NSW COVID
Today, we registered 35,000 cases. And that was only from symptomatic people who managed to get PCR tests.
RATs aren't counted - many of which are positive. And because it's so hard to get a PCR test (they're all limited hours during the holiday period - which we are still in here in Australia) a lot of people who get a positive RAT don't bother trying to get a PCR, they just self-isolate. Does this cause an issue when it comes to numbers for WHO? Yes.
But 35,000 positive cases recorded in the last 24 hours (some of which are doubtless the overflow from before New Year) is not a good result any way you look at it.
The government has given up trying. The PM (national, not state) still thinks the "free market" is the best way to run this. Two years of warnings, of holding fast, of trying to keep this thing down? Gone down the drain. And the conservative politicians are looking at the collapsing health system and rubbing their hands in glee.
Just this morning, in our bible study group chat, I had to gently remind at least one member that being able to afford a test - being able to isolate with little or no financial consequences - is a privilege that "our social circle" has which millions of other people in our city do not. That's the kind of thinking that progressives are battling: it's not happening to me or anyone I know so it's not really happening or it's being blown out of proportion.
Ironically, in this situation, it's not even like America and their libertarian bent. Most Australians - NSWelshman - are trying to do the right thing, they want to do right by their neighbours and the people they're living with. We know COVID exists, it's a threat to vulnerable populations, we want to know when we've got it and isoalte where possible. But our government - federal, and in the case of NSW, state - have not done rightly by us. The states as a whole haven't worked together to fill in the lack by the federal government, although they've done their best individually and by their state, which is perhaps all that can be expected when we have half of them Labor and half of them LNP (Tory/conservative).
That said, this is an excellent twitter thread about a coherent, cohesive way to go forward, acknowledging that there is no 'zero-inconvenience' option for the pandemic, and perhaps there never was. It's just taken us two years to get there.
RATs aren't counted - many of which are positive. And because it's so hard to get a PCR test (they're all limited hours during the holiday period - which we are still in here in Australia) a lot of people who get a positive RAT don't bother trying to get a PCR, they just self-isolate. Does this cause an issue when it comes to numbers for WHO? Yes.
But 35,000 positive cases recorded in the last 24 hours (some of which are doubtless the overflow from before New Year) is not a good result any way you look at it.
The government has given up trying. The PM (national, not state) still thinks the "free market" is the best way to run this. Two years of warnings, of holding fast, of trying to keep this thing down? Gone down the drain. And the conservative politicians are looking at the collapsing health system and rubbing their hands in glee.
Just this morning, in our bible study group chat, I had to gently remind at least one member that being able to afford a test - being able to isolate with little or no financial consequences - is a privilege that "our social circle" has which millions of other people in our city do not. That's the kind of thinking that progressives are battling: it's not happening to me or anyone I know so it's not really happening or it's being blown out of proportion.
Ironically, in this situation, it's not even like America and their libertarian bent. Most Australians - NSWelshman - are trying to do the right thing, they want to do right by their neighbours and the people they're living with. We know COVID exists, it's a threat to vulnerable populations, we want to know when we've got it and isoalte where possible. But our government - federal, and in the case of NSW, state - have not done rightly by us. The states as a whole haven't worked together to fill in the lack by the federal government, although they've done their best individually and by their state, which is perhaps all that can be expected when we have half of them Labor and half of them LNP (Tory/conservative).
That said, this is an excellent twitter thread about a coherent, cohesive way to go forward, acknowledging that there is no 'zero-inconvenience' option for the pandemic, and perhaps there never was. It's just taken us two years to get there.