I've been working in a bubble for the past 3 weeks and I'm not stepping outside of my comfy little bubble until there is not one Wuhan virus related death in a 6 week period in Australia.

However, I think it is a good idea to send out some test subjects at the start of normalisation to see if it is getting safer. Top of my list are Alan Jones, Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce. They're expendable. No one in their right mind is going to miss any of them.

amazing how so many are concerned about life. About 80000 unborn children each year in Australia are murdered. Pity not the same concern. Suddenly life matters. Hooray!

Nearly 1800 people have died in Sweden, making it the 14th worst affected country globally. The death rate is 156.45 per million compared to 62.84 in Denmark, 28.41 in Norway and 17.69 in Finland, all of which have much more severe lockdowns. Its death toll is roughly three times the combined total of its Scandinavian neighbours.
This is updated today. It shows what a delayed response has done, and it warns us of the catastrophic risks we face if we re-open too soon.

most figures being passed around are garbage as not everyone has been tested. Just look at the hopelessly flawed rubbish Norman Swan produced a couple of weeks ago. As soon as appeasement money runs out I doubt whether the average Aussie will any longer want to live under a Police State. Some Premiers are simply enjoying the power rush and are now cracking. The school unions are determining if kids can go to school or not. With no real plan the Government is muddling as Graham suggest. Time to allow adults to make their own choices. I would rather take the small risk of dying receiving a hug from my grandkids than rotting away locked up.

Well said, Steele :)

If restrictions are lifted too quickly, what effect might this have on the capacity of the health system to manage a deteriorating situation ? How quickly would hospitals reach their capacity ? How soon would they be overwhelmed, as they seem to be in the US ?

How long can highly-skilled professionals be expected to work 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week, before they themselves become infected (and the system is compromised) or before many understandably pack it all in (and the system is compromised) ? Can a health system wind down and eventually collapse ?

Certainly, in Australian regions with no cases, restrictions could be lifted, provided checks could be put on their borders, to prevent entry to carriers. Certainly, PPE reserves should be built up massively, not necessarily just for any possible return of the virus, but to be of some use to neighbouring countries: many Pacific islands may not have even one ventilator.

But let's not kid ourselves - all age-groups can be affected. And it may not be all that necessary to have that hair-styling or massage, or game of golf.

Give it a few more weeks.

Joe

askbucko, Sweden's strategy involves fewer deaths per million than the path Australia appears to have adopted, for reasons I have already discussed on OLO. It's death-rate at this point is a conscious outcome of its strategy.

Why do you, and the other fantasists here, think so many more hospital beds, ventilators, PPE, staffing etc. are being prepared if there is such faith in the elimination strategy?