COVID-19: Discussion of Impact đŸ˜·

Sleeping Giants’ take on The Australian article on Annastacia Palaszczuk.

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QLD Update: One new local COVID case overnight, linked to the Sunnybank cluster. The case was detected on day 14 of the person’s home quarantine.

Day 14? Wow that’s incredibly lucky!

Ten Spirit of Tasmania crew members have been confirmed as close contacts of a positive COVID-19 case. They have been placed into quarantine in Devonport and have been tested for COVID-19.

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While I do see your point @Aurora, I’m sure she could have elaborated further on her point of international travel there, rather than just a blunt remark concerning India. I assume this is what @Andrew is saying.

While I understand some Indian-Australians may want to travel to India when the opportunity arises, I would think this may not open up for a while due to safety concerns. There are some factors to consider:

  • The fact that the Delta strain originated in India concerns many. General hygiene is lower in many rural areas of India, and is enough to spread transmission of diseases, including COVID, more easily.

  • Vaccines that India have used may not be approved by the TGA. While the AstraZeneca and Moderna jabs are proven to protect hospitalisations, there are questions over India’s own local vaccine (Covaxin), and Russia’s COVID vaccine (Sputnik V). Yes, a portion of the population vaccinated, but you wonder if the effort there is sufficient in preventing mass illness.

There are other countries which don’t have such hygiene concerns and have used TGA-approved vaccines.

While I agree that the Qld premier should’ve elaborated/could’ve chosen her words more carefully


This appears to be based on the incorrect assumption (from earlier in the pandemic) that SARS-CoV-2 was primarily spread by droplets, which led to all the hand washing and sanitiser.

COVID-19 is airborne (spread by aerosol transmission), so good ventilation, air filters, and mask wearing are more important than anything else, apart from a high level of vaccination (80+% of the entire population, including children).

The more-developed world isn’t doing enough to help vaccinate the entire world.
I know COVID-19 vaccines haven’t been around very long and supplies are still limited, but we can’t really get out of the pandemic until the vast majority of the entire world are vaccinated.

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Oh, my apologies if my claim(s) was/were incorrect in some way.

However, it was my understanding that COVID can still spread through droplets, just that airborne transmission is the predominant way this virus spreads? Therefore, good hygiene is still partly necessary - we shouldn’t just forget about it! Also, it’s helped to keep other viruses, like the flu, at bay. Definitely great for many people. Correct me if I’m wrong :slightly_smiling_face:

To reiterate your point on airborne transmission, I probably should have added that India’s air quality isn’t the best due to the lack of ventilation in many buildings. Especially true in those rural areas I mentioned in my previous post.

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Correct
 the point I was making is Anna is out of touch.

‘Where are you gonna go, India?’

It’s condescending. Its rude. Its ignorant. Australia’s a multicultural society. There’s literally millions of people who would want to travel for various reasons.

Secondary to that, she has portrayed an image of the world to anyone actually listening to her that we are all sitting behind Perspex eating our lunch with a mask on, like she had to in the Olympic village in Japan.

People actually think that’s happening and therefore support her keeping the borders closed. The reality is I can travel basically wherever I want to, quarantine free. A lot of places I don’t have to wear a mask if I don’t want to. The world is back to relative normality.

The abnormal thing is to keep your citizens locked within your state border indefinitely. There’s no desire to open up. Even the rhetoric is ‘protecting our freedoms’ rather than living with covid. She has lost all perspective.

No worries, it’s understandable given the history during the early stages of the pandemic, and science is all about researching, testing to confirm, and learning more as we go (including where we were wrong, when more evidence becomes available), which is especially important as new variants arise.

Influenza & the common cold, both being other respiratory diseases, are also largely spread by airborne transmission, which is why they spread easily before we all had to start wearing masks & keep away from each other (particularly staying at home).

You’re right that good hygiene is important for other diseases, and poor ventilation & air quality certainly doesn’t help.

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Meanwhile, in Broadbeach (QLD) today :sweat_smile:

I know two people well, though you may argue they’re not direct contacts.

One was my parents neighbour who actually passed away in March 2020 with COVID - diagnoses to death in a week (though he did have a significantly advanced cancer diagnoses as well) he was someone who arrived back off a cruise in NSW just as we went into a national lockdown.

My global manager also contracted it and was quite ill (he is based in the US) he made a pretty swift recovery though and this was before vaccines were widely distributed in the US.

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Basically all my friends in the UK have had it. I somehow avoided it despite being at the same event where they all caught it. This was mostly last December.

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Have you been tested to see if you have been asymptotic? I know a few people in the UK that got the home test, sent it off and got a result to say they had the antibodies which suggests they have already had the virus without any symptoms.

I did test negative at the time. I haven’t had the antibody test though.

Could have had it unknowingly. But my friends were in pretty bad shape for the first week at least. I definitely didn’t experience what they did.

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This is literally millions of people. This is how it spreads. So many people in the UK catch it have zero idea they have it and go around normally.

I think I may have caught it. I was at a large event where there was a confirmed outbreak and some people I know got it. I lost my taste for 2 days and felt like sleeping a lot another day (probably tired from the large music event) And that was literally it. I took it upon myself to isolate and only walk my dog down the street and within 48 hours my taste came back and I was full of energy. That was it.

I have never taken an anti body test. Maybe one day I will.

My roommates in Barcelona both tested positive back in March 2020 in the first crazy days of the pandemic. I never felt a thing.

I have a few friends who have had it twice.

I know other friends who show antibodies but don’t recall a thing.

I also have friends who slept in the same bed as their partner who was positive and they were not

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Ditto this happened to my friends. She took daily tests and all were negative despite sharing a bed with her positive fiancé.

Thoughts?

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Well it’s from the federal labour government. About time they start doing something. They haven’t been as vocal as they should. The only issue is victorians are likely to vote labour anyway. Probably a waste of time and resources.

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Was that televised tonight?
I’m surprised they don’t do an NRL one next week.

Boo hoo! The Grand Final isn’t in Melbourne again! It’s the end of the world!

I don’t follow the AFL, but the imperiousness Melbourne has over “owning” the Grand Final is nauseating. Yes, the AFL originated as the VFL and yes, the MCG is the game’s “historic” grounds, but 2020 and 2021 have proved that the Grand Final can and should be shared around the capital cities. After all, half of the teams are based outside of Victoria.

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