This author plus the New York Times fake news equals a hodge podge of nonsense. He wonders why people are sceptical well Peter have a think, a big think! When idiot medico's and scientists make up a scare and then when it doesn't eventuate claim they solved the problem. The original claims of a Brazilian deaths to frighten us as we are all stupid unlike you and the Uni idiots you mix with. Then expect some sort of accolade when you get it all wrong? I expect the government to attend to debt reduction by massively punishing the education sector and Universties (They cannot claim to be part of education, surely) and effecting real savings for a change. We have wasted more and more money for less and less effect for fifty years, take a chain saw to the whole rotten mess!

New Zealand is hanging around for a free ride, as usual. As the other Anzac country, it does squat towards defence of the region, sends it's crooks and no-hopers here, is anti-American and super-socialist. And it's Prime Minister goes out her way to insult us and whinge about us. We don't need NZ hanging around our necks.

This has been a lesson for the whole world and needs to be learned and kept as the template going forward, if we are to survive! And even though a truly remarkable result! We are far from being out of the woods but must remain vigilant and reopen the economy, for now, in confirmed by rigorous testing, covid free bubbles. Easiest in remote towns and villages were the roads could be partly closed to all but essential freight! Ditto underused rail? And with few exceptions have access to unused industrial estates, power and water?

How many startups and new co-ops could we create out there and how many former businesses could restart from the homes of connected employers and employees And allow some of our congested roadways to become less so!

Schools also need to partially transition to part in school and part in home learning. the latter presided over and provided by the older cohort of teachers so as to alleviate genuine fear of transmission.

No reason the older cohort need to man the classrooms, but rather the keyboard and the video screen for the occasional video-conference for a face to face electronically assisted tutorial?

Finally, we need to once again whip the money changers/robber barons from the temple/economy. Least they and their self-serving, selfish imperatives (ME<ME<ME) FIU again!
Alan B.

The Political lessons so far is that people are ignorantly blind if they can't see Fauci, the WHO and Gates Foundation don't have an agenda and that the world has been conned by these fraudsters. Governments have allowed this mob use fear, fake data to bring economies to their knees. Of course any one pointing out the obvious will be lablelled deniers and more than likely lose their jobs just like with the gw fraud.

"Australia, a nation of 25 million people that had been on track for 153,000 cases by Easter, has recorded a total of 6,670 infections and 78 deaths."

Sadly, the author apparently accepted the highly-alarmist virus case projections used by the so-called health experts to prescribe that large parts of the economy be closed down.

He is indifferent to the plight of many hundreds of thousands of Australians who subsequently lost their livelihood, and consequently will probably lose their houses and their health, thanks to the gross over-reaction of the health experts and government authorities.

The economy will take years to be restored.

As Will Rogers famously said "Never ask your barber if you need a haircut". These medical fraudsters have come up with a mountain of fear and false prophesies and all for their own enrichment. Sack them all to save our economy and have a cap on all public service salaries and pensions.
Alan B, sorry but what you are suggesting was comprehensively rejected nearly one hundred years ago. This Shangri Lah you envision is really wooly thinking. Stout peasants, Junoesque peasant wives, waving wheat fields and ballet in the evenings? Come on Allan, watch the movie "I'me alright Jack" and lets hear no more of it.
I congratulate all posters now as I have been delighted, amused and cheered up in these trying times, thank you, one and all!

Dear Raycom,

What on earth are you talking about. 156,000 case equates to around 6,000 per million and countries like Spain and Belgium copped that because restrictions came too late. It is a likelihood that without restrictions we would have gotten there too or do you have some magical reason to pull out of your backside to say we were somehow immune to those numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICtsXNtf_GQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3tgG_LodpeBoI-RQI7beMbKDQMf9whvYTBll2xeqs86_UYVqEJ_joWnw0

watch before deleted

You're right, JBowyer, if Australia had followed the US model, we would have successfully had around five thousand deaths - and still counting healthily, given a much longer tail-off - instead of a measly one hundred or so.

Yes, by coming down hard and early, this government cramped economic activity merely so that they could save - what ? - 4,900 lives ? Of people who, as Runner has helpfully pointed out, would die anyway, sooner or later ?

Yes, by slavishly following this Morrison Model, we may well have been able to get our economy back towards 'normal' far, far quicker than the US will be able to, under their amazingly competent government, but so what ? Look what it's cost - Billions !

Thanks, JBowyer !

Joe

Dear runner,

Where do you find these fruit loops?

Mikovits got done for manipulating results.

“Using tools obtained from Silverman, Mikovits began to look for XMRV in her CFS samples. In late 2008, a graduate student, who subsequently was hired as her technician, obtained two positive results from a group of twenty samples. He and Mikovits successively altered the experimental conditions until all samples gave a positive signal."

Result doctoring for which she rightly got fired.

“Mikovits and collaborators went on to participate (alongside two other research groups) in a larger 2012 study over 147 CFS patients and 146 controls. The study concluded that there was no evidence of XMRV or MLV infection in either group, a result that Mikovits said was "the definitive answer" on the issue.”

So went from a concocted 100% infection rate to zero. At least there were others there to keep her honest the second time. Thankfully the published papers which relied on her earlier work were mainly redacted.

She then got jail for for 5 days for taking propriety material from a lab where she was working and refusing to return it. Eventually she coughed up.

Now she is claiming that the coronavirus was "caused by a bad strain of flu vaccine that was circulating between 2013 and 2015".

She is a discredited top shelf whacko mate. Who else do you have for us?

and then we had one of the main scientific 'experts' who advised Boris to shut down the UK out bonking his new found *%* while being infected with the disease. I am sure when she went back to her husband and kids they appreciated it. And lets not forget the many highly paid US Mayors and CNN figures demanding lockdown while completely ignoring their own commands while fining others. Shows you that we are largely led by self interested corrupt figures who have managed to bluff the plebs. In a few years time we will look back and see how easily humans are controlled by fear.

Studies show that people who listen to the news every day or read newspapers are more depressed than those who do not. All that doom and gloom, the temporary obsessions of the media - and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

I can't claim total immunity, but I never read newspapers or watch the ABC, and I have learned to switch off on hearing the words 'covid' and 'we are all in this together', which we definitely are not.

Oh it turns out Professor Ferguson's bonking partner (while he had covid) while a mother of 2 environmental activist. You know the type who attend extinction rebellion stuff while flying around the world telling others not to. Friends you have been conned.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8289921/Scientist-advice-led-lockdown-QUITS-breaking-restrictions-meet-married-lover.html

Clearly, going by the dreadful experience of the US and Sweden, not to mention other unfortunate countries, the 'leave it alone' or bogus 'herd immunity' approach has not worked. The US has more than a million cases while South Australia has had no new cases or two weeks. Its Curve is still peaking, while SA actually has no curve to speak of.

As our prime minister has pointed out,

http://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/herd-immunity-a-death-sentence-says-pm-scott-morrison/news-story/57e90663bd72897d366f0957a243faf7

So we'll be back in business while those sh!thole countries pursuing the phony 'herd immunity' will still be grappling with - and losing control of - their Curve. And their economies.

I really do fear that the US will be destroyed by this idiotic approach. Sooner or later, they will have to lock-down, perhaps county by county, then state by state, then, in a few years and millions of lives later, the US nation can join up its economy with those of the more sensible countries who locked down early.

God help the American people.

Joe

Loudmouth, very apt! There you go again extrapolating figures you have plucked out of thin air. What is it, seven Billion people on earth? They all will not get this virus, some will but the majority will literally shrug it off. The old and unfit will suffer as they are anyway from cancer, heart attacks, stroke, get the picture? People are dying every day. It is now starting to dawn on people how some grossly overpaid public servants have frightened the proverbial out of so many people will cause a massive depression. This will go on for years and years.
Joe do you think you are immortal? Well will you now hide in a slit trench in the back garden shivering in fear? I will live my life and you live yours. I will promise not to stop you from starting your doomsday bunker if you promise to leave me alone to live my life. Nothing you or I do will stop us both dying, eventually.

Hi JBowyer,

The lovely thing about the suppression-and-lockdown approach is that very soon one does not have to worry about burying oneself in a slit trench. One can go about business as usual very soon.

But with the 'devil take the hindermost', 'it's going to happen so let it' approach, or 'herd immunity', is exactly that - the only way to escape is to hide, to bury oneself, to keep away from everybody else - ultimately, for individuals to go through their own private lockdowns. And the realisation - too late for so many - that lock-down, with all its economic costs, is the only way to go.

Get back to me in a couple of months, when SA is back in business, while the unfortunate US will still be in the ghastly soup of millions of cases, perhaps over a million deaths, a busted health system and incompetent administrations. But if that's what you prefer ......

Joe

Dear JBowyer,

"In 2017–18, the Australian Government spent over $18 billion on aged care. Of this total amount: 67% was on residential care (over $12 billion) 28% was on home care and support services (over $5 billion)"

Given your mantra how much would you like to see this reduced by? As you say "The old and unfit will suffer as they are anyway from cancer, heart attacks, stroke, get the picture? People are dying every day."

Why prolong it through providing care at such an expense to the nation?

SR old and unfit describes me and I would rather nature take its course than some no nothing useless political medico decide how to destroy the Australian economy to supposedly save me.
You and Joe amaze me! nothing has happened! I will repeat that! Nothing has happened except we are staring down a black hole of economic destruction! Perhaps when it gets really bad you will understand and as Sweden is still chugging along and the US will be out of the depression before us the penny will drop.
Still let's just hold fire, stop arguing and see what happens this year?