from the desperate-situations-require-desperate-measures dept.
Australia's military will help enforce a lockdown in Sydney after the city of 6 million posted a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases on Thursday and state authorities said the outbreak was likely to get worse.
The lockdown of Australia's biggest city has increased pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is now trailing in opinion polls, and heightened concern that Australia's A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy could slide into recession.
[...] "We can only assume that things are likely to get worse before they get better given the quantity of people infectious in the community," said Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital.
[...] With little sign that of restrictions reducing infections, Berejiklian said new curbs would be imposed on the southwestern and western areas of Sydney where the majority of COVID-19 cases are being found.
Residents there will be forced to wear masks outdoors and to stay within five km (three miles) of their homes.
With even tighter restrictions set to begin on Friday, New South Wales Police said it had asked for 300 military personnel to help enforce lockdown orders.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday July 30 2021, @04:23AM (26 children)
Wuhan, China 2020: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/02/18/fenglockdown-1_custom-497aad67d1a00af6ec6a6c42dce0af9332da193c-s800-c85.jpg [npr.org]
Fairfield, Sydney, Australia, 2021: https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/c4111c31683ea3028c8445bfda7558a8 [abc-cdn.net.au]
Current Rules: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules [nsw.gov.au]
Some areas are finding it very hard - work from home, no travel outside a 5km radius of your home (with some exceptions), only one person out to shop per day..
Current lockdown for parts of Sydney last until the end of August, but could be extended.
Children are in week three or term three - about seven weeks left of term, so many students won't see inside their school this term.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Friday July 30 2021, @04:33AM (22 children)
Add to the above the ineptitude of the current federal govt in securing enough vaccine to date.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @04:36AM (5 children)
Indefinate lickdowns.
(Score: 3, Touché) by kazzie on Friday July 30 2021, @07:17AM (4 children)
Lickdowns suck.
Or get soggy, at the very least.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 30 2021, @09:25AM
Depends who's giving them.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Touché) by helel on Friday July 30 2021, @01:11PM (2 children)
You're not a dog person, I take it?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Friday July 30 2021, @02:46PM
That's gross regardless how you meant it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by kazzie on Saturday July 31 2021, @04:02PM
No, but my uncle is. One dog of theirs was such a good licker, he wanted to call her Whiskey.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @05:12AM (4 children)
Why would they fix their ineptitude? They can just lock you idiots down and you'll take it. If necessary at the point of a bayonet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @05:30AM
c0lo is used to it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday July 30 2021, @06:42AM (2 children)
Rrright. Because you've done anything to force your government to do something, so you have a direct experience, eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @11:41AM (1 child)
I warned you six months ago. Did you enjoy your summer?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:52AM
Very much, thank you. I'd enjoy the winter too if not for the inept govt incapable of organizing the logistics of vaccination and unable to take immediate countermeasures when we got an outbreak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday July 30 2021, @06:26AM (9 children)
Crikey! But seriously, I'm curious about what the govt. could / should do differently. Or maybe specifically what they're not doing. Are they underestimating the number of doses needed? Which (brand / maker) vaccines are available in Oz?
(Score: 3, Informative) by MostCynical on Friday July 30 2021, @06:34AM
Pfizer and AstraZeneca
https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/health-and-wellbeing/covid-19-vaccination-nsw/about-vaccine-rollout [nsw.gov.au]
Some others may be available later in the year or into 2022.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Friday July 30 2021, @06:37AM (7 children)
1. Better stock levels of vaccines
2. larger number of distribution points
I can't get my parent to vaccination if I need to queue up for hours during winter time. I wish the pharmacists would be allowed to do vaccinations and be properly stocked.
Fuck if I know why. Inept of setting up the logistics of it, that's for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday July 30 2021, @02:53PM (4 children)
Gosh, I'm saddened to hear this. Maybe they were a bit optimistic? Like that COVID would be curtailed through isolation? I'm in the US and scads of places do the jab, including pharmacies, vaccination centers set up just for COVID, hospitals, etc. In fact, many hospitals and doctors prefer you go to other vaccination facilities. Many (most?) grocery / supermarket stores have pharmacies in them, and you can get the jab right there. I certainly hope things improve for y'all. Worrying about this "delta" variant and fast spread. What a horrible thing this is.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @06:33PM (3 children)
You mean the experimental therapeutic built on a platform never before authorized for use in humans, and for which the manufacturers demanded and received complete legal immunity from the federal government against lawsuits from any injury, no matter how severe, incurred as a result? That "jab"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @07:26PM
these people are pitiful cowardly slaves and now they are spreading the "delta(vaccine induced)" variant and blaming it on the people they infect. disgusting fucks.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:49AM (1 child)
You know what the antivaxxers are? Part of the experiment that proves the vaccines work - their are the control group. Thank you for being part of the process for full authorisation without asking any pay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 09 2021, @05:41PM
Funny how you couldn't deny the accuracy of the description though.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by VLM on Friday July 30 2021, @09:21PM (1 child)
The propaganda in the USA for the new wave of re-masking is Big Brother CDC has declared the vax does not work pragmatically in practice, and as such vax'd people catch the disease and spread it at the same rate as unvax'd so no more unmasking if you're vax'd.
And because the vax does not work, everyone needs to be vax'd, because that makes perfect sense LOL. Kinda like masks that also didn't have any effect.
Meanwhile, our news media, whom no one trusts anymore, have been chanting for months that no masks mean we'll all die unless we take the vax, so half the population took it, maybe 1% got really sick from the vax or died, then it turns out the vax does not work at all, so we "need" masks because without masks the daily infection rate when no one was wearing them and the vax didn't work, was flat to dropping despite everyone going to schools, fairs, bars, parties, etc, unlike last year, so apparently the quarantines and lockdowns were also pointless security theater.
Essentially it seems we're powerless to control the virus, as it usually is with viruses. So lots of make believe and pretend and fairy tales as is the usual with security theater.
Lots of money to be made...
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:45AM
Vaxxes definitely work - they won't prevent (re)infection but they'll lower the impact of being infected to essentially the level of a normal cold instead of intensive care, long covid or death.
If you don't like it, speak to your immune system and demand it to have longer memories when it comes to cold/flu viruses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @02:38PM
Israel did "secure enough vaccine", and you can observe the fat lot of good it has done there.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/green-pass-system-kicks-back-in-for-events-venues-with-over-100-people/ [timesofisrael.com]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/vaccine-downgrades-disease-but-many-still-suffer-long-covid-israeli-study/ [timesofisrael.com]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/experts-third-vaccine-dose-for-elderly-might-not-help-but-it-wont-hurt-either/ [timesofisrael.com]
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
(Score: 5, Informative) by coolgopher on Friday July 30 2021, @06:42AM (2 children)
We did that, plus curfew, here in Melbourne last year for a few months to squash our second wave. It sure wasn't fun, but by getting back to zero infections we saved a lot of lives (especially with the vaccine rollout being bungled, aka the "vaccine stroll-out"), and we got to have a close-to-normal summer/autumn.
The thing with NSW/Sydney is until now they'd been getting lucky, and they got arrogant. They've been extremely tardy in bringing in restrictions, and thanks in great part to earlier messaging, compliance is a serious issue. While Sydney had record number of new cases yesterday, here in Victoria we're coming out of the snap 2-week lockdown we had, which got imposed after a handful of Delta cases in the community (thanks a lot NSW...). It's looking promising that we'll have eliminated the Delta strain here soon, for what will be the second time if so. Go early, go hard, is what we learned the hard way last year. Delaying just brings on extended lockdowns and unnecessary deaths. I'm really really thankful to be living where I am. Meanwhile, NSW has failed to learn any lessons from Vic, and is right on track to have to go through what Melbourne did last year. Except they're having a higher percentage of people in ICU. It really saddens me that people have been playing politics like this, because this was all preventable.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday July 30 2021, @06:10PM (1 child)
Personally, I liked working form home and not having to go into the office. Wife and kiddo went stir crazy a bit, though. Wife being a very social person and kiddo, well really needs the social interaction.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @11:13PM
I had the “joy” of my street being resurfaced while stuck in lockdown. Not being able to get away from that noise was...not pleasant. If you want an analogy, try the “Chinese water torture” where you just have a slow drip of water that you can’t escape from (see Mythbusters episode where Kari got subjected to it, for example).
(Score: 3, Troll) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday July 30 2021, @04:24AM (5 children)
at a country of 24 millions with the landmass of a small moon in which the population managed to concentrate itself into densely populated pandemic-friendly areas. I know a lot of Australia isn't really suited to comfortable living, but still... Surely the early European settlers and their decendants could have kept at a bit more distance. I live in Finland - another sparsely populated country which is nowhere near as large with half the population of Australia - and we haven't had many restrictions of any kind due to the virus, because people here don't pile up on top of one another.
Then again, a lot of the early Australian settlers weren't exactly free to choose where they lived. Maybe it's become a kind of unspoken tradition...
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday July 30 2021, @04:46AM
a lot of it has to do with perceptions of where the good stuff is to be found.. the reality.. such as the fact that once you're more than a four hours' drive from a major city, you have limited, or no, access to: health care, specialist medical care, jobs, education, childcare, unusual food (allergy or medically necessary foods), quality seafood, etc etc
Most of the middle of Australia is desert, and not very pleasant to live in.
About the only things 'outback' are sand, sky, sheep, cows, long-distance trucks, and flies.
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Australia/United-States/Agriculture [nationmaster.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @04:47AM (1 child)
plenty of nice empty parts, people just don't want to move away from the big cities.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday July 30 2021, @09:30AM
Empty parts, yes. Nice? That's a matter of opinion.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by Retian on Tuesday August 03 2021, @12:19PM
Clearly you don't understand just how rough life in the outback is. I humbly suggest you watch the 1979 documentary Mad Max to educate yourself.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday August 03 2021, @06:53PM
You're vastly underestimating how inhospitable most of Australia actually is. The poisonous creatures along would necessitate that most people live within 20 miles of a hospital or sub-station that can treat them. Hours away and you could kiss your ass good-bye. Of course that's my perception, and that of somebody that has never visited and only seen wild life documentaries that tell the rest of the world that Australia wants to kill you.
If the middle of Australia had plentiful water, excellent farmland, cheap viable energy production, and Autobahn like transport to the coasts..... but they don't. It's a desert dude. That's like asking why more people don't live in the middle of the Sahara Desert, or why Death Valley doesn't have a city in the middle of it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday July 30 2021, @05:04AM (9 children)
I like this. Wear a mask, or be shot down like one of Runaway's mad dogs. People just do not understand the seriousness of a quarantine. You are either with us, or you are a possible vector of death, to be dealt with appropriately. The need of the many, outweigh the wants of the insane few, no matter where they are.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anti-aristarchus on Friday July 30 2021, @06:07AM
Usually, I am Anti-aristarchus, but here I have to agree with him. The Yellow Flag of quarantine means your alleged "rights" amount to shit, compared to the threat you pose to each and everyone of your fellow citizens. We will put you down, like a dog with hydrophobia (rabies), although we do not have to worry so much about not shooting you in the head to preserve the brain for testing, since we have COVID-19 tests that do not need a brain. Just like refusing the vaccine does not require a brain.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @10:26AM
idiot
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 30 2021, @12:40PM (3 children)
You should get together with Beto O'Rourke, and come visit me, in person.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @03:05PM
And risk getting stupid all over their Sunday finest? Yuck
(Score: 3, Informative) by captain normal on Friday July 30 2021, @09:48PM
Come n Runny, now you are starting to sound like Mary Mallon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon [wikipedia.org]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 31 2021, @12:28AM
That's funny. Beto and Beta.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @07:09PM (2 children)
No, Virginia, your safety is not more important than my freedom.
Also, unbeknownst to you, the W.H.O. changed the definition of a "pandemic" in 2019.
Wonder why? I don't.
Really wanna take it to the streets? Say where and when.
(Score: 0, Troll) by aristarchus on Friday July 30 2021, @11:20PM
But, my freedom is not be be infringed by your cowardly paranoia and lack of responsibility.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 31 2021, @03:12AM
Woah. An internet tough-guy! Put down the cheetohs before you hurt yourself, lol.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday July 30 2021, @06:24AM (4 children)
doesn't seem to be much of an issue yet. Not far away, in Canberra, a friend of mine says the wastewater surveillance there is showing zero virus levels.
Australia is badly under-vaccinated. In their case it's been because of a slow rollout and shortages.
The misery is scheduled to continue until (at least) Aug. 28.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @07:39AM (3 children)
I keep shaking my head in disbelief at what's going on there in "Straya!" ..almost as if the harder they try to lock down the faster the cases pop up. Something must be systemically wrong. Stay strong!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @08:23AM (2 children)
China is doing it on purpose because Australia blamed the virus on the Wuhan lab.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @11:44AM (1 child)
It's the Top Secret COVID missiles from Wuhan!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @05:25PM
"It's the Top Secret COVID missiles from Wuhan!"
you mean the mask from walmart?
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Friday July 30 2021, @09:43AM
The way you deal with a populace protesting overreach of government force is by applying more government force.
It can't be helped; the people don't know what's good for them.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @12:08PM
Can we blame these totalitarian lockdowns on lack of vaccine availability? Because the coronavirus is not going to "disappear" from the earth. After lockdown is over, there will still be coronavirus in Australia due to ingress of people from outside Australia. The lockdowns will not "solve" coronavirus.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 30 2021, @07:31PM
i know Australia, like most western/white nations is profoundly brainwashed, but if there are any free/real men left, it's time to fight the JWO scum for your human rights. It will only get worse from here.