Covid 19 -

[MITCHAY]

There really are some idiots going around

Come from NSW to Canberra and then fly to Melbourne and do a runner when they already know who you are only to end up back in NSW

[MITCHAY]

There is an agreement between states that demerit points count regardless of where they are incurred.

If you don't pay a fine, then you will be suspended from driving in that state typically at the minimum. I believe they have the option to register the fine in the state for enforcement.

Obviously both depend on whether they can be arsed to do the work.

I'd imagine such recourse is available for these fines.

[MITCHAY]

Well this story with the quarantine skippers gets a bit more interesting if their account is to be believed.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/pair...02-p56raa.html

So did they do the runner as alleged or not? Surely CCTV would sort this out or was the statement of events made to be more dramatic than it was

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Well this story with the quarantine skippers gets a bit more interesting if their account is to be believed.

Travel from regional NSW to Canberra. Catch a flight to Melbourne. Then fly back to Canberra the same afternoon (as was planned apparently), because you have an appointment coming up on Tuesday.

All this for a BBQ???

Yeah right. Try again. I call 100% bull****.

Now imagine their tests come back as positive.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

Travel from regional NSW to Canberra. Catch a flight to Melbourne. Then fly back to Canberra the same afternoon (as was planned apparently), because you have an appointment coming up on Tuesday.

All this for a BBQ???

Yeah right. Try again. I call 100% bull****.

Now imagine their tests come back as positive.

About as plausible they did the runner from the cops and DHHS and made it through

Not hard to tell if their account is true or not. When were the return tickets purchased and did they have an appointment.

I mean even if they walked off, that it is still an issue but can understand why they would if not given any clear direction from DHHS because if they needed to quarantine then surely they should have been led somewhere?

It's very different to what has been alleged however which would be very deliberate. Not sure if that is media pumping it up or not.

Release the tape

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Not hard to tell if their account is true or not. When were the return tickets purchased and did they have an appointment.

Yes. Time and date of return ticket purchase, and time and date of making the medical appointment would be telling.


That statement is well constructed. Probably done by a lawyer.

Their permit was void when they entered VIC. Doesn't matter if they had a permit on them, it was void. And they would've known that too. You don't "walk away" from an official who's trying to get you an answer because they weren't getting you an answer fast enough for you.

This will most likely end up being Daniel Andrews fault. Just like all the VIC's who are stranded, even though they were sternly warned not to travel to NSW from the 18th of December.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

That statement is well constructed. Probably done by a lawyer.

Their permit was void when they entered VIC. Doesn't matter if they had a permit on them, it was void. And they would've known that too. You don't "walk away" from an official who's trying to get you an answer because they weren't getting you an answer fast enough for you.

And the bonafides of that statement should be easy enough to figure out.

They say they were confused and there have been plenty that have been. If the official said wait here then yes they should have waited.

But again the account that has been reported is they legged it. Not sure if that is pumped up but again the CCTV would let us know

In either case they were from ****en Goulburn and transited through Canberra. Not a high risk at all though that should not be any reason for deliberately breaking restrictions I should say.

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

But again the account that has been reported is they legged it. Not sure if that is pumped up but again the CCTV would let us know

It was probably a swift walk out of the airport, and then legged it to a waiting car outside. One tape from inside the airport, one tape from outside the airport.

Which footage is shown on the news depends on which media outlet gets hold of the tape first.

[Tickford.]

I can understand their photos being published. But I do not agree with their names being published by that SMH article. Now everyone knows their full names.

If they test negative, and while they're the flavour of the week, they should make a deal to do an interview with ACA, TT, 60Min, etc. The money they'll make from the interview(s) would come handy to pay for the fines. And a new car with what's left over.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

I can understand their photos being published. But I do not agree with their names being published by that SMH article. Now everyone knows their full names.

If they test negative, and while they're the flavour of the week, they should make a deal to do an interview with ACA, TT, 60Min, etc. The money they'll make from the interview(s) would come handy to pay for the fines. And a new car with what's left over.

Well for me they are trying to correct the record and why bother doing that if they are lying? I'd just hide under a rock for a while

Anyways as I have said before these border closures which give a deadline seem to be counterproductive to health outcomes.

I get why they are there but everyone rushing back to beat them seems like it may cause more issues.

And from everything I read people seem to be confused about them. So is it perhaps a better outcome to make the restrictions more broader and immediate to provide some clarity?

I don't agree with the closures except in extreme cases. It is against the overall strategy of suppressing and keeping us under the curve not elimination by using good contact tracing to control spread.

We can argue the toss all day but that was the original intention.

[Citroënbender]

Ms Skipper looks like a young Julia Sawalha.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

I don't agree with the closures except in extreme cases. It is against the overall strategy of suppressing and keeping us under the curve not elimination by using good contact tracing to control spread.

We can argue the toss all day but that was the original intention.

The border closures didn't need to happen IF they had taken enough steps to contain the spread initially e.g. mandatory masking, restrictions on Christmas and NYE gatherings, perhaps harder restrictions of the hot spots, and find those patient zeros. But they didn't, and it was starting to spread, so other states lost trust. Its quite telling when ACT apply border closures.

I can't think of a jurisdiction in the world that has managed to suppress and "live with the virus". Its either rampant or the community transmission is near eliminated. There doesn't seem to be a happy middle ground. Happy to be proven wrong.

[MITCHAY]

Sure they could have done more but they are trying to balance concerns. NSW has said they are not going to do this open / close border and instead rely on contact tracing to manage this. For me they have managed it pretty good considering they have the largest population in Australia, take on the majority of burden for international arrivals and it has been mostly open the whole time. If it was a bigger concern we would have seen huge spread in NSW by now.

As for ACT closing the borders, I don't agree with it and I'm not really worried either way.

People have come and gone from NSW and ACT constantly this whole pandemic and apart from the Ruby Princess, we've had no issues.

[Citroënbender]

Stop being sensible please!

The level of inter-state fractiousness, is dismaying. As someone quoth once: “E Pluribus Unum”…

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

As for ACT closing the borders, I don't agree with it and I'm not really worried either way.

People have come and gone from NSW and ACT constantly this whole pandemic and apart from the Ruby Princess, we've had no issues.

It is odd that ACT closed in such quick fashion, after all the lecturing. 6 hours notice and the notice was given at 6am. How many people would have read the news at 6 during the holiday period?

Which leads me to think, there is something concerning Canberra that perhaps we havent been privy to.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

It is odd that ACT closed in such quick fashion, after all the lecturing. 6 hours notice and the notice was given at 6am. How many people would have read the news at 6 during the holiday period?

Which leads me to think, there is something concerning Canberra that perhaps we havent been privy to.

I was surprised too and it seems the official reason is the amount of non-residents in ACT being 25% of all quarantine cases and that was about managing it all. We don't have the resources of either NSW or VIC.

ACT haven't lectured to anyone as far as I'm aware and up until this point it has been pegged to NSW because a lot of regional NSW depends on ACT services.

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Which leads me to think, there is something concerning Canberra that perhaps we havent been privy to.

Wonder of it had anything to do with todays grenade thrown during the NSW presser?

The Berala cluster has 2000+ primary contacts, and 20'000+ secondary contacts on notice!! All linked to Berala BWS.

The Berala cluster is apparently a different virus strain to the Northern Beaches cluster. Dr Chant said NSW Health are "deeply concerned" about how quickly the Berala cluster has managed to transmit from person to person. Even though she refused to release exact details, it is rumoured that two workers working two different shifts at the Berala BWS were positive and infectious over about a 10 day period starting 22nd December.

The concern by NSW Health could be because the fact that customers who attended the BWS and have already tested positive said they spent a very minimal time in the store. Only got close to the positive store attendant when paying for items. And that it would have been less than a minute in front of them.

How can the virus transmit so quickly and easily? Surely there had to be Perspex screens, touch and go payments only, sanitising, masks, etc. etc? Is there a concern that this could be the UK strain?

[Beastie]

Originally Posted by Tickford.

Wonder of it had anything to do with todays grenade thrown during the NSW presser?

The Berala cluster has 2000+ primary contacts, and 20'000+ secondary contacts on notice!! All linked to Berala BWS.

The Berala cluster is apparently a different virus strain to the Northern Beaches cluster. Dr Chant said NSW Health are "deeply concerned" about how quickly the Berala cluster has managed to transmit from person to person. Even though she refused to release details, it is rumoured that two workers working two different shifts at the Berala BWS were positive and infectious over about a 10 day period starting 22nd December.

The concern by NSW Health could be because the fact that customers who attended the BWS and have already tested positive said they spent a very minimal time in the store. Only got close to the positive store attendant when paying for items. And that it would have been less than a minute in front of them.

How can the virus transmit so quickly and easily? Surely there had to be Perspex screens, touch and go payments only, sanitising, masks, etc. etc? Is there a concern that this could be the UK strain?

Have you considered that the store attendant does something other than stand behind a counter all day - I didn't think so?

Perhaps they touched 100's of bottles of wine whilst filling the shelves, or perhaps they helped a customer load their car with their purchase (which could include one, or several of the those bottles of wine) or perhaps they stacked the 'Promo' display of Jim Beam etc etc...

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by Beastie

Have you considered that the store attendant does something other than stand behind a counter all day - I didn't think so?

Perhaps they touched 100's of bottles of wine whilst filling the shelves, or perhaps they helped a customer load their car with their purchase (which could include one, or several of the those bottles of wine or perhaps they stacked the 'Promo' display of Jim Beam etc etc...

I did. That's why I mentioned the sanitizing.

But you may have a point. Maybe there was no hand sanitizer provided by the BWS store to customers? And possibly the attendants weren't wearing a mask at the time?

[Tickford.]

Originally Posted by Beastie

Have you considered that the store attendant does something other than stand behind a counter all day - I didn't think so?

These are the specific time and dates related to the Berala BWS.




Given that NSW Health have specifically noted times an dates, I would guess they must be confident that these two attendants have not 'touched 100's of bottles of wine whilst filling the shelves, or perhaps stack the 'Promo' display of Jim Beam etc etc'?

Because if they had touched 100's of bottles of wines, filled the shelves, or stacked the promo display full of Jim Beam, etc, etc., the virus would still be on those surfaces and transmissible even when they were not working their respective shifts.

[Itsme]

Maybe NSW and Vic take lessons from WA & QLD on how they supress Covid19 successfully.

[FairmontGS]

Leaders can't escape error of this close call

The Victorian government’s abrupt decision to shut the state’s border with NSW has been nothing short of a debacle.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/l...01-p56r8a.html

[mostly_broncos]

All this finger pointing and stone throwing is a bad look.

Go to the worldometer site for the daily numbers and you will see them describing the cases as 99.5% mild

The other bad look is all the posts about what the government is or isn't doing right. People in government are mostly (not all!) clueless or they would have real productive jobs. Depending on bureaucrats to guide the country through a crisis is ridiculous . They are in these jobs because they don't want to actually do anything , of course they are going to fold under pressure and blame everyone else


for all the numbers being bandied about and the claims of contact tracing there is basically no data to be found about all sorts of corona related subjects.

For instance here in the US the people most exposed are health care workers but someone go look up exactly how many of them caught covid (presumably at work) and how many died or were hospitalized or asymptomatic , apparently no one knows .

In Australia where you have had so few cases it should be easy to tell if a family all tested positive how many people in the family were how sick , who did they give it to and how did they give it to them ? Were they asymptomatic transmitters or actively coughing in peoples faces would be very interesting information but where are the numbers?

We can't do that here in the US with millions of cases but if you have 20 or 50 and you can't do it that should make you suspicious.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

Leaders can't escape error of this close call

The Victorian government’s abrupt decision to shut the state’s border with NSW has been nothing short of a debacle.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/l...01-p56r8a.html

In hindsight the Government should have made the call earlier and given more time for Victorians to return to avoid the traffic congestion.

[russellw]

None too hard to see which way The Age is leaning these days. While 36 hours wasn't a lot, it was sufficient for most people to make it back one way or another and the 'danger' of that has to be weighed against the danger of increased spread. It was nowhere near as short as some other States that didn't get a mention so I'll call very little in the way of journamlism and a lot of political rhetoric.

The traffic on the Hume (or Northern) wasn't a lot heavier than at the start or end of a holiday period but let's not allow facts to get in the way of a good beat up.

[mostly_broncos]

Originally Posted by russellw

None too hard to see which way The Age is leaning these days. While 36 hours wasn't a lot, it was sufficient for most people to make it back one way or another and the 'danger' of that has to be weighed against the danger of increased spread. It was nowhere near as short as some other States that didn't get a mention so I'll call very little in the way of journamlism and a lot of political rhetoric.

The traffic on the Hume (or Northern) wasn't a lot heavier than at the start or end of a holiday period but let's not allow facts to get in the way of a good beat up.

If the news source is a fan of the party in power then the story is always they are doing a great job , if they are opposed then every aspect of covid is a club to beat the incumbent party over the head with.

True in every country on earth , excepting the China type places that control the press and tell them what they can publish

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by russellw

None too hard to see which way The Age is leaning these days.

Or any other of Rupert's Rags.......

[FairmontGS]

Originally Posted by hayseed

Or any other of Rupert's Rags.......

The Age is owned by Nine Entertainment. But you can see the influence now - in Fairfax days it would have been Dan Andrew's cheer-leader.

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

The Age is owned by Nine Entertainment. But you can see the influence now - in Fairfax days it would have been Dan Andrew's cheer-leader.

My Mistake...

However, isn't Peter Costello Boss at nine propaganda entertainment??

[FairmontGS]

Originally Posted by hayseed

My Mistake...

However, isn't Peter Costello Boss at nine propaganda entertainment??

The world's greatest treasurer? * Sure is. Chairman of the board.

* No correspondence will be entered into on this subject. I will never agree that Paul Keating was better