Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[jakeseven7]

Why it's not all the politician's fault.Just maybe one factor is the quality of advice they get.
View attachment 267983

Sweet a Zoom NYE. Like we haven’t had enough of that the last two years working.

Wow just when we thought we’d got rid of the demented CHO’s of Australia… time for this one to be retired too.

 

[jakeseven7]

That's why it's a bummer that it was Delta, not Omicron, that came in...

Well really I’d you had to encounter a variant by all the data so far it would be Omicron! Milder.

 

[JohnM]

Well really I’d you had to encounter a variant by all the data so far it would be Omicron! Milder.

Exactly what I was saying.

Plus the other implication: being more infectious, it would have had a better chance to get away from Marko's 'crush and kill' fixation.

As I've said many times, the sooner covid becomes endemic, the better - and Omicron looks the best way so far to achieve that.

 

[jakeseven7]

Exactly what I was saying.

Plus the other implication: being more infectious, it would had a better chance to get away from Marko's 'crush and kill' fixation.

As I've said many times, the sooner covid becomes endemic, the better - and Omicron looks the best way so far to achieve that.

Totally. WA now has mystery cases, 258 people that can’t be bothered to come and get tested, so Delta is creeping around now. Really you’d want Omicron to come in and stamp it out, their vaccination rate is getting close to finishing off, I’m not sure how many more people will get done…

 

[jakeseven7]

Let’s all hope they come to something much more workable…

PK is apparently presenting close contacts will only be people you were next to for 4 hours, removal of PCR testing for everything apart from confirmation testing after positive rapid and narrower symptomatic people only. Zero casual contacts (most states aren’t doing casual anymore anyway).

SA is yet again looking like the problem child state with old mate Spurrier in love with the PCR tests… sigh….

——

Plan for major pandemic testing shift as system no longer medically fit for purpose​

A much narrower national definition of close contacts and a move away from gold standard PCR tests will be central to changing the way Australia manages the COVID-19 pandemic in the future as the federal government pushes people to take more responsibility for their own testing.

The state and federal governments are being urged to swiftly agree to consistent guidelines for when to use rapid antigen tests (RATs) at a hastily convened meeting of national cabinet on Thursday.

The Commonwealth’s Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, said the current testing system, under which people have faced waiting times of six to eight hours and result delays of up to five days, was no longer medically fit for purpose.

“Frankly, if you have to wait for eight hours in a queue and then 72 to 96 hours to get a result, it’s not fulfilling any useful public health function and it is delaying proper clinical care,” Professor Kelly said on Wednesday.

Plan for major pandemic testing shift as system no longer medically fit for purpose

The Australian Medical Association is urging state and federal governments to agree to guidelines for when to use rapid antigen tests at a hastily convened meeting of national cabinet on Thursday.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Must...Fly!]

“Frankly, if you have to wait for eight hours in a queue and then 72 to 96 hours to get a result, it’s not fulfilling any useful public health function and it is delaying proper clinical care,” Professor Kelly said on Wednesday.

Nail. On. Head.

And embarrassing this wasn't (a) foreseen or (b) dealt with quicker.

I pay a Medicare levy so I can access diagnostic and treatment options when I need them. Not to stand in a queue in the middle of summer behind 200 people who have absolutely nothing at all wrong with them medically speaking.

 

[jakeseven7]

Nail. On. Head.

And embarrassing this wasn't (a) foreseen or (b) dealt with quicker.

I pay a Medicare levy so I can access diagnostic and treatment options when I need them. Not to stand in a queue in the middle of summer behind 200 people who have absolutely nothing at all wrong with them medically speaking.

Train. Wreck. Totally foreseeable.

 

[Quickstatus]

And copping a lot of flack for it too

Beware the Govt who says they are there to keep you safe and acting in your best interest”.

 

[Quickstatus]

I pay a Medicare levy so I can access diagnostic and treatment options when I need them.

That is the biggest con of Medicare.
Medicare does not say when you can access it - just only that you are entitled to request access. When you get that access is not up to you.

That’s why there are waiting lists, and that’s why they created a Category 3 elective surgery where the surgery can be done within 365 days. Most elective surgery are Category 3 - I uploaded a link about this earlier today in this thread. Often this is extended to > 365 days by various tricks

 

[Must...Fly!]

That is the biggest con of Medicare.
Medicare does not say when you can access it - just only that you are entitled to request access. When you get that access is not up to you.

That’s why there are waiting lists, and that’s why they created a Category 3 elective surgery where the surgery can be done within 365 days. Most elective surgery are Category 3 - I uploaded a link about this earlier today in this thread. Often this is extended to > 365 days by various tricks

And that is why I pay for private health insurance, so I can avoid the public waiting lists if something occurs that I want taken care of.

A covid test is diagnostic and time critical, it by definition cannot be shoved off on to a waiting list if the clinical presentation of symptoms demands a pathology diagnosis.

 

[DC3]

And that is why I pay for private health insurance, so I can avoid the public waiting lists if something occurs that I want taken care of.

A covid test is diagnostic and time critical, it by definition cannot be shoved off on to a waiting list if the clinical presentation of symptoms demands a pathology diagnosis.

I thought that you were discussing Medicare in the earlier post? I may have missed something. Anyway, my private health insurance is not interested in Covid testing.

 

[Quickstatus]

A covid test is diagnostic and time critical,

Actually a Covid test is not time critical in the strict sense (with a few caveats). This is because the treatment does not significantly change whether the result is positive or negative

A test is time critical or may become time critical when the result can significantly change the management or a patient is at significant risk with any delays.

Now there is the issue of prolonged self isolation from delayed test results but that does not make it time critical.

Basically it is the same as a surgical waiting list. Say a hip replacement. Public patients sometimes wait 6months to over a year. Until the hip gets done, the patient is waiting, often debilitated but the surgery is still not time critical - the patient’s life and limb is not at risk.

The best way to reduce the wait is not to make more PCR machines and more testing labs. It is to use it effectively by saying PCR test only if symptomatic or a close contact, or if immunocompromised

 

[Must...Fly!]

I thought that you were discussing Medicare in the earlier post? I may have missed something. Anyway, my private health insurance is not interested in Covid testing.

Neither does mine, that was my point. It's firmly in the domain of the public system and isn't something that can be put off for 365 days like a non-critical surgery can (not that it should).

It is to use it effectively by saying PCR test only if symptomatic or a close contact, or if immunocompromised

I completely agree but until the health authorities do it's a moot point. If I am symptomatic I should be getting a PCR test, at least that's what's been hammered in to me for 2 years now...

 

[Quickstatus]

I am symptomatic I should be getting a PCR test, at least that's what's been hammered in to me for 2 years now...

And you can at no cost (apart from taxes+Medicare levy+futureCovidLevy)
And if you are symptomatic it matters little if the result takes a few days to come back.

There is no test in medicine which is accessible in an unlimited way as the Covid PCR - and we are now seeing what happens when something is free and freely available.

If tests or for that matter medical treatment become so easy to access without the constraints of a gatekeeper (doctor) or supply signals (cost, appointment availability), those tests will end up becoming very difficult to access because everyone will want it whenever they want and wherever the want it.

In other words - either we rationally constrain the test (by making it available with conditions as above) or we irrationally constrain the test through the delays we see today.

Or add a copayment to the test…

 

[oz_mark]

Exactly what I was saying.

Plus the other implication: being more infectious, it would had a better chance to get away from Marko's 'crush and kill' fixation.

As I've said many times, the sooner covid becomes endemic, the better - and Omicron looks the best way so far to achieve that.

So you're not a fan of the current approach of lock in delta, lock out omicron?

 

[oz_mark]

Totally. WA now has mystery cases, 258 people that can’t be bothered to come and get tested, so Delta is creeping around now. Really you’d want Omicron to come in and stamp it out, their vaccination rate is getting close to finishing off, I’m not sure how many more people will get done…

It may end up a bit like SEQ, with a case or two popping up every few days.

 

[Quickstatus]

case or two popping up every few days.

Reminds me of this:

The premiers might have better luck with this toy

 

[JohnM]

So you're not a fan of the current approach of lock in delta, lock out omicron?

I have recently literally said exactly that either upthread or in another thread.

 

[Quickstatus]

The CDC (USA) apparently overestimated the extent of Omicron by 200%.

They said it was 75% when it turned out to be 25% of all Covid positives.
Though OMC % is now more like 50% and rising. They may be eventually right when it get up there

 

[Bundy Bear]

Victoria 5,137 and 13 deaths, wish they would give us a breakdown on deaths.
Nsw 12,226 and 1 death