I'm not a ScoMo fan, the man has woeful political instincts... But seeing the media outraged over the bruised feelings of Macron is hilarious.
Who cares what the French says, they had no plan to deliver those subs, it was a gravy train going nowhere.

Good news for you guys. New Pfizer drug cuts COVID hospitalization deaths by 90%. In the unvaccinated. Looks like the crisis is ending if they can get it into production. Merck also has an anti-virus about ready for mass production that is less effective but I believe was 70% effective. Aussie lockdown strategy likely will not be for nothing and when the drugs hit there will be little reason to keep it up as stack those numbers on top of vaccination protections, and you drop the death rate way down.

For a year you couldn't see your family, then 10,000 people were allowed to go to the Melbourne Cup, an event in which only the elite within society truly profit.

And now,

www.news.com.au/sport/superracing/melbourne-cup/two-positive-covid19-cases-linked-to-melbourne-cup-attendees-on-alert/news-story/e38d8f680eadc2e5285b08b752a5a65c

Despite still fining kids under 14 for not wearing masks in train stations. Because that's the real risk.

www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/almost-one-child-a-week-slapped-with-face-mask-fine-in-victoria/news-story/7b782b693655963ae28827adcf1f9d49

15,000 people take to the streets of Melbourne protesting Daniel Andrews' pandemic laws.

You’d think after all that time whinging about freedom they’d find something better to do now that we can do things.

Nov 6, 2021 8:00:43 GMT @admin said:

You’d think after all that time whinging about freedom they’d find something better to do now that we can do things.

Nobody in their right mind wants a narcissistic dictator to have unfettered powers.

Nov 6, 2021 9:56:28 GMT iNCY said:

Nov 6, 2021 8:00:43 GMT @admin said:

You’d think after all that time whinging about freedom they’d find something better to do now that we can do things.

Nobody in their right mind wants a narcissistic dictator to have unfettered powers.

I would say America shows a whole lot of people love a dictator with unfettered powers...

www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/scott-morrisons-tackle-china-slip-goes-viral-after-un-climate-summit/news-story/a8469164777367ae77290f565de47907

Your 'Scott Morrison' moment of the day..

Aussieland is pro-China now?

Nov 7, 2021 2:15:53 GMT c said:

Aussieland is pro-China now?

We have always liked the colour of their money... It has just got hard in recent years to look past everything else.
I mean, I am pragmatic, after Tienemen square everyone doing business with China knew exactly what they were getting themselves into...
No point getting squeamish now.

I'm not sure how much the libs like China anymore. The Liberal's unofficial media channel (SkyNews) is about to launch it's second hit-piece on China in two months with " China Rising "

Is near conspiracy theory for you folks or kinda legit?

"no one is talking about this" um it's pretty much all anyone has talked about for the last two years

Yes all that stuff did happen, probably the only thing that was really misrepresented was Howard Springs which is a quarantine facility for people who travel back to Australia from overseas (the video made it sound like they were just randomly scooping people off the streets and sending them there :lol:) but obviously all the comparisons with convicts and gun control is moronic to anyone who has half a brain. 

I ask, because I don't know

Dec 8, 2021 5:00:50 GMT theend said:

I ask, because I don't know

Yes sorry if that sounded snarky towards you, wasn't meant to be. I think 95% of Australians think this sudden right wing interest in Australia because of LIBERTY AND FREEDOM has been laughable. 

Interestingly one thing that both sides can agree is that there was over policing and definitely some of the restrictions like curfews had nothing to do with public health - but at the end of the day the results (2000 total deaths so far) kinda speak for themselves. 

Some US right wing media groups also claim the PNG asylum camps were secret COVID camps which was why they keep pushing bring guns to Australia so people can free themselves.

The asylum camps are interesting as Australia will close them, while the GOP wants camps in Mexico and the UK is looking into offshore camps for asylum seekers.

Dec 8, 2021 5:42:31 GMT @admin said:

Dec 8, 2021 5:00:50 GMT theend said:

I ask, because I don't know

Yes sorry if that sounded snarky towards you, wasn't meant to be. I think 95% of Australians think this sudden right wing interest in Australia because of LIBERTY AND FREEDOM has been laughable. 

Interestingly one thing that both sides can agree is that there was over policing and definitely some of the restrictions like curfews had nothing to do with public health - but at the end of the day the results (2000 total deaths so far) kinda speak for themselves. 

Not how I see it.
Personally I am incredibly alarmed and the increased over reaching of the government into our lives.
Once eveyone had access to vaccines, the government needed to open everything up and get out of everyones lives.
Slowly they are making everything more controlled.

I did the right thing, I got vaccinated so did my wife.
Then they mandated vaccines for people over 12, when people between 12 and 18 don't get sick with Covid-19.
Now they're talking about 5-11 year olds and I am pissed.
I have given my girls every government prescribed vaccine their entire lives...
I see ZERO reason to turn our primary schools into a medical experiment when the simple truth is that kids aren't getting seriously sick.

If everyone has their limit... I have found mine.

US under 18 COVID deaths tripled since the last time this has come up. Near 1000 now. Whole lot more permanently disabled from COVID damage. Yale has a ward of kids with long COVID that are not getting better with inflammation that they cannot control being a theme that is emerging which will eventually blow out their hearts or brains.

Dec 8, 2021 6:13:17 GMT c said:

US under 18 COVID deaths tripled since the last time this has come up. Near 1000 now. Whole lot more permanently disabled from COVID damage. Yale has a ward of kids with long COVID that are not getting better with inflammation that they cannot control being a theme that is emerging which will eventually blow out their hearts or brains.

Yes, but fortunately this is Australia and we have a functional health system sever tiers above Afghanistan., unlike the USA.
Children are not dying here, because our schools aren't full of undiagnosed serious health issues.

Australia has a fun mutation of Omicron already. This one is mild, but evades detection in the current tests. Got in as the guy from South Africa tested negative for COVID until he became symptomatic.

Dec 9, 2021 5:35:05 GMT c said:

Australia has a fun mutation of Omicron already. This one is mild, but evades detection in the current tests. Got in as the guy from South Africa tested negative for COVID until he became symptomatic.

As in the viral load is so miniscule that the patient barely notices their sniffle and takes days to develop enough disease to detect...

I propose we blindly panic and close the world down indefinitely as if saddling our children's children with mountains of unpayable debt will somehow make their ability to deal with the wake of our generations incompetence somewhat easier.
High fives all round.

Person at my work was somewhere where the whole group they were with tested positive, so they went to get tested. They decided the line was too long and left and came to work xmas party. (I attended briefly)

Gets tested afterwards only to discover they are positive. So my work had to shut yesterday afternoon and most of today so everyone could get tested (I tested negative).

Now work has re-opened with minimal services and a bit more tomorrow with the staff that tested negative.

Hungry jacks was suddenly shut earlier, decided to go to McDonalds instead later. Also suddenly shut for “unforeseen circumstances” which is a safe bet it’s to do with Covid as they don’t even shut for Xmas. As was another local business as owner had to wait days for results and that’s just the places I know of.

Now the NSW health advice has suddenly changed again (was originally just get tested if you have symptoms + isolate until you get results to this:

As COVID-19 cases increase across NSW, we are evolving contact tracing and will be prioritising case interviews and detailed follow up with people diagnosed with COVID-19, their households, and places where there are people at high risk of severe disease such as in healthcare, aged care, disability care and correctional facilities.

In line with this, we have updated the testing and isolation requirements for both confirmed cases of COVID-19 and their close contacts, which came into effect on Wednesday 15 December 2021.

…
If you're a close contact of a person with COVID-19, get tested immediately and self-isolate for 7 days. Get tested again on day 6 and you can stop self-isolating on day 7 if you've received a negative test result. For the next seven days do not enter a high risk setting and get tested again on day 12. This advice applies to close contacts regardless of vaccination status.
=====

Considering how behind contract tracing is fully expecting a post from NSW health advising anyone that was at said venue Xmas party was at to self isolate for 7 days despite everything following the previous advice of isolate until you get negative result.

Though unsure what difference is with close/casual contact if we were all mingling at said party?



So going to be a frustrating few weeks when everywhere is going to have to keep shutting their business due to cases and a lot of events in the Hunter have already been cancelled.

The live with it mantra didn’t even last a day 🥴

I don't think they do come nta t tracing at all any more System.
One of my customers has had 30 cases at their workplace and despite repeated calls to the health department, nobody wants to know about it.

Lockdowns are looming, I can feel it.

Dec 17, 2021 16:38:23 GMT iNCY said:

I don't think they do come nta t tracing at all any more System.
One of my customers has had 30 cases at their workplace and despite repeated calls to the health department, nobody wants to know about it.

There has been a significant rise of cases in NSW, mostly in Hunter Valley so there has been a lot of posts on said health pages to get tested if you been at __ venue. Mandatory Checks in stopped on Wednesday but said cases were all before this unless I’m misunderstanding what contract tracing is

NATH45 even if that doesn’t happen, if people have to isolate every time they are around a positive case it’s just going to be like playing minesweeper with hoping businesses didn’t have a + case and are open on said day.

Dec 17, 2021 21:20:24 GMT NATH45 said:

Lockdowns are looming, I can feel it.

I go to a protest in the city if they do

I thought the general consensus was for everyone to get vaccinated so they would be protected in the increasingly likely scenario they would get Covid.

I’ve heard so many people say that we just live with up and open up everything then they moment they found out they’ve been around it, they freak tf out, call for all the things the vaccines were said to prevent happening in the future.

Is it people don’t trust their vaccines or they were just putting on a front when it came to their Covid concerns?

Dec 19, 2021 3:38:13 GMT System said:

I thought the general consensus was for everyone to get vaccinated so they would be protected in the increasingly likely scenario they would get Covid.

I’ve heard so many people say that we just live with up and open up everything then they moment they found out they’ve been around it, they freak tf out, call for all the things the vaccines were said to prevent happening in the future.

Is it people don’t trust their vaccines or they were just putting on a front when it came to their Covid concerns?

People like to bitch and moan. They like drama. 

More importantly, they like to be the victim. 

And also, this may be the reason why people are so concerned : If you get exposed to, and need to isolate - Christmas is cancelled. 

www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melburnians-lock-down-to-avoid-being-pinged-as-a-covid-close-contact-for-christmas-20211216-p59i4e.html

Similarly, if the Government does nothing - the Government doesn't care about the working folk. If they do too much - they're tyrannical and want to enslave the population. 

Speaking of which, Victoria for example is over 90% vaccination rate - but life isn't exactly back to normal, with over 13,000 active cases in the community it feels like it will be a long time before this was all a bad dream. I'm betting 'boosters' will be the new moving goal posts. And I'm still betting we'll get through Christmas ( to avoid riots in the streets ) and snap back into restrictions in the new year. Not necessarily lockdowns.  

Boosters feels like a very good way politically to move the goalposts, as unless you vaccinate 90% of the population every six months they can keep up the status quo indefinitely.

Also expect in the New Years for people to claim opening up failed completely, blame the people for spreading, and lock shit down again.

Feels like the plan all along was to lockdown until COVID passed and now with a double rate of days and little restrictions things will get interesting. UK hospitals are having trouble keeping up.

Emergency National Cabinet meeting today, around how Australia will deal with Omicron and Australians who are currently fully vaccinated against Covid-19 could have that title stripped away unless they get a third jab under a proposed new rule.

The federal government’s chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, has written to the Prime Minister, state premiers and territory chief ministers urging the reinstatement of mandatory mask-wearing indoors amid the rapid spread of the Omicron Covid variant.

Man of the Year, and renowned bed wetter Brett Sutton is reportedly pushing for tougher restrictions.