COVID-19 Stuff Here

[Derpus]

WA's situation is not as rosy at first glance. The God-Emperor McGowan of the People's Republic of Westralia is probably taking the only action available to a crippled social support network, including infrastructure and health. It is the sort of mismanagement we've had since the mining boom took off. This is the unroll of a Twitter thread posted by a WA person:

Thread by @Cormac_McCafe on Thread Reader App

@Cormac_McCafe: i think what gets lost in a lot of the East Coast media's discussion of WA's COVID approach is how bad/fragile WA's medical infrastructure is after the Barnett Government bungled it via a series of...…

threadreaderapp.com

I always thought of a government surplus as failing of that government. Government debt is cheap and easy to service and there is always something to be improved. So what's the point in generating a surplus?

 

[Pfitzy]

I always thought of a government surplus as failing of that government. Government debt is cheap and easy to service and there is always something to be improved. So what's the point in generating a surplus?

Exactly. It is a lie spun by "good economic managers" to garner cheap votes. But I don't want to create a Politics thread

Suffice to say that for all its talk of being a powerhouse economy, WA has many failings when it comes to supporting the citizenry.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

OK the writer of that Twitter thread Pfitzy quoted clearly has an agenda and is conflating all sorts of issues unrelating to this, but there are significant elements of truth to what he is saying.

To wit....
- The failure of our public health system is an issue across party lines and successive state governments
- The population growth has outstripped the ability of the hospital system and other infrastructure to cope (this includes roads, public transport, schools etc etc)
- The building of Fiona Stanley hospital was unquestionably the right thing to do and uncredited by the author is the fact that it's located on Perth's primary rail route. This means that many, many people can get to it on public transport. This is also the case for several other big public hospitals.
- The problem is that Fremantle hospital's ER was closed down, as rightly pointed out, and this left a corridor of Perth without a casualty department. Now Freo hospital was a dump (I was treated for rugby related injuries there several times), but taking away those beds and shifting them to FSH probably wasn't the smartest idea.
- There is still the need to expand the hospitals in Rockingham/Mandurah, and Joondalup (Southern and North tips of the Perth metro area) and Armadale and Midland. I'm hoping that this will be what the resources boom will deliver in terms of funding
- Mrs TBH and I have several friends and relatives involved in the health system and they all say that the situation in the emergency rooms was bad before COVID and before McGowan took power, but they also say that the current government has done exactly fuck all about it in the nearly five years they've been in power. The previous health minister (Roger Cook) was quietly removed from his post last year because of a series of colossal fuck ups on his watch.

In any case, this whole business of locking the border has everything to do with a premier not wanting to reckon with the issues in our hospital system and hiding under the doona hoping that mean COVID thingy will go away.

My 2c as someone living in WA

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Exactly. It is a lie spun by "good economic managers" to garner cheap votes. But I don't want to create a Politics thread

Suffice to say that for all its talk of being a powerhouse economy, WA has many failings when it comes to supporting the citizenry.

It's a cyclical economy, like many that have a large chunk of the GSP related to mining and agriculture. That's changed over time, but when times are good (as they are now), it's usually farming and mining that put the big multiplier in the state budget. When things are crook in those industries it's obviously a lot more grim.

 

[Kenny Powers]

Looks like some of the media’s go to ‘bed wetters’ (as they are referred to here in NSW) on COVID are abandoning Mark McGowan.

Norman Swan on Twitter


Hard to see when WA will open up. Some must be feeling trapped. Impossible to say when they’ll have a window. And that’s all it’s possibly going to be. WA was late and slow to vaccinate. So boosters may be a long time coming. Should’ve followed SA and QLD and set a date earlier.


And the AMA (or maybe more correctly the AMA faction of the Labor Party).

Australian Medical Association National President Omar Khorshid issued a scathing response to Thursday’s border announcement, slamming Mr McGowan and his government for “failing” to prepare for the spread of COVID and breaking a promise to the country.

 

[formerflanker]

While Sneakers McGowan is extending WA's border closure, Biden starts to downplay the seriousness of covid.

The US Federal Government will no longer require hospitals to report the number of people who die from Covid-19 every day, according to new guidelines from the US Dept of health and Human Services.
(h/t Russell Brand)

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I was intrigued to see Khorshid having a go at McGowan, given that he used to be the head of the WA branch of the AMA. Still practices as an orthopedic over here. The contrast is that Mark Duncan-Smith (currently WA head of the AMA) has been telling us that the sky was going to fall in if we reopened, along with his mate Mark Olsen from the ANF - who said we were about to witness the biggest public policy failure in WA history. Wow.

 

[dru]

Omar Khorshid lost the plot. Comments like “he’s a one trick pony” add nothing to the science/medical situation and shouldn’t come from an offical AMA statement. AMA loses something there.

Swann is saying the obvious, WA seriously should have pushed the vax earlier and harder and been more effective in the regions and remote areas (not on their own, though).

if positions and attitudes in the US are germane, travel advice to Australia is don’t do it - we are placed at the highest risk for US travellers.

I can only agree that Aus media has turned, generally it’s the opinion prices and compassionate trouble at the border.

 

[Braveheart81]

I was intrigued to see Khorshid having a go at McGowan, given that he used to be the head of the WA branch of the AMA. Still practices as an orthopedic over here. The contrast is that Mark Duncan-Smith (currently WA head of the AMA) has been telling us that the sky was going to fall in if we reopened, along with his mate Mark Olsen from the ANF - who said we were about to witness the biggest public policy failure in WA history. Wow.

Khorshid has previously been highly critical of the response in other states particularly the supposed lightness of lockdown measures in NSW during Delta.

It's a bit rich coming from an orthopaedic surgeon on the other side of the country.

Omar Khorshid lost the plot. Comments like “he’s a one trick pony” add nothing to the science/medical situation and shouldn’t come from an offical AMA statement. AMA loses something there.

The views of the AMA are reported as holding far more importance than they should. It is often portrayed as being a view that reflects the learned opinion of the medical fraternity rather than the reality that it is a union with a membership base of 30% of the doctors in Australia. Statements they make are far more likely to relate to the effect on employment related issues for their members than considered public health advice.*

* It should be noted that I am highly in favour of unions but it also needs to be remembered that they are a union, not an advisory body.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

While Sneakers McGowan is extending WA's border closure, Biden starts to downplay the seriousness of covid.

The US Federal Government will no longer require hospitals to report the number of people who die from Covid-19 every day, according to new guidelines from the US Dept of health and Human Services.
(h/t Russell Brand)

Is that the same Biden who recently ordered the distribution of free N95 masks & self-testing kits plus extended Federal funding of PCR testing to private providers so as to take some of the burden off States & Counties plus tried to make workplace mandates a thing but got slapped down by the Trump SCOTUS judges? That guy?

 

[cyclopath]

Khorshid has previously been highly critical of the response in other states particularly the supposed lightness of lockdown measures in NSW during Delta.

It's a bit rich coming from an orthopaedic surgeon on the other side of the country.



The views of the AMA are reported as holding far more importance than they should. It is often portrayed as being a view that reflects the learned opinion of the medical fraternity rather than the reality that it is a union with a membership base of 30% of the doctors in Australia. Statements they make are far more likely to relate to the effect on employment related issues for their members than considered public health advice.*

* It should be noted that I am highly in favour of unions but it also needs to be remembered that they are a union, not an advisory body.

Yeah, the AMA is as agenda driven as any union, and most of us don't belong to it. I do, as I find some of the services it provides quite useful, but I mostly ignore those in office within it. They only want the job for certain reasons.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Not sure what it's like the in the East, but successive heads of the WA branch of the AMA have been pretty disagreeable, Andrew Miller in particular. Fuck me what a miserablist that bloke is.

I'm noting a real turn in the media coverage here in the West too. Even WA Today, which is 9/Fairfax, is giving it to McGowan now. This reneging on the opening has upset many people.

Clay Gollege, who has an infectious diseases practice in Perth, has been pretty vocal in his opposition as well.

 

[Slim 293]

and like all unions, their goals are more money for less work for their members

 

[formerflanker]

I was intrigued to see Khorshid having a go at McGowan, given that he used to be the head of the WA branch of the AMA. Still practices as an orthopedic over here. The contrast is that Mark Duncan-Smith (currently WA head of the AMA) has been telling us that the sky was going to fall in if we reopened, along with his mate Mark Olsen from the ANF - who said we were about to witness the biggest public policy failure in WA history. Wow.

From my distant vantage point on the eastern seaboard, it appears this is the very first time any media blowback has come McGowan's way.
Or, as WA cricketer Josh Inglis is rumoured to have posted:
Two years, we all did what you asked of us so we could get out of this. And you spit in our faces and take away any hope West Aussies had of this ending.

‘You are a disgrace to this state and a disgrace to this country. Absolute muppet.’

 

[formerflanker]

Is that the same Biden who recently ordered the distribution of free N95 masks & self-testing kits plus extended Federal funding of PCR testing to private providers so as to take some of the burden off States & Counties plus tried to make workplace mandates a thing but got slapped down by the Trump SCOTUS judges? That guy?

Yep, same guy.
Who also is responsible for this pearler:
"Two hundred twenty thousand Americans dead," Biden said at the Oct. 22, 2020 presidential debate. "Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America."

About 400,000 Americans died from COVID-19 during Biden's presidency so far.

Same bloke who promised to "shut down Covid-19" and failed. He has overseen a massive vaccine rollout though.

Politics aside, you have to ask yourself WHY is Biden stopping the reporting of covid deaths to Federal authorities.

 

[formerflanker]

More relaxations of covid restrictions in Australia.
People coming to Australia from overseas will no longer be required to produce a negative PCR test result to enter the country, and can instead do so with a negative RAT test within 24 hours of departure.
(9News)

 

[Pfitzy]

It's a cyclical economy, like many that have a large chunk of the GSP related to mining and agriculture. That's changed over time, but when times are good (as they are now), it's usually farming and mining that put the big multiplier in the state budget. When things are crook in those industries it's obviously a lot more grim.

To be clear: I'm not just blaming WA for its woes. There is a history of this sort of squandering across the nation and that's where poor outcomes in public policy are achieved. COVID just accelerated the speed and quantity of the shit hitting the fan.

 

[formerflanker]

After 2 years of scaring us all silly with daily announcements of case numbers and using statistics to inform health advice, justify lockdowns, and support mandatory vaccinations, only now do we get some truth behind the numbers.

NSW’s top doctor says it’s difficult to know how many Covid-positive people in NSW hospitals are actually there because of virus complications.
Not all of the more than 2800 Covid-19 patients currently in NSW hospitals were admitted because of their infections.
(The Australian)

 

[dru]

After 2 years of scaring us all silly with daily announcements of case numbers and using statistics to inform health advice, justify lockdowns, and support mandatory vaccinations, only now do we get some truth behind the numbers.

NSW’s top doctor says it’s difficult to know how many Covid-positive people in NSW hospitals are actually there because of virus complications.
Not all of the more than 2800 Covid-19 patients currently in NSW hospitals were admitted because of their infections.
(The Australian)

Nope, not news. That knowledge has been around for a very long time.

 

[dru]

Interesting detail on Norman Swan's podcast (ABC) - right at the end. Omicron infection does not give protection against Delta. Vaccines give a better generic protection. Relates to a recent paper out of the UK that is not yet peer reviewed.

He also speculates that the next strain is more likely to be a derivative of Delta rather than Omicron. He relates this based on the history of SARS-2 strain development. I'm struggling with that thinking, myself but it is interesting.

Is the death rate too high? - ABC listen

The number of people dying from COVID hit a record high this week, as large case numbers continue in most states and territories. It comes as no surprise then that NSW and Victoria announced that people can get their third dose at the three month mark, bringing it forward from the 31st January...

www.abc.net.au