> I do worry about the US though Europe isn't looking much different right now.
Why is Europe's status something to care about in the U.S.? China is basically operating on all cylinders right now. It's insane how people in the U.S. don't get the damage that's being done on literally all fronts right now. The past year has had irreparable damage to the U.S. It's hard to know where to even start, from slow production due to job loss and just everything going slower, poor health due to active cases…
The US’s near 40% obesity rate didn’t happen in the last 4 years. COVID amplified the effects of many decades of bad choices. Wups
I don't understand. Is the plan to keep covid out of the country forever? That doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense at this point. Will there be a lockdown every time there's new infections?
I don't understand this attitude. It's seems to essentially be "it requires thought, planning, and effort, and therefore is impossible." Was this kind of mindset as common when the world irradicated Small Pox and Polio, as it is now?
Those viruses weren't eradicated for decades though and we didn't shutdown our way of life for the interim. And they were much more deadly.
Much is being made of the fact that back in August when Melbourne was reporting over 700 new cases on some days, UK and France were reporting similar new case numbers, yet we are now getting zeroes and those countries have out-of-control spread. Congrats on getting to the magic 0! I know it can seem weird that Europe didn't lock down over the summer, but here we mostly use Health care capacity, not active cases, as t…
Land borders can be closed except for a few checkpoints, which serve as the equivalent of international airports (and seaports, don't forget about those). I don't know much about Australian geography, so I had to check on a map, but it looks like it's possible to travel from Melbourne to other parts of Australia over land. Apparently some measures were taken to prevent the virus from spreading along that route. Drivi…
> Apparently some measures were taken to prevent the virus from spreading along that route.
Police road blocks. Geography no doubt helps: there are only so many bridges across the Murray River, passes through the Australian Alps, and roads across the desert to Adelaide. And it's a bit far to ride a bicycle cross country.
Melbourne resident here. We're feeling pretty relieved to be getting these results and excited to be tentatively emerging from nearly four months of fairly strict lockdown. Much is being made of the fact that back in August when Melbourne was reporting over 700 new cases on some days, UK and France were reporting similar new case numbers, yet we are now getting zeroes and those countries have out-of-control spread. A…
Much is being made of the fact that back in August when Melbourne was reporting over 700 new cases on some days, UK and France were reporting similar new case numbers, yet we are now getting zeroes and those countries have out-of-control spread. Congrats on getting to the magic 0! I know it can seem weird that Europe didn't lock down over the summer, but here we mostly use Health care capacity, not active cases, as t…
Just FYI, in terms of lockdowns, it's only been Victoria and NSW that have done the stage 4 lockdowns over the last few months. In SA, WA, QLD, NT, we've had closed land borders between the states, with police at border crossings and points of entry to stop anybody trying to come in without a valid and allowed reason. This has prevented the cases from Vic and NSW from spreading to the other states, in much the same way that would occur in the European scenario you describe. It's not impossible, it just takes the will of the people to accept a lack of freedom of movement.
Melbourne resident here. We're feeling pretty relieved to be getting these results and excited to be tentatively emerging from nearly four months of fairly strict lockdown. Much is being made of the fact that back in August when Melbourne was reporting over 700 new cases on some days, UK and France were reporting similar new case numbers, yet we are now getting zeroes and those countries have out-of-control spread. A…
> What isn't being talked about here ... is vitamin D, HNs favorite topic: > Rates of deficiency were shown to be lower in summer (14%) and higher in winter (36%). There was little variation between the states and territories in summer, when deficiency levels were low across the country; ranging from 6% in Queensland to 19% in New South Wales. A divide was apparent in winter, with rates of vitamin D deficiency partic…
As someone in Sydney I was wondering about that connection. Cases are subsiding as we come into Spring, in Sydney and Melbourne both.
How strict was the lockdown in practice? What were the rules?
The initial rules when we went into "Stage 4" lockdown were: * Essential industries (food, health care, logistics) were working, some, like abbatoirs, with reduced capacity * Retail food sales (supermarkets/butchers/bakers etc) open. Cafes/restaurants for take-out or delivery only. * Other retail closed except for online or click&collect contact free. * Night curfew 8pm - 5am, relaxed later to 9pm. * Maximum 5km radi…
Just adding that you needed to carry a permit from your employer on your person if travelling to work and fines were significant for anyone caught out.
"Penalties of up to $19,826 (for individuals) and $99,132 (for businesses) will apply to employers who issue worker permits to employees who do not meet the requirements of the worker permit scheme or who otherwise breach the scheme requirements.
There will also be on-the-spot fines of up to $1,652 (for individuals) and up to $9,913 (for businesses) for anyone who breaches the scheme requirements. This includes employers, and employees who do not carry their worker permit when travelling to and from work"
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 th…
Also someone in Sydney who hasn't caught a train since probably March, masks do seem kind of rare places I go (south and eastern suburbs). And the days of 1.5m social distancing are long gone. It's not enforced at all, people walk all over paths and stairs and you have to squeeze by.
Which is probably not a big deal, overall, because as you say rates are low and it's basically gone at this point. Some places are taking it seriously though, I know for example a relative with a child in daycare had to get her daughter tested multiple times. Every symptom needs a test, and kids tend to have snotty noses even when healthy, which gets them pulled aside and parents called for a test before they can come back.
That's 25 grand per person. If life goes back to normal for Australians for 1-2 years before everyone else, that's a bargain. Considering that the Australian economy is based on digging and has an economic complexity just below Uganda[0], most of that damage was unavoidable anyway. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Complexity_Index
Wow, Australia has an astoundingly low ECI. Is there any way this could be confounded? I know we're no USA in this respect, but it still comes as a surprise.
We mostly sell ore, meat, and grain. If I'm reading the ECI right this takes no particular skill and these are common products that many countries in the world can produce, explaining the low score. It's why we rank alongside so many African nations.
It doesn't seem to take into account internal economies, but I don't know how we fare there.
The pandemic has a death toll. A lot of these things would've happened even without a lockdown, since if the pandemic goes badly enough, huge swaths of the population would've shut themselves at home to avoid risk of contagion. Also, the virus is clearly more dangerous than the lockdown: you have seen what happens when the lockdown is applied to the whole population, but you haven't yet seen what happens when the vir…
Sweden didn't lock down and if you look at the deaths per million they are the lowest in Europe. Raw infection numbers are scary, but not very telling since testing is far from universal or error free. Death stats aren't that reliable either. Covid seems to be deadly and a miracle cure at the same time - it's amazing how death rates for other maladies all seem to be dramatically down. I'm sure that is just coincidenc…
Well if we all do what Sweden did and apply it to the world population only 39,000,000 people need to die from Covid. Sounds reasonable.
The pandemic has a death toll. A lot of these things would've happened even without a lockdown, since if the pandemic goes badly enough, huge swaths of the population would've shut themselves at home to avoid risk of contagion. Also, the virus is clearly more dangerous than the lockdown: you have seen what happens when the lockdown is applied to the whole population, but you haven't yet seen what happens when the vir…
Sweden didn't lock down and if you look at the deaths per million they are the lowest in Europe. Raw infection numbers are scary, but not very telling since testing is far from universal or error free. Death stats aren't that reliable either. Covid seems to be deadly and a miracle cure at the same time - it's amazing how death rates for other maladies all seem to be dramatically down. I'm sure that is just coincidenc…
This was like maybe true 8 months ago, before Sweden had multiple waves. It’s been false for a while now and I don’t know why everyone keeps saying it. Another comment has the right data. Also if you’re insinuating that other maladies are getting reclassified as covid, you can look at excess deaths and see most countries had more people die in the past six months than usual, and seems to indicate we actually undercount covid deaths (this latter part is for the US)