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No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

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Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago, it was popular to criticize the US's handling of the pandemic as a failure. Seeing the surge of cases in Europe makes what the US is going through look less exceptional and more expected. There's also no reason to think the level of containment China achieved is politically attainable in the west. Realizing it's "only" 180 cases, yes, China is firing on all cylinders: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2…

Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Canada has done a relatively poor job by international standards, but still much better than the US and the UK, who have both been roundly criticized in the Anglosphere. Although parts of continental Europe are struggling, there are others that have done okay - Norway and Finland, for example. Outs…

I’m a biased New Zealander - not only the above, but both New Zealand and Australia have controlled outbreaks twice. After round one there were breaches (presumably that is the cause in NZ, the origin has not been found) and then new lockdowns followed by control/eradication.

Throwing up your hands and claiming it can’t be controlled in the west for some reason is a cop out and is also incorrect.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#42
Sydneysider here. Sydney hasn't seen anything remotely resembling an outbreak yet (not as bad as Melbourne's), but people are still wearing masks on trains, we are still getting tested (for free!), and businesses generally appear to be complying with covid restrictions. Life here has been relatively normal so far.

I recognize that Sydney might still be due for an outbreak, but I have more faith that the chances of that happening is low. I am incredibly thankful to be living in a country whose people and its government seem to be doing the right thing when it comes to this pandemic.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago, it was popular to criticize the US's handling of the pandemic as a failure. Seeing the surge of cases in Europe makes what the US is going through look less exceptional and more expected. There's also no reason to think the level of containment China achieved is politically attainable in the west. Realizing it's "only" 180 cases, yes, China is firing on all cylinders: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2…

Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Canada has done a relatively poor job by international standards, but still much better than the US and the UK, who have both been roundly criticized in the Anglosphere. Although parts of continental Europe are struggling, there are others that have done okay - Norway and Finland, for example. Outs…

> Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job.

Politically, yes, but being islands with a significant distance to other countries does make them very different. It's somewhat easy to restrict travel to NZ or AU, but it's much harder in Europe.

Geographic location seems to play a role. Japan and Taiwan are islands, for all intents and purposes, so is South Korea (a mine field inhibits travel). Singapore and Malaysia have much fewer land-borders.

Restricting movement in Europe between countries is more comparable to restricting movement within a country. They don't have hard borders, generally no controls etc. Probably doable, but not without very authoritarian policies which I don't see happening (during the migrant crisis in 2015, the general narrative was that it's literally impossible to enforce borders in Europe).

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#44
post #22
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wasn't particularly clear from your 'worst non-tiny countries' (which out of context just sounds mean-spirited). So you meant in terms of new cases, not total cases?

Yes, since the original article is about new cases, not totals per se. Normalized totals will be the same everywhere - everyone will get it eventually.

This may turn out to be true but is far from clear.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#45
post #36

If you told six month ago me that we'd be treating people who are high risk of this disease the same as people with low risk I would have been in complete disbelief.

What's unbelievable is that we started this pandemic by treating people as if we knew nothing not only about this virus, but also by throwing all ARDS experience to the trash.

I will remember our experts telling us to intubate early and withhold steroids for a very long time. We killed a lot of people because a minority wanted to show off. This is depressing.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#46

Apparently it is relatively easy to control this virus during the summer, and almost impossible during the winter. Australia's summer seems to be helping it a good deal, even as winter in the northern hemisphere is making things much worse.

Here in New Zealand the virus was eradicated in the winter, then again in the late winter/spring. Did the US and UK control it in their summers?

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#47
post #32
post #13

Another thing that's helping Australia is that they're heading into summer. Normalized by population the worst non-tiny (10M+) countries to be right now seem to be France, Italy, Belgium and Poland. And it'd be even worse in France, Italy and Poland in terms of new cases if they had the kind of testing throughput the US has been able to muster (1.24M tests a day). Belgium has comparable normalized test throughput. As…

On a side note are there any sites that lists country level data about cases per day, normalised to population density?

Raw population density can be misleading.

Australia for example has a 25mill population at ~3people per km2. This is effectively worthless as a measure as ~95% of the country's population lives in major cities with population density of 4k-8k per km2.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#48
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My impression is that both in the US and in most European countries, there is a dire need for new political parties to enter the mainstream. I mean this election is basically a forced choice between two grandpas and both are representing values from before I was born. Where's the political party that I would trust to do what will secure a good future for my kids, because they, too, have young kids? Where's the politi…

IMO this was the primary thing that got Trump elected in 2016: He was the outsider, a big "fuck you" to both major parties.

And we've seen the result.

If I've learned anything atop my 33 wise years old, is that any political candidate that looks like a clean break from the old guard, is exactly the same if not worse than its predecessors.

And this is just my cynicism: the corollary is that any candidate, new or old, is a bad choice, except extremely rare exceptions.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago, it was popular to criticize the US's handling of the pandemic as a failure. Seeing the surge of cases in Europe makes what the US is going through look less exceptional and more expected. There's also no reason to think the level of containment China achieved is politically attainable in the west. Realizing it's "only" 180 cases, yes, China is firing on all cylinders: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2…

Doesn't "the west" include Australia? I would think Australia and New Zealand count, and they've done a pretty good job. Canada has done a relatively poor job by international standards, but still much better than the US and the UK, who have both been roundly criticized in the Anglosphere. Although parts of continental Europe are struggling, there are others that have done okay - Norway and Finland, for example. Outs…

IMO it's the ability to be ruled.

Re: No new locally-acquired coronavirus cases in Australia yesterday

#50
post #32
post #13

Another thing that's helping Australia is that they're heading into summer. Normalized by population the worst non-tiny (10M+) countries to be right now seem to be France, Italy, Belgium and Poland. And it'd be even worse in France, Italy and Poland in terms of new cases if they had the kind of testing throughput the US has been able to muster (1.24M tests a day). Belgium has comparable normalized test throughput. As…

On a side note are there any sites that lists country level data about cases per day, normalised to population density?

Not that I know of. The stats are designed to be maximally impenetrable and misleading, and I'm not entirely sure why. Basically the stats that matter are: hospitalizations, ICU bed utilization, and excess deaths. Everything else is bullshit. Yet you won't find any of these stats for most countries, certainly not in an easy to digest form.
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