Well here we are in Melbourne, locked down for another week. It’s cold and damp, and everything is shut, the city is half-deserted, and “For Lease” signs are everywhere.
I’ve gotta say I’m enjoying this immensely. This is Grim City, who we really are. Forget all that liveability crap. That was just a passing fad. Now that’s all peeled away to reveal the truth — people clasping their overcoats huddled against the wind, standing outside a cafe waiting for the coffee they ordered 15 minutes ago.
It helps that the only thing still going is the construction industry, because it’s putting up one concrete box after another all over the inner city, vast walls of grey which we’ve decided to go with instead of, you know, asking developers to put some money into their buildings.
That’s all bad enough, but according to The Australian’s Cam Stewart, the city is something like Warsaw after the uprising was defeated. Apparently one very long lockdown, one lighter one at the start — a sort of amuse-bouche lockdown, in Melbourne-foodie-style, where small shops couldn’t open but JB Hi-Fi and the casino could — a later three-day “retro-chic” lockdown, and now this seven-day lockdown reunion tour, have all served to break our spirit.
We were once chippy larrikins but have become docile supplicants of the Big State. Dad Dan appears to have vanished forever, sent to his dacha by the SDA’s interim public safety committee, and we now have James Merlino, who just looks wrong — like when your mum married your woodwork teacher.
This is nonsense, of course, part of News Corp’s desperate desire to undermine the Victorian Labor government to give the desperate Vic Libs some way back into power, or even the contention for such. The “docile” idea, which a few on the far left have also been running, only works if your idea of freedom and self-assertion is a knee-jerk libertarian one, like bikies who won’t wear helmets on the ride to visit their mates in the brain injury care homes they’ll one day be admitted to.
Melbourne committed to the long lockdown last year as an act of reason, a collective rational judgment that this was what had to be done. I’m not saying consent was universal, nor that the hardship fell equally on all. But if there hadn’t been that consent, the protests would have been larger and taken in a broader swathe of people.
There was another one this weekend, and it was the usual mix of hard-rightists, V for Vendetta maskers, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. The police presence was, it should be said, enormous, but that really has no effect on how big or ornery a protest is.
Indeed, if anything made it likely this return tour lockdown would go smoothly, it’s that we understand at least part of the reason for it, which is that the bloody federal government didn’t do the one job it had in this regard, which was to roll out the vaccines — and fast.
We’re not idiots. We can see that Joe Biden’s team managed to turn around the chaos of Donald Trump’s vaccine effort and get half the US vaxxed in six months. We can see also that sluggishness on quarantine facilities is to blame, but we don’t regard that as the main game. Vaccination was the simple thing that the Big State is meant to use its big stateness to do bigly.
We know that vaccines work overwhelmingly, whereas quarantine will always be partial (that said, here’s something I’ve been wondering: if the main problem with hotel quarantine is shared air, why haven’t we commandeered holiday camps as facilities? There are half a dozen Big 4 and other holiday camps, with separate cabins, with all amenities, in a 100km radius of Melbourne. They’re naturally air-gapped, but close enough together for social distancing supervision. Was the possibility of using these never discussed?). We know who screwed up. Scotty and that grinning sweat-ape who follows him round, Greg Hunt.
So, we’ve accepted lockdown four, and News Corp and the IPA Santiago boys etc, will just have to accept that our acceptance is a sign that Australia is not the US. We’re a society that retains a collectivist layer, we see positive freedom — the freedom from harm gained by collective action — as a real thing. We’re not nutters who think that going against good advice somehow makes life better.
That said, there’s a limit. I think if this lockdown goes into injury time — another three or seven days or longer — there’s going to have to be some thinking about a modified regime, more conformed to real risk profiles.
Like many, if I’m walking down a street where I can’t see anyone for 100 metres either way, I’m maybe taking off my mask for a bit. I don’t see why cafes couldn’t put a few judiciously spaced tables outside, or why bookstores and one or two other categories of shops couldn’t open, with customer limits. I know why they’re not — as a sort of behaviouralist approach that if nothing is open, no one will go out.
But that overall approach could be mixed with a little more of an appeal to reasoned judgment — stay local, keep it short, etc. It would certainly be a down payment on lockdown five, because I reckon that might be the one where the dummy spits begin en masse. And of course beyond that we have to think about this as training for a viral era. This period may be a complete anomaly or the new normal, we just don’t know yet.
Beyond that, if we’re going to do the full Grim City thing, can I make a plea for the following: the return of red vinyl coffee lounges in the CBD; the 79 tram, turning into Carlisle Street from Chapel Street; the Venue; the afternoon Herald sold by small, cold boys; the white-bread salad sandwich with beetroot stains through the bread; League Teams; Bohdan on RRR; Export Cola; the rebuilding of Princes Gate; cops selling speed, ohhh I really miss that; and — this is really too much — a Liberal Party fit for government and a News Corp tabloid with news not propaganda in it.
That oughta keep us going through the loooong coooold winter.
The pandemic has exposed our state and federal governments to a harsh test of competence.
What it has revealed is that easy stuff like sprinkling lots of money round has been accomplished. Lockdowns have been achievable due to the compliance of the general public – something other countries have not been able to rely on to the same extent.
However, anything which involves the government having to get organised and get things done, in particular suitable quarantine facilities and vaccination procurement and rollout, has been a total shambles.
We are 18 months into the greatest threat to Australia since WW2 and yet our vaccination levels are still struggling to reach 3rd world levels and our so called quarantine facilities are capable of infecting people which may then then be released into the population.
I guess this is what happens when for several decades we have been ruled by politicians who are basically just bullshit artists, with no vision, intention or capability to actually do anything useful.
Quite correct.Too many of todays’ politicians have no beliefs or standards at all, when they are at University they dabble in student politics and then decide which party to join.What we have today is a mob of professional politicians who believe in nothing except their own re-election.Sad bur true.
For whom 80% of the rusted on electorate vote.
Given that 5% never show up and another 5% spoil their ballots, the remaining 10% of “swinging” voters – better described as greedy to want what is proffered and fools to expect to receive it – decide the outcome of elections.
Now that 30-40% prepolling is becoming the norm, it suggests a fractured political system and a cynical public.
Must. Do. Better.
We are 18 months into the greatest threat to Australia since WW2 and yet our vaccination levels are still struggling to reach 3rd world levels and our so called quarantine facilities are capable of infecting people which may then then be released into the population.
Massive over exaggeration -greatest threat to Australia since WW2 ! Bollocks !
Infection fatality rate (IFR): Probably the most important metric in assessing the lethality of a pathogen, IFR is the percentage of infected people who die. For SARS-CoV-2 the current estimate is between 0.24% and 0.15% – for comparison bad flu is between 0.1 and 0.2% and rabies is 100%. Due to its vital importance, IFR is never mentioned by the mainstream media and most people have no idea what it means.
“The vast majority of people are now immune and there is absolutely no need for any experimental vaccine for COVID-19.” Dr Mike Yeadon Former Chief Science Officer for Pfizer. Dr. Roger Hodkinson, Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons committee in Ottawa, CEO of a large private medical laboratory SELLING THE COVID-19 TEST says, “there is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians. This is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspected public.”
Riposte of your comments by “The conversation”
https://theconversation.com/now-everyones-a-statistician-heres-what-armchair-covid-experts-are-getting-wrong-144494
I’ve scanned the Conversation article. A couple of things to consider. I don’t doubt that the writer is a statistician, it’s just that his faith in numbers and possible distance from some of the realities of this pandemic blind him to a few realities. These relate to the totally deceptive way in which PCR tests have been used to create “cases”.
He says that “infections” are not “cases”; that there are more infections than there are cases. He has this totally the wrong way around. There are far more cases than infections because a “case” does not need an infection, but an “infection” needs a case. This brings us to the whole matter of “asymptomatic cases”, which have been a feature of the pandemic in virtually all countries during the rapid growth phase of “cases”: the part where everyone becomes scared, starts to wear masks, engage in social distancing urges lockdowns and starts to go a bit paranoid.
By far the majority of “asymptomatic cases” are in fact false positives, recorded as a result of PCR tests being undertaken at a too high cyclical setting.
And this takes us to where a lot of the pandemic deck-of-cards falls into a heap. The “pandemic” is very significantly based on falsely positive PCR tests. As well as elderly victims suffering a range of co-morbidities, but whose deaths are wherever possible attributed to Covid.
In a “mark my words” kind of way, I’ll close off by mentioning two names, both German. Christian Dosten and Reiner Fuellmich. If you are not familiar with these two characters, and want to get ahead of the Covid news, do a search (preferably not via Google) of these two names. Hint: Dosten is a medical specialist (but is he really?) and Fuellmich is a lawyer. Happy reading, don’t be afraid to explore key links that you come across. If you’re really keen, check out a few videos that feature Kary Mullis (the PCR test’s inventor), too.
You will get the picture.
In the final paragraph, it’s Dr Christian Drosten (not Dosten). Apologies. Happy searching.
Do you have a source or two to support and provide context for this following claim?
‘By far the majority of “asymptomatic cases” are in fact false positives, recorded as a result of PCR tests being undertaken at a too high cyclical setting.’
All those false positives, eh! Millions of tests carried out in Australia where no Covid was found, periods of months where Australia was Covid free. If the PCR tests were providing false positives how is it explained that we can have millions of tests done with zero Covid for months, and then suddenly there are quite a few, then back to zero, then quite a few. If they were false positives, isn’t it likely that there would be some consistency in it. Statistically unlikely.
Merlino: like when your mum married the woodwork teacher. Oh man, lol for real. Depresso but a great read.
The Big 4 option was raised by health experts mid last year. However I went no-where because there’s no opportunity for Lindsay Fox or other Liberal / Labor donors to cash-in. and no dirt-turning media conferences for pollies to don the hi-vis and hard hat and pretend like they know how to hold a shovel.
Warehousing people in hotels which, absent international or intrastate travel, would otherise be empty and costing the LNP owner maaates big buck$ shows this government’s priorities.
We, the Peeps do not appear on the list.
“we see positive freedom — the freedom from harm gained by collective action — as a real thing”
I really hope so.
You’d reckon that Frydenberg and “Pork” Hunt and Tehan might be wondering whether the repercussions from their Govt’s failures might not provoke some electoral backlash in Victoria. Perhaps there will be a silver lining after all.
Tehan’s performance on Insiders yesterday rivalled all of Pork’s efforts last week.
the electoral arithmetic means Victoria doesn’t matter. There are 2, 3 at the outside, Liberal seats that can be lost. More than made up for by how many the COALition think can be won north of the Murray.
North of the NSW/Queensland border ‘PaulM’ where Morrison spent $8.1 billion dollars of taxpayer money on giveaways prior to the 2019 Election (not including the ‘sports rorts’) and you can bet your ‘leftie’ that he will do the same again in spades! The Queenslanders of course will appreciate this and vote accordingly
Don’t discount it. The Libs are on the nose in WA and could lose at least a couple of seats here. Could they survive losing 3 seats in Vic, 2 in WA and perhaps 2 or 3 in Queensland?
I presume you are referring to Health Minister Mike Hunt ‘DF’?
Not the former gymnasium and squash court proprietor?
Definitely, not helped by NewsCorp’s constant and slightly unhinged shouting at Victoria, while the LNP govt. needs to retain seats (won on a roll in ’19) in QLD and not lose anymore in Victoria…. in hindsight they should have lost last election to regroup but the LNP’s sponsors don’t allow it.