Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[p--and--t]

Media aren’t really able to report on the increased suicide rate either

Except there may not have - allegedly overall death rates are similar to previous averages. ( Then again Ch7 ran a segment saying they are up significantly. What is the truth???) Monthly statistics are not published publicly for suicides.

Mental stress is certainly way up. That started way before covid with the bushfires etc and the result is still with us today with those who lost homes, property and loved ones. We will have to wait until sometime mid 2021 to see any published figures in relation to suicides.

The average monthly death rate from all causes in AU has not increased markedly in the first half of the year according to published statistics.





The provision of significant additional resources and telehealth consults may have had a significant impact.

Significant drops in crime rates have also been reported a few times due to inhibited movement.

Not so good news on family violence however which has been rising.


The Black Dog Institute authors wrote that there was a wide variance in the forecasts made in the Brain and Mind Centre modelling and that of the Epworth Centre for Innovation in Mental Health at Monash University, which predicted relatively lower increases in the suicide rate over the coming decade.

They cautioned against the reliance of modelling studies in designing suicide prevention interventions, saying that empirical data were “a more useful resource than modelling studies in informing response planning as they are free of the assumptions which inform modelling studies”.


Interesting reading

The calculus of death shows the COVID lock-down is clearly worth the cost

The number of lives that would be lost from COVID-19 if the restrictions ended far exceed the number of extra deaths expected from recession if it continued.

theconversation.com

 

[Seat0B]

As others have said i am against the double standards and discrimination against other Australians and other industries. If SA can allow foreign students from high risk destinations to self fund quarantine to enter SA they could at least extend the same courtesy to their own residents currently stuck in Victoria and other Australians interstate.

There are many many Aussies willing to spend tourism dollars usually spent overseas in Australia. There are many busineeses who have staff that need to be able to leave/enter/reenter SA to do business, make money, create jobs pqy taxes. Why are international students more important than these people?

The tourism industry employs more people than professional sports in Australia, i would be working to enable domestic tourism, before worrying about AFL or Netball competions who employ far fewer people. Why are a handful of sports people more important than our tourism industry?

Footballers and coaches afforded exemptions not availble to others, have demonstrated by their recent behaviour in breaching their bubbles (although easy to predict given low IQ, over inflated egos and crazy salaries) that they are undeserving of the privilege, and it is a kick in the guts for those denied interstate travel who would comply and tourism businesses denied customers.

I would invest in industries performing more essential services and those innovating in challenging conditions to fill genuine need. There is urgent need to fix aged care, ensure more onshore manufacture of medical supplies and PPE, to name two things. We also need our government to identify investment that will create jobs for women who have been disproportionally impacted by lockdown job losses. The infrastructure stimulus announced to date overwhelmingly advantages male dominated sectors such as construction.

I understand Universities are struggling, in my job I manage a partnership program where we fund research and engage university teams to solve real business problems and deliver projects. This means i talk with 6 different Australian universities every week. At times we have struggled to find a Uni to engage when security require Australian citizens and the universities can only offer Chinese students or other foreign staff. Its time for an overhaul when our universities cant attract local students to undertake post graduate programs or to work on staff. There is an opportunity right now to innovate and also look at the price of prioritising income from foreign students over education standards.

Many of us, having undertaken post grad studies have had to chooe between doing more work to compensate for international students in a group assignment who do not have proficient english skills to pull their weight or nkt and risk receiving a failing grade. Surely the value of education is devalued when universities are under pressure to award degrees to paying students, who if were local would fail.

My primary point was about equity, i oppose special treatment for a handful at the expense of the many.

If we can accept the risk of allowing international students and celebrities to enter Australia and accept the risk of professional athletes moving about the country and competing overseas, we can also manage/allow Aussies to return to their home state from another state and find ways to allow domestic tourism.

Well said @Lynda2475 - and the some of the same points I’ve made repeatedly in my thread specifically about the pampered sportspeople, their exemptions and their inability to comply when others with equally (or even more} compelling reasons get no consideration at all. Double standards gone nuts.

 

[SydneySwan]

naughty South Australians.

Oxymoron surely?

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

ABC says " Tasmania's Premier has announced the state's borders will remain closed until at least December 1. "

Qld CHO said Queensland Border will no reopen until NSW and Vic can show 30 days (2 incubation periods) of zero community transmission, so if NSW/ACT and Vic are considered together instead of separately (as they should be) then no hope of being allowed to travel domestically except for the ACT and NSW this year.

If someone had told me at the start of 2020 the only trip Id get to take all year is a long weekend in Canberra I wouldn't have believed it. Time to start researching a few days in Byron.

If Qld is waiting for 30 days, it will be a long wait.

Even if you took NSW alone, it’s best run was 10 days (1 to 10 July) where it’s total community transmission (unknown source) did not have a net increase. And with some presumed community transmission being actual complex cases which can take say two weeks to find the link, meaning a latent incorrect classification of community transmission will occur quite often.

In NSW, a previous relative peak total was 371 on 18 May which trended down to 361 on 10 July. But during that period, there were 9 different days of a net increase in the total community transmission.

For Vic, we could say that 27 May to be a relative peak of 183 (as the next day it had a net reduction of 18 cases), Vic only stayed at or below 183 until 13 June (ie 17 days), and during that time had 9 days of a net increase in total community transmission.

Hence the Federal Tourism Minister going back out to wheel out (begging??) that State border restrictions should be proportionate and reasonable.

PS I’m guessing NSW people should be able to visit Vic first (aside from ACT), before elsewhere in Australia.

Edit: I was just reading an article which indicated Qld just got to 4 weeks of no community transmission today (18 August). But it looks like over at least 70 days, so perhaps poor journalism.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Vaccine news to be announced later today (19 August)

Free COVID-19 jabs for all Australians

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backtracked on his comments that a COVID-19 vaccine will be as “mandatory as you can possibly make it” for all Australians once it becomes available.

www.news.com.au

 

[TomVexille]

Some light relief here today at last with posts about naughty South Australians rather than turning the knife on Victorians every day.

I think people forget that every state has had their share of stuff ups and quarantine escapees and that other states have been very lucky so far.

Not excusing some of the holes in the Victorian setup. Just pointing out that luck plays a huge part in this.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

At least some good judgment prevailed..... ❤ story published yesterday evening.


A NSW mum has been finally reunited with her newborn baby after the two were kept apart on opposite sides of the Queensland border due COVID-19 restrictions.
Chantelle Northfield said she wasn’t allowed to see her newborn son Harvey who was rushed across the border to Brisbane for lifesaving medical treatment after he was born with breathing difficulties on Friday.
Despite Ms Northfield and her husband Glen getting permission from NSW and Queensland authorities to travel north to visit Harvey, Brisbane’s Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital told the heartbroken couple their visit was “too high-risk” due to COVID-19 and they would have to quarantine for 14 days.
But today, Ms Northfield was finally reunited with baby Harvey after he was brought back to hospital in Lismore.

 

[Pushka]

Based on what has been released about the quarantine hotels it continues to haunt that testing of those in quarantine was a necessary step.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Based on what has been released about the quarantine hotels it continues to haunt that testing of those in quarantine was a necessary step.

And increasingly regular testing workers at quarantine sites

 

[Pushka]

And increasingly regular testing workers at quarantine sites

And not letting them work in multiple places.

 

[Must...Fly!]

At least some good judgment prevailed..... ❤ story published yesterday evening.


A NSW mum has been finally reunited with her newborn baby after the two were kept apart on opposite sides of the Queensland border due COVID-19 restrictions.
Chantelle Northfield said she wasn’t allowed to see her newborn son Harvey who was rushed across the border to Brisbane for lifesaving medical treatment after he was born with breathing difficulties on Friday.
Despite Ms Northfield and her husband Glen getting permission from NSW and Queensland authorities to travel north to visit Harvey, Brisbane’s Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital told the heartbroken couple their visit was “too high-risk” due to COVID-19 and they would have to quarantine for 14 days.
But today, Ms Northfield was finally reunited with baby Harvey after he was brought back to hospital in Lismore.

Wow, quite the story but very happy to hear parents are reunited.

What a beautifully cruel example of broken government.

 

[SydneySwan]

Wow, quite the story but very happy to hear parents are reunited.

What a beautifully cruel example of broken government.

Agreed. I saw a news clip last night where AP said something along the lines of 'NSW government has NSW hospitals for NSW people and QLD govt has QLD hospitals for Queenslanders'. It seems our leaders are in a race to the bottom.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Agreed. I saw a news clip last night where AP said something along the lines of 'NSW government has NSW hospitals for NSW people and QLD govt has QLD hospitals for Queenslanders'. It seems our leaders are in a race to the bottom.

Here’s an extract from today ABC Covid live blog.....

Qld Premier talking in reference to a different example.....but clearly poor human response.


NSW Health Minister calls Palaszczuk's comments 'astonishing'

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's comments that "in Queensland, we have Queensland hospitals for our people" were "astonishing".

Ms Palaszczuk was asked yesterday about the cases of a Ballina woman who nearly lost her baby, after she needed a emergency caesarean.

She was denied access into Queensland, and needed to be flown to Sydney.

"Those decisions are made by health professionals not made by politicians, not by Premiers. Where there is critical care, that is not for politicians," she said.

"People living in NSW they have NSW hospitals. In Queensland we have Queensland hospitals for our people."

Mr Hazzard said patients in northern NSW who required renal transplants were being denied access to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane and were being "forced to drive themselves 12 or more hours to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney".

He said more than 6,000 Queensland citizens sought treatment last year at Tweed Hospital, near the border, representing 20 per cent of all in-patients.

He urged the Queensland Premier to review her border arrangements to "ensure patients receive the health care they need".

 

[RooFlyer]

And the point of your article is what? And by the way did you read all of the article?

Well, its not my article, but the NZ Herald's (the link was there). I would guess their point would be that they are a news organisation and the article was reporting the news.

But the point of my posting excerpts from the story, was to show that the NZ authorities stated their rationale for doing the investigation, and it was beyond the assumption of a direct shipping link between the two facilities. That was stated, so maybe you didn't read that?

But lets look at the start of what you posted (and bolded, as it seemed important), from an unattributed source (but its the NZ Herald article I posted the link to).

The managing director of Americold international says he can "completely rule out" any suggestion that Auckland's Covid-19 cluster was caused by freight from his Melbourne factory.
Americold managing director Richard Winnall said the company's Melbourne site - which had two workers test positive for Covid-19 last month - has not shipped anything to Auckland for "months and months".

If you were a national government, investigating an unexpected outbreak, where there was a prima facie link between two places, would you just take the word of the organisation concerned (ie your bolding) and conclude "Well, OK, nothing to see there, lets's move on ..." ? I wouldn't. To protect my nation's interests, I would do your my own due diligence to satisfy myself and my people, even if the chances of a likely connection was remote.

Lets now look at another part of the article you/I quoted:

However, director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said earlier today the Ministry of Health was still undertaking genomic testing to determine any link between the Melbourne Americold facility and the Auckland outbreak.Bloomfield said testing from the surface of the Mt Wellington Americold facility was being processed today."I have also had contact from my counterpart in Victoria who has linked me with their lab there, that is doing some genome sequencing on some [Covid-19] cases of employees in an Americold cool store there in Melbourne," Bloomfield said."Just again to see if there is any possible linkage there, so we are looking at that possibility, it's part of the overall puzzle and we are leaving no stone unturned."

So, they are looking at any possible linkages, "leaving no stone unturned". I don't read "any possible linkages" as investigating whether trays of frozen goods were shipped from Melbourne to Auckland. I read it as seeing if there are any possible commonality, to use another term.

Like I said, give some credit to the NZ authorities to know their business, and their national objectives. I think they are better informed about that than anyone just with access to stories on the internet.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Victoria’s headline numbers today are 216 new cases and 12 deaths.

 

[flyingfan]

"People living in NSW they have NSW hospitals. In Queensland we have Queensland hospitals for our people."

Sad that this pandemic is making some people think of themselves as Queenslanders or NSWers - and everything happening outside state borders is some else's problem, rather than we're all in it together as Australians.

I suppose you could also extrapolate and say we're all human beings too, not Australians or Americans or whatever.

In other news, Guardian blog says PM saying a vaccine (hope the Oxford one is going well) will be mandatory. Will be interested to see how that can be made so.

 

[jakeseven7]

Agreed. I saw a news clip last night where AP said something along the lines of 'NSW government has NSW hospitals for NSW people and QLD govt has QLD hospitals for Queenslanders'. It seems our leaders are in a race to the bottom.

Agreed and led by AP, who is really becoming a foul mouth piece and a deeply embarrassingly figurehead of poor leadership and statesmanship.

I would love for her to waddle up and deliver that line directly to the people it affected so terribly.

She and her script writers need to think deeply about what they are doing.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well, its not my article, but the NZ Herald's (the link was there). I would guess their point would be that they are a news organisation and the article was reporting the news.

But the point of my posting excerpts from the story, was to show that the NZ authorities stated their rationale for doing the investigation, and it was beyond the assumption of a direct shipping link between the two facilities. That was stated, so maybe you didn't read that?

But lets look at the start of what you posted (and bolded, as it seemed important), from an unattributed source (but its the NZ Herald article I posted the link to).



If you were a national government, investigating an unexpected outbreak, where there was a prima facie link between two places, would you just take the word of the organisation concerned (ie your bolding) and conclude "Well, OK, nothing to see there, lets's move on ..." ? I wouldn't. To protect my nation's interests, I would do your my own due diligence to satisfy myself and my people, even if the chances of a likely connection was remote.

Lets now look at another part of the article you/I quoted:



So, they are looking at any possible linkages, "leaving no stone unturned". I don't read "any possible linkages" as investigating whether trays of frozen goods were shipped from Melbourne to Auckland. I read it as seeing if there are any possible commonality, to use another term.

Like I said, give some credit to the NZ authorities to know their business, and their national objectives. I think they are better informed about that than anyone just with access to stories on the internet.

Oh dear.

Perhaps go the appropriate New Zealand thread on the cases in New Zealand where this was discussed days ago.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Sad that this pandemic is making some people think of themselves as Queenslanders or NSWers - and everything happening outside state borders is some else's problem, rather than we're all in it together as Australians.

I suppose you could also extrapolate and say we're all human beings too, not Australians or Americans or whatever.

In other news, Guardian blog says PM saying a vaccine (hope the Oxford one is going well) will be mandatory. Will be interested to see how that can be made so.

The PM said “as mandatory as possible”......with as much feeling as we all must get the Covidsafe app, and a litany of other examples.

it will probably be tied in to eligibility for government benefits, like kids vaccinations.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

She and her script writers need to think deeply about what they are doing.

You can’t blame a speechwriter or scriptwriter for what comes out of the Qld Premier’s mouth in response to a media query at a press conference (I guess)...lol