New Coronavirus threat

TaiChen

New Member
A study done in Hong Kong shows Fosun makes 10 times as much antibodies as Sinovac. Expected considering Fosun is mRNA whereas Sinovac is inactive which is similar to flu shot which is not very effective. A correction in the article. There is no Pfizer in Hong Kong due to Fosun's ownership in BioNTech which prevents Pfizer from selling vaccine in Hong Kong.


TaiChen banned for trolling
 
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OPSSG

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Part 2 of 4: Delta from 0% to over 80% in 10 weeks

7. The Covid-19 virus will continue to mutate and this testing and vaccination program will go in circles in the years to come (becoming treated like a very serious type of seasonal flu for those vaccinated). To combat this Delta variant spread, alternatives to PCR tests being rolled out or evaluated in Singapore including antigen rapid tests, saliva tests, breathalysers and wastewater surveillance.

8. Please wear a mask at in-door public areas and on public transport — even people who have been vaccinated can be infected or in some cases re-infected by Covid-19. The danger posted by the Delta variant is real, get vaccinated (or many more will die). I am not against people like Olivia Guidry choosing not get vaccinated and to die from Covid-19. The issue is how many more these people will infect before they die or get others killed from them spreading the virus.

9. Long COVID is a real multi-system syndrome that occurs in those infected (far more common than in uninfected controls) — predominantly impacting the young. The majority of those affected are <50 yrs. And it affects children.
(i) Between 10-13% of children have symptoms for 5 wks or more, and 7-8% of children had symptoms for 12 wks or more compared with <2% of controls. Also these symptoms are not mild. Of the ~1 million people affected, 2/3rds said it impacted their day to day activity. And 400,000 have had persistent symptoms for more than a year.​
(ii) For most affected, this wasn't a single symptom. It was a combination of many symptoms. e.g. 20% of those infected reported 3 or more symptoms and 17% reported 4 or more symptoms at 12 weeks. If symptoms persist for 12 weeks as they do in 1 in 3 people as per the REACT-1 study, they tend to persist for much longer (up to 22 weeks or more). Also 1/3rd of those with one symptom persisting said it impacted their day to day activities.​
(iii) The cognitive symptoms (brain fog, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances) tend to become prominent later in long COVID, & also last longer. These are worrying also because there are now studies showing the virus affects the brain, even in younger people. More and more evidence accruing that SARS-CoV-2 causes significant persistent effects on the brain. We now have multiple strands supporting this:​
  • long-term symptoms-brain fog, memory loss
  • higher risk of stroke/neuro diseases
  • structural brain changes
  • virus persistence in brain
10. Israeli MoH beginning to suspect that the Pfizer vaccine's immunity is waning given the spread of Delta. The B.1.617.2 or delta variant has spread worldwide. In a test-negative case–control study, the effectiveness of two doses of BNT162b2 was 94% against the B.1.1.7 variant and 88% against delta; with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, effectiveness was 74% and 67%, respectively. In US, Singapore and Israel, we have data that show that while vaccines sharply reduce the likelihood of infection — and serious illness and death — vaccinated people have gotten Covid-19.
 
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ngatimozart

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Part 2 of 4: Delta from 0% to over 80% in 10 weeks

10. Israeli MoH beginning to suspect that the Pfizer vaccine's immunity is waning given the spread of Delta. The B.1.617.2 or delta variant has spread worldwide. In a test-negative case–control study, the effectiveness of two doses of BNT162b2 was 94% against the B.1.1.7 variant and 88% against delta; with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, effectiveness was 74% and 67%, respectively. In US, Singapore and Israel, we have data that show that while vaccines sharply reduce the likelihood of infection — and serious illness and death — vaccinated people have gotten Covid-19.
Bugger. She who must be obeyed and I had our second Pfizer jab this morning. Now I am just waiting for the 3 heads and horns to start growing. :D

There has been talk floating around that a third jab probably from a different vaccine to the first two jabs,, may have increased immunity boosting properties. Or even mixing the first two jabs.
 
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OPSSG

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Part 3 of 4: Delta from 0% to over 80% in 10 weeks

11. The Singapore Government previously thought that as long as the number of COVID-19 cases remained at about 40 to 60 per day, Singapore could “maintain the posture” while keeping clusters under control, said Health Minister and task force co-chair Ong Ye Kung. “Unfortunately every day makes a difference, and the public health situation changed in a short few days,” he added. From 22 July 2021 to 18 August 2021 (both dates inclusive), social gathering group sizes will be reduced to a maximum of 2 persons and dining-in at all F&B establishments in Singapore will cease. The Land Transport Authority said in a separate statement that the updated restrictions on group sizes will apply to passengers in taxis and private hire cars. More than two passengers can only travel together if they all live in the same household.

(a) “We know that this news is extremely disappointing and frustrating to many, in particular for businesses in sectors such as F&B. These sectors have been very badly hit given the earlier restrictions, they have been working very hard to adapt to the changing regulations,” said Mr Gan Kim Yong, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry.​
(b) The large cluster of Covid-19 cases involving those who visited KTV lounges where Safe Management Measures were often breached is in fact not to blame for the tightening of restrictions taking place from 22 July 2021. Mr Ong explained that what caused the "slide back" to the tighter measures under Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) — where dining in is prohibited and social gatherings are limited to two persons — was actually the Jurong Fishery Port cluster.​
(c) Mr Ong posed a hypothetical scenario in which a group of 5 friends met for dinner, and each member of the group is part of a household of 5 persons, who then meet with their own groups of 5. In such a scenario, Ong said, "we have a network of 5x5x5=125 connections for the virus to work itself through. This will turbo charge the Jurong Fishery Port cluster further."​
(d) Mr Ong also said that half of Singapore’s population have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But there remains about 200,000 seniors above 60 years old who have not received their shots.​
(e) The MOH is also investigating likely Covid-19 transmission at blocks in Sims Avenue. This comes after Covid-19 viral fragments were detected in wastewater samples collected from these blocks. Mandatory testing for residents of these 4 blocks will be done from July 22 to 23.​

12. IMO, Singapore as a country can aim for between 80% to 90% vaccination rate for the general population; but a higher vaccination number for the elderly.

13. In other related news, Singapore will send regular shipments of emergency oxygen supplies to Indonesia to aid the country’s fight against the current surge of COVID-19, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Monday (Jul 19). This arrangement, known as the “Oxygen Shuttle” programme, is at Indonesia’s request and will supplement the urgent need for oxygen in medical facilities there, added MFA.

(i) The “Oxygen Shuttle” programme is in addition to assistance from the Singapore Government to Indonesia in the form of oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, as well as other medical supplies and equipment, sent in earlier batches on Jul 9 and Jul 11.​
(ii) The programme is coordinated by MFA, with support from the Ministry of Defence, and the Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre. Singapore is sending over 500 tonnes of liquid oxygen in regular shipments till August. 4 ISO tanks carrying a total of 80 tonnes of liquid oxygen arrived in Tanjung Priok, Jakarta on 19 July. This is in addition to the 2 ISO tanks (40 tonnes) sent over on the RSS Endeavour on 11 July. The next shipment will arrive next week.​
(iii) Even the Indian Navy is starting to send Oxygen and other Corvid-19 supplies to Indonesia.​

Bugger. She who must be obeyed and I had our second Pfizer jab this morning. Now I am just waiting for the 3 heads and horns to start growing. :D
14. I am waiting for my second jab, which is scheduled for next week — I felt slightly unwell for 2 days after my 1st jab — muscle stiffness on the injected site. I have a history of allergic reactions to insect stings, shell-fish and other unknown triggers — which made me ineligible for earlier vaccination. Singapore’s MOH only cleared people like me, from 4 Jun 2021 onwards — that is the main reason for my delay in getting vaccinated. In this regard, MOH does a good job of keeping us informed.

15. As of 23 July 2021, 12pm, the MOH has verified the number of new cases in Singapore has increased from 178 cases in the week before to 961 cases in the past week. We are likely to continue to see high number of cases in the coming days as we step up efforts to detect them to contain their spread in the community. The number of unlinked cases in the community has also increased from 18 cases in the week before to 97 cases in the past week. The 7-day moving average number of all linked community cases and all unlinked community cases are 123.4 and 13.9 respectively. There is continuing evidence that vaccination helps to prevent serious disease when one gets infected. Over the last 28 days, 10 local cases required oxygen supplementation, were admitted to ICU or passed away. 8 are unvaccinated, 2 are partially vaccinated and none was fully vaccinated.

16. As of 24 Jul 2021, 12pm, MOH has confirmed that there are 130 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore — with a total of 63,924 infected from the start of the pandemic. 127 of the cases are locally transmitted, of which 75 are linked to the Jurong Fishery Port cluster while five belong to the KTV cluster. Here are the daily case numbers in the past week:
  • July 18: 92
  • July 19: 172
  • July 20: 195
  • July 21: 181
  • July 22: 170
  • July 23: 133
  • July 24: 130
 
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ngatimozart

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The NZ Cabinet held an extraordinary full Cabinet meeting this arvo to discuss the current COVID-19 outbreak in Australia. Half the Australian population spread over three states, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are under COVID-19 restrictions with the Delta variant running wild especially in New South Wales. The quarantine free travel bubble between those three states has been on hold for a while. The Delta variant got lose in Victoria because a couple of furniture movers from Sydney who had moved furniture to a Melbourne address.

In New South Wales where people, especially those who have the virus are supposed to be at home and off the street in a lockdown aren't and the daily infection numbers have been high despite the lockdown and not dropping like they should be. Unfortunately what has been occurring is that between 20 - 40% of those infected have been wandering around in public whilst they are infectious. The next point is that the NSW state government has been slow to react to the crisis and its public health prevention actions have not halted the spread. They took time in restricting movement and only in recent days have gone hard, about 2 - 3 weeks to late. The Premier claims that she has introduced the hardest lockdown possible, but it is still less than the Level 4 NZ lockdown. In contrast Victoria went hard and fast quickly going into a circuit breaker lockdown within a few days of the outbreak. I think South Australia is following a similar strategy. It doesn't help that the Australian vaccination program isn't firing on all cylinders. That puts in company with the NZ vaccination program which is a balls up from woe to go.

In light of all of this, speculation is mounting here in NZ that tomorrow arvo NZ time, the government will announce a hold of undeterminate length on the quarantine free travel bubble with Australia.

It has been NZ government policy for the last 2 weeks that all passengers inbound from Australia must have proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to boarding their flight. The NZ government has been very slack in checking the passengers.
 

OPSSG

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Part 4 of 4: Delta from 0% to over 80% in 10 weeks

Thanks for the post @OPSSG, I hadn't seen that graphic before. It is simple, easy to understand and delivers an important message. So yes, wear a mask. It's not that difficult!
17. 18 years on, Singapore as a country has put SARS lessons to the test in the fight against the coronavirus. At the heart of Singapore's response plan is the Disease Outbreak Response System (DORS), a crisis management plan which did not exist in 2003, but was drafted after SARS and refined again in the wake of the swine flu (or H1N1) pandemic in 2009. Under DORS, we know that masking and vaccination will help reduce many preventable deaths, including of the death of Stephen Harmon, as active church member in L.A. (who is preaching against vaccination). Hillsong Church, founded in Australia, has congregations around the world. Harmon attended Hillsong in downtown L.A. In his final tweet on Wednesday, Mr Harmon said he had decided to go under intubation.

"Don't know when I'll wake up, please pray," Stephen Harmon wrote.​

18. Despite his struggle with the virus, Mr Harmon still said he would reject being jabbed, saying his religious faith would protect him. In Singapore, guidance given under DORS is taken seriously by all religious groups, such that churches, mosques and temples are closed at the appropriate time; and even when it is reopened, masks and temperature screening are mandatory and no church in Singapore is claiming that religious faith alone would protect its members.

19. As I see it, Stephen Harmon’s prayers were answered by his God — his life and death serves as a powerful testimony of his failure to listen to God. God provided him scientists to give him some guidance, masks to keep the disease from spreading, and ultimately a vaccine — all of which he ignored.

20. In every country, there are children and elderly out there with cancer with very weak immune systems who cannot afford to have COVID-19 spread to them by a person who is asymptomatic or slightly sick. Sadly for the people who Stephen Harmon infected and his followers, he chose indulge in the sin of pride instead of humility — he failed to have the humility to listen to the medical professionals who had to take risk to care for him on his death bed.
21. "While many of our staff, leadership and congregation have already received the COVID-19 vaccine, we recognize this is a personal decision for each individual to make with the counsel of medical professionals," Hillsong Church global senior pastor Brian Houston’s statement reads. Houston expanded on his social media posts in a statement to CNN, saying that "any loss of life is a moment to mourn and offer support to those who are suffering and so our heartfelt prayers are with his family and those who loved him."
 
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John Fedup

The Bunker Group
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The NZ Cabinet held an extraordinary full Cabinet meeting this arvo to discuss the current COVID-19 outbreak in Australia. Half the Australian population spread over three states, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are under COVID-19 restrictions with the Delta variant running wild especially in New South Wales. The quarantine free travel bubble between those three states has been on hold for a while. The Delta variant got lose in Victoria because a couple of furniture movers from Sydney who had moved furniture to a Melbourne address.

In New South Wales where people, especially those who have the virus are supposed to be at home and off the street in a lockdown aren't and the daily infection numbers have been high despite the lockdown and not dropping like they should be. Unfortunately what has been occurring is that between 20 - 40% of those infected have been wandering around in public whilst they are infectious. The next point is that the NSW state government has been slow to react to the crisis and its public health prevention actions have not halted the spread. They took time in restricting movement and only in recent days have gone hard, about 2 - 3 weeks to late. The Premier claims that she has introduced the hardest lockdown possible, but it is still less than the Level 4 NZ lockdown. In contrast Victoria went hard and fast quickly going into a circuit breaker lockdown within a few days of the outbreak. I think South Australia is following a similar strategy. It doesn't help that the Australian vaccination program isn't firing on all cylinders. That puts in company with the NZ vaccination program which is a balls up from woe to go.

In light of all of this, speculation is mounting here in NZ that tomorrow arvo NZ time, the government will announce a hold of undeterminate length on the quarantine free travel bubble with Australia.

It has been NZ government policy for the last 2 weeks that all passengers inbound from Australia must have proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours prior to boarding their flight. The NZ government has been very slack in checking the passengers.
The current Australian situation is similar to what happened in Canada, too slow to lock down and $hit control over provincial travel. Luckily our vaccination program has made huge progress in the last two months with over 80% receiving the first jab and 50% are fully vaccinated. By September 80%+ will be fully vaccinated. Estimates are 8% will never get vaccinated.

NZ’s big advantage is geography and while waiting for vaccines NZ should choke off all access. If Delta gets a foothold you will be screwed.
 

swerve

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Part 4 of 4: Delta from 0% to over 80% in 10 weeks

19. As I see it, Stephen Harmon’s prayers were answered by his God — his life and death serves as a powerful testimony of his failure to listen to God. God provided him scientists to give him some guidance, masks to keep the disease from spreading, and ultimately a vaccine — all of which he ignored.
There are various stories along those lines, with people waving away rescuers/helpers of various kinds saying "God will provide", then dying & finding themselves facing God & asking why he neglected them, to which God replies "I sent (lists rescuers/whatever) & you turned them all down".

It baffles me that there are still people like him, who believe in a deity which goes to all the trouble to create a world with people who can devise vaccines, medicines, protective, equipment, etc., & then refuse to use any of them & demand that the deity intervenes to help them directly.
 

oldsig127

The Bunker Group
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The current Australian situation is similar to what happened in Canada, too slow to lock down and $hit control over provincial travel.
You might want to edit that to "The New South Wales situation...." since the other states (provinces) snap in to tight lockdown on a hair trigger. Consequently by Friday only NSW will have a lockdown - in a form I have heard described as a "Clayton's" lockdown (after a non alcoholic beverage, the drink you have when you're not having a drink)

oldsig
 

ngatimozart

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You might want to edit that to "The New South Wales situation...." since the other states (provinces) snap in to tight lockdown on a hair trigger. Consequently by Friday only NSW will have a lockdown - in a form I have heard described as a "Clayton's" lockdown (after a non alcoholic beverage, the drink you have when you're not having a drink)

oldsig
Totally agree. Us fullas across the ditch cannot understand the logic of it at all. It's the main reason why we've pulled the pin on the quarantine free travel bubble between NZ and Australia for at least eight weeks. Maybe the rest of Australia should build a wall around NSW :D
 

John Fedup

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Don’t know about walls wrt to COVID. Our Atlantic provinces did that with good results until Delta. Lock down fatigue and land access to neighbouring Quebec ended the success eventually.
 

ngatimozart

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Don’t know about walls wrt to COVID. Our Atlantic provinces did that with good results until Delta. Lock down fatigue and land access to neighbouring Quebec ended the success eventually.
That's why you use concrete, razor wire and minefields to keep the New South Welshmen firmly ensconced within. It would be a good think long term because they cheat at rugby and cricket anyway. :p :cool:
 

OPSSG

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The maths for Delta’s arithmetic progression — Part 1

1. Don’t be like Stephen Harmon (preaching against vaccination) of Hillsong Church, whose death was not only completely unnecessary, he also put at risk others who had to care for him on his death bed. Vaccines reduce spread and protect others.

2. The Sydney protest will supercharge the spread of the pandemic and in the days ahead greatly increase hospitalisations. Epidemiologists who use mathematical modeling to calculate disease spread have found the following:

One, the initial R0 of COVID-19 was estimated as between 2.3-2.7 (one infected person is likely to infect 2.3 to 2.7 unaware people) — which made pandemic spread of the virus difficult to control.​
Two, the Delta variant is much more highly infectious with a R0 of between of 5-8 (one infected person is likely to infect 5 to 8 unaware people). This means that Stephen Harmon’s COVID-19 mis-information and the Sydney protest are collectively causing more harm to a greater number of people, because the virus has mutated to be more infectious. The maths for arithmetic progression at a R0 of 2.5 calculated against 5, in 6 rounds of progression is 610 vs 78,125 (of people infected).​

3. Go get vaccinated! Stop behaving like idiots. Even though vaccinated people can still get infected, the outcomes are better (if they are vaccinated).

4. Australia’s vaccination rate for 16yo+ stands at 13.7% Or 11% of the general population.
 
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OPSSG

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The maths for Delta’s arithmetic progression — Part 2

5. With the spread of the Delta variant, nearly 60 major medical organizations in America, including the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, called for mandatory vaccination of health care workers. Unlike Singaporeans, Americans don’t trust others or the government enough to get a vaccine jab.
(a) Political division, disinformation, and stupidity made:​
(i) a large segment of Americans; and​
(ii) a significant minority of Australians, Canadians and the British,​
unwilling to listen to facts — including idiots like Stephen Harmon from L.A., Curt Carpenter from Alabama and Olivia Guidry (an Emergency Room Nurse at Ochsner Lafayette General)— choosing not to get vaccinated and dying from Covid-19. While deaths due to stupidity is normal, these three deaths are part of an infection chain in America that harms society at large. Tests in Singapore have shown that the viral load in infected persons who are fully vaccinated falls very rapidly, to a very low level only after 9 days — whereas an unvaccinated person, who is only slightly sick, has to stay in quarantine for at least 21 days. Singapore’s MOH is now discharging fully vaccinated persons from isolation after 14 days from onset of illness with a 7-day leave of absence, so long as their tests show that they are Covid-19 negative or have very low viral loads.​
(b) In early April 2021, YouTube took down a video featuring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a group of controversial scientists at a coronavirus roundtable. The online video platform, cited as its rationale that the video contained false statements about the efficacy of children's mask-wearing. Political division, disinformation, and stupidity has created an environment in which enough people in America, Australia or Britain will NOT change their minds, because to accept the science now is to admit that the favorite information sources of Covid-19 idiots have been wrong all along.
(c) In contrast to the delays in vaccine roll-out/acceptance, in America or Australia, 66.6% of Singapore’s population (over the age of 12) will be fully vaccinated by 9 Aug 2021. By end Sept 2021, more than 80% of our population (over the age of 12) will be vaccinated, to enable our economy to reopen. MOH has also reduced the dose interval to 4 weeks — that way, 60% of infected can recover in community care facilities in just 14 days (instead of being in acute care for a much longer period). This speeded up 2nd jab will allow more of the population in Singapore to complete their vaccination of two doses sooner. We have a government that cares and citizens who cooperate that is why out of the 64,314 Covid-19 cases that occurred, we only have 37 deaths.​

6. If too many people remain unvaccinated, the Singapore’s economy will continuously reopen and close as cases spike. That might be fine for the privileged minority that can work from home, but service workers and others who have to show up in the workplace to make a living—will lose cash they earn and desperately need.

7. A vaccine mandate in America and Australia will save hundreds of thousands of lives. It makes more sense than a lot of the limits are already imposed. Vaccines are a miracle but other mitigation measures against the Delta Variant is needed, like social distancing and masking.

8. Clinical trails for children aged 5 to 11 will start. This is an important risk management step before we can consider giving the vaccine to our kids (especially those in primary school — who start school at 6+ years old). To date, more than four million American children and adolescents have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported. Of those, at least 346 have died.
 
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StingrayOZ

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Not looking good for Sydney.
Highest ever cases today. Loads out in the community.
Sydney to extend its lock down for at least another 4 weeks, however, it seems an open secret that we will be in lock down until Christmas.

However the good news is Australia is about to be flooded in vaccine. Nearly 3 million a week. Which is good because there is extremely limited supply currently. Bookings go into November. Once these hit distribution then there should be heaps.

1627387963142.png

However, they are expect a big anti-lockdown protest this weekend, bigger than last weekend. Highly likely to be attended by those in the hotspot areas. The antilock down protests are heavily populated with anti-mask and anti-vaccine protestors.

Its highly likely these protestors aren't getting covid checked either. It seems that their intention is to push this out of control so a lock down would not be effective. While not a huge group this is really bad timing. Due to the slow rollout, very few vaccinated people, particularly in the under 50 age group who makes up much of the active workforce.
 

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
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Not looking good for Sydney.
Highest ever cases today. Loads out in the community.
Sydney to extend its lock down for at least another 4 weeks, however, it seems an open secret that we will be in lock down until Christmas.

However the good news is Australia is about to be flooded in vaccine. Nearly 3 million a week. Which is good because there is extremely limited supply currently. Bookings go into November. Once these hit distribution then there should be heaps.

View attachment 48374

However, they are expect a big anti-lockdown protest this weekend, bigger than last weekend. Highly likely to be attended by those in the hotspot areas. The antilock down protests are heavily populated with anti-mask and anti-vaccine protestors.

Its highly likely these protestors aren't getting covid checked either. It seems that their intention is to push this out of control so a lock down would not be effective. While not a huge group this is really bad timing. Due to the slow rollout, very few vaccinated people, particularly in the under 50 age group who makes up much of the active workforce.
Too bad you can’t exile these fools to Antarctica.
 

ngatimozart

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Too bad you can’t exile these fools to Antarctica.
No not to Antarctica. Want to keep that place free of the COVID-19. Australia has a sub Antarctic island which it could dump the mongrels on and it's a very long swim to anywhere.
 
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