Brendan Burgess
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Zero Covid
- Thread starter Purple
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It's terrible because they are now facing the Delta Strain, and whatever comes next, and they are months behind the rest of the developed world in their vaccination program.
Only people who ignored the WHO and their scientists thought it was beaten. They told us in March that this would happen if we acted selfishly and did the morally wrong thing when it came to vaccinations.
Brendan Burgess
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Ah, I see.
I had not realised that.
So Zero Covid was an alternative to vaccination? That was not a great idea.
Brendan
I had not realised that.
So Zero Covid was an alternative to vaccination? That was not a great idea.
Brendan
But is their failure not that they didn't use the time they gained with the "zero covid" policy to get the vaccine rolled out - rather than the original strategy. The zero covid policy was pretty successful but the problem was that either the government didn't understand they also needed to get a vaccination program running quickly - or that the initial success meant the general population became complacent
Zero Covid is a stupid strategy because it's not possible to keep it out. A policy to minimise Covid so that it doesn't overwhelm your health service is a good idea. A policy that allows you to protect the vulnerable while balancing the other needs of society and the economy is a good idea. Acting like you can close your borders and ride it out until the rest of the world gets rid of the virus? That's a stupid idea and that's what Zero Covid really means.
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Wasn't China also effectively doing zero covid , havn't heard much lately about how they are handing the delta strain given their very large population and closeness to India. I think a large part of population is vaccinated with the sinovac vaccine although in think it is particularly ineffective against the delta variant of all the vaccines
Paul O Mahoney
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They were also meant to build a plant that was going to supply vaccines to Australia and Australia alone, I believe it was initially going to produce AZ , but that fell through.
They went down a cul d' sac and are still trying to get out by reversing into traffic.
They deem themselves and their country unique, and it is , but they really made a dogs dinner of this.
I can't go into specifics but there other options available to them on the vaccine front but they declined.
Paul O Mahoney
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And you won't hear much Joe. The great wall got higher, my wife has a weekly meeting with her people and its not lollipops and sunshine..........but that's just her interpretation, as words aren't used.
Australia may have thought Zero Covid was a viable approach on an assumption that it would have been close to eliminated worldwide at this point.
Once you take that approach, and control exit and entry as tightly as they did, it's very difficult to convince sufficient numbers to opt in to vaccination.
Once you take that approach, and control exit and entry as tightly as they did, it's very difficult to convince sufficient numbers to opt in to vaccination.
Paul O Mahoney
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But they have done that forever, there are even TV programmes on it.
They have now literally gone down a road that may cause them more issues because they declined to allow " anyone in" and yet the virus has gotten in.
Now , they don't have sufficient vaccines and the country is essentially on the brink of closure, not only physically but also socially and economically, where does that work out well?
I see "covid shaming" is now rife in Australia having lost their zero covid state they are trying to pin the blame on the individuals that may have spread it, limousine driver man and barbecue man are being blamed. We had a particularly unpleasant form of this last year, the dubs on holidays in wexford, the keelings fruit pickers. It's completely counterproductive and fuelled by the media because it prevents people presenting themselves for testing.
Interesting article on the Australian situation - particularly about the alleged spread of the virus in quarantining accommodation because the air con was running and about their big stocks of AZ which people won't take because of the minor risk of clotting.
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www.irishtimes.com
Australia makes world-class mess of its vaccine rollout
Sydney Letter: Poor planning, shortages and ‘common sense’ plunge cities into lockdown
Air-con a big factor is the spread of SARS during https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00317.x (an outbreak in a hospita)l. You'd think people would remember that sort of thing, especially with a new version of what is, in so many ways, the same virus. Then again some people thought a Perspex face mask was a useful form of protection.Interesting article on the Australian situation - particularly about the alleged spread of the virus in quarantining accommodation because the air con was running and about their big stocks of AZ which people won't take because of the minor risk of clotting.
Australia makes world-class mess of its vaccine rollout
Sydney Letter: Poor planning, shortages and ‘common sense’ plunge cities into lockdown
I'd say they will be rushing to get their AZ vaccines now, it just shows you that nobody got it right with this virus, we were all laughing at trump and Johnson a year ago, eventually after some wrong turns they got their act together, in fact Johnson probably embarrassed the eu into getting its act together much quicker and they cut out a lot of the bureaucracy to get the vaccines authorized and administered.
We indulged in a bit of brit bashing ourselves but actually the government learned a lot from the British roll out and used their data to speed up our on roll out and opening up.
We indulged in a bit of brit bashing ourselves but actually the government learned a lot from the British roll out and used their data to speed up our on roll out and opening up.
We still haven't got to the bottom of what happened with the vaccine approvals but I don't think it was down to bureaucracy. That said the UK did a great job of rolling out their vaccines, albeit at the cost of not exporting a single vaccine to the parts of the world that need them most. The same goes for the US.
If that's the case I'd hate to see where we'd be with opening up without their data as our approach has been ultra cautious. Way too cautious in my opinion.
I see covid outbreak in New Zealand now and they are back in lockdown. The final bastion of the "zero covid" approach has now fallen. Remember the most vociferous proponents of this including many experts turned out to be wrong because the delta variant has rendered this impossible. The new zealand outbreak was traced to Sydney and this was always new zealand weak point, they might be able seal themselves off from the wider world but they couldn't isolate themselves from their bigger neighbour they are simply too small.
It's also worth remembering that Australia is further away from them than we are from continental North America.
New Zealand abandons their Zero Covid strategy.
I like Jacinta Ardern and I admire the political courage it takes to change strategy like that but it was a stupid idea from the start.
I like Jacinta Ardern and I admire the political courage it takes to change strategy like that but it was a stupid idea from the start.
If bought them time - if that time had been used to fully vaccinate and then move back to normal then it would have been fine. NZ and even more Aus seem to have been slow to vaccinate