COVID-19: Discussion of Impact 😷

Fair call, McGowan does genuinely care about his community (and is quite passionate at demonstrating that, if not to a fault) which is much more than can ever be said for Trump.

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And Trump’s rhetoric about the wall in Mexico was really masqueraded his racist point of views anyway. McGowan might refer to NSW/Victorian people as people who cannot enter the state but he’s doing it for the health of Western Australians until the vax rate hits the target.

He does have an air of arrogance and over-confidence about him but at least he’s got a plan in mind for the future which is assuring.

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Victorian loud mouth Jeff Kennett once had a go at WA for being isolationists and wanting to put up borders and walls. He even said WA was like North Korea.

This was in 2007 during the last big public debate on daylight saving and extended shopping hours:

I’m sure some of you will agree with what he said but all these years later WA is still the same :slight_smile:

I’m sure there’ll come a point in the future where WA will again be open to NSW and Victoria. One would like to hope that Media Spy’s Western-based members would welcome this Sydneysider to their state at an appropriate time in the future! :slightly_smiling_face:

In the meantime, it’s obvious that while the guy is not without faults (although lets be honest - this can be said for pretty much every politician) McGowan genuinely cares about his state. The same can not be said about the NSW or Federal Governments, who’s leading politicians seem to have dollar signs somewhere in the pupils of their eyes. But that’s a rant for another time and topic.

Re, healthcare systems: I think most, if not all states/territories of Australia have had problems with theirs for a longtime. Even before the pandemic, I remember there being stories in the media about not insignificant issues with hospitals in Sydney - a city which you’d think should have one of the best healthcare systems in the world (never mind Australia)!

I’m sorry but that’s a totally false assertion that Perrottet doesn’t care about his state.

Perrottet has opened up the state out of lockdown, with case numbers remaining low two weeks after the fact. Business are back open, people can visit friends and families in their homes, kids are back at school etc.

Sounds like someone who cares about his state to me. Not everything comes down to covid-zero or solely focusing on the covid situation in the particular state.

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I’m sure McGowan would love to open his state up once WA hits their targets and they’re prepared from a health and medical perspective. As much as he might seem overly confident I don’t doubt that he wants to open up, just not right now.

Perrottet was able to open up largely thanks to the people of NSW getting vaccinated in masses and in part he inherited the results of the successful vaccination drive headed by Gladys Berejiklian. It’s not like it was all his work that allowed NSW to open up. It was the people and successful vaccination.

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Exactly.

To paraphrase those infamous Alan Jones rants, neither Gladys or Dominic deserve to take any credit for our successful vaccination drive. It was the collective effort of (most of) New South Wales which got us where we are now.

It’s Elected officials job to make sure the economy is functioning providing jobs, wealth and security for all Australians. Managing covid the health crisis and covid the economic crisis is not a job I would want. I think all Australian leaders have done a good job. Measures have been extreme at times, but Australia will come out of this comparitivejy well

I don’t know how you can say NSW or Fed govt have dollars in their eyes when the measures to keep covid at bay have been longer and more wide ranging than most Comparable nations. Even opening at 70/80 is incredibly conservative by Eu/UK/US measures

I think they kept the focus on health an extremely long time. It’s a balancing act now.

Now health no wealth
And no wealth no health

TGA have approved booster shots (Pfizer only at this stage) for people 18+

BUT (and an important one) - TGA has clarified that its contingent on further advice from ATAGI about who should be receiving the boosters and when (which is expected imminently)

I’d love 80% to be what triggers border openings in covid zero states with no quarantine but I also appreciate how hard it must be to pivot from having no cases to allowing cases in, so if a state decides 90% is that target then so be it.

It is inevitable the virus will enter, but its a far harder sell to the community than what VIC, NSW and ACT have had to do - people in the Eastern states have been locked down for months, VIC for the best part of the last 18 months and we were just desperate to be let out.

I actually respect the pivot that SA, QLD and TAS have made to accept reality and put a date on border reopenings. I have absolutely zero respect for McGowan in WA, he is doubling down on the fear narrative and being very non-committal about reopening and I feel very sad for those families that will be separated.

McGowans fear rhetoric is not based in reality either, he keeps saying he doesn’t want to open as they’ll then have to live with restrictions but if you look at NSW and VIC our Christmas will be completely normal, no masks, no household gathering limits, no density or patron caps at venues - how long can WA hold out for when everywhere else is open to each other and we’re all open to the world without quarantine, WA won’t be the envy of the world then, they will be an isolated hermit kingdom.

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If he gets hate from the other states it has a lot to do with how he talks about them.

Sure up until now WA have been minimally affected by the pandemic but as the rest of the country moves on they need too as well. Otherwise he is creating unnecessary segregation.

There is absolutely no justification for waiting until next year, other than grasping onto this outdated facade that he is protecting Western Australian’s. Vaccination rates won’t be getting much higher in WA than what they will be by Christmas. Western Australia should be at 90% by Christmas and if they aren’t then that can be attributed to Mark McGowan creating a situation where people don’t feel the need too.

If anyone even thinks that there will be a significant difference in the number of people vaccinated from December to whenever he decides to open in the new year then they are just feeding this mans ego. Most of the country will be going through with booster shots by that point.

Let’s also not forget that the rest of Australia will have a normal Christmas too. They will just be able to do a lot more including visiting friends/family in other states (except for WA). They will also be able to go overseas too.

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100% this. I’m fully vaxxed but I’m still a bit anxious (like most people) about slowly letting COVID back into SA so our mentality is that the higher than vaccination rate, the better it will be for the state when COVID returns. With a smaller population we can definitely hit 90% double vaxxed and that gives us the best chance in moving forward in a COVID normal world.

But this roadmap is just inconsistent. Should really be 80% for the first part with removing all borders for domestic fully vaccinated travellers (no matter where they come from) and 90% for international fully vaccinated returning citizens. These LGA-based requirements are confusing and will be a nightmare to monitor and police. Either that or 90% and all borders thrown open for fully vaccinated travellers.

Vaccination rates and star signs. Leo, Aquarius and Aries leading the pack.

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What are virgos like? They are consider one of the most skeptical star signs.

Virgo is at 50%.

Screen Shot 2021-10-27 at 10.28.13 am

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LOL I’m a Leo and did everything in my power to get vaccinated the second I could :rofl:

1000% THIS! His narrative of ā€œEastern Statesā€ positions us as some sort of foreign enemy. The comments about our ā€œfreedom dayā€ being able to have 10 people over when WA have no restrictions was just kicking us when we were already down and trying to find a bit of joy, I get he was trying to defend their position but with everyone opening up and with pretty much no restrictions that narrative can’t hold much longer surely.

Not to mention that;

a) Should open to maximise vaccine efficacy at the most optimal time as it’s fresh in everyone’s arms.
b) I can just see boosters further shifting the goal posts for him.

I think that is fair to be a little anxious mate, especially when you haven’t really had to deal with it. I’ll be honest that I’ve wanted out of lockdowns for a long time and I’m glad we’re out but the announcement of scraping all density, patron caps and masks by Andrews come end of Nov felt like ripping the doona off.

I’ve been sick the past day and a half after having a pretty big weekend, got tested yesterday morning and saw an acquaintance on social media who tested positive after waiting close to 48 hours for her result which really sent my anxiety through the roof - thankfully though, got my result at 4:45am this morning which was negative… I swear I was up every hour tapping my phone to see if a message had come through :rofl: Thankfully I’m feeling much better this morning, pretty normal actually - maybe it was just recovering after lots of cocktails and beers over the weekend!

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You guys deserve all the freedom you are getting back. Victoria’s been through so much this pandemic and the collective effort of everyone means you guys well and truly should embrace life back to normal again.

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QLD had no new locally acquired cases detected in the community overnight.

More on yesterday’s case:

an unvaccinated 17-year-old caught the virus after a family member stayed with him for three days from October 17 after visiting from Tweed Heads.

Meanwhile from November 1, no employee would be allowed to work in a public hospital without being fully vaccinated.

Queensland Health would continue to work with staff who had received or applied for an exemption of the mandatory vaccination direction to find ā€œalternative arrangementsā€.

This may include taking leave, working remotely or being moved into an alternative temporary role.