Bubble stuff
 

I have a number of friends involved in the Queenstown/Milford flightseeing industry. They were all ecstatic to see QF 121 land at ZQN today. Let's hope for everyone's sake that there are no speed humps on the road to recovery.

Unfortunately , On Track , those speed bumps on the road to recovery ,( or should that be judder bars ? ) you mentioned , I think will manifest some time around the 24-27th of April !

It is just a shame it has taken so long for family and friends to be reunited. This is what travel is about- not the tourism dollars.

This could have been the case last year if Jacinta looked at the big picture.

Imagine how many hugs and tears will happen when the rest of the borders open.....I hate being trapped in this country.

Can you explain why?

There is no evidence that the Sydney HQ internal outbreak has left the premises.

The bubble system is like sleeping with a casual partner. Realising that when you're intimate with that person, you're also sleeping with everyone else they sleep with too. So if NZ vaccinates all their population and opens up to other countries, what implications does that have to Australia? If the much anticipated Singapore or Japan bubbles open, then those countries open to others as well, what does that happen with the bubble with Australia? Singapore and NZ aren't going to consult Australia when they want to open up to other countries. What they may consider low risk opening to other countries may be high risk in Australia's view, the bubble has to pop and Australia becomes increasingly more isolated.

When SloMo say we're in no rush to administer vaccines, he's completely off the mark. As more countries open up with far superior vaccination programs Australia will get further and further behind and end up on the wrong side of the drag curve.

It's rather telling that where I live in the middle east (population 10 million), at least each adult has received one dose - 9 million doses given. Australia hasn't even reached 1 million.

So no, Australia can't wait.

Fuel-Off :ok:

1.5 million as at this morning.

The rest of your point is well made. It doesn’t help that the media have killed AZ in such a way that now even those aged 60+ are cancelling their appointments.

Thanks Keg, always happy to be corrected with updated statistics. The media certainly has a role to play in the shambles that is the Australian vaccination program. The vast majority of doctors worth their salt are adamant that it's safe, but of course the media go off with complete melt down hyperbole. Unfortunately I doubt there will be any accountability or change in behavior after this nightmare is over.

Fuel-Off :ok:

Please don't besmirch the name Jacinta, it's Jacinda, but then again most people I know don't call her that either. :)

The only big picture the celebrity PM looks at is public opinion. If the "focus group" feedback says the public think some thing is important then Cindy will think the same. She's far to afraid to say what she thinks in case it reduces her popularity. Unfortunately for too long a lot of the population were scared into thinking the borders needed to be closed at all costs and she wasn't going to go against the flow no matter what logic and reason might suggest.

We could have had workers from the Pacific Islands come here for seasonal work as they would have normally done, but no, sorry borders are closed. Those workers have gone to the West Island while our farmers have produce go to waste. :ugh:

There's a story on Stuff this morning: Red Zone Roulette: Green flight to Sydney takes a surpise twist. Could be a clue in there....

So apparently if you want to leave Aus and don’t want the hassle of applying for the exemption...... Use the bubble as there is a loop hole if you then depart EnZud! Gotta luv the gov.

you can use that loophole to leave but you would still need to do mandatory 14 days in hotel quarantine either in Aus or NZ.

Not talking about quarantine here, talking about the draconian North Korean like rule that says you require a permit to leave the country.

Bubble about to burst after two days?

A bit early for the doom and gloom predictions surely? Nobody expected that opening the bubble would make covid cases disappear! Let’s hope the case has accurately contact traced and it’s contained to very few people.

I’m surprised by how many people are frothing to see an outbreak from opening up the Tasman (on social media mostly).

I think the risk is very low. What is does show is the risk of vaccinated people still contracting the virus. I think the need for HQ will remain for quite some time to come...The idea of home quarantine still has lots of hurdles to overcome.

Aaaaaaaa........! Once more for the people at the back. The vaccine does not prevent you from catching the virus, it greatly reduces the severity of the disease...

I’m writing a speech for Anzac Day, to be delivered for my secondary employment. I began to write about the qualities of Australians in battle: courage, endurance, ingenuity, and it caused me to reflect on how we are faring in this pandemic.

I think we’re coming up short. :hmm:

Are you suggesting that this is a bad thing? Isn’t the point to get as many people vaccinated so that we can move onto treating this virus as any other disease? If your point is that the virus will never go away, that I agree with. What will be interesting is if this worker has passed it onto anyone. The security guard in Sydney, who was partially vaccinated, had no symptoms and was only picked up by routine testing. He also didn’t pass it on to any of his household. Wonder if there will be parallels with this NZ case.

No, not at all.

I’m just a bit disappointed when people don’t seem to realise what the vaccine is supposed to do. Covid will be around for a long time. Everyone needs to get vaccinated.

If media reporting is correct and my understanding of that reporting is correct (a VERY big if), the infected worker was working in the RED zone. So there is no immediate concern for the GREEN zone and the 'bubble'.