COVID-19: Discussion of Impact 😷


And in further good news for SA residents travelling to NSW, from tomorrow (Sunday) they won’t have to fill out a declaration on arrival at the state border and won’t have to self-isolate.

They never needed to self isolate.


US media report that Trump has been pressuring FDA boss Stephen Hahn to approve the vaccine in recent days.

Victoria’s latest numbers. Looks like DHHS are now keeping track on how many days Victoria hasn’t seen a local case in the second tweet.

Today’s VIC and NSW numbers.


Seems like as soon as the lockdown ended in the UK, cases started rising immediately, other western European countries seem to be better at keeping the virus suppressed after lockdown ends.

all my friends in the UK say no one took the lockdown seriously, the pubs were closed but the streets were full and the in-home gathering rules were ignored. They really are just as bad as america, very disappointing.

Yeah I had friends who said the same thing in London. I actually had a friend who came back from Spain and had to do 2 weeks of quarantine at home. I got so mad when she said she had still be walking the streets. But I do understand if the government doesn’t care the people won’t either.

But give it 6 months and Europe will be out of all this with the herd immunity approach. Here in Australia we won’t be going back to any normality for quite some time.

Europe won’t achieve herd immunity for a long time. It requires 60-70%+ of the population to have been infected. In the UK they have what 1.6 million-ish cases against a population of 68 million - still a long way to go.

I have a few close friends I went to school with that now live in the UK and their stories on instagram and attitude in back and forth texts just make me a little mad - they really don’t care.

A close friend/work colleague who is British but lives here in Melbourne said his Mum and Dad both got COVID in the UK and his Mum still can not smell or taste anything and she’s 5+ months past when she was diagnosed.

Yeah well Spain’s Health Minister seems to disagree with that statement. They are expecting more than two thirds of the population will be vaccinated by then which will effectively achieve herd immunity.

Good luck to them. That’s assuming the adequate supply of the vaccine and adequate takeup by the population.

I don’t know Spanairds that well but if their population is anything like the careless, conspirary driven nutjobs that seem to be prevelant across much of the English speaking nations then they’ll still be in trouble.

Plus, you mention that here in Australia we won’t be going back to any normailty for some time - I’d disagree and state we have something resembling normalicy now!

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It is probably why they are saying they need 2 thirds of the population to take the vaccine to achieve it. It is quite a smart tactic really it gives people that motivation to get it. I have a few friends from Spain and there seems to be a bit of a positive attitude about getting a vaccine. But I think you are going to get the conspiracy theories everywhere.

Depends on what you call normal I guess. I don’t think I would suggest we will be going back to ‘normal’ because we still won’t be seeing international travel. We will still have people who work in the tourism industry out of jobs. We will probably still even be requiring people to quarantine when returning from overseas. So I don’t think that is ‘normal’ as you suggest and I don’t think that will change until the end of 2021 at the earliest. Experts here are suggesting the vaccine won’t be given to the majority of Australian’s until the end of 2021.

Realistically though, surely most countries would love to be in the position that Australia is currently in?

OK, so there isn’t going to be any international travel for a while and we’ll probably also have to wait some time for the TGA to approve any COVID-19 vaccines, but all things considered most Australians will probably enjoy a relatively normal Christmas 2020 compared to what much of the rest of the world (particularly the Northern Hemisphere) will be enduring.

Even when international travel does eventually return, I don’t think Australians will suddenly be able to go everywhere their passport allows them to. You’d have to imagine that we’ll be able to visit lower risk destinations such as New Zealand and the Pacific Islands well before trips to Europe or North America are back on the cards.

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I don’t know if that is necessarily true. Each country has had their own strategy. Ideally it would be great if all countries have had 0 cases. But there has been a lot of sacrifices Australia has had to make to get to 0 cases. I don’t know if other countries could or would want to afford those sacrifices. I think most countries would love to be in the position Australia is in without having to shut down their tourism sector. A place like Spain would not have survived having their borders completely shut to international tourists. Same with Greece.

I don’t think the issue will be going anywhere. I think the issue will be returning back to Australia. But I simply don’t think you will be allowed back into Australia without the vaccine. Or you will have to do 2 weeks quarantine upon return if you haven’t had a vaccine and traveled to a ‘hotspot’ - which is nearly everywhere but New Zealand, Taiwan and the Pacific Islands

Yeah pretty much can confirm that myself the friends I have said they are just going to ignore any directives in future about lock down . I said to them well it’s your funeral and don’t come around here no more . I’ve been following all the instructions only left leave my home for essentials and dr appointments and exercising around the block (which I have no problems with as it’s just around the building and some bushes)and a nice small park)

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Meanwhile the UK Government has placed London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire into tier 3 lockdown effective from tomorrow (December 16), after a spike in positive cases across the capital.

Today’s VIC and NSW figures

The final report into Victoria’s Hotel Quarantine Inquiry by Former Judge, Jennifer Coate will be handed to the Victorian Governor on Monday.

I’m guessing that there must be a lot of fatigue setting in. We are a good 10 months now into this so it’s going to get harder and harder to keep people “doing the right thing” the longer it goes on. It must feel like a “here we go again” type thing. Especially now that the national lockdown is over but people are facing ongoing tiered restrictions for the foreseeable future.

In Melbourne the lockdowns were closer together so I think more people took it seriously but also in general Australian’s overall do follow things pretty well. You’ll never get 100% compliance but it seems most Aussies did for the most part (even if it was to avoid fines and fear of a big police presence on the streets). Just compare our mask compliance in Melbourne compared to what you are seeing in USA and UK at the moment. I very very rarely saw anyone without a mask anywhere after they were mandated. Whereas you have a big chunk of the American population pretty anti-masks and I’ve seen a lot of images of busy shopping spots in the UK where a lot of people don’t have masks on.

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Totally. An see that happening, and I am over it too, but at the end of the day if it helps to stop the spread and keeping me from getting it I’m happy to stay home and only go out for essentials and do the exercises I need in the back yard. I have actually found it refreshing staying away from the city centre and anywhere there is mad cows of people who re blantly disregarding the directive.

In the mean time I have been playing plague I’ve created a media spy virus. Wiped out America first. :grinning: