Covid 19 (OPEN DISCUSSION)

[larrikin]

Genuinely curious as to how many people frequently travelled outside of WA prior to the pandemic and how it's affected them?

Prior to Covid I used to head east every second or third week for work.

Currently surviving. Sick of Teams and Zoom but what can you do?

 

[the harry]

How are small businesses like the eagles going?

WA’s biggest company - and the owner of Bunnings, Officeworks, Target and Kmart - is relocating its senior bosses to the east coast in frustration at the McGowan Government’s backflip on hard borders.

So some execs are moving so they can go do coke in person instead of via zoom? You'll be shocked to learn they're not bringing the casual staff with them.

 

[Priddis Is Done]

So some execs are moving so they can go do coke in person instead of via zoom? You'll be shocked to learn they're not bringing the casual staff with them.

You nailed it.

 

[ziad]

So some execs are moving so they can go do coke in person instead of via zoom? You'll be shocked to learn they're not bringing the casual staff with them.

low pay stays
50% of my work is in WA, the shift is increasingly east. Companies look for trust and consistency.

 

[bzparkes]

How are small businesses like the eagles going?

WA’s biggest company - and the owner of Bunnings, Officeworks, Target and Kmart - is relocating its senior bosses to the east coast in frustration at the McGowan Government’s backflip on hard borders.

Surprised they weren't in the east to begin with. Doesn't make too much sense to have a head office for a national company in Perth in the first place really. Far too isolated.

You're not exactly losing much having some executives move to Melbourne/Sydney.

 

[bzparkes]

Prior to Covid I used to head east every second or third week for work.

Currently surviving. Sick of Teams and Zoom but what can you do?

I live 15 minutes from my office and still have to work from home due to Covid. Nothing will change with the borders open.

 

[KERRPOW]

We're allowed to work a couple of days a week from home.

I did it for a few months but realised no one interacts with you when WFH and wait for you to get back in the office to get your input /sign off drawings/reports etc.

 

[CM9000]

Droll CM, surely this is not an attempt to draw me on a year 6 S&E curiosity?

No, I’m sincerely interested in what you mean by the term. You stated in that message that there is a chance for the erosion of rights, so it seems to me that, given you know when they can be lost, that means you have a clear idea of what they are.

I see people bring it up all the time on here, and I just can’t really get them. As such, how would you define them?

 

[Rowan18]

This is a really interesting article. There were some key points that give us some clues as to the future:
-The UWA professor (who did the Omicron modelling) says it is likely the peak in cases hits after 50 days and lasts 2 weeks. That would be around late March if our current outbreak keeps going
-The WA CHO has some interesting quotes. Implies they are focusing on 3 or 4 weeks of boosters (targeting early March) which gets to 75% coverage. It sounded like a hint that borders might open around then

WA border reopening delay achieves little health benefit, Omicron modelling from UWA suggests

Independent Omicron modelling from UWA indicates that despite the state's delayed opening, it will be hard to achieve a higher level of immunity in WA than what was in place on February 5.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Scotland]

Pfft independent modelling. Wait until we can compare it to WA govt modelling which in no way tailored to making the govt and health system look good.

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

Pfft independent modelling. Wait until we can compare it to WA govt modelling which in no way tailored to making the govt and health system look good.

So ... The government modelling will say open the borders immediately because the health system has never been in better shape to handle covid thanks to Glorious Leader?

 

[the harry]

low pay stays
50% of my work is in WA, the shift is increasingly east. Companies look for trust and consistency.

What was the head office actually offering WA? The actual part of the company that contributes to the employment is staying.

Go East and you can trust the lowest consumer confidence in over a decade.

 

[Scotland]

So ... The government modelling will say open the borders immediately because the health system has never been in better shape to handle covid thanks to Glorious Leader?

Govt modelling will say the world will end if the border opens Feb 5, but with their measures in place we'll end up with 1,000 in cases in the first 6 months or something like that.

 

[ziad]

What was the head office actually offering WA? The actual part of the company that contributes to the employment is staying.

Go East and you can trust the lowest consumer confidence in over a decade.

I have 4 Bunnings and a few of their others (3 office Works etc) within 3km of home. Perhaps not relivant but my dogs favorite outing is to Bunnings

 

[Scotland]

I have 4 Bunnings and a few of their others (3 office Works etc) within 3km of home. Perhaps not relivant but my dogs favorite outing is to Bunnings

Couldn't do that in Victoria. All dogs are lockdown in everything but name and thousands have died of COVID.

 

[Ilkka Sinisalo]

I can't speak for anyone else but I probably travel outside WA once or twice a year on average. I just did a quick mental tally:

2015-2019: overseas 4 times, interstate 12-15 times
2020-: one trip to Adelaide

I wouldn't say it has dramatically impacted my life, but not being able to plan and having things that are planned shitcanned on a moment's notice got old pretty quickly. I would say that I have been pretty lucky in my own personal circumstances. But my 2020/21 isn't everyone's 2020/21. If COVID had happened in other years in my life I would have a different perspective just as others do now. I've seen weddings cancelled, people miss funerals, people unable to spend time with family in difficult personal circumstances etc. There has definitely been a toll to 'crushing the virus'.

It's not just holiday plans being interrupted, though. Things like festivals that get cancelled because the govt bans crowds or none of the artists can appear are a minor inconvenience to people who paid $100 a ticket (and get it refunded) but take months of planning and are people's livelihoods. Snap Perth and Peel lockdowns (for 0 cases or 1 case!) are a pain in the arse for everyone. Most people only have 4 weeks leave a year and many use 1-2 weeks over that over Christmas. It's cold comfort to people not able to go anywhere because every state in Australia is deemed "extreme risk" and walking around in 40 degree heat in masks because of 0 cases in the community that the border is technically open because you could travel for 2 weeks in May to Tasmania.

The Sydney delta outbreak started with one case (a taxi driver) and then ended up with hundreds of people dead and a lockdown that lasted 3 months. The entire point of snap lockdowns - and let's be honest, Perth has had very few and they generally haven't been extended - I think last year there were 12 days in total in lockdown. I guess you could argue that none of the lockdowns were necessary, but I think the one in the northern suburbs would have taken off without the lockdown - there was community transmission at the Indian Ocean Brewery and that physio office and fitness location near Joondalup.

Also, your last point doesn't make any sense. There have been more than 0 cases in the community for most of January and there haven't been any mandates to wear masks outdoors, so if you're walking around in 40 degree heat with a mask on then blame yourself for choosing to do so. You could have traveled to Qld, Tasmania, the NT, and SA for much of last year (not just May), and even to Victoria and NSW at certain times. I know somebody who traveled to Darwin for a holiday and immediately got stuck in their hotel room because Darwin went into lockdown over one case in the community. So it's not just WA who have been doing this; many of the other states also acted quickly in response to any community transmission.

Anyway, wearing a mask in indoor public spaces when there is community transmission is about the least onerous thing that people could be asked to do and you still seem opposed to that, so is your position that during this pandemic we should have just been doing nothing to stop the spread of Covid?

 

[Dazzler9]

So my son in Adelaide has caught covid. In an unfortunate bit of timing he had his booster and got crook the next day, he put it down to side effects but 4 days later he was getting worse. He had a test and sure enough came back positive.
Been a week now and still crook. Having a booster after being infected might have made the symptoms worse than they otherwise might have been but I think you would have a hard time convincing him it is mild.

Hope he's on the improve soon mate.

 

[Scotland]

The Sydney delta outbreak started with one case (a taxi driver) and then ended up with hundreds of people dead and a lockdown that lasted 3 months. The entire point of snap lockdowns - and let's be honest, Perth has had very few and they generally haven't been extended - I think last year there were 12 days in total in lockdown. I guess you could argue that none of the lockdowns were necessary, but I think the one in the northern suburbs would have taken off without the lockdown - there was community transmission at the Indian Ocean Brewery and that physio office and fitness location near Joondalup.

Also, your last point doesn't make any sense. There have been more than 0 cases in the community for most of January and there haven't been any mandates to wear masks outdoors, so if you're walking around in 40 degree heat with a mask on then blame yourself for choosing to do so. You could have traveled to Qld, Tasmania, the NT, and SA for much of last year (not just May), and even to Victoria and NSW at certain times. I know somebody who traveled to Darwin for a holiday and immediately got stuck in their hotel room because Darwin went into lockdown over one case in the community. So it's not just WA who have been doing this; many of the other states also acted quickly in response to any community transmission.

Anyway, wearing a mask in indoor public spaces when there is community transmission is about the least onerous thing that people could be asked to do and you still seem opposed to that, so is your position that during this pandemic we should have just been doing nothing to stop the spread of Covid?

How many cases in the community were there last year when we had mask mandates? How many cases of alpha/delta did it take to attract "extreme risk" status? Since people seem intent on living in the past. Cloth masks do next to nothing, and the whole point of wearing masks (see the continent of Asia to our north) is to not spread what you have. Healthy people wearing masks is dumb. Me wearing a mask to order a pint then sitting down at a table of 10 people for an hour without a mask is dumb.

I'm aware there were windows of time I could have gone to certain states (and risked the consequences of doing so) but normal people don't operate like that. I went to the Australian Open one year, 2015 I think. Not really much point telling me a day out from the final that I could've gone there for a 3 week window 6 months ago is there?

Every step of the way WA has been trying to level up against everyone else. Once we got on top of the tiny number of cases we had in 2020 it has been pretty smooth sailing yet the govt was still trying to stoke fear every time a single case slips through their net. It's COVID, not meth. No one is cooking up cases in their back shed in iso.

Nice strawman, but I am opposed to doing things that I believe achieve nothing, and I am opposed to over the top reactions. So someone had delta and went to the Indian Ocean Brewing, big whoop. Isn't that why we have a check in system and contact tracing? If your immediate response to that is a snap lockdown or Perth and Peel mask mandate then you need to get real. I am done with jumping at shadows. I was on board with proper lockdowns and keeping the border closed. But it's not 2020 (which we miraculously managed to survive without masks). We have a vaccine now and I'm on board with that despite the concerns of great minds like Pete Evans, we have had 2 years to prepare the health system, we've seen the stats for alpha, delta and omicron and people are still stuck in this insular mindset of 'keeping out the virus'. We've got 1 case IIRC in our hospital system, it's 40 degrees outside, the current variant has a very low ICU/fatality rate and we're still sitting around too afraid to do anything.

At what point do the people who don't want to go anywhere or do anything 'because omicron' take some responsibility for themselves and let everyone else move on? If there were no restrictions whatsoever you could still wear a mask, socially distance, not travel, not go to events with large crowds etc.

Confusion takes over as WA changes course on multiple COVID fronts

Western Australia has had two years to prepare for COVID but as case numbers rise and the state government changes tack on multiple fronts, questions are mounting as to how clear the plan is behind the scenes.

www.abc.net.au

Nasty Murdoch/7West owned ABC criticising the govt...

 

[Priddis Is Done]

Let er Rip

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

That was a lot of words to say “I don’t want to wear a mask, the people who are scared of Covid should be the ones taking precautions.”

 

[Forward Press]

That was a lot of words to say “I don’t want to wear a mask, the people who are scared of Covid should be the ones taking precautions.”

Much of the last few pages have been Scotland exercising his keyboard skills to promote that - dare I say it - selfish position.

 

[Balls In]

Once McGowan closes off alcohol to the unvaxxed on Monday, it will be store clerks in liquor stores on the front line. By Wednesday McGowan when it inevitably gets aggressive he will declare them "un-Australian".

 

[Ambrose Burnside]

I'd call those that abuse retail staff K. Hunts but that's just me.

 

[Forward Press]

I'd call those that abuse retail staff K. Hunts but that's just me.

But you see, even as grown adults they have been provoked into being campaigners at retail staff by MaoGowan's border antics. Lock him up for inciting the population with his scaremongering rhetoric, they are victims that have unfortunately had to lash out on other innocent people.

 

[bzparkes]

Once McGowan closes off alcohol to the unvaxxed on Monday, it will be store clerks in liquor stores on the front line. By Wednesday McGowan when it inevitably gets aggressive he will declare them "un-Australian".

By Thursday they'll all have booked in appointments to get their shots.

Or use Jimmy Brings.