Biden- 500 million free RATs for the population
Boris- 2 per person for all each week
Morrison- MAYBE pensioners might get a subsidy if they are lucky. Everyone else, $$$

It would be frustrating to have got omnicron and not know due no test kit . I guess if people feel crook they could assume they have it and get info out on social media but it’s best to know for sure to avoid embarrassment of posting with just the flu .

Speaking of apparent inconsistency in reporting (or tabulating statistics), am I the only one scratching his head wondering why Victoria has a daily "new case" rate approx. 1/3 that of NSW (4829 / 13944 - 7-day avg.) yet Victoria has a reported death rate double that of NSW (6 / 3 - 7-day avg.)

Perhaps the National Cabinet could consider implementing standardised reporting at their next meeting.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-...-call/10494444

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...c095cab2a59ad5

https://www.9news.com.au/national/tr...f-d764d333d6dc

For 000 pranks are up to about 10% of calls on average for emergency services and 30% on average are nuisance, non emergencies, accidental, hang-ups and butt dials etc.

Most of the helplines/prevention lines don't disclose rates of hoaxes anymore as they are funded on calls taken. Since the big blow up that happened 20 years ago in Victoria with KHL and such I'm pretty sure they keep the figures close to home. As I said earlier when it went to ask for further funding from the then Vic gov numbers as high as 1 in 3 nuisance calls was banded around. A lot of teens falsely reporting their mates for fun, pretending to be sick 5 year olds etc, they are out there. Maybe kids have grown up in the 2020s, less pranks and stupidity, sure sounds like it with 5 years olds contemplating suicide, I had no idea what being alive actually was at that age, let alone wanting to end it all.

Victoria still has a large chunk of left over delta cases. As far as case differences, I think Melbournians are still sticking to masks and stuff, so maybe that's making a difference or, all the Victorians with it are adding to NSW and QLD numbers while on holiday.

Perfect examples of sensationalised news articles, just as you described previously : )

Got me, but that sort of data is just hard to find. And I'm not in the mood for some deep mining at the moment. I also noted that a lot of negative press from the KHL turmoils years ago have been removed from the net.

All good 👍🏻

We're not talking about 000, are we? We were talking about crisis support services such as Kids Helpline, Beyond Blue and the like. The service that I have been with for 12 years tracks unwelcome calls, such as hoax calls, closely. A decade ago the unwelcome call rate hovered around 5 percent; it's now less than 3 percent. And that's for all unwelcome calls - the vast majority of those are abusive or "explicit" calls.

What?! You think that Kids Helpline have the chops to expunge records from the internet?!
​​​

Kids Help Line, aka Yourtown aka Boystown aka De La Salle brothers aka Catholic church Rome. Just because they take public funding and donations does not mean they are short of legal support or don't know how to suppress information.

Delta.

Info released today indicated 74% of those in ICU in NSW are Delta, so there is still a bit of it around.
Up until a week or so ago I’d suggest most of the Victorian cases numbers were still from their Delta outbreak. That’s obviously flipped this week with their positive case rate catching NSW’s

Morrison is currently copping a charge of $120 per pcr test by the processing labs but he says he cant afford to provide rat tests. I would have thought the rats were a much cheaper alternative even at $50 for 5.

This is different. Scott said lockdown were a thing of the past. So the NT is having a “lockout” instead. If your not vaccinated you can’t leave home.

Now come on Big G, that is not quite correct. There are THREE reasons to leave home allowed, going to work is not one of them.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-...nner/100741026

Anyway you have not answered my previous question....What would YOU do about the WA border?

Well, at the moment, looking at what is happening in the Eastern States, I would leave the border as it is. Mainly because I know the WA hospital system is already close to breaking point. ( and you are correct, there are three reasons to leave home in the NT, if your not vaccinated).

Edit… for what it’s worth, Dr Andrew Miller from the AMA, is currently on the radio saying that opening the WA borders now is complete madness. But that’s only his opinion.

If WA doesn’t open sometime within the next couple of months, then when do they? WA has had 2yrs of time and loads of money to prepare for living with COVID, it seems they have invested little of either in anything apart from keeping borders shut. The experts are saying Omicron will likely peak within the next week or so for eastern states, so WA opening up sometime in February seems to be not such a bad idea. If WA doesn’t open within next couple of months, it will likely have to stay shut until after winter to avoid a worse situation. By then the next variant will be on the rise and the merry-go-round continues.

Thanks for the answer SOPS but the other question is when would you open?

If not Feb then when?

Difficult I know but ambulance ramping has been going in on WA for YEARS.

Perhaps a five billion dollar surplus is less important than a good hospital system?

The WA health system has been at breaking point for years, yet life still went on without restrictions.

The number of people on ventilators nation-wide is still not even in triple digits, and we have anywhere from 400,000 to 4,000,000 active cases (the true case count will never be known).

40 odd people die every day in WA. Covid may see this increase to 42 at maximum? just by looking at the current case fatality rate for Australia.

There is always going to be a whinge from AMA, as doctors and nurses might not be able to take leave when they want it, or may be forced into overtime in 2022. Sound familiar??

What exactly is happening over east? And don’t tell me case numbers because that’s irrelevant now. The number of ICU patients are actually less now than what they were months ago.

You know it would be interesting if every time the media mentioned the AMA they said it like this…..

“ The doctors official the union, the AMA says that….”

We as a pilot group need to learn a great deal from them.

The AMA are a farce. They masquerade as ‘doctors who care’ but the reality is they represent their members, who stand to lose that mentioned above as well as MONEY when their elective surgeries are cancelled due to COVID patients. Typical Australian media. No facts, just click bait.

WA are going to get smashed. Depending on what happens here with timing etc. it’s feasible that the day WA opens, the rest of Australia locks them out. Now wouldnt that be a laugh.

More stress on public sector doctors means more leave and join the private sector, directly meaning higher costs to the entire system and another step up in the medicare levy and jumps in private health insurance. Like everything there is a reaction to the actions going on now. Everyone screaming that hospitals need to be better to cater for more patients in preventable pandemics should be the first to open their wallets, or have we not learnt who pays in the end for all of this? No such thing as "free tests" we are all paying for them, no such thing as "free health care" we are paying for it, we just pay a premium via Private insurance or tax surcharges.

What's farcical about that statement? The AMA is a voice for doctors, a quasi union, so yes it speaks for it's members. The AMA is not some advocate for the general public, they are a membership association for doctors and healthcare issues. So anything that negatively affects doctors or working conditions they will be against. If you are looking for advice that balances the needs of healthcare workers vs the economy or freedoms, that's what the health departments and ATAGI are for. Ask a doctor (the AMA) whats best for the public, of course you get a biased answer towards making things better for health care workers, like asking AFAP or AIPA what's best for the public, it will be in opening things up, as that's best for aviation and pilots.

If you want real answers to what is best, a panel of specialists that look at everything from the medical aspects to the affects on social interactions to business etc.

Have we got so dumb to not realise that speaking to relevant invested parties always results in answers biased towards that group? Like voting for the Libs in Australia and somehow thinking they wont give big business buddies a big step up every time.