We are screaming out for a Delta outbreak. Everyone needs a massive kick up the ar$e up here.

Quite astonishing how many people in my local area have no interest in any vaccine. I reckon not even half my street has had it.

Better make sure the chook gets her money for hospitals before that happens but as a safeguard just encourage everyone to get jabbed,it really doesnt hurt!

Vaccine levels would have been adequate with more vaccine supply, much earlier than planned. They had the chance to do so.

Supply would never had been an issue if the government had ordered enough of the stuff in the first place. How many phone calls did Pfizer make to the Health Minister before he picked up the phone (compared to the other way round - like it should've been). Worldwide, governments were making deals in July, ours didn't make one until NOVEMBER and yet we were 'ahead of the queue'. And the media generated hysteria around AZ - talk about an abortion.

But of course both State and Federal governments were resting on their laurels, no covid, we're all safe and it's not a race (to get vaccinated). Complacency set in and Australia is a good six months behind the rest of the world from opening up again (in QLD and WA's case, if ever).

Sydney and Melbourne certainly were the 'outbreaks we had to have' (sorry Mr Keating).

The feds did order enough vaccine they had two choices they made it and supply would never had been an issue. The media tarnished the AZ so bad no one wanted it. The same issue could of happened if they went with Pfizer and it’s issues with the heart.

AZ stuffed up about November last year when its final trial was not accepted by the FDA due to not enough over 60s being included in the cohort. That is when the media first latched onto it, and then they followed up when it started having the clot issues. AZ is partly to blame for the media issues because of how they handled the final trial. They still haven't bothered to try to re-certify with the FDA as they really don't care, hence why its not available in the USA. The issue the feds had is that they put all their eggs in the AZ basket and didn't want to bargain with the other makers. The UK, Europe, USA all had large amounts of doses from at least 2 or 3 manufacturers. Australia was left with AZ and a dribble of Pf due to the poor planning at the start.

BTW Fiji has been using a lot of unwanted Australian AZ to get its population up above 50% DD. I found this amusing FAQ note in the Fiji's Department of health;Can science prove a vaccine evil? or not...

Risk compensation would've driven it, CSL was making plenty of AZ back in February

Not quite correct. Better do a little more research.

The trouble I have with the media is that we are fed the media's opinion of the news, not the factual news.
I had the AZ as soon as I could get it based on what facts I could read, not the opinion on the so called jurnos we have in OZ.

One of the other problems is that we are have to many "authorities" in Oz.
One approves a vaccine for use by over 16 yo based on trials and another contradicts that approval limiting the use to a particular cohort.
This is what the media in Oz loves, a conflict, especially if they can involve our elected reps.

So did I. Except that I had mine in March, before any negative AZ news came to light.

Agreed. Once the Astra-Zeneca TTS side-effect became news in Australia in April 2021, I could not find one major news outlet in Australia who was interested in providing the actual data. On either side of the political media fence that is so prevalent in this country, The data was easily obtainable, I subsequently discovered, on the UK public health website. Interestingly, that data did not support what our politicians were saying, nor did it support what our left nor right leaning media were saying. It was as if either no-one cared about the truth, or the entire media and political system considered that the truth didn’t matter anymore.

The argument seemed to have devolved into pure politics and/or spin.

The Governments of the Day (all of them, Fed and State), enjoyed palming off the decision making to non-elected “Health Officials”. That was worse, because the “health officials” ended up coming across as even more biased than the politicians! Did they provide the data? No. Did they provide any evidence for their decisions? No. Was there any transparency to the data flow that led to their decision making processes? No. Could they be questioned? No.

The decisions were being made on “the best available medical advice”. Well, I can’t argue about that. It’s midnight and I have an itchy arse. The best available medical advice to me right now is coming from my dog, and you might prefer that I don’t share what he is suggesting.

But my dog knows where his next feed comes from, and he will provide whatever medical advice is necessary to ensure he gets a feed tomorrow morning, no matter how unpalatable or how unnatural it might feel for him right now.

For those of you who have got to this part and have read my entire post (jokes aside), ask yourself - am I pro AZ or am I anti AZ? Or am I arguing something else?

Not really. They had batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine in production but nothing had reached the pre-release fill and finish stage until late March.

People forget that a lot of eggs, 51m doses, were in the University of Queensland basket before their trial had to stop.

Victoria surging ahead in second doses. Looks like Victoria will be as little as 10 days behind NSW 80% for its 80%. Game over down south in 3 weeks.

Queensland nowhere in bloody sight. Game over up here in 2022 it seems.

They need to. I don't think they'll tip over 2,000 during the weekend due lower testing numbers, but next week I wouldn't be surprised to see 2,000-2,250 new cases a day.

And remember kiddies, Cases are baaaaad, mmkay? :ugh:

Here's a nice pretty graphic (yes, it's from The Guardian, but base data is apparently State Health Dept figures) that gives a nice visual representation as to how the various states are tracking. Of course, the multi-billion-dollar question is "What good are target dates if the Premiers don't give a fig about them anyway?!?"
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....611b831215.jpg

Sydney will explode next week (case rate being shown the week after) too. Everyone finally gets their freedom and hopefully the anti vaxxers don't flood the hospitals like in the US.

As the vaccine doesn’t work on approximately 2-3% of people they may need hospital beds for those vaccinated, assuming 6 million people that’s 120,000 to 180,000 extra beds needed for the next 12 months or less , MELBOURNE the same .
So I’d assume borders to close fairly early in the new Year .

As soon as NSW and Victoria explode, you can forget any hope of WA borders coming down, Mark McGowan had stated clearly he is waiting to see what happens on the Eastern States.

That would be 7600 equivalent Australia wide.

“Explode!” Very dramatic.

Actually a change in tone this week, the WA Health Minister spoke about how masks will be reintroduced prior to reopening borders and flagged capacity limits. Also stated that reopening will be towards the end of the year (not next year) in line with other currently Covid Zero states, and warning unvaccinated they’ll face restrictions once reopening.

All of this talk to start shifting the mindset of the population to get used to a “living with Covid” mindset rather than a zero one, and it’s the type of talk that is required now.

Thats assuming a nice even distribution of cases. Which given the size of our country is highly unlikely.

Even the difference between Vic and NSW right now isn’t close to what you are suggesting.

The USA had peaks in different states at different times.

The UK had waves move through different regions as well.

So did China.

I could go on…

Yes don’t worry, I’ve noticed all the experts are out already peddling the doom and gloom that is about to befall NSW cause the new Premier has brought forward some easing of rules.

Same doom and gloom was pushed in the UK right before they eased up (at a much lower vaccination rate too!!). But low and behold, the worst didn’t happen and life resumed.

Australia will open eventually. WA will get cases again. You’re living in a dream land if you think WA can hide forever. Eventually the virus will get in, so you’re all better off getting vaccinated and opening up.