(2 + 2 = 5) Calculating the cost of lockdowns

From the Daily Mail (because local media won’t dare touch it)

How Sydney’s lockdown broke Dieter Brummer: Home and Away star, 45, took his own life after construction ban left him without hope and money – as his tragic final Facebook posts are revealed

From the article:

‘I am looking forward to a future working high above Covid which is “apparently” “ravaging” Sydney.’

But the July 15 message of thanks to his mate, complete with a picture of a bearded Brummer nestled among the city’s skyscrapers, would tragically be his last.

Just two days later, on July 17, the NSW Government paused all construction in greater Sydney for two weeks, in a desperate – and failed – bid to arrest a surge in cases of the Indian Delta variant.

The lockdown was a devastating blow for Brummer, who took his own life at his parent’s Glenhaven home, in the city’s north west, on Saturday, just one week after the restrictions were announced.

‘He was really excited and really grateful about the job,’ his grieving employer, who has known Brummer for two decades, told Daily Mail Australia.

I was told today that my bubbly 9 year old niece is depressed. Living in Wollongong who are under similar restrictions as Sydney despite zero community infections she is unable to go to school, go to dance classes, visit friends and is currently not getting out of bed.

Closer to home we have made a decision to close our gym, losing over half the members since the first lockdown. Who would of thought people like training in a mask?

But these tragedies are not counted in the daily figures and the cumulative effect of the lockdowns for millions of people and businesses would be unmeasurable not that anyone who matters would care to try.

This entry was posted in Covid, Freedom. Bookmark the permalink.

86 Responses to (2 + 2 = 5) Calculating the cost of lockdowns

  1. Muddy says:

    I consider I have a reasonable grasp of language, but after almost 18 months of this surrealist living sculpture, I still cannot find any other word to describe our existence other than – surreal.


    Report comment
  2. The Beer Whisperer says:

    The measures aren’t measured or proportional. They display for all to see the limitations of having epidiomologists making decisions for jobs they know nothing about. Even areas they should understand, like outdoors, they fail at, and in doing so, subject people to indoors, where all the transmission takes place.


    Report comment
  3. Ruprecht says:

    Thanks Rosie, the Reuters link is very informative.


    Report comment
  4. lotocoti says:

    Following the lay-offs at Jetstar and Quaintass, I gather Air Services is expediting their early retirement programme.
    Experienced controllers are taking the opportunity to hit the exits, which may cause complications later.


    Report comment
  5. calli says:

    Brummer’s death is the tip of the misery iceberg.

    I talk to my little grandies and some are doing well. Others not so much. This rubbish is being imprinted into developing minds.


    Report comment
  6. stackja says:

    Gladys has her new boyfriend. And her salary. Gladys has no worries.


    Report comment
  7. rickw says:

    Local shopkeeper hung himself in his shop.

    Young lad in my Daughters class took his own life during last lockdown. When I think of my daughter breaking down crying and letting forth with what had happened and how she felt I burn with anger at the imbeciles in Government and my heart fills with pity for the boys parents.

    None of this had to be but the incompetents in Government made it so. They are in a spiral of idiocy. Not even Dickhead Dan was dumb enough to stop construction, yet the idiot who was supposedly “better” went further.

    If there’s any group in Australia who should be topping themselves it’s our Politicians, Health Officers and Police. They are a disgrace by any standard.


    Report comment
  8. Roger says:

    Cost of a 3 day lockdown to SE QLD small businesses = $15K-65K*.

    Compensation offered by state government = $5K.

    But only if you meet the criteria and if you complete the onerous forms correctly.

    * C0urtesy QLD Chamber of Industry & Commerce.

    Since the lockdown has been extended, you can work out the costs yourselves.

    No wonder some small business operators are despairing.


    Report comment
  9. Cold-Hands says:

    Not even Dickhead Dan was dumb enough to stop construction, yet the idiot who was supposedly “better” went further.

    Starman Dan takes his orders from the CFMEU, so didn’t dare inconvenience them, right up until the last lockdown, where cowed by the perils of the Delta variant, he also stopped construction. It’s the CHO’s preaching fire & brimstone & the pollies are too gutless to look for alternative advice.


    Report comment
  10. Chris M says:

    The constantly changing rules and regulations are designed to grind people down, it’s psy-ops. Minor lifting of ludicrous regulations leads many to be become grateful subjects, willing to accept alternate rules for rewards like seeing family again.

    The mid teens through to 30’s are the primary target, prime fertile years.


    Report comment
  11. johanna says:

    As someone whose immediate family are almost all current and former small business owners, I cannot imagine the misery that tens of thousands (at least) families are going through, watching years of toil, worry and hope, plus all their money, go down the drain.

    They would all be waiting for the next election with baseball bats, if only there was someone viable to vote for. For those living in safe seats, there is not much hope of having an effect on the carefully insulated political and bureaucratic class. Even in marginal seats, the outcome will usually be Tweedledum or Tweedledee.

    It would be great if one of those preference whisperers we hear about worked out, for each forthcoming election, how to vote in every seat to maximise the pain for both the sitting member and their gutless ‘opponents,’ irrespective of who is in power. I don’t mean simplistic nostrums like putting the sitting member last regardless of the circumstances. A more nuanced approach is required.

    In particular, there is real potential to punish these awful people in the Upper House elections, except in Queensland, where they don’t have one.


    Report comment
  12. Rex Mango says:

    Suicide difficult to discuss at best of times. People top themselves in a free society and government not to blame. When government shuts society down it’s very different story.


    Report comment
  13. Rabz says:

    “forthcoming election, how to vote in every seat to maximise the pain for both the sitting member and their gutless ‘opponents,’ irrespective of who is in power”

    In NSW at least, you can simply vote for one candidate on your lower house ticket and avoid having to give any preferences to any of the rest.

    I’m tempted to look for the most obviously unhinged lower house candidate and vote for them only, but it’s more likely to be another box drawn on the ticket with “None of the above” next to it.


    Report comment
  14. Shy Ted says:

    Never forget what these arseholes have done. Never forgive.


    Report comment
  15. JC says:

    Not even Dickhead Dan was dumb enough to stop construction, yet the idiot who was supposedly “better” went further..

    The only reason construction was allowed to remain out of the cage was because of the threats made by the building unions. Dan was actually a fucking coward for not shutting them down.


    Report comment
  16. Adam D says:

    “ Never forget what these arseholes have done. Never forgive.”

    Liberty Quote


    Report comment
  17. Danoz says:

    Shy Ted says:
    August 3, 2021 at 6:02 pm
    Never forget what these arseholes have done. Never forgive.

    +∞


    Report comment
  18. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare says:

    Covid has put almost unbearable pressure on children already made tense and worried by the hyped-up climate madness. Some of their teachers are undoubtedly trying to link Covid to climate issues, further turning the screws. Soon the kids are going to be screaming for the Great Re-set to offer them a future.

    This sort of thing is how communism stakes its claim.

    Covid has nothing at all to do with the climate. Anyone telling you that is lying. That is the first thing to tell worried children. And Covid is simply a disease like many other diseases. Doctors can make you better if you get it. There is no need to be concerned about it. That is the second thing to tell them. The third thing is to tell them they are born male or female and that is the end of the matter. There are no ‘genders’ in your house, just boys and girls.


    Report comment
  19. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare says:

    “Experienced controllers are taking the opportunity to hit the exits, which may cause complications later.”

    Yes, quite likely. You can’t just run down one part of an industry, i.e. the planes, without many other ancillary but essential parts also being affected.

    Put this maxim out across a whole nation in lockdown and realise the real opportunity costs of lockdowns.


    Report comment
  20. PeterW says:

    [i]Rex Mango says:
    August 3, 2021 at 5:40 pm
    Suicide difficult to discuss at best of times. People top themselves in a free society and government not to blame. When government shuts society down it’s very different story.[/i]

    Suicide is difficult to discuss HONESTLY… your own comment being a case in point.
    Partly because every time something bad occurs in a free society, the usual suspects abuse the government for “not doing something”, when the “something” usually makes us less free. A classic case of an issue being hijacked by those who care less for the victims than for their own agenda.

    Primarily – there is a strong correlation between a heavily restricted society and suicide. That’s in the evidence, not simply someone’s agenda.

    Suicidal people are hurting, not stupid. Those who choose non-recoverable methods do so because they don’t want to come back. They have no expectation of change for the better and so take the only way open to them to stop the pain and despair.


    Report comment
  21. stackja says:

    MPs and bureaucrats have their salaries. They don’t need to worry.


    Report comment
  22. rickw says:

    The only reason construction was allowed to remain out of the cage was because of the threats made by the building unions. Dan was actually a fucking coward for not shutting them down.

    Definitely a coward, but it all comes back to two fundamental issues:

    1) Does Government have a right to stop people earning a living?
    2) What’s the point? From my perspective it looks like a outbreak will run its course lockdown or no lockdown.


    Report comment
  23. Adam D says:

    “ 2) What’s the point? From my perspective it looks like a outbreak will run its course lockdown or no lockdown”

    More broadly why have we shifted health responsibility away from the individual. If you are worried about covid there is no reason you can’t do a self imposed lockdown. We are selfish for not protecting the elderly days the people who took away the freedoms of every single person in the country


    Report comment
  24. Docket62 says:

    I heard today of 4 local suicides. All young men. Money issues, mortgage issues, family issues…all caused but this utter shit. None will ever be linked but the families that are left to deal with it will never forget.

    Covid has certainly killed, just not in the way people think. This is government mandated homicide.


    Report comment
  25. Rorschach says:

    Covid has certainly killed, just not in the way people think. This is government mandated homicide.

    Not far away from the truth. I have a 1st year uni son, and yr 11 daughter. They have essentially been locked up now for half for months on end. The cost is that they are essentially missing out on what makes the best years of their life best. Zero social interaction. And zoom don’t cut it.

    There is a interesting article on the costs to kids on The Federalist:

    https://thefederalist.com/2021/08/02/new-study-shows-just-how-much-school-lockdowns-harm-innocent-kids/

    A lot of truth and fodder for serious contemplation.


    Report comment
  26. Thefrollickingmole says:

    Anxious, fearful kids taught to rely on daddy government to keep them safe and the only stable employment as a government fluffer.

    Our scum politicians would see that as a good thing.


    Report comment
  27. Rorschach says:

    … fearful kids taught to rely on daddy government to keep them safe

    The risk is that the kids may later turn out dysfunctional once daddy govt goes away (broke). Especially if their real daddy is also not there!


    Report comment
  28. 132andBush says:

    Gladys has her new boyfriend. And her salary. Gladys has no worries.

    This and the psychotic fixation on the single issue of zero covid.


    Report comment
  29. Rex Mango says:

    The two years having just got my driving licence & finishing school/starting uni I would trade in for any decade since.


    Report comment
  30. Tintarella di Luna says:

    Oh dear they really haven’t thought this through — Get on the ground sir doesn’t cut it — this is in downtown Merrylands NSW where the multiculture is very strong – sorry don’t know how to do a tiny url — this is the raw footage:https://worldtruthvideos.website/watch/australian-039-s-are-starting-to-fight-back_FaBYrN3Gr8m2rwi.html


    Report comment
  31. candy says:

    “Gladys has her new boyfriend. And her salary. Gladys has no worries”

    Her main worry might be getting the new man to propose, I think.


    Report comment
  32. HD says:

    Then there’s the truism that I’ve not heard expressed that much since the early days of all this…abhorrent idiocy. That while, yes, the alpha strain probably did come out of that lab in Wuhan, in one way or another and given perhaps malign intentions, it is not the only corona virus encountered by humans and other animals. Just because they weren’t described formally before 1960-something doesn’t mean they weren’t around for as long as their host species have been. They didn’t just pop up.

    The oft ignored fact that one of the reasons the “flu” vaccine isn’t that effective is that what historically and generally is referred to as “flu” includes both influenza and corona viruses. People get sick with them every year. We evolved with them It’s not clear to me to what extent the present ones have been modified for gain of function studies/ weaponised, though it would be a significant departure from the observed norm if there wasn’t already a proportion of the population that had natural immunity courtesy of “last year’s” or the other years flu. Or perhaps a relative not yet described by science/taxonomy.

    Same as everything the hell else infectious or parasitic. There’s always going to be a subset within any sexually reproducing species that can’t be infected for whatever reason of biological diversity. Such as the cell surface marker variation found in high frequencies in Northern Europe, which means HIV can’t actually get into cells.

    Ebola is pretty deadly though a proportion of people apparently don’t get sick at all.


    Report comment
  33. Perfidious Albino says:

    Numerous teen suicides in the local private schools during our last long lockdown (#2) here in Melb, mostly girls, including 3 friends from the same school. Similarly multiple ‘Pedestrian incidents’ on the Eastern Freeway, always near the overpasses. None of it ever seems to make the news, the dots are never joined, just suppressed. Not an abnormal year for suicides they tell us, but people know, everyone can see what’s happening in their own local communities.


    Report comment
  34. Real Deal says:

    I have a daughter who is at uni and struggles with mental illness. I am genuinely concerned for her. I am fairly resilient normally but I am quite lonely and devoid of the company of friends I would normally see.

    I understand they are trying to limit the overun of ICUs, and believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients. But we are going to have to live with this long term and there will be a reckoning with people not being able to face this. Those who have a settled income through this are not seeing that we are approaching Niagara Falls at a very fast rate. The only way is down.


    Report comment
  35. egg_ says:

    NSW records 199 new “cases”?
    What are pollies gonna do – get plod and the grunts to beat up Joe Public with truncheons?


    Report comment
  36. stackja says:

    Kids Helpline counsellors call ambulances as kids suicidal
    Natasha Bita August 3, 2021 – 8:04PM
    News Corp Australia Network
    Lockdowns are taking a toll on Aussie kids, with counsellors now calling ambulances for suicidal children as young as five.
    Kids’ counsellors are calling ambulances to save 37 suicidal children every week, with kids as young as five calling for help during Covid-19 lockdowns.
    Pandemic panic is hitting high school teenagers the hardest, with 1635 suicidal 15 to 18 year-olds calling Kids Helpline in the first six months of this year, shocking new statistics show.


    Report comment
  37. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    Does Government have a right to stop people earning a living

    No it does not. And this is the aspect to the entire thing that overrides everything else. Asking something of someone that you do not have to give is reprehensible. The most basic thing is self-preservation. There can be no society and therefore no government if there is no right for the individual and his/her family to be able to live.


    Report comment
  38. Docket62 says:

    “ believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients”
    I’m gonna call complete bullshit on this. The hospitals have virtually NO Covid ‘patients’ whatsoever. My contacts – Nurses and Ambos – are bored shitless coz they have nothing to do

    If you disagree – produce proof. The handful of patients in hospital are in there for every other reason other than bloody covid. Pneumonia, Influenza. you name it – and calling this shit covid just doesn’t cut it.


    Report comment
  39. mh says:

    The globalist money must have stopped flowing to him:

    Amy Tarkanian
    @MrsT106
    ·
    Aug 2
    Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of @BILD – one of the largest newspapers in Germany, apologized to the children of Germany for the COVID-19 coverage in his newspaper that made them “victims of neglect, isolation and loneliness.”

    Read the subtitles.

    https://twitter.com/MrsT106/status/1422147592239124481?s=20


    Report comment
  40. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare says:

    .” I am fairly resilient normally but I am quite lonely and devoid of the company of friends I would normally see.”

    Real Deal, I feel for you. Having a family member vulnerable with a mental illness is a worry, always there, and relief from it is hard to find. I have some similar worries so I do know what it is like. Try the Open Thread here for some company and liveliness, as it may make things a little bit better for you.


    Report comment
  41. mh says:

    Looks like Mutti Merkel’s lasting legacy will no greater than being a Stasi whore.


    Report comment
  42. Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Border Closure says:

    Roger says:
    August 3, 2021 at 5:28 pm

    Cost of a 3 day lockdown to SE QLD small businesses = $15K-65K*.
    Compensation offered by state government = $5K.
    But only if you meet the criteria and if you complete the onerous forms correctly.

    There’s also a Jobkeeper-style payment direct to staff who’ve been laid off or stood down for the lockdown.

    Not covered: Businesses outside the lockdown areas but still impacted. (example: Guided tour group company [and staff], say in a Unimog bus with pre-booked itinerary – gotta cancel everything at the last minute, coz the punters are locked up)

    Also not covered: Lockdown lag. That is, staff stood down [and the impacted business operator] in the weeks following the lockdown, due to the lag of business lost due to lockdown. (example: The accommodation & travel businesses catering to commercial travellers with a one-week long run, who couldn’t leave home last week, so aren’t calling into their usual motels & cafes the following week.)

    Totally & completely covered: Public servants & council staff, etc. Saving on the bus fares to work, full pay while watching Netflix while chomping on delivered pizzas.

    “We’re all in this together”


    Report comment
  43. struth says:

    Covid has done nothing Lizzie.
    The criminals in our governments have done it.


    Report comment
  44. struth says:

    Hospitals are starting to get stretched with covid patients. ….
    Listening to the ABC?


    Report comment
  45. HD says:

    “believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients”

    Is that a strange way of referring to NSW Health’s consistent history of poor planning and underinvestment? Hiring Architects that seem to think the average person is 5’8″ and 60kg, that windows and green space are unnecessary. Locally, Public Hospitals are running at capacity for two reasons:

    1) Despite hundreds of millions, billions re-building hospitals including those at Wagga Wagga and Griffith, they end up with exactly the same number or a couple more inpatient beds and smaller hospitals.
    2) Given the attempt to catch up on elective surgery from last year’s mass of corona patients- that never materialised. At least the aforementioned are running at capacity. They however were essentially running at capacity for as long as anyone can recall. Run on the same model apparently as commerce is – the just in time model.


    Report comment
  46. Fair Shake says:

    Hospitals will get stretched and overloaded quickly as the current model is to run at 90% occupancy and efficiency. It only takes a small increase to claim the hospitals are full and overflowing. Makes a great headline for the msm and fear mongers.

    As for the mental health aspect it’s a massive hidden cost. From my own small viewpoint my son has now lost 3 seasons of basketball. It was a critical time for rep selections and pathways. That’s all gone now. It was his dream and passion. The light has gone out in his eyes. He has a close group of mates and fingers xed we get through. But our political leaders really are the scourge inflicted on our community.


    Report comment
  47. Gilas says:

    Fair Shake says:
    August 4, 2021 at 6:35 am

    Hospitals will get stretched and overloaded quickly as the current model is to run at 90% occupancy and efficiency.

    Almost correct.
    In my experience, the aim was for 95%+ at all times, while the COAG funding agreements funded for 85% bed occupancy since the 1990s, at least, the rest was supposedly picked up by private insurers.
    When below 95%, management would hammer the “this low occupancy is unsustainable!” line ad nauseam, threatening bed-cuts and ward closures.
    $$ wastage was everywhere, of course, but the Budget and the taxpayers always picked up the bill.. and kept voting for the same lying, incompetent psychopaths.

    When blaming the Government and its bureaucracy, look in the mirror.


    Report comment
  48. calli says:

    “believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients”

    Really? I was just treated to a lengthy brand new TikToc video of Sydney nurses and doctors dancing. Propaganda for vaccination.

    When they take it seriously, so will I.


    Report comment
  49. Ragu says:

    Real Deal says:

    August 3, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    I have a daughter who is at uni and struggles with mental illness. I am genuinely concerned for her.

    I hope she pulls through.
    Has she thought about CBD oil?


    Report comment
  50. egg_ says:

    “believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients”

    Really? I was just treated to a lengthy brand new TikToc video of Sydney nurses and doctors dancing. Propaganda for vaccination.

    Wasn’t this the recent evidence that Grigs demanded?

    “No idle nurses” says the omnipotent.


    Report comment
  51. mh says:

    ‘Really? I was just treated to a lengthy brand new TikToc video of Sydney nurses and doctors dancing. Propaganda for vaccination.’

    I wonder if the TikTok deniers are following the new Cat.


    Report comment
  52. Rabz says:

    “Get on the ground sir doesn’t cut it …”

    Thanks Tinta, that footage has made my day.


    Report comment
  53. Real Deal says:

    Elizabeth Lizzie Beare

    “Real Deal, I feel for you. Having a family member vulnerable with a mental illness is a worry, always there, and relief from it is hard to find. I have some similar worries so I do know what it is like. Try the Open Thread here for some company and liveliness, as it may make things a little bit better for you.”

    Thanks Lizzie, doing okay. At least I am working and riding a bike to work each day (no mean feat for a late 50s age group. Love the open forum, keeps me amused and entertained. My daughter is my main worry but ATM she is okay. I know you worry bout your sons as well so it is normal, I suppose.

    Apropos Hospital numbers, St Ruth and others – I am no ABC listener or Covid junkie. But, at a facility I am aware of in Sydney a week ago they had two dedicated Covid wards. They now have six wards. All full. As far as I am aware they are not there for appendix removal or lobotomies. I am suspicious of big governments as much as you are but I cannot deny what I see.


    Report comment
  54. Kneel says:

    Covid has put almost unbearable pressure on children…

    The poor little-uns are not even seeing faces – no smiles etc.
    How will this affect them, if they can’t read even basic emotional state of others from the face? This may well be a lifetime affliction for them.
    Putting masks on under 16s is dangerous – search “hypercapnia”. Big issue for the little-uns because the volume of air under the mask is so much greater as a percentage of the volume of air they breathe.
    Mandatory masks for at best under 10’s is child abuse, pure and simple.


    Report comment
  55. That Jo says:

    “A man in his 20s has died at home with COVID-19 in south-west Sydney overnight. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the man was not vaccinated.”
    https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-news-live-nsw-and-queensland-covid-19-cases-continue-to-grow-as-federal-vaccination-modelling-released-20210803-p58fin.html

    Tsk tsk, if only all 20 year olds were vaccinated.


    Report comment
  56. Candy:
    “Her main worry might be getting the new man to propose, I think.”
    I think he’s already proposed – but it isn’t marriage…


    Report comment
  57. Katzenjammer says:

    Transmission between family members remains one of the main reasons the virus continues to spread,

    From SMH last week. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/army-to-enforce-stay-at-home-orders-as-delta-spreads-through-children-20210729-p58e3r.html

    Great idea locking up families so they can pass it around. Hundreds of shopping centres listed as the potential contact sites but very few get infected. They’ve got it upside down. WE should be hanging out in public rather than breating each others air in close proximity.


    Report comment
  58. Struth:
    “Covid has done nothing Lizzie.
    The criminals in our governments have done it.”
    Exactly.
    Had our governments gone to sleep on the last day of 2019, and not yet woken up, none of this shit would have happened and Australia would be a better place for it.
    We must remember who the enemy is – our Lords and Masters.
    Buy gold and rope futures.


    Report comment
  59. The Sheriff says:

    Australia is a failed state.


    Report comment
  60. Diogenes says:

    Real Deal,
    Given that 283 are hospitalised (across all of greater Syd) it would not surprise me. Whether that constitutes “under strain” I cannot say, but a nurse acquaintance last year was under contract for 3 months to babysit an empty ward at the ‘height” of the pandemic, that was a textbook definition of ‘not under strain’.

    There is a good argument that a “Nightingale” style(or in the old parlance ‘Fever’) hospital is better as a dedicated covid hospital rather than our standard multistory hospitals as the Nightingale/Fever are spread out on one level, and there is no contamination of lifts or through the ventilation.


    Report comment
  61. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    Winston @ 12:42
    Perhaps the looks may belie an intimidating and worthy combatant. But on the face of it, she doesn’t give me confidence. #aintnolaracroft


    Report comment
  62. John A says:

    Adam D says: August 3, 2021, at 7:13 pm

    “ 2) What’s the point? From my perspective it looks like a outbreak will run its course lockdown or no lockdown”

    More broadly why have we shifted health responsibility away from the individual. If you are worried about covid there is no reason you can’t do a self-imposed lockdown. We are selfish for not protecting the elderly days the people who took away the freedoms of every single person in the country

    Because closet totalitarians like D…h..d Dan have absolutely no concept of the individual or of personal responsibility.


    Report comment
  63. Kneel says:

    “A man in his 20s has died at home with COVID-19 in south-west Sydney overnight. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the man was not vaccinated.”

    If they had treated him with ivermectin on testing, there is an 80% chance he would not have even gone to hospital, and a 98% chance he would not have died.
    These grubby politicians and health “authorities” are killing people by refusing to treat them, just telling them to go home and come back if and when it gets worse.
    Misfeasance or malfeasance, take your pick.
    Totally unacceptable.
    And they know – or should know.
    I have already emailed my local member as well as Gladys pointing out the scientific and medical evidence to them, and begging them to run a large RCT if they are still unsure. That was a week ago, and no reply other than the standard “got your email” from my local member – nothing from Galdys (or one of her office toadies), even though I requested a reply.

    On an unrelated topic, does anyone know where to buy piano wire, a cat o’ 9 tails, tar, feathers and salt? I have a feeling we will need them…


    Report comment
  64. Damon says:

    “Ebola is pretty deadly though a proportion of people apparently don’t get sick at all.”
    Smallpox stuck around for centuries.


    Report comment
  65. Kneel says:

    “… does anyone know where to buy piano wire, a cat o’ 9 tails, tar, feathers and salt? I have a feeling we will need them…”

    Ah, never mind – wooden fence paillings and 4″ nails are plentiful.


    Report comment
  66. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    Kneel @ 3:25
    Having advised today that the young man was checked on every few(?) days by NSW Health, it is unbelievable that these people [edit: are they really human or just automatons?] can stand there and take no responsibility for this. Happy to be corrected but from the little of the presser I saw, nothing suggested that the journalists pressed Gladys or Chant on Health not providing any treatment.


    Report comment
  67. duncanm says:

    “I understand they are trying to limit the overun of ICUs, and believe me hospital wards are starting to get stretched with Covid patients.”

    They have no excuse. They’ve had a good 12 months or more to prepare for the inevitable.


    Report comment
  68. duncanm says:

    “A man in his 20s has died at home with COVID-19 in south-west Sydney overnight. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the man was not vaccinated.”

    not only not-vaccinated, but the bloke had a negative covid test result one day prior.

    oops


    Report comment
  69. The Sheriff says:

    [quote]John A says:
    August 4, 2021 at 2:57 pm
    Adam D says: August 3, 2021, at 7:13 pm

    “ 2) What’s the point? From my perspective it looks like a outbreak will run its course lockdown or no lockdown”

    More broadly why have we shifted health responsibility away from the individual. If you are worried about covid there is no reason you can’t do a self-imposed lockdown. We are selfish for not protecting the elderly days the people who took away the freedoms of every single person in the country

    Because closet totalitarians like D…h..d Dan have absolutely no concept of the individual or of personal responsibility.[/quote]

    Once the state funds “free” healthcare, that then becomes the basis to interfere in your free choices. This is why “free” or socialised healthcare is a cancer.


    Report comment
  70. duncanm says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9858661/Covid-NSW-Aude-Al-Askar-27-died-southwest-Sydney-home-two-weeks-diagnosis.html

    2 weeks with covid. Felt fine. Collapsed in shower.

    “But his family say he had a heart condition and are not certain Covid killed him”


    Report comment
  71. Diogenes says:

    Kneel,
    ordinary bunnings rope and a lampost will do the trick.


    Report comment
  72. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    Because closet totalitarians like D…h..d Dan have absolutely no concept of the individual or of personal responsibility

    Now, it’s all about collective responsibility and which runs through the mindset of modern life.


    Report comment
  73. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    The other aspect to this is that Gladys and Chant both have said that a person could contract ‘rona in the morning and be on a ventilator by the afternoon.

    If this is correct – and leaving aside any co-morbidities because that aspect was not brought up in regard to that scenario – how then can it be justified that a person with the illness can be left at home and not admitted to hospital straightaway?

    From fine in the morning to on a ventilator by nightfall is an insupportable position for government to take without simultaneously organising for hospital transfers without delay.

    Yet, by and large, that has not happened. Because to date the only use for that standpoint has been to justify the pressuring of people to have the jab.

    And, again, no politician seems to have been questioned on this.


    Report comment
  74. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    duncanm says:
    August 4, 2021 at 4:52 pm

    +1


    Report comment
  75. Dot says:

    Remember that the number of daily cases as a proportion of tests, is equal to, or usually, less than the accepted rate for false positives.

    Virtually all of the “cases” could be false positives.

    That’s probably why a handful of people have died this year, out of millions of tests.

    Then look at their age and co-morbidities.

    This is nuts.


    Report comment
  76. Chris M says:

    “This is nuts”
    .

    No it’s not. In fact a very logical means of controlling a large number of people, it’s for their safety.

    It never was about the (planned and manufactured) disease dot.


    Report comment
  77. duncanm says:

    This really is getting ridiculous.
    from the daily mail article linked above:

    “Paramedics who responded to the emergency reportedly confirmed that he suffered heart failure, whereas the hospital specified that Covid was a contributing factor in his death.
    ..
    Heart conditions reportedly run in the Al-Askar family, and his cousin, Khalid Thijeel, told Daily Mail Australia he believed it was this that cost the man his life, not the virus.
    ..
    One woman, who went to weekend school with Mr Al-Askar to learn Arabic together, said he was one of the ‘friendliest boys’ she knew who had ‘kindness in his heart for everyone’. ”

    The guy was in the last few days of quarantine after being tested positive two before.

    meanwhile.. on SBS news its reported “he had no underlying health conditions”

    She was told that ‘his heart couldn’t handle the infection’.


    Report comment
  78. Whalehunt Fun says:

    Only vote for candidates who assert that they will retrospectively criminalise the advising of governments to undertake lockdowns. The punishment to be asset-stripping of the entire family. Making it a crime to employ them would also be useful follow-up. We could trawl through all the ABC broadcasts and rip rich bounty from their staff. What a joy is retrospective legislation.


    Report comment
  79. Kneel says:

    Diogenes:
    “Crucifixion? Line on the left, one cross each. Next!”


    Report comment
  80. Kneel says:

    “…Health not providing any treatment.”

    What treatments? They don’t have any, they say, because they don’t WANT to have any, to force the vaccine on you.

    All they have is forced ventilation when you get really bad.
    No anti-virals.
    This is beyond wrong, it’s criminal.
    There are treatments.
    They work.
    No, they are not 100% effective, because they are a treatment, not a cure.
    But they won’t entertain them – at all.
    They keep telling us “the vaccine will set you free – get it!”, while admitting it is not 100% effective, and less effective on “variants”, while the treatments appear to remain effective regardless of variant.

    Still they dither – “no large scale random control trial”, they say. No shit Sherlock, the drugs in question are off patent, so no drug company will fund a large scale RCT. So Govco, freaking DO ONE! A meta-analysis of small scale RCT and OCT trials suggests a benefit.

    https://covid19criticalcare.com/covid-19-protocols/

    Pierre Kory (one of the authors):
    FLCCC Alliance CV | Pierre Kory 2 / 28

    http://www.flccc.net
    Education

    1988–1994 B.A. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado Major Mathematics
    1994–1996 M.P.A. New York University, New York, NY Health Policy and Administration
    1998–2002 M.D. St. George’s University Grenada, West Indies
    2002–2005 Residency Internal Medicine, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, New
    York, NY, St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital, New York
    2005–2008 Fellowship Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Albert Einstein College of
    Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York
    Past Appointments/Positions

    1995–1997 Project Coordinator – Study of Incentives to Improve Medicaid Immunization
    Coverage Rates, NYC Dept. of Health and Centers for Disease Control
    1997–1998 Project Director – Study of Incentives to Improve Medicaid Immunization Coverage
    Rates, NYC Dept. of Health and Centers for Disease Control
    2008–2015 Attending Physician – MICU, Pulmonary Consultation Service, Faculty Practice Beth
    Israel Medical Center, NY, NY
    2008–2012 Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New
    York, NY
    2008–2015 Director of Simulation Training–Department of Medicine Beth Israel Medical
    Center, New York
    2012–2015 Program Director – Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship –
    Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York
    2013–2015 Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
    New York, NY
    2016–2020 Associate Professor of Medicine, Clinical Health Scientist Track University of
    Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
    2015–2020 Critical Care Service Chief, Medical Director, Trauma and Life Support Center
    University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WI
    May 2020 COVID-19 Emergency Critical Care Attending Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical
    Center, New York, NY
    8/20–10/20 Weatherby Health Care, Locums Critical Care Specialist Greenville Memorial
    Hospital, Greenville, SC
    10/20–12/20 Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI Intensivist, Advocate Critical
    Care Service

    Honors and Awards

    1999–2002 Iota Epsilon Alpha International Medical Honor Society
    2003 Best Internal Medicine Resident in Primary Care Award, PGY1
    2004 Best Internal Medicine Resident Award, PGY2
    2007 “Feature Article” in November 2007 issue of Chest
    2008 Teaching Faculty of the Year, Dept. Of Medicine, Beth Israel Med. Ctr
    2008 Health Care Association of New York Quality Institute “Profiles in QI”
    2008 Modern Healthcare – 16th Annual Spirit of Excellence Award Nominee
    2009 Young Investigator Award Semifinalist-DVT Study – Chest 2009
    2009 Young Investigator Award Semifinalist-Hypothermia – Chest 2009
    2010 1st Prize – Beth Israel Medical Center Research Fair
    2013 Super Doctors – “Rising Stars” of New York City
    2013 Anesthesia and Analgesia Article Featured in Journal Watch, MDLinx
    2013 1st Prize – Beth Israel Research Fair-RCT of Videolaryngoscopy
    2013 Honorable Mention BI Research Fair 2013-IVC Analysis Study
    2013 Young Investigator Award Semi-Finalist – Chest Annual Meeting 2013
    2013 Critical Care Smart Brief, Nov. 2013 – Videolaryngoscopy Abstract
    2013 Medscape Medical News Feature, Nov. 2013 – Videolaryngoscopy
    2015 University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic’s Trauma and Life Support Center Team
    Member of the Month, June 2015
    2015 President’s Choice Award, British Medical Association Book Awards
    2015 Highly Commended in Internal Medicine, British Medical Association Book Awards
    2016 Madison Magazine Dane County “Top Docs”- Critical Care
    2016 James B. Skatrud Teaching Award – UW PCCM Fellowship
    2016 Outstanding Off–Service Faculty Teaching Award -UW Dept. Emergency Medicine
    2017 Madison Magazine Dane County “Top Docs”- Critical Care
    2018 Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, UW Department of Medicine
    2018 Madison Magazine Dane County “Top Docs”- Critical Care
    2019 Department of Medicine – Tribute from a Patient
    2019 Gold Medal Award – Highest Abstract Score – 2019 Annual Meeting
    2019 UW Health Physician Excellence Award Nominee
    2020 Founding Member, Front-Line Critical Care Working Group, http://www.flccc.net


    Report comment
  81. OldOzzie says:

    Calculating the cost of lockdowns – Australia in the slow lane over Covid-19 testing

    In one weekend late last year, a small European country was able to test 3.6 million people – most of its entire adult population – for Covid-19 and isolate those with a positive result.

    It was a phenomenal feat, given coronavirus outbreaks are continuing to outpace health authorities across Australia’s east coast, with Sydney remaining in lockdown for the foreseeable future, Queensland teetering on a widespread breakout of the highly infectious Delta variant, while Melbourne nervously waits to see if new infections will trigger its sixth shut down.

    But Slovakia found a way: rapid testing.

    Rapid antigen tests can detect Covid-19 in as little as 10 minutes and it is something that the Australian government is finally starting to have an “aha moment” over.

    The irony is that two Australian companies have developed rapid Covid tests. But instead of being used to help catapult the country back to some kind of normality, they have been sent overseas to the US, Europe and elsewhere.

    Why? It appears self-interest has got in the way of homegrown tech being deployed to isolate those with Covid-19 in Australian communities, according to one rapid test firm.

    “The groups that advise the government on diagnostic use in public health, they’re not called diagnostics NSW, they’re called Pathology NSW, right. I think that talks to the stakeholders,” said John Kelly, chief executive of listed rapid test maker, Atomo.

    “And the problem is exacerbated by the fact that to get a product accepted in the state healthcare systems it really needs to be reimbursed. It‘s been extremely difficult, nigh impossible, for point of care diagnostics to get reimbursement in Australia, which means their use is severely limited, because they’re not reimbursed under the public system.”

    Instead, up until now the Australian and state governments have relied on Covid-19 tests being sent to laboratories which can take up to three days to deliver a result.

    This has led to the virus outpacing contact tracers. In one case in Sydney it took up to four days to notify people that they had been exposed to a tier-one site, which carries the highest risk of becoming infected.

    Pathology testing is also more expensive than a point-of-care test, which a GP, pharmacist, or nurse can administer.

    “It’s a much greater cost. You could probably do five or six for the cost of one,” said Mr Kelly.

    ASX-listed pathology providers such as Healius and Sonic Healthcare have benefitted from Covid-19 testing. In the six months to December 31, Healius’s revenue rose 22 per cent to $711.4m, with the company saying the leap was “was largely driven by robust Covid-19 testing volumes”.

    It said it completed more than 1.6 million Covid-19 tests conducted during the half, including more than 800,000 in Victoria.

    “This more than offset the impact of lockdowns on traditional areas of pathology demand, including restrictions on elective surgery, particularly in Victoria,” Healius said in its latest financial results in February.

    Meanwhile, Sonic’s revenue surged 33 per cent to $4.4bn in the same period. Underlining how much Covid testing contributed to the result, the company said if it was excluded, global base business revenue would have been down 1 per cent.

    “Sonic’s strong financial results for the half year reflect the millions of Covid-19 PCR tests we have performed across our countries of operation as part of combatting the pandemic,” chief executive Colin Goldschmidt said in February.

    While rapid Covid testing delivers results within minutes, it is not viewed as a replacement but rather complementary to vaccinations, given there will still be a need to detect and isolate those with the virus – even when most of the population is immunised.

    In Australia, there are two companies that are making rapid tests – Atomo and Ellume – and it is understood the federal and various state governments are exploring how to incorporate the speedy diagnostic platform as it grapples with the country’s biggest city remaining in lockdown for the foreseeable future.

    But some sections of the community are not waiting for a government policy change.

    Already, Atomo has supplied rapid tests to the Australian Olympic swimming, sailing, surfing and softball teams, and aged care providers including Southern Cross Care, Australian Unity, Mecwacare, Assisi, Signature Care, Tall Woods Aged Care and Hunter Valley Care Group.

    It is also supplying the Australian Defence Force and mining and oil companies which rely on fly-in-fly-out workers.

    “The reality is, however, that it’s been well established overseas that regular antigen testing is a low-cost and very effective way to screen asymptomatic people and manage risk because outbreaks are contained because people are protected very quickly,” Mr Kelly said.

    “As the Delta variant has exploded in Australia and as the use of these tests has been validated overseas their (governments) sort of rationale for not adopting these tests has become unsustainable.

    “That’s why we’re now seeing, you know, both federal and state governments to some degree, talking about the need to, if not adopt rapid testing at least start to evaluate them in a manner that is consistent with how they’re used overseas.”


    Report comment
  82. BorisG says:

    ““ 2) What’s the point? From my perspective it looks like a outbreak will run its course lockdown or no lockdown”’

    But a lot faster. Close to 1000 people are dying in Russia every day and that’s just official stats. It is a very different story in the UK, where case numbers are similar but vaccination levels much higher.


    moderated

Comments are closed.