances but, it's hardly necessary. It's not going to bring them back is it? Especially If they died of Covid.
No better way to honour the dead of a pandemic then to bring a bunch Of people together in a church or building to hug, cry and touch each other whilst paying a small fortunate for the pleasure. :rolleyes:
If only there was another way of sharing that power point presentation full of old photos and sad music. Humans are weird. So emotionally needy.

So true, if only they would die all at once, then we could cremate them all at the same time, no need for funerals at all then, there is precedent for that you know.

While I share your point of view regarding death many don't. The need for funerals is a complex ideal based on your culture, religion, beliefs, morals, and many other things. It's very hard to understand an individuals feeling for this so it really has to be accommodated for. You could apply the same to all religions because if I don't believe in it, why should other people, so does half the population have to stop being religious.

How we grieve is very much up to the individual, some can write it off and move on, others need finality and closure, which is what a funeral represents. Some cultures the grieving goes on for years beyond the funeral with multiple dates you gather and remember. You just have to be tolerant of others sensitivities and if they are not hurting anyone, why not try to make them feel better about a bad situation.

I do think it was written in the same context as my response, A WARNING!

A Nation in Crisis is a Nation vulnerable

Step one. create a mandate everyone will agree with.
Step two, enforce the mandate
Step three remove anyone and anything that does not support the mandate
Step four delegate responsibility for any further mandates to a single entity
Step five create any mandate that entity wants.

The biggest worry is McGowan, any real push for the commonwealth to 'punish' WA for not opening borders can only strengthen his position. With his approval ratings and some good spin he could easily push a move to secede from the commonwealth and align with more lucrative foreign trade. If you want a conspiracy look there. WA is more likely to hold the commonwealth to financial ransom than the opposite. What would the feds do without the massive boost they get from WAs mining trade.

Not have to give WA their "fair share" of the GST revenue, worry about Fleet Base West, or the other defence assets deployed to WA, Ronny could be relocated from Pearce to Sale and they could offload the maintenance for the Trans-Australian Railway from the border back to WestRail.

All at a time the iron ore price looks like heading south in the next few years. Perfect time to do it!

The more important question would be for McGowan: How you gonna run a surplus with iron ore prices back around $60/tonne?

Look I'm not saying to hell with humanity As you can probably tell I am not a religious person ,:E nor am I particularly emotional kind of person. A Millennial that still embraces the "stiff upper lip" approach to most things in life. ( I don't know if that unusual or not).
But I 100% believe in live and let live. If you are not hurting anyone, you do what you want to do through life. I acknowledge we all deal with grief and death very differently. I couldn't care less if my family throw my body in a dumpster. I'm dead. I don't need it. But I'm aware I'm not normal in that regard.
All I'm asking is that right now, at this moment in time, is this nicety really necessary?

WA doesn't need to do that, all it needs to do is build desal plants all the way up the coast and feed an unlimited water supply into about 200km's inland, then open that up to agriculture, Cities would emerge all along the coast which would make it the biggest population in the biggest state that will dwarf Eastern Australia. To secede would be plain dumb.

The plan is to be the biggest state, with the biggest population, in one country on one continent.

Yes it is! and it can still be conducted safely in the same way football teams come into the state, no differently.

Bring it on!

Anyone who thinks that WA always has been an always will be a net contributor to the Commonwealth is a poor student of history. And raising and running a defence force is kinda spendy.

McClown will be exposed for the inept leader he is, his success was on the back of literally doing nothing. Anyone can close a border keep other Australians out and ride that wave. Now that Victoria appears to be changing their rhetoric as of today they see zero covid a fantasy. no mention of it today but I would think international will be on the cards for Victorians come yrs end. Gladys reiterated 80% and international travel is on and reading an article today, FiJi wants to open with NSW in December. So we will see a few interesting political motions come December. How long will McGoose and Anna stay away try to keep convincing their ppl zero is the only way. Remember just a few hrs ago Queen P back flipped after only 24hrs on the no entry to QLD after the backlash about the NRL family’s. I bet a few QLDnrs would like to visit FiJi also!

I don't understand why WA takes so much heat over this issue, SA a liberal Gov state is firm with WA, as is TAS and the NT. Why is it all about WA and QLD

They have also pushed for Secession on numerous occasions since federation, one time actually having a referendum which overwhelmingly favored such. Recently public opinion has waned on the topic, but who knows, at all other times Perth was no more than a country town. Now it's a self sufficient city with a wheatbelt and thriving economy and very good ties to a certain large Asian country that would ensure no one played with the goods.

The Australian federal goons are the only mugs playing that game. New Zealand just keeps a token force to stop piracy in their waters and that's about it. WA could just sign up to trade vs protection deals with China and wouldn't need more than a few patrol boats, they don't have the US hang ups the rest of Australia panders to. Again McGowan has shown he leans towards Asia as partners.

I'd like to visit Fiji, but even if it was open it's riddled with covid right now, you are almost 100% guaranteed to get it if you go there. You actually would be safer holidaying in Western Sydney with no mask.