Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[suze2000]

IANAD, but as a health professional, this is not what I signed up for. When I started work, I worked a 9to5 job. we did not work 24/7. We did a small amount of on-call work for overnights, but now you are expected to agree to work 24/7 to get a job. Some people might say that's just the product of a changing economy, but if I had known this would be expected of me when I started, and the toll it would take on my body, I would have chosen another job.

Getting back to doctors treating covid patients and the toll it takes, they didn't sign up for that either. They certainly didn't sign up to having to work double shifts or work for weeks on end because there are not enough staff to take care of the massive numbers of patients that are needing care and the lack of qualified staff to look after them. My own colleagues and I did not expect to be split in two groups in case someone in one group got covid, there would still be enough of us to provide the required service to the hospital while the other group was furloughed awaiting covid test results.

There are going to be a lot of front line workers abandoning their medical jobs because of burnout and overwork, and telling them to "suck it up, princess" is not helpful to them and quite frankly, nobody with that attitude should be managing staff in any situation, let alone a highly stressful and unusual one like Delta.

 

[Saab34]

Going to drag on probably until we get 80% here in Vic. Foley stated yesterday they are not following the NSW approach and easing restrictions at the 50, 60% mark.

What we have today is what we will have until we get to 80. Long 2 months ahead sadly.

 

[jase05]

That's the interesting thing about those truck drivers. The dates have been added to today. Now covering the 21st - 26th which makes no sense if it was just one trip. They were tested in NSW, presumably before 21st, so with distance the 20th. Drove through SA then on to WA where they say they received their results and were put into isolation. So why the 21st now and also 26th.

Don’t know why the dates go back to the 21st, they only travelled over this week. Tested on Wednesday 25th I believe, drove through SA on the 26th and arrived in WA late on same date. Positive test came back on Friday 27th, they rang their boss and the company notified WA Health before midday

 

[Rembrandt]

There are going to be a lot of front line workers abandoning their medical jobs because of burnout and overwork, and telling them to "suck it up, princess" is not helpful to them and quite frankly, nobody with that attitude should be managing staff in any situation, let alone a highly stressful and unusual one like Delta.

This is the dilemma opening up to the virus means the health system will be overworked more than ever.

Hindsight is a great thing, but the federal government should've been properly forward planning the pandemic in the first quarter of last year e.g. :

1. Proper quarantine facilities
2. Investigating the build of more than just one vaccination production facility e.g. start the process of building a local mRNA production facility.
3. Strenghten the health system nation wide to better cope with covid infected patients.

Instead in roughly May 2021 Morrison comes out and suggests we had defeated the virus due to the first round of lock downs. If it were only that easy...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So what am I missing?

We must currently have several thousand people in NSW who have tested positive to COVID. They can isolate at home if well enough. We have perhaps up to 5000 people coming in from overseas who have tested negative to Covid just prior to flying, but they go straight to med hotels so can't isolate at home, having regular tests, and no contact. Even though negative at the time. And currently just one or two of that cohort may eventually test positive. But if at home (they could come under the same category as a close contact) - isolate and test etc so no risk.

I guess the difference is that we know which variant(s) locally acquired covid will be. The danger is that someone from overseas brings a new variant which could get out into the community before we understand it.

There's been quite a few people who have tested negative within three days of departure but test positive on arrival in Australia. If they went home with some sort of 'super' Delta we'd be in trouble.

 

[jakeseven7]

Really interesting Insiders episode today on the continued spread of the virus across Australia (on now) it was interesting the comment about WA - and the hint that the media (cough Kerry) has changed their (cough his) mind about the border closures and will start swinging towards borders open for Christmas (fully vaccinated only I’m sure)….

Previously the media has been supportive…

Will be interesting to see how this changes…

 

[Rembrandt]

Going to drag on probably until we get 80% here in Vic. Foley stated yesterday they are not following the NSW approach and easing restrictions at the 50, 60% mark.

What we have today is what we will have until we get to 80. Long 2 months ahead sadly.

I get Andrews government mentality, they don't want the virus to spread like wildfire and cause havoc on the health system. However, another further two months of lockdown is really going to hurt many businesses already on struggle street and of course many workers that will either have reduced hours or laid off. The government support (from either tier) just isn't sufficient.

 

[antycbr]

I get Andrews government mentality, they don't want the virus to spread like wildfire and cause havoc on the health system. However, another further two months of lockdown is really going to hurt many businesses already on struggle street and of course many workers that will either have reduced hours or laid off. The government support (from either tier) just isn't sufficient.

Apparently 3 ALP backbenchers are asking for some relaxation of lockdown where risks are minimal. 7 are still on board with Dan to go harder.

Andrews government MPs say some restrictions may need to ease

A group of Labor MPs are questioning whether it is sustainable to continue under the current lockdown measures in the hope of driving cases close to zero, which may be an impossible task.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Must...Fly!]

Investigating the build of more than just one vaccination production facility e.g. start the process of building a local mRNA production facility.

To be fair, we had no idea that mRNA vaccines would work.

 

[Pushka]

I guess the difference is that we know which variant(s) locally acquired covid will be. The danger is that someone from overseas brings a new variant which could get out into the community before we understand it.

There's been quite a few people who have tested negative within three days of departure but test positive on arrival in Australia. If they went home with some sort of 'super' Delta we'd be in trouble.

Sure so spend two days in a Med Hotel, get a negative test, then isolate at home until 14 days. It's safer than having this local spread as at least you are compulsory tested.

 

[Batterytraveller]

To be fair, we had no idea that mRNA vaccines would work.

We had no idea any of the other types of vaccines would work either.

 

[Pushka]

IANAD, but as a health professional, this is not what I signed up for. When I started work, I worked a 9to5 job. we did not work 24/7. We did a small amount of on-call work for overnights, but now you are expected to agree to work 24/7 to get a job. Some people might say that's just the product of a changing economy, but if I had known this would be expected of me when I started, and the toll it would take on my body, I would have chosen another job.

Getting back to doctors treating covid patients and the toll it takes, they didn't sign up for that either. They certainly didn't sign up to having to work double shifts or work for weeks on end because there are not enough staff to take care of the massive numbers of patients that are needing care and the lack of qualified staff to look after them. My own colleagues and I did not expect to be split in two groups in case someone in one group got covid, there would still be enough of us to provide the required service to the hospital while the other group was furloughed awaiting covid test results.

There are going to be a lot of front line workers abandoning their medical jobs because of burnout and overwork, and telling them to "suck it up, princess" is not helpful to them and quite frankly, nobody with that attitude should be managing staff in any situation, let alone a highly stressful and unusual one like Delta.

None of us signed up for this regardless of our professions. There are physical risks and there are mental health risks.

There will always be the chance of a pandemic. We had swine flu in 2009 and while not as bad the Covid it certainly placed demands on the health system and impacted mainly young people. With respect, medical people would always have a pandemic thought in their mind. No one signed up for what we are currently experiencing. Small businesses built over a lifetime with likely home mortgage attached, did not expect a Govt to stop them trading. Who would have thought that Australains would be prevented from travelling in their own country, be unable to see aged parents, be locked out of going to their own homes.

The medical people experience physical stress but the statistics on the mental health epidemic are becoming alarming and will be here for years. Maybe always. Children's education has been put at risk for two years.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Sure so spend two days in a Med Hotel, get a negative test, then isolate at home until 14 days. It's safer than having this local spread as at least you are compulsory tested.

Why bother with that. Test before departure, test on arrival and isolate until negative.

14 days at home isn't gonna do much in Sydney for example where your isolating actually protects you now rather than you protecting the community...

Post automatically merged: Aug 29, 2021

We had no idea any of the other types of vaccines would work either.

No, true, but we had those facilities anyway and we need them for all sorts of vaccine production.

 

[Pushka]

Why bother with that. Test before departure, test on arrival and isolate until negative.

14 days at home isn't gonna do much in Sydney for example where your isolating actually protects you now rather than you protecting the community...

Post automatically merged: Aug 29, 2021

No, true, but we had those facilities anyway and we need them for all sorts of vaccine production.

Sure so why are we bothering with med hotels once there is general community spread?

 

[Must...Fly!]

Sure so why are we bothering with med hotels once there is general community spread?

Don't know, but you would have to believe someone in NSW government is working on this, even if they have bigger fish to fry as a collective at the moment.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sure so spend two days in a Med Hotel, get a negative test, then isolate at home until 14 days. It's safer than having this local spread as at least you are compulsory tested.

I thought people were also testing positive at day 13? The problem would be isolating at home and whether people actually follow the rules (we know quite a few don't). What about the family that come back to Victoria positive and then went to the supermarket? 'unintentional', of course

 

[OATEK]

I thought people were also testing positive at day 13? The problem would be isolating at home and whether people actually follow the rules (we know quite a few don't). What about the family that come back to Victoria positive and then went to the supermarket? 'unintentional', of course

Just saw the police doing a home isolation check in our street - why should international returnees who have tested negative have more onerous isolation than locally acquired positives?

 

[justinbrett]

I thought people were also testing positive at day 13? The problem would be isolating at home and whether people actually follow the rules (we know quite a few don't). What about the family that come back to Victoria positive and then went to the supermarket? 'unintentional', of course

The point is clear, there are 15,000 people in Sydney right now at home that know they are covid positive.

Putting returned travellers at home who have a small chance of being positive is objectively less risky. There is no difference enforcement between the two groups.

 

[Pushka]

I thought people were also testing positive at day 13? The problem would be isolating at home and whether people actually follow the rules (we know quite a few don't). What about the family that come back to Victoria positive and then went to the supermarket? 'unintentional', of course

And how on earth is that scenario any different to the thousands of actually positive people in NSW currently at home? There is no difference at all except the returned traveller is not positive until they return a positive test!

 

[Must...Fly!]

I think the last few posts show that reality isn't the problem here, it's the de-stigmatisation of overseas travelers that needs to be tackled. Rather sad it has got this far, really.