I donât think itâs just Twitter. Didnât some opinion polls 2-3 months ago overwhelmingly echo the same sentiments of the general public? That view may have swayed a bit now that weâve had more lockdowns but it shouldnât be surprising that more of the general public in Australia fall on taking the side of caution and health advice.
Plus a lot of these topics probably go this way on Twitter because the type of people who a raising them (or fuelling them in the comments) are often very inconsistent, donât have the greatest track record or have a specific agenda (antivaxxers, COVID deniers, far right wing groups, even the Vic Liberals etc). Not saying all are like this but thereâs a lot out there.
IMO, those people should have been allowed to return home a long time ago. However there are some other people who are saying âoh, bad luck, you should not have been in NSW in the first place, and now you must stay in NSW until the lockdown is liftedâ. Which is still some months away.
Social Media has allowed people to post what they think, in the past, they may have kept those thoughts to themselves or maybe told one or two people, whereas things like Facebook and Twitter have given them a platform to share them with a much wider audience (and often directly to people they may be about). At the same time, weâve become an incredibly binary society and nearly everything has to align to one of two options (and are often political)
Someone sharing the same or a similar opinion to a Political group is not necessarily aligned or supportive of that Political group - it seems to be easier to claim some kind of alignment rather than accept that people have a range of opinions that overlap with others who they may not like, support or agree with.
Itâs all well and good to blame the platforms, but itâs not the platforms that are the issue and targetting them is aiming at the wrong place.
Our mediaâs coverage of the pandemic has on the main not been good (and possibly a reason why people are so willing to call it out online) - questioning has been driven around trying to get âgotchaâ moments from politicians (especially at press conferences) rather than trying to dig deeper into the issues at hand.
Some of our leaders have made some really stupid decisions, then doubled down on them and doubled down on them again (and again and again in some cases), these decisions have had significant consequences, many of which have been swept under the rug because our media are more interested in asking why Bunnings is still open.
I could handle Leigh Sales anti-lockdown opinions if she was consistent. During Melbournes 4th lockdown Leigh was against financial assistance, against extra AZ going to Vic and blaming the whole situation on Victorian contact tracers without any evidence.
Then NSW goes into lockdown and she is silent as the cash and vaccine pours in and still waving the gold standards gladys flag. She drops her anti-lockdown stance once the virus is on her own doorstep.
Herald Sun reports that the first 500 beds at the Mickelham quarantine facility will be ready for early January. A further 500 beds will be ready for the following month.
I agreed with almost all you wrote, but on this point, itâs not all the platforms fault, but they do benefit from and so encourage âengagementâ, actively promoting threads which have lots of activity, including negative activity such as where someone posts something outrageous, conspiracy nonsense, extremely partisan rubbish, etc. because those get more reactions/replies.
Facebook, Google (YouTube) and Twitter all do this (in different ways), trying to keep people on their sites/apps, ignoring the harm to both the individuals and society.
While we all need to remember that echo chambers develop on social media and other forums like here, letâs not excuse the damage the platform companies enable/amplify.
The social media platforms are far from blameless and could certainly do a whole lot better, but for my mind we should be targetting the people to drive change rather then the technology.
Just saw some information regarding the UAE. They have done a pretty incredible job to vaccinate 90% of the population and fully vaccinated over 80%. They are now seeing only 750 daily cases a day which is half way it was getting 2 months ago. Deaths have also always been relatively low but now down to an average of 2.
But not only that they have used testing as a huge way of living with covid. All children attending school have to have a PCR test. I wonder if Australia can do something similar.
I guess with the high vaccination rate the burden on testing wouldnât be that great. Bot sure how regular pcr tests would go down with kids and parents, although if it gets them back to school they may be accepting of it.
It means jockeys, trainers, stable staff and race day officials must have at least one vaccination dose by Caulfield Cup Day (October 16), in order to be allowed into Victorian racecourses on raceday and public training centres. They must be fully vaccinated by Zipping Classic Day (November 27), the last day of Spring Racing Carnival.
I skipped over this as a news corp link, but it has seemed to be very under reported outside of the WA premierâs reaction - was SA announcing theyâd open to Vic and NSW after SA reached 80% double dose vaccinated. Itâs as far as I know the only direct and clear message any state has given, even Victoria at the moment is still talking a little bit tough on NSW - despite the likelihood our daily case numbers will probably be similar next month.
I wonder when the other states will make it clear - and if that has a positive or negative effect on vaccination rates. The WA premier seems to over think the desire of those to the east to visit that state - youâd certainly think SA residents would rather have an open border with NSW and Vic than one with WA - if they had to pick?
Tasmania youâd think need the tourism so would follow SAâs position - and indeed will probably reach 80% double dosed at almost the exact same time as Victoria based on current trends.
They should only open if their Health systems can âadequatelyâ cope with the probable exposure and deaths that come with that strategy (NSW does not appear to understand what adequate means).