Does Closing Beaches Make Any Sense?

[dajop]

Is there a right and a wrong source for information? Does anyone know the truth?

There are very few right sources of information, plenty of wrong sources. Trouble is must of us think of the right source as the one that reinforces what we already believe, whereas it may not be.

A pertinent example is some news last week that the US government had ordered 500 million masks. Trump announced this. The right wing media portrayed this as the saviour and hero and wow what a difference 500 million masks will make to Americans. Most of the left leaning media went on the attack, saying the order could take 18 months to fulfil. Making it almost seem like they would all take 18 months.

The reality? As reported by a select few that the masks ordered would help provide essential protection to medical workers as they were delivered. Not messiah like save the world, not all doom and gloom but just the sort of decision the machinery of government should be making.

I see less of this political partisanship right now in Australia - for some reason. Maybe that reflects that we are ultimately a bunch of centrists. Even a lot of the stuff the Renato mentions seems to be from from the highly politicised US media and not from Australian media.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I'm not sure I agree on some of these measures introduced because as @Renato1 rightly says we are punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few.

John with respect I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective. Why is saving people lives punishing people? Why is preventing people from unnecessary car trips a bad thing?

CV 19 is a virus and has no intelligence. It relies on people to not act with reason and intelligence to spread and thus thrive. Some people have wilfully chosen to ignore what reason dictates.

What we should ALL be doing is by now abundantly clear. There may have been some confusion originally, but there are some very simple rules that we all now know that we should follow, and should have been following for a while now. Various state governments have now further restricted things, but most of these restrictions are practices that we should all have already been doing anyway.

Stay at home as much as you can and help save lives. Stay at home and help yourself to be around for your daughter's later years. She needs you.

We shouldn't really need the government to wave big sticks at us, but unfortunately it is necessarily as the minority can cause enormous damage. And another minority will think that the rules only apply to others, or that they have the right to re-interpret them.

We can all choose to be like the Aspen Couple, or we can just choose to do the right thing.

 

[get me outta here]

Perhaps the very high $$$$ fines for people not acting as directed for the good of the community will assist people to know what is right and wrong seeing as they’re not able to take responsibility for their behaviour.

Is there a right and a wrong source for information? Does anyone know the truth? Does everyone follow directives?

I think we are all adults and my source of information is as good as yours. Keep your eyes open. Don't ignore people as even a fool has useful information some of the time and that could be the time you need it.

I'm not sure I agree on some of these measures introduced because as @Renato1 rightly says we are punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few. I know these are tough times and I'm also terrified but how about getting serious on the actual offenders instead of just talking about it and putting fear into everyone.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is there a right and a wrong source for information?

Yes.

I think we are all adults and my source of information is as good as yours. Keep your eyes open. Don't ignore people as even a fool has useful information some of the time and that could be the time you need it.

Unfortunately there are some people who are unable to distinguish between 'the truth' and misinformation put out by those with alternative agendas.

I'm not sure I agree on some of these measures introduced because as @Renato1 rightly says we are punishing everyone for the mistakes of a few.

We are not 'punishing' anyone by closing beaches per se. The law is that there is no going outside unless essential.

We're asking people to stay inside for a few weeks to save lives. That's not a punishment, that's a public health measure.

 

[Steady]

The law is that there is no going outside unless essential.
We're asking people to stay inside for a few weeks to save lives.

That's the law? I thought it was to stay at your place of residence so front and back yards were ok....

 

[amaroo]

That's the law? I thought it was to stay at your place of residence so front and back yards were ok....

Correct, we’re hitting poolside pretty hard

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That's the law? I thought it was to stay at your place of residence so front and back yards were ok....

yes of course you are correct I was using 'inside' in the broader sense of 'not going out'

 

[Guvner]

A totally alarming high numbers of doctors, and I don’t know how many other allied health people have died. Our doctors and hospitals still do not have enough PPE even though the government keeps saying it’s coming, it’s coming. Still has not arrived.

I can understand frustration with self-centredness. Specially if your child was going off every day to deal with people who have Covid 19., completely has my sympathy.

Venting anger at a poster on here won't change that. But carry on.
The 33 doctors who skipped isolation would pose a much bigger risk to the community than Renato1's musings on a travel forum.

 

[get me outta here]

I am not venting anger. Don't know what you are talking about. Nothing on here makes any difference then according to that statement.

Venting anger at a poster on here won't change that. But carry on.

 

[stm1sydney]

Daniel Andrews has clarified that walks on the beach are OK

So the Premier of Victoria agrees with the OP.

 

[get me outta here]

I see you edited your post after I replied with an OT comment. I'm still not venting anger.

Venting anger at a poster on here won't change that. But carry on.
The 33 doctors who skipped isolation would pose a much bigger risk to the community than Renato1's musings on a travel forum.

 

[Guvner]

I edited it whilst you were replying, but anyway.

 

[Pushka]

So the Premier of Victoria agrees with the OP.

Assuming he is in Victoria. Every state is different.

 

[dajop]

So the Premier of Victoria agrees with the OP.

Partially. The very first post in the thread was suggesting it was OK to sit on beach all day with adequate social distancing, later posts talked about walking on the beach. The Premier most definitely does not agree with the former, but says the latter is OK for exercise (as long as people don't drive to get there).

 

[Steady]

yes of course you are correct I was using 'inside' in the broader sense of 'not going out'

I don't want to take away from the importance of staying at home and the closure of public spaces where people gather as I fully agree it is a must do in the current situation - it just means different things to different people.

For many people in high population centres living in high rises, remaining in your place of residence does mean not going outside.

Some may forget that for others it means they can still go outside for a household BBQ or swim in the pool, others it means they can still go 4WDing, motorbike riding, fishing, @%$&ing, horse riding, mountain bike riding, cutting firewood, and the list goes on, people can still do many things that other people may feel they shouldn't be doing, yet they fully comply with remaining at their place of residence.

 

[amaroo]

I don't want to take away from the importance of staying at home and the closure of public spaces where people gather as I fully agree it is a must do in the current situation - it just means different things to different people.

For many people in high population centres living in high rises, remaining in your place of residence does mean not going outside.

Some may forget that for others it means they can still go outside for a household BBQ or swim in the pool, others it means they can still go 4WDing, motorbike riding, fishing, @%$&ing, horse riding, mountain bike riding, cutting firewood, and the list goes on, people can still do many things that other people may feel they shouldn't be doing, yet they fully comply with remaining at their place of residence.

shooting Love it!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

How can people still today not understand that it was 100% the right call to close Bondi Beach?

After spending all weekend seeing articles of people hyperventilating about irresponsible people at Bondi Beach - with accompanying photos clearly showing most people spaced well apart - as well as numerous Facebook reposts of articles, well, it just didn't make sense logically.

Does anyone yet not appreciate how things can quickly escalate due to how contagious CV19 is?

1 person can infect 3
3 people can infect 9
9 = 27
27 = 81
81= 243
243= 729
729 = 2187

etc

So no it was not ok that most people were well spaced apart. The numerous ones who were not were capable of creating a huge number of infections well above what is shown above.

After Bondi Beach was closed it has been identified as a CV19 hotspot. So much so that special additional pop-up testing is being done. So it is known that there were numerous CV19 people at Bondi and from the accounts of people it is also known that they were also frequenting Bondi Beach.


CV19 positive people ..
Thousands of people mixing...
The virus thrives of random contacts, and the more random contacts, the more it thrives.

Add to that that one of our main weapons is contact tracing and large public events with randomised mixing make that almost impossible.

Do people not yet not understand how much of a hotspot Bondi could have become if it had not have been closed when it was?
Do people not yet not understand how that hotspot could then have rapidly spread through Sydney if Bondi Beach had not been closed?
Closing it when they did was the right call. Logically it was the thing to do and we should all be enormously grateful that that call was made.

 

[straitman]

So the Premier of Victoria agrees with the OP.

There’s a VERY big difference between what the Vic Premier says and what the OP is suggesting.

 

[serfty]

There’s a VERY big difference between what the Vic Premier says and what the OP is suggesting.

Yes, this was subsequently clarified bu @dajop

So the Premier of Victoria agrees with the OP.

Partially. The very first post in the thread was suggesting it was OK to sit on beach all day with adequate social distancing, later posts talked about walking on the beach. The Premier most definitely does not agree with the former, but says the latter is OK for exercise (as long as people don't drive to get there).

 

[drron]

Venting anger at a poster on here won't change that. But carry on.
The 33 doctors who skipped isolation would pose a much bigger risk to the community than Renato1's musings on a travel forum.

So just how much threat did those doctors pose.They boarded a cruise ship in Chile on 29/2.They disembarked in Stanley,Falkland Islands on March 27 having been in Antarctica or the high seas ever since.No Covid in Antarctica or the Falklands.First case in Chile confirmed 3/3.But even if it was picked up in Chile or before then if any of the pax or crew was positive on boarding why were there no reports of respiratory symptoms on board after 26 days?

I'm sorry those doctors are more likely to pick up Corona virus in their time in Sydney rather than on the cruise.Remember an ABF officer has tested positive in SYD.