Covid 19 -

[slowsnake]

I think complacency will do more damage here in WA than anything else.
I have not been asked if I am vaccinated?..have cancelled 2 oncology appointments because I have a rotten cough and my sinuses are full of gunk, so much gunk in fact that I sound like a bloody Texan!

I spoke to my oncologist by phone yesterday, I told him I am not coming in whilst I am sick like this, he don't get it, even he has not asked if I am vaccinated?
He wants me to sit in a waiting room, mainly women with pale sad faces, wearing bandanna type scarfs, no face masks, and me coughing and runny nose, I refuse to be there point blank.
That's how crazy we in WA are, want to fill a bloody massive stadium with folk from interstate yet no one asks if I am vaccinated, and I'm supposed to sit in a waiting room of sick people, all immune systems destroyed to the nth degree, I refused, told him to call me in a week see how I feel!

I know the sh.t is going to hit the fan here, not sure when, but when it does everyone in WA will try get to NSW or Victoria maybe SA, and I hope they close their borders to West Australians like we have to them.
It's going to happen, and fast and I don't really want to be around when it does


Cheers Billy

[five 7]

There was complacency here in NZ as well Billy, two weeks before our outbreak my son had flu like symptoms bad enough to warrant being sent from local A&E to Hospital A&E not once was a Covid test mentioned. That illness bowled him over for three weeks makes you wonder what it was as we were all sick to a lesser extent, sore throat coughs and headaches I hear you on the stadium thing and the obsession with ball sports at all cost, keeps the masses happy i spose.

[MITCHAY]

WA is last place for jabs. ACT was going well for over a year despite being surrounded by NSW. Not surprising we are fighting for fastest jab rate.

I do have to laugh though. Despite all the problems with our rollout, we are still ahead of NZ. It's obviously being driven by the outbreaks but certain parts of the media like to hide that though.

[rods falcon]

In regards to staffing, having a wife that works in aged care and a daughter who is a nurse, I can tell you that not much has been done about staffing levels since the pandemic began. One would have thought that there would be incentives to up skill current workers and to fast track those that are near entering the health care profession, but nothing in Victoria at least.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

[russellw]

Originally Posted by zilo

Yep...as long as you are happy to run the gauntlet at 30% or less for the next twelve weeks while waiting for the second dose.

It depends on your local circumstances...in Western Sydney that may not be such a good idea.

Yes - and I did say that was my choice - the rest can make their own decisions but bear in mind that I'd be 'running the gauntlet' as you put it for 8 weeks anyway so the delta is actually only the extra 4 weeks to see efficacy rise by 26 percentage points. Strikes me as good odds frankly.

As it happens, I live in a town that hasn't had a case in almost a year, have worked almost entirely from home for several years and the weekly shopping trip is all we need to do plus the better half is already fully vaccinated so the wait isn't an issue.

[BENT_8]

All this talk about dedicated Covid wards and staffing is at odds to what I saw first hand here in SA in mid May.
At the time my best mate was in ICU at the RAH in Adelaide for 2 days, in that time they advised us that there were Covid positive patients on the ward.
What surprised me is that these Covid positive patients weren't isolated or in sealed areas, in fact the only thing separating them from the rest of the ICU patients were, wait for it...2 pin boards...
That's right, my mate and the 20 people they allowed to visit him on his death bed were being kept isolated from Covid by 2 bloody pin boards positioned in the hall way stopping anyone from walking past their cubicles.
There were no dedicated staff, and even if they were, they were mingling in the nurses station with every other nurse and us.

[DJR-351]

Bars, eateries out of bounds for unjabbed under reopening plan

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/...jobid=29328896

Unvaccinated people will not be able to enter restaurants, bars and other hospitality venues once NSW begins opening up after reaching a 70 per cent vaccination rate, under a proposal being considered by the state government.

Consultation with industry groups is under way to discuss the option to require all hospitality staff and patrons to prove they have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine when NSW reopens.

Industry sources confirmed the plan, which would include merging vaccination certificates and QR code check-ins on either the Service NSW app or a new federal government app.

It is among the options being considered as part of the state’s road map out of lockdown, possibly by mid-October, which will trigger the easing of family, industry, community and economic restrictions when NSW hits the 70 per cent double-dose target.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday said staged plans with a range of industries were well under way, with 33.8 per cent of the NSW population now fully vaccinated and almost 62 per cent having received a first dose

“It’s no secret we’ve been on that journey,” she said, urging the community to change the way it thinks about coronavirus as the state reported 882 new local cases and another two deaths.

“It has been a hard time, it’s been a very confronting time ... we’ve been used to having zero or a small number of cases for a long time, and now we’re having to confront what living with COVID is like.”

The government this week began revealing its plan to lift NSW out of lockdown, including the staggered return of students to classrooms.

The schools plan, to start with the return of kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 students on October 25, also mandates vaccination for all teachers and school staff.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said on Friday the strategy was in line with expectations of the rate at which vaccination would increase across the community.

The federal government also announced that all children aged between 12 and 15 will have the chance to be vaccinated this year, after the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation approved the Pfizer vaccine on Friday for all Australians aged 12 and up.

More than 80 per cent of Friday’s new cases are located in the hotspots of south-west and western Sydney, with particular concern for the suburbs of Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Greenacre, Punchbowl and Condell Park.

Another 40 cases were recorded in western NSW, including 25 in Dubbo, with a further nine cases in the town of Wilcannia in the far west.

There are now 767 COVID-19 patients in hospital, an increase of 69 in 24 hours, of whom 117 are in intensive care and 47 on ventilators.

Ms Berejiklian said that, despite consistently high daily case numbers, which reached 1029 on Thursday, she had confidence “our strategy is definitely working”.

“The rate of hospitalisation is still relatively low and the mortality rate has been relatively low, compared to other outbreaks in Australia,” she said. “We can show the rest of the world how we can have a managed way of life back to normality, without seeing those high rates of hospitalisations.”

Ms Berejiklian urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, insisting, “at 70 per cent double doses, all of us will have more freedom”.

A survey by industry body Restaurants & Catering Australia earlier this month found 63 per cent of business owners want the federal government to mandate vaccination for hospitality workers, or would seek to mandate vaccinations themselves.

Small-scale trials of one-on-one service industries where both parties are vaccinated are set to begin in the coming weeks, for trades such as hairdressing and beauty that will act as a litmus test for other sectors such as hospitality.

Key to the industries reopening will be digital vaccination certificates that would be housed in an incorporated app alongside QR codes, which Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello has called for since February.

The owner of Snip Snip hair salon in Randwick, Fiona Patterson, said she was already planning extra settings she would need to reopen as soon as it was permitted, if only at reduced capacity.

“Each client would need to provide their vaccination status first, then they would use the QR code check-in, as they have been,” she said.

“After each client you would also have to allow enough time to completely clean down the section you worked in with that client. So, what would usually be an hour appointment, you would need to add at least 15 minutes for extra cleaning.”

Ms Patterson recently received information about future COVID business plans from NSW Health, requesting information about strategies to manage staff and customer vaccination.

The government will call on all industries to give advice and suggestions about the safest way they can reopen as part of the push to learn to live with Delta.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by tweeked

This has got me worried. Vic only has 36 people in hospital for Covid, but the current way they "furlough" has us already having issues. What are they doing compared to every other 1st world system?

How in the world will the Vic system work when we have 20 times more people in hospital?

Also - where are we getting the medical professionals from? Other countries bar New Zealand all have significantly more cases in hospital than that - how can they spare staff?

Its a tough one. I'm assuming Covid wards are treated differently where PPE and covid safe procedures would be full on. If someone comes into a non covid ward for an emergency, you haven't got time to wait 24 hours to test them. And if you test them after treatment, and they turn out to be positive, what do you do with the staff?

Just thinking what options you have. Treat all wards as covid wards where all staff have to wear full on PPE 24/7? That would be rough on health care staff. You could break up the hospital into smaller sections and allow no cross over, so you only need to furlough smaller numbers if there is an exposure, not sure how practical would be. Or start using rapid tests? That's probably the more practical choice.

Curious how NSW has handled it? Did they furlough staff? Quite a few people have died at the NSW hospital outbreaks, went in for non covid treatment, ended up dead from covid. Was it transmitted through staff? How did Victoria handle it during wave 2? I remember hearing a fleeting comment from one of the news outlets that a very high percentage of covid patients contracted covid whilst in hospital during wave 2, but can't find anything to back this up.

We are really stretched but we haven't been overwhelmed...yet, which underpins the importance of suppression before vaccination.

Originally Posted by rods falcon

In regards to staffing, having a wife that works in aged care and a daughter who is a nurse, I can tell you that not much has been done about staffing levels since the pandemic began. One would have thought that there would be incentives to up skill current workers and to fast track those that are near entering the health care profession, but nothing in Victoria at least.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

Hey rod, curious how long it takes to recruit and train someone to do front line work? And if there was a recruitment drive, how many people would actually want to get into the front line health care industry during a pandemic? Its an amazing job that they do daily, although it doesn't sound like the financial reward is all there.

[MITCHAY]

Add another 26 cases for ACT.

It should already be clear enough how contagious Delta is but I was reading that at the start it took ACT 30 days to hit 100 cases and it only took 9 days with this latest outbreak.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

All this talk about dedicated Covid wards and staffing is at odds to what I saw first hand here in SA in mid May.
At the time my best mate was in ICU at the RAH in Adelaide for 2 days, in that time they advised us that there were Covid positive patients on the ward.
What surprised me is that these Covid positive patients weren't isolated or in sealed areas, in fact the only thing separating them from the rest of the ICU patients were, wait for it...2 pin boards...
That's right, my mate and the 20 people they allowed to visit him on his death bed were being kept isolated from Covid by 2 bloody pin boards positioned in the hall way stopping anyone from walking past their cubicles.
There were no dedicated staff, and even if they were, they were mingling in the nurses station with every other nurse and us.

Does make you wonder with hospitals how they isolate you from covid patients as my son in law was admitted to hospital early this year for a bad kidney stone infection, at one stage he was put in a ward with covid patients "WTF" for a day or two as a precautionary measure just in case he had it. After treatment he was sent home and guess what a few weeks later my daughter and her family had to isolate for two weeks after being infected.
This makes you lose faith in the health system.

[russellw]

Data valid as at 00:00 GMT August 27th 2021.

Note: As not all Australian States report at the same time, the data below is based on the previous full day reporting.

967 new cases for Australia and 2 deaths so the CMR is 2.030%

76 new cases and no deaths for NZ so CMR is 0.789%.

The UK had a lower 37,690 cases yesterday and lower 100 deaths for a CMR of 1.984%.

A lower 177,924 new cases in the USA yesterday and lower 1,375 deaths sees CMR at 1.657%.

Other notable points:
Global cases pass 216M, the last 1M in 1 day;
Asia passes 69M cases;

Only ..

Vietnam (12,920)

... recorded new highs; those in blue for the second consecutive day and those in red for a third or more consecutive day.

Belarus and Albania move above the 90th percentile for the 10 day period while Mozambique drops below.

[tweeked]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Its a tough one. I'm assuming Covid wards are treated differently where PPE and covid safe procedures would be full on. If someone comes into a non covid ward for an emergency, you haven't got time to wait 24 hours to test them. And if you test them after treatment, and they turn out to be positive, what do you do with the staff?

Just thinking what options you have. Treat all wards as covid wards where all staff have to wear full on PPE 24/7? That would be rough on health care staff. You could break up the hospital into smaller sections and allow no cross over, so you only need to furlough smaller numbers if there is an exposure, not sure how practical would be. Or start using rapid tests? That's probably the more practical choice.

Curious how NSW has handled it? Did they furlough staff? Quite a few people have died at the NSW hospital outbreaks, went in for non covid treatment, ended up dead from covid. Was it transmitted through staff? How did Victoria handle it during wave 2? I remember hearing a fleeting comment from one of the news outlets that a very high percentage of covid patients contracted covid whilst in hospital during wave 2, but can't find anything to back this up.

We are really stretched but we haven't been overwhelmed...yet, which underpins the importance of suppression before vaccination.

How about rapid testing of all staff that are classed as contacts? As mentioned before, you get no false negatives, so you can be sure that those staff are ok. You then only "furlough" the positives, pcr test all of them and those that return negative on the Pcr go back to work and get a rapid test every day. You will have no staff shortages in our current situation, and maximise staffing in the future.

Would those people in NSW have died after catching it in hospital if there was rapid daily testing of staff? We will never know.

Why they are so scared (this is all CHO's) of rapid testing as an extra tool is beyond me.

And then there was the change of rules in NSW at 8 on Friday night. They said rapid testing was in, so we set up a rapid antigen test site to start Monday morning, and they change the rules after everyone has gone home for the weekend. An absolute waste of time and resources all week, plus a mess to clean up over the weekend - thanks. Do the CHO's have shares in pathology companies by any chance? I hope they have to declare interests like pollies a re at least meant to.

[russellw]

The NSW daily figure of 1,036 cases in the current reporting period not only sets a new record for that State but moves the actual line almost back to the predictive trend line although the 10 day average growth rate does drop slightly to 1.059 - however that still leaves the model predicting close to 1,700 cases in 10 days time although it's a moving target.

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

WA is last place for jabs. ACT was going well for over a year despite being surrounded by NSW. Not surprising we are fighting for fastest jab rate.

I do have to laugh though. Despite all the problems with our rollout, we are still ahead of NZ. It's obviously being driven by the outbreaks but certain parts of the media like to hide that though.

Was just looking at the stats. WA last place, but with a population of "only" 2.6m they could catch up overnight with a sprint. Getting it to the remote areas might be a bit of a challenge though. Their indigenous vax rate is a bit concerning given the make up of their community. Victoria ahead of everyone else for indigenous vax, by a long way, but probably due to smaller population.

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...xcept-victoria

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by Itsme

Does make you wonder with hospitals how they isolate you from covid patients as my son in law was admitted to hospital early this year for a bad kidney stone infection, at one stage he was put in a ward with covid patients "WTF" for a day or two as a precautionary measure just in case he had it. After treatment he was sent home and guess what a few weeks later my daughter and her family had to isolate for two weeks after being infected.
This makes you lose faith in the health system.

Certainly was an eye opener.
I figured, like im sure many do, that every hospital had some separate wing where you had to be in full PPE to enter.
Not true, not here anyway and ours is a brand spanking new facility.

During the 48hr period i'd had to arrange my mates Daughter to fly down from Casino. To think we had to organise a border permit for her to get into SA yet when she got here she could walk straight into a ward with Covid patients meters away.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Its a tough one. I'm assuming Covid wards are treated differently where PPE and covid safe procedures would be full on. If someone comes into a non covid ward for an emergency, you haven't got time to wait 24 hours to test them. And if you test them after treatment, and they turn out to be positive, what do you do with the staff?

Just thinking what options you have. Treat all wards as covid wards where all staff have to wear full on PPE 24/7? That would be rough on health care staff. You could break up the hospital into smaller sections and allow no cross over, so you only need to furlough smaller numbers if there is an exposure, not sure how practical would be. Or start using rapid tests? That's probably the more practical choice.

Curious how NSW has handled it? Did they furlough staff? Quite a few people have died at the NSW hospital outbreaks, went in for non covid treatment, ended up dead from covid. Was it transmitted through staff? How did Victoria handle it during wave 2? I remember hearing a fleeting comment from one of the news outlets that a very high percentage of covid patients contracted covid whilst in hospital during wave 2, but can't find anything to back this up.

We are really stretched but we haven't been overwhelmed...yet, which underpins the importance of suppression before vaccination.

Trying to control Covid infections in hospitals is just like trying to control Golden Staph infections, I honestly think there is only so much the hospital staff can do in these situations, nothing perfect in this world with limited resources.
One comment I will make with hospitals with my observation over the years from personal experience being a patient and visitor I do believe sanitisation and cleaning of hospitals could be a lot better; ever since hospitals contracted out cleaning to cleaning services I'm sure the standards have dropped from bygone days when hospitals use to have their own cleaning staff.

[russellw]

With 25% of the global population fully vaccinated (~33.9% of >15's) you'd expect to see that global mortality rate (CMR) improve even if raw case numbers get larger.

This is the case, with the global rate dropping from 2.163% at the beginning of July to 2.081% now which is probably somewhat less than I would have expected the impact to be although it does take time to flow through.

Narrowing the scope a bit, the CMR in the 60 days since July 1st has averaged 1.58%, whereas the prior 60 days was 2.14% so that's a decent reduction that should be a continuing trend.

The benefit isn't everywhere though and in the last 14 days, 77 of the 220 countries with at least one recorded case have seen their CMR actually increase although I'd probably find if I drilled down that the vaccination rates in most of those will be low.

Note that the percentages below are of total population and not eligible population so the real percentages are higher.

Case in point: Afghanistan (0.6%), Algeria (1.7%) and The Congo (2%)

... but there are exceptions like:

Cambodia (49.3%), Andorra (52.7%), Cyprus (57.6%), Aruba (64.7%), Chile (70.3%) and even Malta with 81.7% fully vaccinated.

[.:4:.]

Just my observation, and by going off news reports etc. Covid to me does look like its turning sort of into a hospital infection. So im only referencing NSW. 20+ years ago when my appendix burst, got them out but came home with both staph and whooping cough. So hospital infections. So it was a valid reason to go to the hospital, but coughing my guts out with a hole in them and other crap oozing out, that bit wasnt fun.
Not to say anything ill towards frontline staff, but theyre overworked and these days its a more risky job. Full credit towards them, but its kind of like joining the armed forces during times of war, people dont like known risks. And yes i know that was a stupid statement, but i suppose its risk vs reward.

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by russellw

The NSW daily figure of 1,036 cases in the current reporting period not only sets a new record for that State but moves the actual line almost back to the predictive trend line although the 10 day average growth rate does drop slightly to 1.059 - however that still leaves the model predicting close to 1,700 cases in 10 days time although it's a moving target.

image

Just out of Curiosity Russell, How's Victoria's Actual figures trending compared to Your predictive Curve..???

Enquiring Minds & all that..!

[T3rminator]

Just saw that covidlive has started to track number of days until targets are reached for each state, based on 7 day average....and according to this, QLD is the one lagging behind, not WA.

https://covidlive.com.au/vaccinations

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

Just saw that covidlive has started to track number of days until targets are reached for each state, based on 7 day average....and according to this, QLD is the one lagging behind, not WA.

https://covidlive.com.au/vaccinations

My 17 year old daughter would have the jab tomorrow. After 2 days on the phone mid October is the earliest booking she could get. I suspect the only reason she got that was because a former eastern block state loaned us 1 million doses of their Pfizer about to go out of date.

Vaccine roll out delay is not State governments!

[mmhmm]

Damn we are living it,

i just literally saw the movie Contagion last night. Its like exactly the same as us, started from China / Hong Kong. Came from a bat, they start checking into cases. The virus lept to south africa. Vaccine was not tested but they rolled it out..

Damn i love these movies that predict our future.

[slowsnake]

Originally Posted by five 7

There was complacency here in NZ as well Billy, two weeks before our outbreak my son had flu like symptoms bad enough to warrant being sent from local A&E to Hospital A&E not once was a Covid test mentioned. That illness bowled him over for three weeks makes you wonder what it was as we were all sick to a lesser extent, sore throat coughs and headaches I hear you on the stadium thing and the obsession with ball sports at all cost, keeps the masses happy i spose.

I know my response is late but I went back to bed, been up since 2 am, just can't sleep properly, but regarding your sons illness, well it's very similar here too, I am very close to my 7 neighbours and probably 5 or 6 besides me have had a type of " fluey " cold like thing, and it just seems to drag on and on.

In truth I believe this whole world is going through some sort of Renaissance period and it started long ago with AIDS, then Hep C, then Ebola virus, then SARS, 1 and 2, now we have this rotten virus, it's like a never ending story, of all the great scientific minds in the world even they can't solve this one, but I have always said to find a cure, just like a cars engine we need to know the cause?
It may of started in Wuhan China but that was not the cause of it, just the starting point!

And the bloody footy, geez that has really got me, I like my Formula 1, and WSB which I am watching now on SBS, also ASB which is nowhere near as exciting as the old Swann Series, but footy, footy and more footy, drives me crazy, I mean I like the Dockers, why, because they have an anchor on their vest, and my father was a merchant seaman?

But I buy the paper nearly everyday, the last quarter is about either the West Coast Eagles, or I call em " Seagulls " and the Dockers, but if they open Optus Stadium for the final then we are gone I think, Mark McGowan will have to " fall on his sword " as they say!

I'm glad I'm old an decrepit, I would hate to be a young person or child, what do parents tell their kiddies?
Why can't we go out anymore Mum, what do you say, well how about other parents are worried about their kids, and then why? What do you say to an inquisitive 7 or 8 year old when you/we don't know ourselves


Cheers Billy

[T3rminator]

Originally Posted by mmhmm

Damn we are living it,

i just literally saw the movie Contagion last night. Its like exactly the same as us, started from China / Hong Kong. Came from a bat, they start checking into cases. The virus lept to south africa. Vaccine was not tested but they rolled it out..

Damn i love these movies that predict our future.

I thought the same at the beginning!! Led me to think it was some sort of conspiracy and that what we are seeing now was just playing out the movie. Scenes of doctors and patients falling over in hospitals was exactly the scenes we saw earlier on. Then you had that quirky journo spreading his own theories and eventually being arrested for touting "alternative" treatments.....well that was Alex Jones at the start!! Exactly the same.

Marshall law and vaccine based on lottery didn't happen though.

[mmhmm]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

I thought the same at the beginning!! Led me to think it was some sort of conspiracy and that what we are seeing now was just playing out the movie. Scenes of doctors and patients falling over in hospitals was exactly the scenes we saw earlier on. Then you had that quirky journo spreading his own theories and eventually being arrested for touting "alternative" treatments.....well that was Alex Jones at the start!! Exactly the same.

Marshall law and vaccine based on lottery didn't happen though.

i thought marshall law was when they brought the army in

when the guys daughter has her formal at their house and he wears a scannable tag that shows his vaccinated

seriously! i was shocked

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Work Horse

My 17 year old daughter would have the jab tomorrow. After 2 days on the phone mid October is the earliest booking she could get.
I suspect the only reason she got that was because a former eastern block state loaned us 1 million doses of their Pfizer about to go out of date.

Vaccine roll out delay is not State governments!

Good to see that Facebook conspiracies theorists are alive and well.

"In a statement, a spokesman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) told Fact Check the vaccines arriving from Poland had been manufactured in Belgium and had an expiry date of November 30, 2021."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-...tion/100391090

[slowsnake]

If you want to watch a good end of world/alien invasion types movie then get " They Live " it's from the 80's but has one of the best fight scenes in any movie I have seen before or since!
I still have it on VHS, guess what it stars Roddy Piper, he's in the fight scene with a black guy, you will swear it was a real fight!

Just hire it or download it, it's well worth it, keep you transfixed!

Cheers Billy

[five 7]

Originally Posted by T3rminator

I thought the same at the beginning!! Led me to think it was some sort of conspiracy and that what we are seeing now was just playing out the movie. Scenes of doctors and patients falling over in hospitals was exactly the scenes we saw earlier on. Then you had that quirky journo spreading his own theories and eventually being arrested for touting "alternative" treatments.....well that was Alex Jones at the start!! Exactly the same.

Marshall law and vaccine based on lottery didn't happen though.

A bit tongue in cheek, but to the outside world it does look a bit like martial law in both our countries the defense force helping with Covid things and getting the vaccine was a bit of a lottery unless you were a sports team or politician.

[Work Horse]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Good to see that Facebook conspiracies theorists are alive and well.

"In a statement, a spokesman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) told Fact Check the vaccines arriving from Poland had been manufactured in Belgium and had an expiry date of November 30, 2021."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-...tion/100391090

You have the wrong end of the stick Gaso.

I am complaining about the fact the Australian government did not secure enough vaccine when it had the chance.

I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong with the Pfizer we got from Poland. In all likelihood some of it may find its way into my daughters arm.

Australia got the Pfizer from Poland because it would have gone out of date before the Poles used it, as the article you linked to states.

My problem is; how is it that Poland a former soviet state, has 50% of its population vaccinated and has Pfizer to spare when Australia has only 25% of the population vaccinated?

First in the queue we were told, that was a lie.

[Rallye Sport]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

All this talk about dedicated Covid wards and staffing is at odds to what I saw first hand here in SA in mid May.
At the time my best mate was in ICU at the RAH in Adelaide for 2 days, in that time they advised us that there were Covid positive patients on the ward.
What surprised me is that these Covid positive patients weren't isolated or in sealed areas, in fact the only thing separating them from the rest of the ICU patients were, wait for it...2 pin boards...
That's right, my mate and the 20 people they allowed to visit him on his death bed were being kept isolated from Covid by 2 bloody pin boards positioned in the hall way stopping anyone from walking past their cubicles.
There were no dedicated staff, and even if they were, they were mingling in the nurses station with every other nurse and us.

Similar experience last year.
The old man fell ill, common cold, followed by a chest infection, on to pneumonia, collapsed lung and death.
We went to visit him in the general ward, nurses station said to go in and see him. Soon after an irrate nurse comes into the room telling us didn't we see the 'Beige' card on the door. WTF?
Apparently that meant he was still subject to the results of his covid test.
So to recap, he's in an open ward, we're told to go in and then the nurse also enters the room.
After a brief confrontation he was told to lock the door next time and we left.
What also struck me was after visiting a potentially covid positive patient at no time were we told to isolate and be tested.
I've got alot of respect for the medical staff but this will always leave a sour taste in my mouth.