Coronavirus 4 - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[Dave The Man]

Have they given up on contact tracing here, or what? I just checked for the first time in a few days and there are, like, four exposure sites left in Melbourne. Would be nice to know I don't need to bother scanning QR codes in shop windows any more if they're not even using the data.

I can't find any either so I don't know where to Check.

All I see are Tier 1 Exposure Sites

[Dave The Man]

^


In other news, the bill for the proposed new legislation to replace the current state of emergency one is to go to Parliament today.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-25/ ... /100567664

Reactions vary depending on where you read, I'll wait til I see the actual bill and make my own mind up.

From the bits I've read of the summary, I like the idea that the Health Minister signs orders after getting advice from the CHO and I like the increased transparency with stuff used to make decisions required to be tabled in Parliament.

I'm not sure about independent oversite committee's that have no teeth, sounds like an exercise in blame deflection but I'll wait until I see how it works.

The Opposition are screaming about giving Dan too much power, I'm going to view it leaving Dan out of the argument and just look at what power do you want a premier to have. My initial inclination is you want a Premier to have the power to act quickly if required without needing lots of approvals, but they need to be accountable for that and provide the reasons after. This seems to enable that so again I'll reserve judgement.

Well it's the same as Sydney/NSW has

[stui magpie]

Here's the ABC's view of the proposed Bill.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/ ... /100569056

I can see online that it's passed the first reading yesterday but they haven't put a copy of the actual Bill up yet. I'm not sure if that's usual practice or not.

[Pies4shaw]

Here, I think: https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bill ... -bill-2021

[Pies4shaw]

In NSW:

- 304 new locally acquired cases
- 1 new overseas acquired cases
- 305 total new cases
- 418 people in hospital
- 97 people in ICU
- 3 deaths

In Victoria:

Hospitalised: 748
7 Day Average: 784
In ICU: 138
Ventilated: 87

Tests: 83,210
New cases: 1,534
Lives lost: 13
Active cases: 24,164

[David]

Encouraging test figures. Was worried people were getting a bit complacent given the last two sub-60,000 days, but this is the first time the daily positive test rate (1.84%) has dipped below 2% in a fortnight, and the lowest daily positive test rate since the 3rd of October.

[stui magpie]

Here, I think: https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/bill ... -bill-2021

That's the one, thanks. When I looked on that page this morning they hadn't uploaded the documents yet.

[stui magpie]

Encouraging test figures. Was worried people were getting a bit complacent given the last two sub-60,000 days, but this is the first time the daily positive test rate (1.84%) has dipped below 2% in a fortnight, and the lowest daily positive test rate since the 3rd of October.

The other interesting thing is how NSW is tracking, if we consider them an indicator of what is likely to happen here.

Daily case numbers for the past 7 days have hovered in the high 200 to low 300, but cases admitted to hospital, ICU and requiring ventilators are steadily tracking down and the daily positive test rate is down to 0.34%.

Something is working.

[Dave The Man]

So what they are doing that is Different to Victoria making theses Cases go down where in Victoria they seem to be the Same?

[nomadjack]

Just a few weeks ahead of us Dave. Nothing significant different or magic, just time.

[stui magpie]

^

yep, you'd hope so. And Victoria's cases aren't staying the same, they are tracking down.

[KenH]

Mate of mine has just got covid19 he says he feels like shit the worst he has felt. He has had both shots and he is glad that he has as he can't imagine how he would feel if he wasn't vaccinated!

[stui magpie]

^

We've had a few cases at work. Anecdotally, the fully vaccinated feel like shit for the first few days then start coming good. If he doesn't have underlying health conditions like hypertension, diabetes etc he should be fine. Hopefully.

An vaccinated one tested positive on the weekend and now has Pneumonia.

[stui magpie]

OK, I've skim read the proposed legislation. I don't like it.

Neither does the president of the Victorian bar

The president of the Victorian Bar has slammed the state’s new pandemic legislation as “appalling” and claims the government “grossly misrepresented” its consultation with the barristers’ peak body.

Christopher Blanden, QC, said the new laws, designed to replace sweeping state of emergency powers, would give the Premier unprecedented power with little to no checks and balances.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/vict ... 593n8.html

Here's the deal as I understand it. The legislation gives the Premier the power to make a pandemic declaration in some pretty flimsy circumstances. All they have to do is table the reasons. So at least there is some public scrutiny but nothing they can't spin their way through.

Once that Pandemic declaration is made, the Health Minister can make orders setting out public health measures and restrictions to protect public health, including increased fines and detention orders. All they have to do is publish reasons for them.

Now, consider this. Andrews is being quoted in media as saying that the restrictions on unvaccinated people (going to pubs, sport, cafes etc) will continue right through 2022.

To do that, he would have to make a pandemic declaration right through 2022 for the Health Minister to have the power to make those orders.

From the linked article.

This is a bill that fundamentally interferes with the rights of citizens in some very basic ways. It abrogates the privilege against self-incrimination and you’ve got detention at the whim of the minister. It’s just appalling stuff.”

“Stasi police would have been more than happy with the range of powers if they were given it,” Mr Blanden told The Age. “It’s extraordinary.”

[think positive]

so i guess we need to trust the play it by ear scenario.

if they let the unwashed free and cases skyrocket, something needs to happen immediately. **** i say, unless they have a genuine health reason. you get to choose, vaccinate or miss out. its a no brainer, the greater good comes first.

lowering hospitalisations, lowering deaths for vaccinated people, less pressure on the health system, people who are level 1 elective surgeries are missing out on life saving operations. this comes first, not the unvaccinated by choice, ie with no exemption certificate, getting to sit down at a pub.

so no if you dont want mandated vaccination, all well and good, then you need laws to protect the selfless from the selfish.

the news today, a teacher shortage in NSW, because there are 7,000 unvaccinated teachers. 7,000!!! stuff the kids hey!