When people are criticising the recent outbreak and saying that the government has "let it rip" and that the number of cases and deaths have been unacceptable, you have to look at what measures would have been needed to achieve something different.
It is pretty apparent that case numbers have come back down primarily because Omicron is running out of people to infect.
The fact that cases haven't rocketed back up with the return to school supports that.
It is highly doubtful how much wearing masks inside shops is doing to prevent cases.
The vast majority of the population is vaccinated. Outside of a couple of specific situations, unvaccinated people can do what they want and go where they want. It is questionable how imperative a booster shot is for a young person to the extent that it should be mandatory. Encouraged sure, but mandatory, I'm not sure.
Certainly those most at risk should definitely be getting booster shots. I note that I had my booster shot back in December. I am absolutely in favour of vaccines.
Likewise, I said it was the closest I'd come to agreeing with formerflanker. I didn't say I agreed with everything exactly.
We're clearly moving to a new stage of the pandemic where it is endemic and we need to treat it as such. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people still at significant risk from it.
A small case study.
I caught the virus at a fairly sparsely attended gig in late December. Heaps of room to move around, good ventilation, all drinks served outdoors. Maybe not model prevention measures but pretty good in my experience. 100% of my party caught covid, as did many pub staff and presumably other people in the space.
Fast forward to last weekend. Went to a gig at a new bar in Thornbury (Melbourne's funky inner north for all you non-Mexicans). Small bar, heaving with people, a handful were masked and those masks were essentially useless as they weren't N95 jobbies. We were shoulder to shoulder and singing and carrying on. A 'super spreader' event if there ever was one.
All patrons and staff checked in and vaccinated,
no case alerts or exposures.
I can draw two potential conclusions:
1. You accept BH's hypothesis and assume everyone or a vast majority had already been exposed and their double/triple vaccination status was sufficient.
2. There were cases and the scaled back public health effort meant no alerts were distributed, and the bar didn't bother to contact patrons.
Both are plausible, I guess. But if that's what 'COVID-normal' looks like, I'm happy.
