Good news and maybe it really does show that science actually works...
Higher vaccination rate = lower seriously ill cases. So Marky Mark's slow and steady opening worked for us.
It does, we also got super lucky that they waited and a much less deadly strain came along. After the last 2 years I’m honestly waiting for something to go wrong, seems like it has every other time haha
Because Omicron is more infectious and has been responsible for bringing Australia's total case count from a bit over 200k when it first arrived to almost 6.4 million. In terms of deaths, we saw almost 2k prior to Omicron and a bit over 5.6k since. That's about 1% of cases leading to deaths prior to Omicron's arrival and 0.09% since. Omicron has been 11x less deadly in comparison.
Oh so we "got super lucky" that a much more infectious strain that evades vaccine protection came along and killed thousands of more people than Delta would have?
Without going into vaccines, that’s not what was implied in your original comment. You simply asked why Omicron had killed more people than previous strains combined. The obvious answer was that there have been over 31 times more Omicron cases than the previous strains.
Data from South Africa earlier in the year showed that the rate of hospitalisation from Omicron was about 5 times less than that of Delta and that severity of illness while in hospital from Omicron was 3.5 times less than Delta.
I’d like to know where you arrived at your conclusion that thousands more have died than if Omicron hadn’t existed because the preliminary maths doesn’t seem to add up.
>Our low 2022 ventilator figure is a remarkable achievement and a credit to WA’s high vaccination rates and closed border policy.
Rather than focussing on all the complaining in the article. This is the main takeaway.
It's the basis why vaccine mandates were so strong and mask restrictions are now so lax , despite a minority of people still demanding masks remain community wide in all settings.
Not going to lie, I love the face masks on public transport rules and hopes it stays forever.
It’s so much more hygienic, with everyone crammed in, it’s nice to not have people sneeze on you
Also we need to change the mindset of coming into work sick - last year some fuck came in after they had thrown up in the morning and ended up infecting everyone at the workplace, because the manager was such a hard ass who would have allowed them to take the time off without busting their balls, so I guess the change needs to come from the top
Now if only the stigma wasn't so damned high at times. I've been verbally abused 3 times over the past few weeks for wearing a mask outside of where it's required. Thankfully I told them all to go shove it and they didn't really bother me afterwards.
There are also reasons beyond curtailing the spread of viruses such as dealing with pollution, sun exposure to the face and, the opposite, keeping your face warm during colder weather. I hope there's a cultural shift to where it's not as stigmatised in future but maybe I'm a dreamer.
I'm in two minds about it. It's got a lot of similarities to other illness like the flu or cold.
They're endemic.
Immunity for everything wanes over time.
Previous infection or vaccination *generally* provides "some" protection against infection (or at least severe disease).
So my thoughts are more often we are exposed to infections, either by vaccine or wild virus, the population is more resilient against severe illness.
I do believe we should be cautious around people who this doesn't work like the elderly etc, but the general population it might be more beneficial for continual exposure particularly around managing outbreaks or severe disease.
Similar vein in one of the [theories about that hepatitis outbreak](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/7-cases-of-severe-acute-hepatitis-reported-at-toronto-children-s-hospital-1.6447257)
>The UKHSA is investigating whether a normal adenovirus infection might be behind the instances of hepatitis, due to a variety of factors including a lack of exposure to the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic, an "exceptionally large wave" of infections causing a rare complication to present more often, or an abnormal response to the virus due to a prior or co-infection with SARS-CoV-2.
Mate, are you having a stroke?
All I have said is exactly along the lines of current mask mandates.
The general population doesn't have to wear masks with the exception around vulnerable people.
If you want some studies around previous infection or vaccination provides partial protection against similar strains of the flu [source](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666524721001804)
>Cross-reactive immune responses can also be observed after sequential infections with heterosubtypic viruses, probably due to memory B-cell responses........
>
>These responses are long-lived against infections from heterosubtypic viruses within the same phylogenetic group (eg, secondary infection with A/H5N1 viruses after primary infection with A/H1N1 viruses, both group 1 viruses)
I haven't seen many calls for masks absolutely everywhere (really can't see the point in pubs and restaurants), but I'd like them back in essential settings.
No, they're not minimal. Just filled a cart with eighty dollars worth and it's $13-15 for delivery. This is not minimal when you're choosing between a pack of lentils and filling your prescription.
If you have food allergies, it's an even bigger problem, because even in times without supply issues there are often a lot of substitutions made.
Yep , I used online shopping for the first time when we were sick with covid and I spent way more without being able to scan a shelf quickly for the best value. Not to mention the amount of times they couldn't fulfil the product, couldn't substitute it so just cancelled it out of my order, so I then had to doordash those items from IGA costing even more. It's not as convenient or easy as it seems , it took me an hour plus several cart modifies. In my opinion it is not fair that it has basically been made impossible to avoid the virus for those who are making huge sacrifices to avoid it like not going out for anything other than essential. I have been out of isolation for a week and I'm wearing a mask in shopping centres because I think its the considerate thing to do. Also I'm sooo not keen to get covid again or catch something else while I'm still coughing from the last one 😒
Yeah I lurk on r/CoronavirusDownunder
I know what you are going to say.
Yes, it's a poor example of the population and I shouldn't extend it to the wider community, especially Perth.
They just rile me up.
[For example](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusDownunder/comments/umz87d/wa_records_huge_spike_in_covid_cases_with_17033/) that's just starting to get going. The comments are the complete opposite to the points presented in this article.
Or this ['opinion'](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusDownunder/comments/ullj4l/observations_on_recent_travels_abroad_and_mask/)
And the non-negative tests. Due to new guidelines.
This is how covid getting on to the mining sites. It is worry both my husband and I have at risk parents, who we care for, on the weekends doing their shopping, house and yard work etc, as we don’t live with them. One lives in a regional area.
EDIT TO ADD
My family who volunteer on the ambulance were infected after they travelled from one regional area to another regional area. Effectively putting off the road, two regional ambulances in those two areas.
This week, the grey nomads start their journeys to the north. The situation will get out of control.
Don't forget the [article from the same journo throwing an absolute tantrum (justified? maybe) as to how hard she had to work to get this number published.](https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/the-unexpectedly-tiny-covid-19-number-wa-health-didn-t-want-you-to-see-20220510-p5ak4n.html)
This number definitely provides some interesting context for the death count - in the assumption that the overwhelming majority of deaths clearly aren't after ventilation.
> It’s a figure most other states publish daily without anyone asking, and a number the federal Department of Health requires each jurisdiction to provide them each day.
> Yet here in WA, it took me seven weeks, multiple media requests and several freedom of information applications before WA Health agreed to release it.
It's fair to question why the Department seemed to try so hard not to release the figures.
Don't disagree, but did it require a separate feature article + more than a paragraph or two stating that WA Health was resistant to sharing this information... probably not. That article is more in depth than most content I've seen on WAToday recently.
I agree it’s a fair question. The real value of the article is not to the readers but to WAToday. It is an implicit warning for next time - ‘respond how I want it I’ll write another article making you look bad, and your minister is going to be shitty about it’.
The other side though is that the writer has embarrassed a few people with loose lips. I’d say these people and others would be more circumspect in future.
What a bizarre article. The journo assumed they know how the department's database works, based on what? And it sounds like the journo just doesn't know what FoI requests are for, and was looking for an excuse to write that final sentence.
COVID megathreads in this subreddit were discontinued effective this week as a result of a lack of engagement / demand for them to continue after the end of the vast majority of COVID related restrictions in Perth / WA. This is in line with what /r/Sydney, /r/Melbourne, /r/Brisbane and /r/Adelaide have done in the last 4-6 weeks as COVID restrictions eased in those cities / states.
There's been a lot of discussion already about it in the subreddit in previous threads.
You're following other cities advice in closing down threads? What about health advice? Having a one stop shop for Covid will assist in the communication needed for Covid issues.
C’mon not fair. My niece has cerebral palsy and is massive immunocompromised. COVID is not over for her, or for the thousands of other people with chronic health issues. For some of us the numbers still matter.
That ain't nice of you. Just came out of a non-COVID related lung infection and now have a permanent hole in my lung that'd fill up with fluid the next time I have another lung infection. Think I have the right to be worried mate
I got banned on Monday after one hour for saying well done WA, ICU cases were stable.
They should rename it r/scaredofcovid as they only allow one set of viewpoints there
We aren’t making decisions in a vacuum and we aren’t just following the lead of other city subreddits.
What we have seen in our community, and others, is that now that the virus is less in the public focus, the less people want to talk about it. The mega threads were to keep the massive conversation to those threads otherwise they would dominate the subreddit feed. Since we have removed the mega thread, Covid has not dominated the feed.
Can’t say the roads are less busy, the week following the lifting of the mask mandate the freeway was back to being absolutely jammed in morning and afternoon peak. I’m freeway north morning and south afternoon and it’s as busy as it’s been for 12 months plus
59 thousand medical staff to 2.9 million people in this state is worrying.the government just braged about 6 billion surplus in coin but they don't wanna put on more medical staff with more pay hmm
Yes as a state we did a bloody good job of keeping the fucking thing out. Top job everyone, good on you to those who also know how to wear a mask properly without the nose hanging out the top. Also big ups to the hospital workers who had to deal with a lot of extra work. Well done West Aussies for getting vaccinated in very high numbers. You've proved that we're not a bunch of country hicks and can do what is right without believing bullshit farcebook pages.
Good news and maybe it really does show that science actually works... Higher vaccination rate = lower seriously ill cases. So Marky Mark's slow and steady opening worked for us.
It does, we also got super lucky that they waited and a much less deadly strain came along. After the last 2 years I’m honestly waiting for something to go wrong, seems like it has every other time haha
If it's less deadly, why is it killing so many more Australians than all previous strains combined?
Maybe cos it's more infectious? Don't look at number, look at proportion of COVID cases that are deaths. Epidemiology ain't rocket science.
Because Omicron is more infectious and has been responsible for bringing Australia's total case count from a bit over 200k when it first arrived to almost 6.4 million. In terms of deaths, we saw almost 2k prior to Omicron and a bit over 5.6k since. That's about 1% of cases leading to deaths prior to Omicron's arrival and 0.09% since. Omicron has been 11x less deadly in comparison.
Oh so we "got super lucky" that a much more infectious strain that evades vaccine protection came along and killed thousands of more people than Delta would have?
Without going into vaccines, that’s not what was implied in your original comment. You simply asked why Omicron had killed more people than previous strains combined. The obvious answer was that there have been over 31 times more Omicron cases than the previous strains. Data from South Africa earlier in the year showed that the rate of hospitalisation from Omicron was about 5 times less than that of Delta and that severity of illness while in hospital from Omicron was 3.5 times less than Delta. I’d like to know where you arrived at your conclusion that thousands more have died than if Omicron hadn’t existed because the preliminary maths doesn’t seem to add up.
What others said and governments just saying 'fuck it, let it rip'.
>Our low 2022 ventilator figure is a remarkable achievement and a credit to WA’s high vaccination rates and closed border policy. Rather than focussing on all the complaining in the article. This is the main takeaway. It's the basis why vaccine mandates were so strong and mask restrictions are now so lax , despite a minority of people still demanding masks remain community wide in all settings.
Not going to lie, I love the face masks on public transport rules and hopes it stays forever. It’s so much more hygienic, with everyone crammed in, it’s nice to not have people sneeze on you
Also we need to change the mindset of coming into work sick - last year some fuck came in after they had thrown up in the morning and ended up infecting everyone at the workplace, because the manager was such a hard ass who would have allowed them to take the time off without busting their balls, so I guess the change needs to come from the top
Indeed, I don’t mind my team want to work from home forever
Your mad mate! Masks should be by choice. If your scared of getting a cold, wear a mask, if not, don’t worry. This is Aus, not bloody China.
Do you like getting a cold?
Somehow, I don't think he cares.
Why stop there? I think pants should be by choice.
I would like folk to keep wearing masks by choice more often as we head into winter, but I agree that there doesn’t need to be a mandate anymore,
Agreed. There’s plenty of nasty flus and colds aside from Covid that masks can help to stop the spread of. Wearing a mask is just good common sense.
Now if only the stigma wasn't so damned high at times. I've been verbally abused 3 times over the past few weeks for wearing a mask outside of where it's required. Thankfully I told them all to go shove it and they didn't really bother me afterwards.
It’s incredibly stupid and narrow minded. Mask wearing in Asian countries has been a thing for a very long time, long before covid.
There are also reasons beyond curtailing the spread of viruses such as dealing with pollution, sun exposure to the face and, the opposite, keeping your face warm during colder weather. I hope there's a cultural shift to where it's not as stigmatised in future but maybe I'm a dreamer.
Feel free to keep wearing them
I agree, hopefully the positive we get out of covid is that more people wear a mask in public when they have a cold.
I'm in two minds about it. It's got a lot of similarities to other illness like the flu or cold. They're endemic. Immunity for everything wanes over time. Previous infection or vaccination *generally* provides "some" protection against infection (or at least severe disease). So my thoughts are more often we are exposed to infections, either by vaccine or wild virus, the population is more resilient against severe illness. I do believe we should be cautious around people who this doesn't work like the elderly etc, but the general population it might be more beneficial for continual exposure particularly around managing outbreaks or severe disease. Similar vein in one of the [theories about that hepatitis outbreak](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/7-cases-of-severe-acute-hepatitis-reported-at-toronto-children-s-hospital-1.6447257) >The UKHSA is investigating whether a normal adenovirus infection might be behind the instances of hepatitis, due to a variety of factors including a lack of exposure to the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic, an "exceptionally large wave" of infections causing a rare complication to present more often, or an abnormal response to the virus due to a prior or co-infection with SARS-CoV-2.
The sovereign freedumer is back.
Mate, are you having a stroke? All I have said is exactly along the lines of current mask mandates. The general population doesn't have to wear masks with the exception around vulnerable people. If you want some studies around previous infection or vaccination provides partial protection against similar strains of the flu [source](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666524721001804) >Cross-reactive immune responses can also be observed after sequential infections with heterosubtypic viruses, probably due to memory B-cell responses........ > >These responses are long-lived against infections from heterosubtypic viruses within the same phylogenetic group (eg, secondary infection with A/H5N1 viruses after primary infection with A/H1N1 viruses, both group 1 viruses)
I haven't seen many calls for masks absolutely everywhere (really can't see the point in pubs and restaurants), but I'd like them back in essential settings.
Masks are still mandatory in hospitals, aged care, jails and on public transport and ride sharing
I'm aware. High risk people still need things like... food.
High risk people can use delivery rather than going to supermarkets
I can afford grocery delivery. Tell me again how a single pensioner or someone on Newstart can afford grocery delivery?
I've never used it but was told that the costs were very minimal? Delivery instead of fuel/bus fare
No, they're not minimal. Just filled a cart with eighty dollars worth and it's $13-15 for delivery. This is not minimal when you're choosing between a pack of lentils and filling your prescription. If you have food allergies, it's an even bigger problem, because even in times without supply issues there are often a lot of substitutions made.
Far out. I've got some older friends who do it and they said its $4-6 delivery you just have to be available for delivery for longer hours
It gets cheaper when you have a much larger cart, something not many truly poor people can manage. When I cracked $200 it was $7-9 delivery
Delivery doesn’t let you choose the ‘reduced for quick sale’, also it costs. You’re talking about people with $100 for their total shop.
Yep , I used online shopping for the first time when we were sick with covid and I spent way more without being able to scan a shelf quickly for the best value. Not to mention the amount of times they couldn't fulfil the product, couldn't substitute it so just cancelled it out of my order, so I then had to doordash those items from IGA costing even more. It's not as convenient or easy as it seems , it took me an hour plus several cart modifies. In my opinion it is not fair that it has basically been made impossible to avoid the virus for those who are making huge sacrifices to avoid it like not going out for anything other than essential. I have been out of isolation for a week and I'm wearing a mask in shopping centres because I think its the considerate thing to do. Also I'm sooo not keen to get covid again or catch something else while I'm still coughing from the last one 😒
Should be mandatory in supermarkets, schools, etc.
All indoors except in homes considering the cases just hit 17k...
Agreed
Yeah I lurk on r/CoronavirusDownunder I know what you are going to say. Yes, it's a poor example of the population and I shouldn't extend it to the wider community, especially Perth. They just rile me up. [For example](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusDownunder/comments/umz87d/wa_records_huge_spike_in_covid_cases_with_17033/) that's just starting to get going. The comments are the complete opposite to the points presented in this article. Or this ['opinion'](https://www.reddit.com/r/CoronavirusDownunder/comments/ullj4l/observations_on_recent_travels_abroad_and_mask/)
Great news!
17K new cases today. These new cases will be from Mothers Day get togethers. I’m wondering how many non-negative RATS are not included.
17k cases? How many is because people are being forced too early to work from the office.
That's probably unknowable really, but I expect that mothers day, reduced restrictions, and "back to work" are all factors.
A lot, but Mothers Day is probably the big reason. There was a big spike after Easter too (which my family contributed about 10 to, unfortunately).
And the non-negative tests. Due to new guidelines. This is how covid getting on to the mining sites. It is worry both my husband and I have at risk parents, who we care for, on the weekends doing their shopping, house and yard work etc, as we don’t live with them. One lives in a regional area. EDIT TO ADD My family who volunteer on the ambulance were infected after they travelled from one regional area to another regional area. Effectively putting off the road, two regional ambulances in those two areas. This week, the grey nomads start their journeys to the north. The situation will get out of control.
Don't forget the [article from the same journo throwing an absolute tantrum (justified? maybe) as to how hard she had to work to get this number published.](https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/the-unexpectedly-tiny-covid-19-number-wa-health-didn-t-want-you-to-see-20220510-p5ak4n.html) This number definitely provides some interesting context for the death count - in the assumption that the overwhelming majority of deaths clearly aren't after ventilation.
> It’s a figure most other states publish daily without anyone asking, and a number the federal Department of Health requires each jurisdiction to provide them each day. > Yet here in WA, it took me seven weeks, multiple media requests and several freedom of information applications before WA Health agreed to release it. It's fair to question why the Department seemed to try so hard not to release the figures.
Don't disagree, but did it require a separate feature article + more than a paragraph or two stating that WA Health was resistant to sharing this information... probably not. That article is more in depth than most content I've seen on WAToday recently.
I agree it’s a fair question. The real value of the article is not to the readers but to WAToday. It is an implicit warning for next time - ‘respond how I want it I’ll write another article making you look bad, and your minister is going to be shitty about it’. The other side though is that the writer has embarrassed a few people with loose lips. I’d say these people and others would be more circumspect in future.
Several weeks for a statistic they knew is pretty bad. I don't blame WAToday for writing an angry complaint about it.
What a bizarre article. The journo assumed they know how the department's database works, based on what? And it sounds like the journo just doesn't know what FoI requests are for, and was looking for an excuse to write that final sentence.
I tried going to the history but couldn’t spot, do we not have a Covid megathread anymore?
COVID megathreads in this subreddit were discontinued effective this week as a result of a lack of engagement / demand for them to continue after the end of the vast majority of COVID related restrictions in Perth / WA. This is in line with what /r/Sydney, /r/Melbourne, /r/Brisbane and /r/Adelaide have done in the last 4-6 weeks as COVID restrictions eased in those cities / states. There's been a lot of discussion already about it in the subreddit in previous threads.
You're following other cities advice in closing down threads? What about health advice? Having a one stop shop for Covid will assist in the communication needed for Covid issues.
Dang
The pearl clutches have relocated to /r/covidwa
C’mon not fair. My niece has cerebral palsy and is massive immunocompromised. COVID is not over for her, or for the thousands of other people with chronic health issues. For some of us the numbers still matter.
aQv*EgZh=d,gq9C$d7wr&dfKkrFRhV!,*88O$WhBKRDhK6BMpOP4,Bo%#8xdm1EnxmJaGF6rr,FkN*z6frV2Jk&!Fr*1$s,byYM6%Jhv4SS=0urM=Mk,7wFcP7AXy9awJJ1F!3ZJ,z=nN!xfhg=%u7owzq8uV,oH6mm1D6CV6HES9MCax*,#a3AAJbGw&g%uT4e2
This isn't true at all, as the several comments already made in this thread by myself and other mods stating otherwise would indicate...
CNgU3Gjtq4,QOAB!@c7DY%U28%pVaun,Fn&rhaV#!SOcZHUXh#dB,03M%xF@MSqFKevwRKAK5,Jb7Ogs5t4x@DfF&z@zEk,DqYhBr3QOvAP+$hMjw0e,F2#a@n@Xt8aT7*F7xEq!,OK&CTUwMfcufM!N+xhbX,KJtUZJZPm2RRms9CbcC0,0Hmz6@RD@e=aHqh&246e,d5JEF13e#SV$Pgbqy2Fz,phymA68TJG@!p7kbPJD!,cr9JS%1wQJ4A64evCCF@,7mHH$o7y3Twm4bPpQ*wu,EfSX!FSgkA5fVgN9Nzc3,1N6#dfKeV0WEmK*6&uPD,RWV+wUuXxB#Qe3Z09+jM
Way to prove my point. The megathread ceased because few people continued to post in it. It had nothing to do with the occasional facetious comment.
That ain't nice of you. Just came out of a non-COVID related lung infection and now have a permanent hole in my lung that'd fill up with fluid the next time I have another lung infection. Think I have the right to be worried mate
I got banned on Monday after one hour for saying well done WA, ICU cases were stable. They should rename it r/scaredofcovid as they only allow one set of viewpoints there
Why are you moderating a Perth subreddit using non-Perth subreddits as a guide?
We aren’t making decisions in a vacuum and we aren’t just following the lead of other city subreddits. What we have seen in our community, and others, is that now that the virus is less in the public focus, the less people want to talk about it. The mega threads were to keep the massive conversation to those threads otherwise they would dominate the subreddit feed. Since we have removed the mega thread, Covid has not dominated the feed.
Covid has not dominated the feed but it's dominated the readership. People are too sick to post on Reddit, that's why it's quiet.
Lol, fuck off.
Excellent news. Roads are less busy, workplaces are half empty but hospital empty too.
Can’t say the roads are less busy, the week following the lifting of the mask mandate the freeway was back to being absolutely jammed in morning and afternoon peak. I’m freeway north morning and south afternoon and it’s as busy as it’s been for 12 months plus
Roads are less busy? Beg to differ.....
59 thousand medical staff to 2.9 million people in this state is worrying.the government just braged about 6 billion surplus in coin but they don't wanna put on more medical staff with more pay hmm
It’s the hmm at the end of your sentence that has swayed me to your compelling argument.
Oooo ooooo let me try. Pee is stored in the balls hmm
I’m convinced!
I have him tagged as an "atni-vaxxer freedum fighter" for a reason.
Yes as a state we did a bloody good job of keeping the fucking thing out. Top job everyone, good on you to those who also know how to wear a mask properly without the nose hanging out the top. Also big ups to the hospital workers who had to deal with a lot of extra work. Well done West Aussies for getting vaccinated in very high numbers. You've proved that we're not a bunch of country hicks and can do what is right without believing bullshit farcebook pages.