Pathetic!

This author has no concept of reality.

The demographic mix of western suburbs is Asian. IE Asian north south east and west.

Quite simply the abysmal outcomes in those areas of town, reflect the same outcomes of their home Countries.

More evidence multiculturalism is a failure.

There once was a time when this a European country was a simple enough matter for authorities to deal with en masse.
IE all white, all Christians and obedient to authority. ( render unto Cesar etc).

We should at this moment, be bringing under the spot light, those that changed what worked like a dream, and changed it into a dystopian nightmare of financial ruin. (Except for the wealthy of course, who are doing quite well ATM and mostly living in the Eastern Suburbs with Gladys)!

Dan

Lockdowns do not work and could even have deadlier effects than the virus.

"The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse." (Excerpt from letter signed by 500 US doctors)

Australian governments employing lockdowns have created problems that are more threatening than COVID-19: suicide rates are forecast to rise up to 50 per cent, particularly among young Australians aged 15-25 years 'Coronavirus Australia: Suicide’s Toll Far Higher Than the Virus’, The Australian, 7 May 2020).

The annual rate of suicide caused by lockdowns, could see a 50% rise in deaths, with youth suicides making up almost half of the expected deaths, according to Professor Ian Hickie, former NSW Mental Health Commissioner and head of Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre.

The Institute of Public Affairs estimates that over 230,000 small businesses will be expected to close as a result of government lockdowns. The destruction of businesses by lockdown is evident in their heavy reliance on taxpayer support for survival.

Another problem with draconian lockdowns was mentioned by Friedrich Hayek who commented that emergency powers have a natural tendency to remain permanent after their justification is over. We see this all the time with 'temporary' levies and taxes which are never lifted after the sheeple get used to them; the same sheeple who are already getting used to the loss of freedoms, courtesy of Australian federal and state governments. Big, dangerous government is with us, with troops now being used to help police enforce lockdowns.

The author is correct to decry the pharmaceutical quick-fix prescribed for his sleeping problem. As he well knows, it will never provide him with a sustained ability to sleep well and will only end up contributing to more health problems down the track.

And yet, without a hint of any perceived irony, the same author in the very next breath goes on to demand that to fight Covid we should all subject ourselves to that very same prescription - the pharmaceutical quick-fix!

Just as his sleeping problem could be corrected through addressing his nutritional deficiencies and the food he puts in his mouth, so too can our risk of Covid be managed through a whole range of proactive and precautionary measures. The laboratory-concocted jab might be the easiest of all quick-fixes, but it won't come without a range of long term consequences.

Maybe the people in SW Sydney, like many others around the world, are cautious about what they ingest. Maybe they'd prefer to place their faith in nature and in the power of achieving strong natural immunity than they would in any silver bullet and highly-experimental lab concoction.

Noncompliance is surely rife!? And Gladys too weak to force it to happen!? Me I'd be patrolling with armed soldiers with orders to shoot to wound all who wander at will. Or are driving out there when stay at home orders forbid it? Or are breaking what needs to be, a mandatory curfew? And the only way to stop those insane street marches!

If they will not respect the law of the land? Then they will respect armed force that compels compliance! Risking their own lives and health is one thing! But another entirely, when they risk the same of the rest of the compliant community. And ought to be met with zero tolerance!

Albeit, hard to shut stable door after horse has bolted.

As for sleep, lost count of the nights laid there awake waiting for a new dawn and new day. But take comfort in the knowledge that rest is worth 85% of the value o sleep. And I make good the missing elements with deep meditation.

That said, I see some light at the end of the tunnel with the rollout of vaccines. And the offer from the medina of clinical trials right here on children as young as six months? Plus 25 million doses in the next few months?

After all, children can be superspreaders and hosts for myriad mutating viruses. Meaning, we will not have the mythical herd immunity until all the kids are vaccinated as well.

When that becomes a mandated reality, life can return to near normal. More so when the dullards at the helm finally get there's only one way to keep all the variants out and that means they are not carried in by infected folk. And the only tool in the toolbox that all but guarantees that, is island quarantine!
Alan B.

Looks like LIBERAL Gladys:

1. delayed the much needed lockdown when the Delta outbreak was in her support base - the most LIBERAL voting Eastern suburbs of Sydney.

Few police were seen enforcing Covid rules in the LIBERAL voting Eastern suburbs. Meanwhile LIBERAL Morrison agreed a Sydney lockdown was unnecessary in the spirit that Morrison has blamed LABOR's Danial Andrews in Victoria for Locking Down quickly.

2. But Gladys then blamed the mainly LABOR voting southwestern surburbs as the cause of the lockdown. The police and now army are patrolling and Gladys is SCAPE-GOATING this southwestern Sydney LABOR voting area.

Hey Diver Dan,

I think you misunderstood me. When you wrote (in criticism) that:

"The demographic mix of western suburbs is Asian. IE Asian north south east and west.

Quite simply the abysmal outcomes in those areas of town, reflect the same outcomes of their home Countries.

More evidence multiculturalism is a failure".

I do not disagree.

TTBN you wrote:

"The annual rate of suicide caused by lockdowns, could see a 50% rise in deaths, with youth suicides making up almost half of the expected deaths, according to Professor Ian Hickie, former NSW Mental Health Commissioner and head of Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre".

"Could" being the key.

From 2019 to 2021, rates of suicide and suspected suicide in NSW have been pretty static:

2019
Full year 943
Jan-Apr 294

2020
Full year 900
Jan-Apr 292

2021
Jan-Apr 291

See: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/mentalhealth/resources/Pages/sums-report-apr-2021.aspx

That said, even if lockdowns do cause mental health issues, the true comparison is the number of Australian lives saved by lockdowns v number of Australian who perish because of no lockdowns.

Poor old Alan B, what a pathetic specimen.
Wants people shot for going out which he disagrees with and fixated on boogey men.
Alan old son the Covid is just another virus which we could easily live with and your irrational fear of mutants I understand. Watching too many zombie movies and believeing politicians are wanting to help you, thats sad Alan really sad! Then like this dopey writer trusting doctors too much and not recognising how many billions the big pharma have made from this nonsense.
If there is any shooting to be done I suggest it is the directors of big pharma and politicians to better deter the others.
As for you Alan what can I suggest for your cruel and delusional fantasies, I can't I am at a loss there.

COVID is crowding Intensive Care Units (ICUs) all over the world (except lucky us and NZ) and with an increasing portion of young people.

COVID patients in the US and many European countries are dying in hospital halls. Medical staff catching COVID, lack of equipment, lack of oxygen can't keep up with the numbers. So they die untended.

But there are always the ignorant doubters who don't know how catastrophic COVID is overseas.

This is because Australia has been been keeping the numbers of dying down - doing things right with lockdown.

plantagenet,

You wrote:

LIBERAL Gladys:

1. delayed the much needed lockdown when the Delta outbreak was in her support base - the most LIBERAL voting Eastern suburbs of Sydney.

I expect she used the vaccine uptake in the eastern suburbs as her guide as to whether to lockdown the area, if so, how soon to lockdown or to what degree to lockdown.

If we assume that the spread of the Delta variant is more or less out of our control but the take-up of the vaccine is very much under our control, then Gladys' decision to clamp down harder on SW Sydney makes epidemiological sense.

In the eastern suburbs, 44.8% of the folk have had one inoculation and 23.9% have had both inoculations. In SW Sydney the figures are dire: 33.1% and a miserable 14.6%.

I don't think lockdowns are decided by Team Gladys solely based on political support.

I do think the hard questions as to WHY the folk in SW Sydney are not vaccinating need to be asked, no matter on whose toes such questions cause discomfort.

AND you claim that

... Gladys then blamed the mainly LABOR voting southwestern surburbs as the cause of the lockdown. The police and now army are patrolling and Gladys is SCAPE-GOATING this southwestern Sydney LABOR voting area.

Are you saying that areas where there is a lack of compliance (such as SW Sydney) and where the Delta variant is not only a nightmare, but possibly FAR worse (after all, we don't know how many symptomatic dolk are bothered to be tested) should not be targeted just because it could look like Gladys is being hard on supporters of the ALP? Surely not.

Bronwyn,

Just to be clear, I do not advocate that the vaccine alone is the answer to overcoming or "living with" the coronavirus.

Of course other modifications to our behaviour is needed.

But just like many take up the influenza vaccine every winter, we also try to eat right, stay warm and ensure we chow down adequate food, drink 2 litres of water daily and rest.

JJA

Yep.

Your thoughts, as displayed by your article, lack political cynicism.

Lordy P.

So this outbreak is not the result of the poor distribution of limited amounts of vaccines or the politically-driven delayed lockdown response or the reckless disregard of travel restrictions but because of multiculturalism?

Obviously other countries who are suffering to a greater degree must also have significant multicultural populations too, despite being better vaccinated but choosing "freedom" over lockdowns.

Then again the people who attended those anti-lockdown, anti-vaccination and/or anti-mask protests as well as some prominent politicians and media drones who continue to spruik miracle alternative cures look pretty white and average Australian to me.

I love fish and chips too. I’d love it a lot more if it wasn’t centred on shark meat.
But who are the sharks rache?

Dan