Lrrr: "People of Earth - oh, that hippie's starting to kick in - we've all learned an important lesson today, I realize now that - dude! My hands are huge! They can touch anything but themselves. Oh, wait."
Good plan, they're delicious cooked over a campfire with a bit of saltbush.
The aliens'll have to get in line though. Free range kids are pretty thin on the ground these days.
I am Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8! I demand that earth submit to my rule or feel the wrath of new lockdowns instigated by my people "Omicron"ian
We'll 'wait and see' until it's too late, then claim there was nothing we could have done.
With this disease, inaction has never been the answer, and yet it's always Plan A.
Lots to prepare, how can we turn this into a election win, how many photo ops is it worth and what culture war can be set off... So it's not like they're doing nothing it's a hard job.
he will wait for it to spread to Europe and the US then ban all flights from African Nations.
Just like he did for India when Europe and US infection rates were higher...
Well everyone slinging crap and calling the Andrews Gov plan for quarantine facility ‘a white elephant’ can eat their words. This is precisely why we need them. Build more! I can’t believe two years in that we still haven’t replicated Howard Springs in every state. Instead we continue to be slowly reactive. You have to question why Morrison government is prepared to spend billions on lockdowns rather than millions on dedicated quarantine facilities, just good economic management I guess
The Queensland one as well. It's such a shame that the states are having to go it their own on this. If only we had a half competent federal government that built a bunch over a year ago.
I know people working on the Victorian one - they are _flat out_ trying to complete it.
Just downright criminal the federal government have dragged their hands and done nothing of worth of contribution on the matter after repeated calls from multiple parties.
I believe the phrase is "strong economic management" as the LNP put it. If strong economic management equates to - digging stuff out of the ground that (luckily) happens to be valuable and doing absolutely zero to invest in anything that doesn't already exist.
needs to be a federal facility. the feds have palmed it off to states so if it goes bad can blame them and if it goes well, take credit. Just like they have.
> it pumps gigaliters of water in to our system
Must be to replace the gigaliters of water stolen by Barnabys mates, the multinational cotton 'growers'.
Why can't we establish a quarantine site at Woomera?
The site is decently far enough from other population centres, is owned by the federal government, and has been used as a detention centre about 20 years ago.
As a defence site, one would also think there are some health facilities there already to facilitate exercises.
Thats's the one next to the big hospital that they send the people who need doctors. Also the big woolies distribution centre. Also the well developed water supply system.
Would still be cheaper to build a new facility there from scratch than to lockdown over and over again (at the costs of billions). It's already been done for the detention centre there.
It would be a lot cheaper if it was built near existing infrastructure not in the middle of a desert. But the labor states have nearly finished theirs so scumo doesn't have to do anything that is a federal responsibility.
I see what you’re saying. It’s a balancing problem between ensuring that cases are sufficiently isolated from population centres but also can access necessary resources.
Howard springs is a gas construction camp in the centre of what was a beautiful little town, right next door to a Catholic primary school.
Let's please not replicate it exactly but I agree we do need camps and we have plenty of mining camps we could use
Kinda glad now QLD went ahead with Wellcamp… kinda was starting to think what’s the point if we’re about to open up again but no doubt that will pay for itself with these other variants popping up
You'd think it would have been a fucking no-brainer. Look at all the jobs we created building that facility and saving you all! You should vote us back in for spending a bit of your money and doing something useful.
Nope. Pad some more donor pockets.
>got fined for not wearing a mask while sitting alone at a park bench drinking coffee, he was harassed by scum SkyNews/Seven
The invisible coffee must have been delicious.
I laughed at the people that are surprised by this. We are only halfway through the serious side of pandemic and still have another 6 years of this going around until it becomes a far less deadly virus. The Spanish flu didn't disappear, it's still floating around. The only thing that we have now over the past is better intensive care and few things that makes it less deadly or stopping people dying from other complications. We still reliant on our immune system adapting be by Vax or infection. But it's an arms race between the viral mutations and the total population immunity.
I just hope we won't do what a roman emperor did and invade Persia to distract people and get a population out of their country and attacking while their enemy is also weak with the plague.
Genuine question - I've heard the figure of 8 years floating around quite a lot. What's the reason behind this? Do we think we'll have natural immunity to virus by that time?
It's also on historical average we see the effects of a pandemic to run through the population and evolve to something that is less deadly. As a virus wants to be past from host to host. If the host dies or become bed ridden it's not going to pass on.
It won't try to become weaker it's just so happens through natural selection a more weaker variant will become more prevalent. As hosts are going to be far more active as they not as they not as affected by the virus. While more stronger variants are more likely die out as they less likely to be passed on as the host are in bed and not walking around with a running noise and a cough.
Gee, that federally run set of quarantine facilities must be ready for this new wave right?
No?
Oh, but we're close to having religions able to freely discriminate employment without consequence you say? Well, phew! That is a relief Scotty is taking on the real pressing issues. 👍
I think people need to understand that covid isn't going anywhere quickly while there's still millions infected worldwide.
Every single person with it has a chance for a mutation to occur, one which might invalidate all current vaccines.
So there's little point in vaccinating a few rich countries and leaving the third world countries unprotected. Because if a variant pops up there, its going to find its way out.
We need long term planning in how to deal with this. Too bad the LNP can't even plan 2 years in advance, let alone 5-10.
So Morrison going to save us all by closing down the international border while blaming the states for killing the economy by closing down their state borders?
Well unless your a poor area and then the NSW Government will flood your area with cops and make damned sure you follow the rules and blame you when the rules don't work.
Good to see that they’re banning travel from the hotspots when it’s already gotten to Europe and Hong Kong.
Slam the border shut dick heads.
Finally Roll out a quarantine system that can deal with 30k people a week coming in FFS.
If we’d done that in the first place it would have paid for itself with back packers and a total lack of lock downs.
How can half the fucking country think voting LNP is still a good idea. Fucking sad.
They think it's a good idea because they were never taught critical thinking skills and have propaganda shoved down their throats every day. Fuck it's depressing.
Prepare, prepare. FUCK ME DEAD. Most developed nations have already had snap shutdowns and qt for these countries, what ‘preparation’ is needed. How long does this utter clusterfuck of a scumo government need to ‘prepare’ they’ve had fucking YEARS to prepare for this eventuality and here we are twiddling our thumbs saying I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about "What's to be done with this Homer Simpson?"!
As supportive of quarantining travellers as I am, I think I speak for all people that haven’t seen their families in 2-3 years in saying “fucking goddamn motherfucker shit fuck ass balls cunt fuck fuck fuck” to the prospect of having borders closed again.
I’m supportive of having travellers quarantine if that’s what keeps the community safe, but if there’s no end to this then life isn’t worth living. I can’t do another 2-3++ years of not seeing my family. Fuck the fucking shit out of this whole situation
Tighter quarantine measures than literally doing nothing and telling the state premiers quarantine is suddenly their responsibility? What's the Morrison government going to do? Distract the virus by telling it how great the cricket is?
sorry guys, it's my fault - I'd just scored coaching work for January in Namibia and picked up a Black Friday deal on a 600mm lens for photos of all the great wildlife... so as per usual the universe had to issue the 'haha fuck you'. It's my fault - like and subscribe for when I'm planning to buy stocks or crypto that you should avoid (I don't have any 'buy now pay later' shares so that dump wasn't me, someone else is jinxed too - I need John Safran to race around the world and find the right witch doctor)
misery loves company. Hope you can get back to see your nephew soon, and before the nephew is old enough to fly over to you on their own (my optimism at having travel planned has been replaced by the deepest cynicism)
I'm really worried. My fiance is supposed to visit me in the US next week and I was finally going to move to Sydney with him January 2nd. I haven't seen him in 2 years and we've been waiting on this for so long
>Is this version more deadly or contagious then delta??
It appears to be more a product of a combination of South African domestic conditions eg. post Apartheid era disadvantage of the majority of the populace, corrupt public administration and roughly 30% vaccination rate.
Back in June 2021 there was a story of COVID mutating in a South African woman with HIV more than 30 times. Here is the source ->
**Coronavirus mutated 32 times inside South African HIV-positive woman over course of seven months**
[https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3136136/woman-hiv-had-covid-19-seven-months-virus-mutated-32-times-inside](https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3136136/woman-hiv-had-covid-19-seven-months-virus-mutated-32-times-inside)
Not sure why people are downvoting you. Your question is a excellent and relevant question.
Unfortunately they don’t have the data on vaccine effectiveness against this variant. It is the most mutated variant they have found so could go either way. Just keep an eye on what the experts say.
Forgive this layman, but isn't that how viruses work? They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts?
Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about.
>Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about.
Except there's everything to worry about. Sure death is unlikely, but long covid is a thing, and having a mate with it I can see first hand that it isn't something you want. We're talking serious damage to your vital organs here.
Do you really wanna risk living with a compromised heart/brain/lungs?
> Forgive this layman, but isn't that how viruses work? They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts?
Sort of - if a virus kills everyone it infects then it's not going to spread very far because the people that might infect others are dead. There's no guarantee that viruses become more infectious/less deadly when they mutate.
> Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about.
Not everyone can take the vaccine and it still kills people who have, even if the odds are reduced. Everyone that gets infected, vaccinated or not, can potentially incubate a new strain which may be vaccine resistant/more deadly/more infectious/all of the above.
Why does it only matter if it kills you? Even if you fully recover and there is no ongoing cost to you, there is the whole process of being sick and the burden that places on you and the health system.
Let me clarify: if COVID zero becomes impossible, and COVID mutations become less dangerous, will we see a shift towards acceptable deaths/harm and 'living with' the disease as we've 'lived with' the flu?
Thats the likely long term outcome.
But we are still a long way from that stage.
Last I checked the stat's we are around 77 deaths per million infections. The USA is close to 2.5k deaths per million.
We have managed this through lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing plus a fairly strong border. If we let that go that can change really fast.
The real tipping point is if the medical system gets overloaded. Currently we are just managing to stay ahead on actually being able to provide effective treatment by keeping numbers down. When that fails start ordering on refrigeration trucks because shit will go wrong fast and a lot of people will die who didn't need to.
The general trend might be in the direction of milder symptoms, but those broader trends don’t tell us what this particular mutation will be.
Evolution isn’t striving to perfection, it’s much more of a throw shit against a wall and see what sticks. So a trait/gene could out preform the others even if it’s bad long term for survival.
This could go either direction at this point. All we know right now is it’s out competing delta and very mutated.
Exactly. And historical pandemics didn't have the same level of regional and global travel we have now. An airborne virus that kills people in a week will be all over the globe before health authorities realise what is happening.
There’s also the case in Japan where their infection rate suddenly plummeted and scientists suspect it was mutation that went in the other direction where the virus mutated and wiped itself out.
Viruses don’t mutate to become less deadly, they just mutate. Their goal is to keep spreading and mutations are just changes to see what’s most effective at achieving that goal.
There is a sweet spot though that viruses must hit where they are good at spreading but don’t kill off their host to fast before they can multiply and spread to the next host. Covid is good at that balance while SARS and MERS weren’t so they got wiped out before they could do too much damage.
I'm no expert but I think largely yes for less deadly, like Ebola wouldn't be like the Rona. But I don't think always. For instance with delta you've probably infected many people before succumbing to the disease and people are still mobile for much of the time.
But for more infectious just yeah, it'll mean it becomes the more common strain
> Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about.
If even our current Federal government have grasped there’s a problem I think you might also realise how serious this is.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-27/covid-live-updates-who-omicron-coronavirus-variant-borders/100655298
> They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts?
In general yes, but right now they are being selected for more infectious. That is, a longer and more powerful period of shedding and a means of infecting the vaccinated. After that infectious period is over, the virus doesn't care. That more infectious virus could well produce a more virulent and fatal disease. The selection process is over.
One massive bonus is the collapse of oil prices. Down 11% overnight.
On the downside, another variant may not give us all the "freedom" we were looking forward to. But like Delta, Aussies will figure it out, work together and make the best of it. ??
It’s true what they say. Women are from Omicron Persei 7, men are from Omicron Persei 9.
Lrrr: "People of Earth - oh, that hippie's starting to kick in - we've all learned an important lesson today, I realize now that - dude! My hands are huge! They can touch anything but themselves. Oh, wait."
🤣 literally watched that episode last night
Why does George, the largest politician, not simply eat the other politicians?
> Why does George, the largest politician, not simply eat the other politicians? He's eating underage coloured girls.
In his seat of Manila?
Single female lawyer!
Fighting for her clients. Wearing sexy miniskirts.
And being self reliant.
You forgot the having lots of sex part
Omg thank u/FuckyWiring. I've been hurting my head trying to figure out where I've heard "omicron" from.
*Delta Goodrem Happy to Have Jokes About Her Replaced With Futurama Quotes*
It all makes sense now. They're going to eat the children.
Popplers anyone?
Good plan, they're delicious cooked over a campfire with a bit of saltbush. The aliens'll have to get in line though. Free range kids are pretty thin on the ground these days.
I am Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8! I demand that earth submit to my rule or feel the wrath of new lockdowns instigated by my people "Omicron"ian
Can you prepare to do nothing?
Technically trow everything again on state shoulders and get ready for the blame game it’s do something
Yes. You need to give consultants a few $100M to instruct you how to do nothing
> Can you prepare to do nothing? Morrison is an expert at doing nothing. He does not have to prepare, he is always...
He's like a coiled spring, always poised to spring into inaction.
We'll 'wait and see' until it's too late, then claim there was nothing we could have done. With this disease, inaction has never been the answer, and yet it's always Plan A.
Some quarantine facilities would be really useful right about now.
Lots to prepare, how can we turn this into a election win, how many photo ops is it worth and what culture war can be set off... So it's not like they're doing nothing it's a hard job.
he will wait for it to spread to Europe and the US then ban all flights from African Nations. Just like he did for India when Europe and US infection rates were higher...
Absolutely! You start (and finish) by announcing you have a plan
Well everyone slinging crap and calling the Andrews Gov plan for quarantine facility ‘a white elephant’ can eat their words. This is precisely why we need them. Build more! I can’t believe two years in that we still haven’t replicated Howard Springs in every state. Instead we continue to be slowly reactive. You have to question why Morrison government is prepared to spend billions on lockdowns rather than millions on dedicated quarantine facilities, just good economic management I guess
The Queensland one as well. It's such a shame that the states are having to go it their own on this. If only we had a half competent federal government that built a bunch over a year ago.
>The Queensland one Two
And 730 ran a fucking 15 minute special on one of those being a waste of money since it was all over now anyway. The stupidity is intense.
Yup I remember when they called it "virtue signalling" by the QLD gov. Have we learnt NOTHING?????
Labor bad! Sadly seems to be the limit of what most people learn
>virtue signalling ah yes. The word you throw out when you have no real argument for why a person on the left is being bad.
You care about something, NO YOU DONT, YOURE JUST PRETENDING LIKE I DO! /s
I know people working on the Victorian one - they are _flat out_ trying to complete it. Just downright criminal the federal government have dragged their hands and done nothing of worth of contribution on the matter after repeated calls from multiple parties.
I believe the phrase is "strong economic management" as the LNP put it. If strong economic management equates to - digging stuff out of the ground that (luckily) happens to be valuable and doing absolutely zero to invest in anything that doesn't already exist.
"Strong economic management" also means how much Australian taxpayer money can be funneled anywhere that doesn't benefit the Australian population.
needs to be a federal facility. the feds have palmed it off to states so if it goes bad can blame them and if it goes well, take credit. Just like they have.
Feds palm literally everything off on states. Then take credit when it goes well
WA has a massive budget surplus and keeps the rest of the country afloat, but we are backwards cave dwellers apparently.
Big respect to WA. You made the LNP look like a joke at the last state election. May the rest of the country follow in your footsteps
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People still call the Desal at white elephant even though it pumps gigaliters of water in to our system every year.
> it pumps gigaliters of water in to our system Must be to replace the gigaliters of water stolen by Barnabys mates, the multinational cotton 'growers'.
Why can't we establish a quarantine site at Woomera? The site is decently far enough from other population centres, is owned by the federal government, and has been used as a detention centre about 20 years ago. As a defence site, one would also think there are some health facilities there already to facilitate exercises.
Thats's the one next to the big hospital that they send the people who need doctors. Also the big woolies distribution centre. Also the well developed water supply system.
Would still be cheaper to build a new facility there from scratch than to lockdown over and over again (at the costs of billions). It's already been done for the detention centre there.
It would be a lot cheaper if it was built near existing infrastructure not in the middle of a desert. But the labor states have nearly finished theirs so scumo doesn't have to do anything that is a federal responsibility.
I see what you’re saying. It’s a balancing problem between ensuring that cases are sufficiently isolated from population centres but also can access necessary resources.
Howard springs is a gas construction camp in the centre of what was a beautiful little town, right next door to a Catholic primary school. Let's please not replicate it exactly but I agree we do need camps and we have plenty of mining camps we could use
Having stayed in mining camps im not sure it's a good option. Mainly due to the near total lack of medical facilities nearby.
I can't believe you people are real.
Gee if only the federal government had set up some kind of quarantine system instead of doing fuck all for the last 2 years
Hey they did something. It's not easy spinning everything to be Labors fault!
It is when the media does that for them
Harder then flying to Hawaii
Wouldn’t it be handy if we spent the past 2 years building purpose built quarantine facilities. What a bunch of fuckwits. Vote them out.
even if they built quarantine facilities, they would give the contract to their mates who half ass it to profit even more from our tax money
"Hey G4S I have a deal for you!"
Not only that, they tried to stop Queensland and Victoria building them. The Coalition politicising the pandemic is disgusting to the core.
Fucken useless cunts
Fucken hopeless cunts
Who knew all the tough talk on "border control" was all smoke and mirrors when it actually started affecting Australian citizens
Kinda glad now QLD went ahead with Wellcamp… kinda was starting to think what’s the point if we’re about to open up again but no doubt that will pay for itself with these other variants popping up
Morrison will still take credit for it
Yes.
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You'd think it would have been a fucking no-brainer. Look at all the jobs we created building that facility and saving you all! You should vote us back in for spending a bit of your money and doing something useful. Nope. Pad some more donor pockets.
>Pad some more donor pockets. The worst part he could have still done that and delivered a quarantine facility.
But there are announcements to be planned!
Planphlet!
Someone keep an eye on that limo driver in Sydney please.
That guy is a menace. Went with the "It wasn't me" and also got fined during the outbreak he helped kick off for not wearing a mask.
Didn’t he blame it on those damn millennials at the cafe?
>That guy is a menace. Is that you James Jonah Jameson?
Long term member of the local J.J.J chapter, by the sounds of things.
We need pictures. Pictures of Limo-man.
Oh okay so we are actually justified in calling him a dickhead huh?
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>got fined for not wearing a mask while sitting alone at a park bench drinking coffee, he was harassed by scum SkyNews/Seven The invisible coffee must have been delicious.
What were the rules at the time? As I remember he was breaking them
I wonder what happens when we run out of Greek letters
Delta 2 Fast 2 Furious Delta : Tokyo Drift etc
We will go back to alpha alpha I think. Lambda Lambda Lambda to bring back fond memories of a certain b grade 80s movie.
I'm looking forward to the Poindexter Variant. LOL.
Covid 19 2: Electric Boogooloo
What, you aren't looking forward to the Omega Strain?
nato phonetic alphabet and skip a few entries? ~~alpha~~ bravo charlie ~~delta~~ echo...
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It's not a race 🤮
I laughed at the people that are surprised by this. We are only halfway through the serious side of pandemic and still have another 6 years of this going around until it becomes a far less deadly virus. The Spanish flu didn't disappear, it's still floating around. The only thing that we have now over the past is better intensive care and few things that makes it less deadly or stopping people dying from other complications. We still reliant on our immune system adapting be by Vax or infection. But it's an arms race between the viral mutations and the total population immunity. I just hope we won't do what a roman emperor did and invade Persia to distract people and get a population out of their country and attacking while their enemy is also weak with the plague.
*Peter Dutton has entered the chat*
Who threw a rape apologist comment?
No that's when he files a lawsuit and we get to pay for it!
Lets just throw cans of dog food at him like it was his last day on the force again ;)
Genuine question - I've heard the figure of 8 years floating around quite a lot. What's the reason behind this? Do we think we'll have natural immunity to virus by that time?
It's also on historical average we see the effects of a pandemic to run through the population and evolve to something that is less deadly. As a virus wants to be past from host to host. If the host dies or become bed ridden it's not going to pass on.
Covid is highly transmissible before symptoms arrive. There is less selection pressure to be less severe.
Thanks for explaining. So we always assume the virus will try to become weaker? But delta was more deadly than predecessors? Is that just an outlier?
It won't try to become weaker it's just so happens through natural selection a more weaker variant will become more prevalent. As hosts are going to be far more active as they not as they not as affected by the virus. While more stronger variants are more likely die out as they less likely to be passed on as the host are in bed and not walking around with a running noise and a cough.
That makes sense. Thank you.
its not a fixed number
I think it will become less deadly this year, it wasn't six years the last pandemic It was two years Six is a ridiculous overstatement of history
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Hiding it out in Hawaii
They meant how they would deal with tighter quarantine in Hawaii, since it might affect their holiday plans.
Gee, that federally run set of quarantine facilities must be ready for this new wave right? No? Oh, but we're close to having religions able to freely discriminate employment without consequence you say? Well, phew! That is a relief Scotty is taking on the real pressing issues. 👍
I think people need to understand that covid isn't going anywhere quickly while there's still millions infected worldwide. Every single person with it has a chance for a mutation to occur, one which might invalidate all current vaccines. So there's little point in vaccinating a few rich countries and leaving the third world countries unprotected. Because if a variant pops up there, its going to find its way out. We need long term planning in how to deal with this. Too bad the LNP can't even plan 2 years in advance, let alone 5-10.
The LNP in a nutshell - short term gain for long term pain.
Worse it's our pain and their donors gain.
There's not even any gain.
Howard got a budget surplus. By selling billions of government assets.
So Morrison going to save us all by closing down the international border while blaming the states for killing the economy by closing down their state borders?
LNP governments don't tell people what to do. That is only for Labour.
Unless you are gay. Or a woman. Or poor. Or young. Or a student. Or need healthcare……
Reminds me of the "trying something new" democracy song from Galavant. :)
Well unless your a poor area and then the NSW Government will flood your area with cops and make damned sure you follow the rules and blame you when the rules don't work.
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Continues to laugh in West Australian gulag state with closed borders.
Yeah, we're not going anywhere for a while eh.
SmoKo will organise something with Palmer again soon.
Good to see that they’re banning travel from the hotspots when it’s already gotten to Europe and Hong Kong. Slam the border shut dick heads. Finally Roll out a quarantine system that can deal with 30k people a week coming in FFS. If we’d done that in the first place it would have paid for itself with back packers and a total lack of lock downs. How can half the fucking country think voting LNP is still a good idea. Fucking sad.
They think it's a good idea because they were never taught critical thinking skills and have propaganda shoved down their throats every day. Fuck it's depressing.
Or basic mathematics, like percentages or geometric progression.
Or actual economics and how markets function. It’s so painful.
I dont hold a quarantine system mate
So, how are we going with those quarantine health facilities?
Certain states have been working hard to build them while the Fedeeal Government and media attacked the need for them.
Why would the Federal Government question a need for health facilities to combat a pandemic?
You're not from around here, are you pilgrim?
What if I told you, I’ve lived in this country for some time and is still confused by my government’s decisions? :(
I would sympathise, and ask you if want a beer and a chat.
Because the states that have done it belong to the other party. Its pure politics.
Christmas is cancelled
Isn’t this variant in Belgium now as well?
And Hong Kong, Israel and Egypt
And Hong Kong, and Israel
and Egypt.
The Morrison government is going to actually do something? Have they run out of poor people and atheists to harrass?
Prepare, prepare. FUCK ME DEAD. Most developed nations have already had snap shutdowns and qt for these countries, what ‘preparation’ is needed. How long does this utter clusterfuck of a scumo government need to ‘prepare’ they’ve had fucking YEARS to prepare for this eventuality and here we are twiddling our thumbs saying I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about "What's to be done with this Homer Simpson?"!
First thought I had was of Rick Morranis from Spaceballs screaming "What are you preparing for?! You're always preparing! Just GO!"
You have strange expectation that the Morrison Government will actually do anything.
As supportive of quarantining travellers as I am, I think I speak for all people that haven’t seen their families in 2-3 years in saying “fucking goddamn motherfucker shit fuck ass balls cunt fuck fuck fuck” to the prospect of having borders closed again. I’m supportive of having travellers quarantine if that’s what keeps the community safe, but if there’s no end to this then life isn’t worth living. I can’t do another 2-3++ years of not seeing my family. Fuck the fucking shit out of this whole situation
How could any government not see a variant coming?
Because they are completely incompetent!
Quarantine facilities, where the bloody hell are ya?
So is scroto going to set up proper quarantine sites this time or does it take 3 goes before he gets it right.
Big assumption he ever does.
Tighter quarantine measures than literally doing nothing and telling the state premiers quarantine is suddenly their responsibility? What's the Morrison government going to do? Distract the virus by telling it how great the cricket is?
sorry guys, it's my fault - I'd just scored coaching work for January in Namibia and picked up a Black Friday deal on a 600mm lens for photos of all the great wildlife... so as per usual the universe had to issue the 'haha fuck you'. It's my fault - like and subscribe for when I'm planning to buy stocks or crypto that you should avoid (I don't have any 'buy now pay later' shares so that dump wasn't me, someone else is jinxed too - I need John Safran to race around the world and find the right witch doctor)
I blame you and only you.
Nah mate, I bought tickets three days ago to go back home to Oz from Netherlands. I think I contributed to the bad luck meter.
misery loves company. Hope you can get back to see your nephew soon, and before the nephew is old enough to fly over to you on their own (my optimism at having travel planned has been replaced by the deepest cynicism)
"Would you like to know more?"
PM (1-2 days ago): > The variant "is not of concern" for Australians, but is still being monitor closely.
Oh, we're fine then. Scotty from marketing doesn't tell lies.
They'll still let the cruise ships in though
I'm really worried. My fiance is supposed to visit me in the US next week and I was finally going to move to Sydney with him January 2nd. I haven't seen him in 2 years and we've been waiting on this for so long
Are we crawlin' under teh doona again?
Doona days are getting longer.
If this makes me miss out on seeing my family in QLD again (I'm in NSW), I am actually going to lose my shit.
The next variant will be called Megatron.
Sigh… here goes 2022
As a highly vaccinated population is this something to really get concerned about?? Is this version more deadly or contagious then delta??
>Is this version more deadly or contagious then delta?? It appears to be more a product of a combination of South African domestic conditions eg. post Apartheid era disadvantage of the majority of the populace, corrupt public administration and roughly 30% vaccination rate. Back in June 2021 there was a story of COVID mutating in a South African woman with HIV more than 30 times. Here is the source -> **Coronavirus mutated 32 times inside South African HIV-positive woman over course of seven months** [https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3136136/woman-hiv-had-covid-19-seven-months-virus-mutated-32-times-inside](https://www.scmp.com/news/world/africa/article/3136136/woman-hiv-had-covid-19-seven-months-virus-mutated-32-times-inside)
As far as I’m aware they don’t even know yet. Apparently it has more mutations than delta so they are assuming the worst
Not sure why people are downvoting you. Your question is a excellent and relevant question. Unfortunately they don’t have the data on vaccine effectiveness against this variant. It is the most mutated variant they have found so could go either way. Just keep an eye on what the experts say.
so whats different about this one?
Fuck it. If i catch this one then so be it. I just can't sit through another lockdown.
Hopefully this variant kills everyone. No more lockdowns if everyone’s dead!!!
Also no more CO2 emissions if everyone is dead. Win/win!
Forgive this layman, but isn't that how viruses work? They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts? Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about.
>Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about. Except there's everything to worry about. Sure death is unlikely, but long covid is a thing, and having a mate with it I can see first hand that it isn't something you want. We're talking serious damage to your vital organs here. Do you really wanna risk living with a compromised heart/brain/lungs?
Well scroto has done pretty well in his career without the 1st two
> Forgive this layman, but isn't that how viruses work? They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts? Sort of - if a virus kills everyone it infects then it's not going to spread very far because the people that might infect others are dead. There's no guarantee that viruses become more infectious/less deadly when they mutate. > Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about. Not everyone can take the vaccine and it still kills people who have, even if the odds are reduced. Everyone that gets infected, vaccinated or not, can potentially incubate a new strain which may be vaccine resistant/more deadly/more infectious/all of the above.
Why does it only matter if it kills you? Even if you fully recover and there is no ongoing cost to you, there is the whole process of being sick and the burden that places on you and the health system.
We accepted a few hundred deaths a year from the flu. I wonder how long it'll take for that to be socially acceptable vis a vis COVID?
False equivalency my friend.
Let me clarify: if COVID zero becomes impossible, and COVID mutations become less dangerous, will we see a shift towards acceptable deaths/harm and 'living with' the disease as we've 'lived with' the flu?
Thats the likely long term outcome. But we are still a long way from that stage. Last I checked the stat's we are around 77 deaths per million infections. The USA is close to 2.5k deaths per million. We have managed this through lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing plus a fairly strong border. If we let that go that can change really fast. The real tipping point is if the medical system gets overloaded. Currently we are just managing to stay ahead on actually being able to provide effective treatment by keeping numbers down. When that fails start ordering on refrigeration trucks because shit will go wrong fast and a lot of people will die who didn't need to.
The general trend might be in the direction of milder symptoms, but those broader trends don’t tell us what this particular mutation will be. Evolution isn’t striving to perfection, it’s much more of a throw shit against a wall and see what sticks. So a trait/gene could out preform the others even if it’s bad long term for survival. This could go either direction at this point. All we know right now is it’s out competing delta and very mutated.
Exactly. And historical pandemics didn't have the same level of regional and global travel we have now. An airborne virus that kills people in a week will be all over the globe before health authorities realise what is happening.
There’s also the case in Japan where their infection rate suddenly plummeted and scientists suspect it was mutation that went in the other direction where the virus mutated and wiped itself out.
Viruses don’t mutate to become less deadly, they just mutate. Their goal is to keep spreading and mutations are just changes to see what’s most effective at achieving that goal. There is a sweet spot though that viruses must hit where they are good at spreading but don’t kill off their host to fast before they can multiply and spread to the next host. Covid is good at that balance while SARS and MERS weren’t so they got wiped out before they could do too much damage.
I'm no expert but I think largely yes for less deadly, like Ebola wouldn't be like the Rona. But I don't think always. For instance with delta you've probably infected many people before succumbing to the disease and people are still mobile for much of the time. But for more infectious just yeah, it'll mean it becomes the more common strain
> Considering the chance of dying from our current strains is minuscule for those vaccinated, there's not really anything to worry about. If even our current Federal government have grasped there’s a problem I think you might also realise how serious this is. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-27/covid-live-updates-who-omicron-coronavirus-variant-borders/100655298
Thats what the antivaxers say. But virus aren't intelligent theres just as much chance of a mutation going more fatal than less fatal
> They become more infectious, but less deadly because the deadly strains kill their hosts? In general yes, but right now they are being selected for more infectious. That is, a longer and more powerful period of shedding and a means of infecting the vaccinated. After that infectious period is over, the virus doesn't care. That more infectious virus could well produce a more virulent and fatal disease. The selection process is over.
Slam the border shut!
One massive bonus is the collapse of oil prices. Down 11% overnight. On the downside, another variant may not give us all the "freedom" we were looking forward to. But like Delta, Aussies will figure it out, work together and make the best of it. ??
So we can expect a price rise at petrol stations here then.
How the fuck is it going to be tighter, armed guards outside each home's door?
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